Sorry it took so long you guys!! For some reason, every time I updated this chapter, the dialogue would look all funky. I'M SORRY FOR THE DELAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The rest of dinner was great. Mainly, Primotivo talked about his visit to his brother Ricardo's home. He had mentioned Maria a couple of times, about how beautiful she was, but Jesse didn't seem to be listening. I think he was ignoring his father, actually. Every time Maria came up in the conversation, Jesse seemed to be intrigued with the patterns of the tablecloth. I think I'm the only person who noticed his behavior, though.

Senora de Silva and her cook assistant cleared the table of the dishes. I offered to help, but she shooed me away.

The youngest girl, who was named Isabelle, slipped out of her chair and tugged Jesse on his arm. She whispered something in Spanish and tugged on his arm sleeve some more. Jesse said to Primotivo, "Isabelle wants to play outside. May I be excused?"

Primotivo smiled and waved them away. I thought Jesse would leave without me, leaving me to speak with his family – none of whom I knew.

And he did. Leave me, I mean.

Carla saw how uncomfortable I was and gestured to me to follow her. I did. After Primotivo excused us from the table we went out to the front porch and sat down together on the wooden swing. Carla said, "Like I said before, having a girl my age around is going to be a lot better. Can I ask you some questions?"

"Boy questions?" I asked, amused.

Carla blushed. "Yes, if you do not mind."

Mind? How could I possibly give her boy advice when I really didn't have too many experiences of my own? Sure, I've been kissed before, but that's it. I know that guys have only one thing on their minds.

Well, not all guys, I thought, gazing over at Jesse. He was playing ball with Isabelle. All they were doing was tossing the ball back and forth to each other, but Isabelle was shrieking with joy, making Jesse burst into laughter. Doesn't take much to entertain Isabelle, I guess.

I turned my attention back to Carla. "Okay, ask away."

"How can you tell if a boy likes you?"

HA! As if I know! It took me forever to figure out that Jesse loves me, but that's future (present?) Jesse who loves me. But even then, I didn't figure it out on my own – Paul had told me.

I shrugged. "It's kinda hard to tell with boys. They're really unclear when it comes to their feelings. One day it seems as if they're in love with you and the next you're wondering why they're ignoring you."

Carla flung up her hands, relieved someone finally understood her. "You know how I feel. I wonder why Mama doesn't understand."

"Who is this boy you're interested in?"

"He's the mail carrier. His name is Luis. Very dreamy, very cute. He can only come by every few days, but my heart always jumps when I see him," Carla confessed. Then she buried her face in her hands, "Oh, I can't believe I'm telling a complete stranger all of this."

"Nah, I'm not a stranger," I replied, smiling, "I'm the ranch hand. We're practically family!"

Carla smiled. She had really nice teeth, considering whitening strips and braces don't exist yet. She said, "I tried to get Jesse to speak with him, but he refuses to. He states that I can do a lot better than Luis."

"Your brother is sweet. He's only looking out for you."

"He's an annoyance."

"He's protective," I corrected. "He really cares for the people he loves. If anyone ever hurt you, Carla, I'm sure he'd try to rip out their spine."

Carla looked at me curiously. "How do you know all that about Jesse?"

I froze. I faltered, "Just a hunch, really."

Carla repeated the word "hunch" under her breath, obviously puzzled. She ignored it and said, "Jesse is noble. He has wonderful manners. Papa's been very strict while raising him. He wants Jesse to be an honorable man."

"He already is," I sighed, gazing over at him. He was still throwing the ball around with Isabelle.

Carla was silent. I'm not positive, but I think she was watching me watch Jesse. I think she knows. She said softly, "He's getting married to Maria de Silva soon. They've been exchanging letters for a while now. In my opinion, I think she's a cold-hearted swine."

I jumped at her choice for words. Yikes – Carla sure is a feisty one, isn't she? "Why do you think that?"

"I have heard that she has been with Felix Diego. How can she possibly do that to Jesse? How? He is such a wonderful person." Carla pointed to Jesse and Isabelle. "I mean, he plays with my sisters every night after dinner just because he wants to. He's so nice. My sisters and I love him to death."

I felt so awful. Jesse would soon be murdered and they would never see him again. It was so unfair...which is exactly why I'm going to make sure he doesn't die this time. But even if he does survive, they're still not going to see him anymore. I was beginning to doubt that coming here was a good idea....

