Kimber Chin

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“Is that…?” Paz rose up on his toes, searching the crowd for blonde hair.

“No.” They’d taken the week off from school, from work, from life. Every day, every flight from America, Paz insisted they come to the airport, to wait for her. Eduardo hadn’t argued because he too believed. She called as she said she would. They talked into the wee hours of the night. She had broken it off with the almost fiancé the second day, the same day she informed the private school she wouldn’t be teaching there. She wouldn’t have done all that if she wasn’t coming back, if she hadn’t chosen them.

But it had been seven days and she hadn’t returned. She promised. A week or less. And this was the last flight. The crowd thinned until there were only airport employees milling about. “Paz…,”

“Miss Stacy said she was coming back,” the boy shot back defiantly. “I have her earring. One earring is silly, Miss Stacy says. She is coming back.”

“Paz.” They should go.

“No,” he insisted, his baby face stubborn. “She is coming back. I wait for her.”

They could believe for a little while longer. It wouldn’t hurt them more. “Then we wait.” He spread his feet, crossed his arms. Paz did the same, leaning back into Eduardo’s body. They were two unmovable objects facing off against disappointment.

“I’m sure he’ll like you, mom. Eduardo likes everyone.” He heard her voice before he saw her.
“And they have taxis, dad. I want to surprise him.”

“Miss Stacy!” Paz shrieked, darting forward. The security guard, a friend of Eduardo’s, lunged, trying to stop him, with no success. The boy was too quick.

“Paz!” Stacy scooped him into her arms, laughing, or crying, or a mixture of both. She smiled, tears glistening in her eyes. “How did you know I was coming in? It was supposed to be a surprise.”

“We wait for you, Miss Stacy.”

“Have you been waiting for me?” Stacy kissed his scarred cheek, touching the pearl earring attached to his collar. “How long?”

“All our lives,” Eduardo answered. She was back. She came back. To him. To them.

“Eduardo.” Stacy stared at him and in those gray eyes, he saw everything he ever wanted. She walked toward him, Paz balanced on her hip, her tote forgotten. The woman behind her, an older version of herself, picked it up. She said something to the man pushing a cart piled high with boxes and suitcases. The security guard waved them through.

All Eduardo cared about was Stacy, and the boy chattering into her ear. She was so beautiful. Cheerful and loving and everything a woman should be. “Little dove.” Eduardo kissed her, quickly, not the way he wanted to, mindful of her parents. “We missed you.”

“I missed you too.” She cuddled Paz. “Eduardo, Paz, I’d like you to meet my mom and dad. They wanted to see Belize.”

“Not only to see Belize.” Stacy’s mom laughed nervously. “To meet our new family,” she said in the same stilted Spanish Stacy used. “The two men Stacy loves so much.”

“Family,” Paz repeated that magical word. “Eduardo?” He wiggled. Stacy released him.

“Yes, Paz?” He brought his face down to the boy’s level.

“Miss Stacy came back, Eduardo,” he said with wonder.

“She did.” Eduardo grinned at Stacy.

“Does that mean she chose us?” It was the boy’s not-so-secret dream.

As it was Eduardo’s. “I don’t know.” He hoped. “Let’s ask her.” Her parents were here. Their house was ready. She was an honorable woman. And he loved her more than anything in the world. There was no reason to wait. Eduardo sank to his knee, bringing out the ring box, opening it, the three diamonds symbolizing the three of them, Stacy, Paz, and Eduardo. His family. “Stacy, little dove, will you choose us forever?”

“Both of us.” Paz sank to his knee beside him, his little hands on the ring box, his body trembling. The boy was as scared as he was. “Me and Eduardo. Will you choose us forever, Miss Stacy? I got perfect on my math test,” he added in case that influenced her decision.

Stacy perched on Eduardo’s knee, gathering Paz to her. “Perfect?” The boy nodded. “I’m very, very proud of you, Paz. We should have another special celebration.” She hugged him close. “But I didn’t choose you because you’re good in math, you know. I chose you because I love you.” Paz touched her mouth as though he had to feel the words to believe them. “I chose Eduardo because I love him.”

“Little dove.” Eduardo couldn’t say more. It was too much.

“When we first met, Eduardo told me I wasn’t in Belize to find myself. Eduardo is a very smart man because he was right.” She rested her head against his neck. “I came to Belize to find you.”

“But I wasn’t lost, Miss Stacy.” Paz frowned. “I was waiting right here.”

“Yes, yes, you were.” Stacy laughed.

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“I’ll phone you every day.” Stacy stood in front of airport security, her dusty tote in her hand. She looked beautiful. She was smiling. She was leaving forever. “Paz…,”

The boy wouldn’t look at her. He gripped Eduardo’s hand tightly. His other hand covered his scar. Eduardo told Paz Stacy was going home to visit her mamá and papá. He didn’t make false promises. He didn’t say she was coming back.

She crouched down. “Paz, I’ll only be away for a little while.” Paz twisted his body away from her. “Eduardo…,” She looked to him for help.

How could he explain? That they’d been left too many times. That the men and women coming to the orphanage would leave with polite lies, promises of a return. They thought it was kinder, giving hope, not knowing how the children would wait, and wait, and wait for someone they’d never see again.

“We’ll be okay,” he lied. They wouldn’t be okay. Not even close.

“I’m coming back.”

Paz ignored her. Eduardo couldn’t say anything. It was all he could do to hold it together. He had to hold it together. Paz counted on him.

