A little after 1:00 a.m. Blue snuck into the hotel room. From the light spilling in from the hall he could see Lucy sprawled out in the big comfy chair on the far side of the room with her gorgeous legs on full display. Her mouth was wide open and she looked as exhausted as he felt, so he quietly closed the door and let his eyes adjust for a minute. Even after a minute or more he couldn’t see anything.

With the bathroom door open just enough to slide his hand in, he flipped the light switch then pulled the door shut. Enough light spilled underneath the door and around the frame to let him get a decent view of the room, including the sleeping beauty in the chair. He couldn’t leave her there. She would sleep much better in her bed.

After a quick stop at her bed to turn it down, Blue went to her side and admired his roommate for a moment. Black hair, bronze skin. Even the gaping mouth didn’t detract from her beauty. And those legs, they belonged on the cover of a fitness magazine.

As he prepared to bend and lift her, Blue realized the robe showed much more of her legs than she’d probably be comfortable with.

Probably. The game of chicken over the shirt earlier had really made him sweat. He believed that she was bluffing as she said, and didn’t think she’d want to flash all of her goods, even in the low light. He pulled the two flaps of the robe over her legs, then slid his arms under her neck and knees. As he lifted her she stirred and rolled slightly toward him. Then she suddenly flinched and reached for her robe.

“It’s okay,” said Blue. “You’re covered.” In his eight years as a firefighter and EMT, Blue had lifted hundred if not thousands of patients, but he usually didn’t cradle them in his arms like this. Lucy was soft and strong. The kind of woman he’d always dreamed about finding.

She relaxed again and cuddled into him. Blue could just stand there and hold her like that all night. But he wasn’t about to take liberties of any kind with a sleeping woman. When he bent to lay her down, she objected, reaching for him, but he said, “Sh, you’re in your bed.”

He pulled the covers over her and with a huge smile on his face went to get ready for bed. While he’d rather have her go out on the town with him, he definitely enjoyed coming home to Lucy Avila.

Blue woke up slowly, but kept his eyes closed. Wherever he was, it was the most comfortable he remembered being in a long time. Couldn’t be the fire station. The beds at Station 2 were a step up from sleeping on a wooden pallet. His bed at home was nice enough, but he only slept with one pillow, and here there were a pile of them, not to mention a comforter way thicker than the one at home.

Then it came to him—Cuzco, the Palacio del Inka, Lucy. Helping her to bed much earlier that morning had been one of the highlights of the trip so far. Thoughts of her were enough to get him to force his eyelids open and sit up enough to see if she was still in her bed.

It was empty. He’d missed her coming and he’d missed her going. But it was only Day 2. Even if they didn’t meet up today, they still had three more days to spend some time together.

Blue felt as if he’d slept about twelve hours, but the clock said 8:27. His alarm would go off in a few minutes. That’s the closest his alarm had come to actually waking him up in months. After eight years of disrupted sleep nearly every night at work, Blue’s ability to sleep in was ruined. On those rare nights when they didn’t have any nighttime calls at work, he slept so lightly that it didn’t count hour-for-hour as real sleep. Especially the last couple of years. Things had changed when he’d become a captain and the lives of five other firefighters became his responsibility.

Three of those guys were next door and might need to be rousted out of bed if they wanted to make it to the tour of the city on time so that they could make their mountain bike adventure on time to be back for a live performance at the Centro Qosqo de Arte Nativo that night. Blue didn’t know exactly what that all meant, but he had their itinerary memorized, and even came close to being able to pronounce everything except those ruins that Lucy had mentioned.

Stretching his arms above his head, Blue swung his legs over the bed. Usually when he wasn’t at the fire station, he slept without a shirt on. But with Lucy here and her so obviously affected by him yesterday, he decided the smartest move was to prevent a repeat of yesterday’s standoff.

Before climbing out of bed, Blue grabbed his phone, hoping to see a text from Lucy, but he was disappointed. He sent her a quick text with their itinerary for the day along with an invite to join them for any of it that looked like fun.

In the bathroom a note was wedged into the side of the mirror.

Thanks for the lift last night

Sorry about my wardrobe,

So glad I can trust you.

In honesty, Blue wasn’t sorry about her wardrobe. Maybe if there’d been a true wardrobe malfunction he’d feel differently, but he could still remember her strong, light bronze legs. That was innocent enough, right? It wasn’t like he’d stood there for half an hour creeping on her or anything. But man he wanted to see more of her this week.

Not more of her like that. Well, yeah, he wanted to see more, but that could wait. He just wanted to spend more time with her and share this amazing experience. But she was living her dream of spending time with her family, and while deep down that wasn’t what he wanted, it was where she belonged.

As Blue pulled off his shirt and got ready to shave, he thought about how strange it felt to not work out. The shoot for the firefighters’ calendar was over so he could back off on the super intense cut sessions he’d spent so much time on over the last month or so. In his entire life he’d never been out of shape, and he’d keep it up, but not with the intensity of the last four weeks.

A notification chimed from his phone.

I’d love to see the Centro Qosqo performance if you’ve got an extra tix

Sweet! He’d get to see her after all. He replied to the text, telling her that of course he did, then after cranking out 50 pushups, Blue hopped in the shower. His day had just gotten a lot brighter.

