After making sure Fiona was settled, Rique sat across from them.
“When did it happen?”
“In Cancun.”
His eyes bulged. “That was months ago. How long are you planning on keeping it secret?”
She glanced up at Mateo, unsure about most everything now. “We’re living in today. We’ll worry about tomorrow if it comes.” She read something in the intensity of his eyes that made her melt. It almost looked like love.
The drinks arrived by way of a new server. Jose smiled as he set them down and asked, “Should I start a tab?”
Allie nodded. “That would be great. Thank you.”
She downed half the Painkiller she’d ordered. A combination of bold rum, orange, pineapple and coconut, it was a piña colada on steroids and just what she needed.
Rique pointed to her glass. “What the hell is that?”
She was the only one who’d gone the exotic drink route. Fiona was drinking something light and bubbly. The guys had beers.
“A drink I found in Puerto Rico on one of my trips down.”
“I didn’t even know you drank. You’re usually our teetotaler.”
It looked like she’d added another surprise on his plate. She smiled for the first time since Mateo had let their news slip.
“I have to stay sober when I’m with the players.”
He cocked an eyebrow. “You are with the players.”
She took another sip of the concoction. It gave her the courage to admit, “One of whom is my…husband, one of whom is his friend. I either let him come to a place like this alone, which is not going to happen, or join you. I’d prefer the latter. Unfortunately, you’re going to have to take the Alvarez pledge if we go that way.”
Rique’s eyebrows arched. “The Alvarez pledge? What is that, exactly?”
“What goes on here stays here. No gossip, no tales out of school.”
She couldn’t afford to let her guard down unless she could depend on his discretion.
He nodded as if in understanding. “You have a rep to keep intact.”
“You’ve got it.”
“Do I have to raise my right hand and swear?”
He wasn’t taking this as seriously as she would have liked, but then again, she doubted anyone would.
“Trust is not something I come by easily, and I’m hoping your promise is all it will take.”
“You’ve got it. You took a chance on me. I think I owe you.”
“Loyalty can’t be bought. It comes from integrity. I’m counting on you having some.”
“All kidding aside, Allie, I’ve changed. I have no intention of getting drunk and shooting my mouth off.”
She nodded, hoping it was enough.
Mateo admitted, “It is good both my roommates know. This will make it easier to swap places while we’re in Sanford. I can stay with you when Fiona comes down without anyone asking questions.”
Rique jumped back to irritation.
“Seb already knows? Thanks, bud.”
“You were in Brazil. You know, on that fool’s errand. Seb was hanging out with me when Allie went to Cuba. It came out.”
Rique’s eyes widened. “Is that where you were?”
She nodded and explained the reason for the trip.
“I guess you are all in. I can’t deny there’s a small part of my brain telling me you got married just to get him here.”
Fiona gasped. “You’re kidding, right?” She put her hand on Rique’s arm and said, “You still can’t see love when it’s right in front of you. Open your eyes, will you?”
Rique glanced over at his fiancée, and he was wearing a confused expression. “There are just some things that boggle the mind. Who would have thought they could have found each other the way they did? And then to fall in love so quickly?”
Allie leaned her head against Mateo’s shoulder, felt his arm snake around her waist.
“Mateo says it’s some kind of existential wind that swept us together.”
She didn’t really believe it, and she waited for the scientist to disagree with the premise. But Fiona surprised her.
“There’s so many things that have no explanation. You two meeting the way you did defies logic. Do we put it down to coincidence or a quantum theory about waves of thought that influence our choices? You each took certain steps that led you to that bar in Cancun. No causal connection, but major repercussions.”
Rique’s eyes flashed in understanding.
“Like us?”
“Like us.”
Allie said, “I think you would have met either way. Isn’t your uncle married to Reid’s mother?”
Fiona pointed out, “He is and you’re right, but you would have, too. Mateo might have ended up on a different team, but you would have met somewhere along the line.”
Mateo kissed her nose and added, “Destiny never gives up.”
Rique was shaking his head as if it was filled with cobwebs. “Okay, this talk is way too deep for me. We came to dance.”
Rique took Fiona’s hand and led her out to the crowded floor, where he began some kind of Latin hip grind to the beat. When Fiona began to brush her body up against his in a slow, sensual rhythm, Allie understood why they hadn’t stayed very long the last time they were here. It certainly wasn’t because of the music, which was electric.
When Mateo took her hand, she rose from her stool. “He thinks Brazilians created those kinds of moves but it was actually the Cubans. We were born with it in our blood.”
And so, the competition began, each man trying to outdo the other. Fiona and she were just props, along for the ride. They did the cha-cha and the rhumba, tonight the men competitors, not teammates, and Fiona rolled her eyes at her more than once at their outlandish rivalry.
Letting her inhibitions go, Allie danced with passion, for the music and for the man she was with.
When the band dove into a livelier number, one reminiscent of the music on the island, Mateo grinned and called over to Rique, “Mambo.”
There was fire in his movements, as he shimmied side to side in fluid motion, his hands holding hers as he guided her steps.
“More hip action, querida.”
He placed his hands there, moving her body to the beat. She let the music flow through her,