“You believe me, don’t you, Eduardo?” Her fingers squeezed his.

Her skin was so soft. He wanted to hold onto her and never let her go.

“Don’t you?”

He stared at their hands. If he looked at her, she’d see. It was easier this way, if she didn’t know. It was easier for everyone.

“You don’t.” She sighed, searching in her tote, for what, he didn’t know. Her flight was called. It was boarding. She’d be leaving soon, taking his heart with her, and he’d never see either of them again.

She removed a pearl earring, one half of the pair she always wore. She bent over. “This is very special to me. It was my grandmother’s, the only thing I have of hers.” She fastened the earring to Paz’s collar. “I have one.” She touched her earlobe. “But I want you to have the other.” She touched his collar. “Take good care of it.” Paz’s face turned toward her. She kissed the tip of his nose. He blinked. “Because when I come back, I’ll need it. I have two ears. It is silly to only have one earring.”

Paz looked up at Eduardo, a question in his eyes. Was she coming back? Eduardo didn’t know. She thought she was but then, all the parents thought they were, and they never did.

“It would be silly,” Eduardo replied for Paz. “We’ll take good care of it. We won’t lose it.” They’d cherish it forever, a memento of the time they were a family, the three of them.

Her flight was called again. “I should go. I’ll miss you.” She pressed her lips to Paz’s forehead. “I’ll call you.” She leaned against Eduardo, nibbling on his mouth. “Less than a week, Eduardo, I promise.”

Eduardo stroked her cheek with his free hand. He wanted to believe in her. With all his heart, he wanted to believe. “I’ll wait for you, little dove.” He kissed her passionately, storing her taste, her touch in his memory. “Forever.”

“Not forever. One week,” she repeated, breaking away.

They watched her go through security, waving to them and smiling one last time before she disappeared from view. Long after she was gone, they stood there, in silence.

“Do you think she’s coming back, Eduardo?” Paz played with the pearl earring.

“I hope so.” He didn’t know.

“I hope so too.”

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Read Part 16 October 20th

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Stacy woke up stretched out on top of Eduardo, the curve of her rear cradled by a big hand. His other arm was around Paz, the little boy warm against their side. They were fully dressed. After Paz fell asleep last night, they hadn’t done anything other than kiss and cuddle, Eduardo respecting her connection to Daniel. Yet Stacy felt guilty, because she wanted to do more. She wanted to touch him, to slide her bare skin over his, to welcome him into her body, her heart, her soul. She pulled her chain, looking down at the ring. But she couldn’t. Not yet.

“He doesn’t love you like I do, little dove.”

He loved her? Stacy looked up. He did. Love reflected in Eduardo’s broad face. She’d never seen love shine in Daniel’s eyes. Not like that. “I have to go back, Eduardo.” She switched to English, not wanting Paz to hear.

“No.” Eduardo spread his fingers, gripping more of her body. “You will not go back. I love you. Paz loves you. The children love you. You have the school, a good job, friends, a big house. Anything you want, I’ll get for you, anything. Tell me and I’ll get it.”

“I want to be free to love you,” she explained. “And that freedom I have to get for myself. I have to give this back.” She dangled the ring.

His body relaxed under hers. “Mail it.” He flicked the diamond with his finger. “Phone your almost fiancé. Or send him a text. No need to leave.”

To end this commitment that way was tempting but it wouldn’t be right. “I owe it to Daniel to tell him my answer in person. It is the honorable thing to do.”

Eduardo’s expelled breath warmed her skin. “Then I go with you.” He caressed her back. “We go to America together.”

She could introduce Eduardo to her parents, her college friends, show him her childhood home, all the places she loved. He’d-

A whimper scattered those plans. Paz pressed further into them, his sleeping face twisted in fear. He was having another bad dream. She held onto him as he remembered horrors no little boy should have to experience. And Stacy knew she couldn’t do it. She couldn’t take Eduardo away from Paz, even for one day. “Paz needs you here.”

“He needs you too.” Eduardo kissed her. “I need you.” He positioned her over the physical proof of his need.

She needed him but they couldn’t act on that need, not here, not now. She softened against him, concealing his condition from Pax, and Eduardo groaned. She swallowed that groan, stroking the roof of his mouth with her tongue. She could kiss him for hours. They had kissed for hours, lost in each other, never wanting to be found.

“It’ll be a week tops,” she promised minutes later. “You won’t know I’m gone.”

“I’ll know.” He placed her hand on his chest. “My heart will know. My body will know.” He pushed upward. “I will miss you every second of every day. I love you, little dove.”

“I…”

“Is it time to go to school, Miss Stacy?” Paz’s baby face appeared in front of Eduardo’s.

To explain to him… Stacy kissed the boy’s forehead, meeting Eduardo’s gaze over Paz’s dark head. He shook his head. Not now. “Almost time.” She propped herself up on Eduardo’s chest. “We need to bathe, dress, and eat breakfast first.” They were tasks a mother would do. Tasks she wanted to do for Paz.

He burrowed into the gap between them. “A big breakfast.” Paz had an appetite rivaling Eduardo’s. “And I need to study.”

“Study?” Eduardo rumbled. Paz never volunteered to do school work.

“Yes, study.” The little boy nodded. “I will do very well on all my tests. Then we will have many special celebrations.” He sighed contentedly. “And we will camp here forever.”

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Read Part 15 October 13th

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