Ben reared back as if she had slapped him. “I’m not. This . . . bringing your mom here, that was all for you. Because you’ve worked so damn hard and, you’re so close with your family, I thought you might want to share this with her.”
“You should have asked me.”
His mouth twisted in self-reproach, Ben bobbed his head in the tiniest of nods. “I see that now.”
Heaving a sigh filled with resignation and regret, Julia sank down into one of the padded folding chairs. This mess was on her really. She should have leveled with her parents sooner.
Instead, she’d put it off. Figuring, if she didn’t get a job, she’d go home and none of this would matter. But it did. Because if she went back to Puerto Rico, she wouldn’t be happy.
Ave María purísima, she’d made a mess of things now.
Dejected, Julia picked at the polish on her thumbnail, marred from her nervous nail biting. Out of the corner of her eye she watched Ben dragging a chair closer to sit by her.
“What can I do to help?” he asked.
“Nothing.”
“Come on, if I started this snowball rolling . . .” He nudged her knee with the back of his hand playfully.
“Stop being so nice, maybe?”
“Excuse me?”
His voice pitched higher on the last word and Julia’s lips tugged up at his obvious confusion.
“I want to be mad at you, but you’re making it very difficult,” she complained, tilting her head to look up at him under her lashes.
Ben flashed his sexy grin. The one that never failed to make her insides heat.
“Stop that.” She swatted at his leg, but Ben captured her hand with his.
His expression sobered. “In all seriousness, I don’t want to mess this up.”
The sincerity in his blue eyes sucked the air from her lungs.
“I admit this is fast,” Ben rushed on, “and you have a lot up in the air. But you should know, this isn’t a game to me. Whether you’re here in Chicago or back in Puerto Rico, I want to keep spending time with you. See if this goes . . . where I’m hoping it does.”
Julia stared back at Ben, rocked by his heartfelt admission.
“You should talk things over with your mom. Be honest with her.” He rubbed his thumb gently across the back of her hand, evoking tiny tingles of desire that sparked through her. “Whatever happens, I’m on Team Julia.”
He pressed a kiss on her knuckles, then stood, drawing her up alongside him.
“Come on, we have a show to put on. I’m betting your vision and those kids’ charm is going to fill the youth center’s coffers.”
Still grappling with his words, on top of her concern over finally admitting her plan to Mami and her elation over Laura’s potential job offer, Julia made herself take a deep breath and straighten her shoulders.
The kids were counting on her. No way would she let them down. Even when her entire professional and personal life hung in limbo.
* * *
Bernardo beamed at her from his spot on the first choral riser and Julia gave him two thumbs up. The audience clapped wildly in a standing ovation as the bomba portion of the performance drew to a close.
Everything had gone according to plan, with the crowd’s reaction even better than Julia could have imagined.
On the stage, Ben tucked the cordless mic under his arm to join in the clapping. The kids grinned and hugged each other. Rico high-fived their guitarist, Diego, before stepping over to share a fist bump with Señor Pérez.
Eventually the clapping subsided and Ben reached for his microphone. “I think you’ll all agree that these kids definitely have talent and personality.”
Laughter and chuckles tittered through the crowd.
“We’d like to thank each of you for your generosity this evening, but before we close the show with our final carol, the organizing committee and I wanted to bring up one special person.”
Julia turned to Laura, thinking perhaps her mentor, as the committee chair, had asked Ben for a few minutes at the mic.
Laura gave her a smile of encouragement, but didn’t make a move toward the stage.
“Julia Fernandez is the visionary who brought the rest of us along for this culturally rich and magnificent ride. Thanks to her creativity, enthusiasm, and expertise, we’ve enjoyed what I think you’d agree has been an amazing evening.”
Once again applause thundered through the room.
“So, Julia, the kids and I are hoping you’ll come up here with us as we wrap things up with ‘Silent Night, Noche de Paz.’ Everyone, please join in. Lyrics are on the back of your program.”
“¡Vete, nena!” Mami elbowed her as she encouraged Julia to go.
Bernardo hopped off the riser and hurried to the stairs on the right side of the stage. He held out a hand, his chubby cheeks rounding bigger with his wide grin.
Moments later, as she stood in the midst of all the kids, Ben at her side, with the cacophony of voices both on stage and off singing the well-known Christmas carol, Julia’s heart swelled with joy.
Mami sat at their table in the front row, eyes glistening with tears, hands clasped in prayer at her chest as she sang.
They had a frank conversation ahead of them. One Julia had been dreading. No matter what though, Julia knew she’d remember this moment.
Remember and cherish it for years to come.
Chapter Eleven
“How come you never told me, nena?”
Julia’s shoulders sagged at her mami’s simple question.
They sat in the backseat of a private limo Ben had ordered for them after everything had finally wound down and Rico, Bernardo, and the rest of the kids had piled back into their vans.
Once the kids had left, Laura had shooed her off, telling her the event planner could handle the post-event wrap-up. “Your mother mentioned how anxious she is to see Rosa and the rest of the family. Don’t worry about a thing here. You and I can chat in the next couple of days about where you’d like to go from here.”
Moments
