Breaking Through

Chapter 24

24

Gui

Hilary extended her hand over the stall door and brushed Pampa’s muzzle. The horse took a step closer, pressing against her touch.

“He likes you,” I said, smiling.

I liked her.

Fuck, she looked so beautiful today. She wore a floral green and white dress with high heels that wrapped around her ankles, and her golden hair fell into waves down her back. I knew she had makeup on, but it was only a small touch that accentuated her beauty, the fullness of her lips, the bright shine of her green eyes.

Right now, she looked feminine and hot.

She turned that wide smile to me and I inhaled sharply. Damn, she would kill me.

“I like him too,” she said, pulling her hand from my horse. Slowly, she turned around and looked at the other stalls in our main stable. “So, if Minuano, Preta, Midnight, and Felicity are all at Hannah’s ranch, whose are all these other horses?”

I beckoned her to walk along the stable’s main corridor with me and presented her to all the horses. There was Poncho n***o, Astro, Limão, Charrua, Generoso, Trovão, Ricardo’s horse, Crioulo, and Pedro’s horse, Coronel. All the others were João Pedro’s horses.

“All of these are from Brazil?” she asked, peering into Astro’s stall. He was a horse with a dapple coat—a pretty mixture of white and gray that looked like splotches of paint all over his body.

“No, not all, but most.”

Suddenly, the song coming from the big speakers Ri and Pedro installed this morning died, grabbing my attention. What was happening? Would Ri stand up on a chair and thank everyone for their presence?

Hilary and I walked to the stable main gates and looked out. In the distance, everything looked normal. Tio João Pedro handling the churrasqueira, tia Agnes helping him out while also in charge of the kitchen, and the guests mingling, talking.

“That’s odd,” Hilary said. “It’s like, the speakers lost power.”

“I’m gonna check it out.” I took a step toward the house when a new song played from the speakers.

All the gaúchos cheered. This song was like a little anthem to our people.

Hil gasped. “Wasn’t this the one you played yesterday while trying to teach me how to dance?”

I noticed the emphases she put on the word trying.

“Sim. The one and only.”

Ri, who probably was changing songs looking for this one, rushed down the porch steps and grabbed tia Agnes, taking her to the spot that now doubled as a dance floor. Leo and Hannah, and Pedro and Iris were already there. Then, Bia showed up with Garrett. Soon, tio João Pedro paused his work at the churrasqueira and took Ri’s place to dance with tia Agnes.

A sudden pride and urge filled me in.

I extended my hand to the girl beside me. “Want to dance with me?”

She gaped at my hand, and then her eyes shifted to the crowd behind the big house. “Hm.”

I lowered my hand and disappointment made its way into my chest. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have asked.”

“No, it’s okay.” She made to reach for me, but stopped and clasped her hands behind her back. “It’s just … big crowd. I don’t really know the dance, and …” She reached to her feet and pulled her shoes off. “Ah, much better.” She let the shoes fall beside her and spread her toes in the grass. “Damn these new shoes. They were assassinating my feet.”

I looked down and saw angry red marks on her ankles and her toes.

“Oh yeah, you wouldn’t want to dance with those.” I frowned. “Those look bad, though. Want to go in and grab some ice? Or something else to help out?”

She waved her hand, dismissing it. “It’s okay. It doesn’t hurt too much.”

Silence fell over us as we watched the dancers.

Ri, dancing alone in the middle of the dance floor, tripped on his own feet and fell.

Beside me, Hilary laughed, unbound and free, and I glanced at her, admiring how beautiful she was when she let her walls down. That smile, that laughter … I wanted to see them stamped more often on her pretty face.

When the song was done, Ri yelled from the floor, “De novo! De novo!” and someone restarted the song.

Chewing her bottom lip, Hilary turned those big, green eyes to me. “I changed my mind.”

I lifted an eyebrow. “About?”

“Dancing with you.” My eyes widened. She raised a finger and said, “One condition, though. We have to dance here.”

I laughed, and then took her hand in mine. “I can do that.”

I pulled her to me—trying to focus on the fact that we were two friends having a good time, and not on the fact that she was too hot and looked so beautiful and fragile and small without her shoes, and that she was too close to me, looking up at me with a big smile—and we danced.