Carla was looking at me again. It was really unnerving. It was like she knew something I didn't.

Jesse caught the ball that Isabelle had just thrown to him. He turned to us, smiling widely. He called, "Are you two talking about me? I keep hearing my name!"

I froze, but Carla exclaimed, "Stupid boy! We are not speaking of you. You are so proud you think everyone thinks about you all the time. Return to your game and quit eavesdropping on our conversation."

Jesse rolled his eyes and then tossed the ball back to Isabelle.

Carla sighed, "Maybe we should keep our voices down, eh? Jesse has good hearing."

You don't know the half of it. Future Jesse calls whenever I even think of him.

The sun had nearly disappeared beyond the horizon. The last few rays of light slowly faded away.

The door burst open and the remaining de Silva sisters flooded out, all racing towards Jesse. Carla pointed out each one:

"The one with the rainbow skirt – that's Consuela. I think she's a bit haughty. She prefers to stay inside and help out Mama. She does not like being unclean, but does not mind getting dirty when she play-fights with Jesse. The girl with the long, long hair...that's Rosa. She's very sweet and so kind. She takes after Mama. Rosa loves rice so much that she named her horse Arroz. And that's Adrianna – she will be 10 years old in a couple of weeks. Adrianna is the wildest and loudest of us all. One time she was so mad at Jesse because he made her do her chores that she dumped salsa in his bed. Mama was very mad at her for that."

"I bet Hector was a bit surprised when he went to bed that night," I laughed.

"It's okay. You can call him Jesse now."

Jesse stopped playing with his sisters and turned to us. The eyebrow with the sexy scar was up. "Now I'm sure that I heard my name."

"We are making fun of you!" Carla called. "We are speaking of the time Adrianna put salsa in your bed."

Jesse shook his head. "I had to sleep on the sofa that night. My room reeked of peppers."

Carla and I burst out laughing. When we calmed down, she turned all serious and said, "But what should I do about Luis?"

I thought for a moment. "Ask him," I said simply.

"Ask him what?"

"Ask him if he likes you. That way you'll know for sure."

"I doubt he'll say anything to my face."

"Then I will talk to him. There's no reason to waste time like that. If he's man enough to say that he actually likes you, then you can be with him. But if he chooses to be a jerk, then there's plenty of other men out there who would kill to be with you."

Carla's eyes brightened. "You really believe men would kill others just to court me?"

"Let's face it, Carla. Women are superior to men. And if any man chooses to deny it, just remember this – they're talking big to make up for smaller things."

She looked confused, but shrugged anyway. "I'll remember that, Susannah." We both watched as Adrianna, Isabelle, Consuela, and Rosa all tackled Jesse and climbed on him when he hit the ground. We heard Jesse bellow with laughter as they all started tickling him.

I was so touched by this scene. I saw how much Jesse's family loved him. A lump in my throat formed as I tried to keep the tears back. They didn't know that Diego would soon kill him, his death planned by the one and only Maria de Silva.

Carla said, "Susannah, may I ask you one more thing?"

"Sure. Go ahead."

"Why are you dressed so oddly?"

I chuckled. "We fishermen dress really unusual. It's just kind of the fashion."

"Well, you can borrow my clothes while you are here," Carla offered kindly.

The sun was gone now. I couldn't see anything, except the occasional movement of a cow in the many pastures. I heard an owl somewhere and I suddenly felt cold. And tired. Tired and cold.

Senora de Silva appeared at the door. She called, "Ninas! Come inside! Time for bed!"

The four wrestling girls all groaned. Isabelle exclaimed, "Why do we have to go to bed? Why does Jesse get to stay up so late?"

Jesse sat up on his elbows, amused. He was out of breath from all the tickling. "Because I am twenty years old and you are six. You need your rest so that you can help with the cattle tomorrow."

Isabelle rolled her eyes and stomped up the steps. She clearly did not want to go to bed. Before she went into the house she waved at me and said, "Adios, Susannah. I am happy that you will be living here with us now." She smiled at me, one of her front teeth missing, and went inside. Rosa, Adrianna, and Consuela followed after her.

Carla nudged me. "See? They love you already." We got up from the porch swing and headed inside. Jesse caught up with Carla and put an arm around her shoulders. Disgusted, she said, "Tu eres loco, Jesse."

"Te amo, Carla," Jesse said.

"Yo se. Yo se."