Days of in-person and Internet meetings followed. Lucio admitted it; he lost his cool a few times with the Chinese, the American consulate, and with his Geographica editorsbut the accusations were pure insanity! Lucio vehemently denied charges of spying and stealing the money from his own expense account. It was all rubbish.
Nobody seemed to listen. Before he knew it, he was kicked out of the country and released from his Geographica contract, putting an end to a long and profitable professional alliance.
Piers encouraged Lucio to come back to San Francisco. That's what Lucio didwith his tail between his legs and his wallet openready to funnel every dime he had to his lawyer, who he prayed would untangle the string of misunderstandings. But that had been three months ago. With each day, it seemed to Lucio that the nickname he'd carried since childhood no longer fit him.
He shook his head and rose from the stone wall, deciding to stroll into the heavily scented gardens of Rick's Sonoma Valley paradise. It was funny how life sometimes doubled in on itself. He was thousands of miles from the fig trees and strawberry patches of his childhood, but this place smelled much the same to him, and the scent had conjured up long-buried memories.
Alma had worn a simple ivory lace dress that fell to mid-calf, accented by an angry scowl. She carried a bouquet of wildflowers in front of her belly, camouflaging the baby that grew inside it. Lucio recalled how his throat had tightened at the sight of herand it wasn't out of joy. Unlike Rick and Josie's ceremony, his own wedding hadn't been about love. Or even family alliances. It was simply the only choice given to two hormonal kids who'd shucked their common senseand their clotheson a hot spring night at the riverbank.