* * *

Without the luggage in the car, Blue was able to squeeze into the back seat with Lucy and Dax as they drove her back to Abuelita’s house after the show. They’d held hands through the performance of traditional Peruvian dance and music. The performance was probably too much culture for his guys—except for Nikola and his artsy tendencies—but being able to share it with Lucy had made it special for Blue. He’d tell her that after they dropped him and Lucy off.

“I loved that so much,” said Lucy. “I swear they raided my abuelita’s closet for about half of those costumes. I’ve heard stories from her childhood and all of that culture we saw tonight was exactly how I always imagined her growing up.”

“I can’t wait to meet her,” said Blue.

“I can’t wait to eat about ten chocolate croissants,” said Dax. Him and the other guys were heading out in search of the best desserts in Cuzco. “If they’re half as good as I’ve heard, I might eat twenty.”

“Mm,” said Lucy. “I had one last night.”

“Only one?” asked Blue.

“That was after seconds and thirds of dinner and two other desserts,” said Lucy. “You better hope we have a row to ourselves on the flight home because I don’t think I’ll fit if we have to share.”

They pulled up to the alley that led to Abuelita’s house.

“You sure this is good?” asked Nikola. “I can squeeze down that alley.”

“It’s good,” said Blue, opening the door carefully so the pressure of the people packed in the back seat didn’t send him flying. “See you guys in an hour. Oh, bring me one of anything worth eating.” He handed Stone some money.

Lucy hopped out of the car, thanked the guys again for the ride and waved as they drove off. Then she took Blue’s hand to lead him down the alley. The paving beneath their feet was made from stones that had been mortared together. The buildings on either side were homes or apartments that were probably 100 years old or more. They were white, with some stone along the bottom of the buildings and mortar where the buildings had been repaired. The doors on both sides of the alley were all painted different bright colors.

At the second door, a red one, Lucy turned to face him. “Thanks for coming with me.”

“You came with us to our thing. Payback’s only fair, right?” He winked and Lucy groaned quietly.

“You’re ruthless.” She punched him lightly on the shoulder, barely hard enough to feel, but he loved the playfulness. “Sorry that no one in here speaks English.”

“It’s all good, as long as you don’t mind playing translator.”

“You mean interpreter,” said Lucy.

“Is there a difference?”

“Yeah. But I wouldn’t expect an Aggie to know it.”

“Oh, who’s ruthless now?” Blue pulled her close and wrapped his arms around her. He was well aware of his own strength, but Lucy was powerful too. If she wanted to, he knew she could bust out of his arms. The one thing lacking on this trip was more of this closeness.

“Careful, my strong American man.” She smiled up at him. “You don’t want to make Abuelita worry.”

Reluctantly he let her loose. “So what’s the difference?”

“Translators work with written text. Interpreters work with oral words.”

“They work with their mouths, huh?” He looked at her lips and she looked at his. He had a pretty good feeling they were both thinking about that first kiss in front of the capitol building. A repeat of that would be so perfect here on this little South American alley, but he wasn’t about to push his chances with her by offending the family who were just on the other side of a rustic red door.

Lucy got a look in her eye, like she was going to do something crazy and it made Blue’s heart go bump. She checked quickly over both shoulders then launched herself at him and landed lip to lip, arms entwined around each other.

The surreal, intoxicating moment froze with her lips connected with his lips, his arms holding her so close, her body pressed against his.

And just as quick it was over and he was standing there wanting more.

She straightened her hair and blouse, even though neither had been disturbed, and said, “You make me feel so free and wild. I think I like it.”

“I think I like you,” said Blue and noticed a little shiver of pleasure run through her body.

“So this humble little home of my family roots doesn’t scare you away?”

“Nope,” said Blue.

“Even though if my father hadn’t moved to the States, I very well could be living in here with twelve other people? Or if I was doing really well I’d have a one room apartment up there?” She pointed to the tiny patio above them.

“Lucy, you are intelligent, strong—both mentally and physically—funny, and don’t even get me started on beautiful.”

Her head dipped toward her feet, hiding her face, but not before Blue saw a wide smile on her face. “What if I do get you started?” The glimmer in her dark eyes when she looked back up at him made him want to pull her close and kiss her again.

“If I start talking about that, we’ll still be standing on this doorstep when my guys get back in an hour. Shoot, I’ll probably still be going when our flight takes off.”

“I can’t say I’m not tempted,” she said, still showing nearly all of her perfect teeth in a grin. Her gorgeous dark eyes glimmered from some unknown source of light. One hand reached out and knocked on the door and she said, “I’m so tempted to run and leave you standing here.”

That would have been a good one, but by the time she was done saying it, the door opened and he saw Chato standing in the doorway. Saying something in Spanish, he motioned them in. Blue had to duck under the lintel to make it into the home.

There were about a dozen people in the tiny front room. All the way from a baby being held by a woman in her 30s up to Abuelita who stood in the center of the room looking up at Blue. A multi-colored shawl wrapped her shoulders and she wore a flat hat, slightly turned up at the corners, maroon with gold thread around the brim. Her hair was almost as black as Lucy’s and she had the same beautiful eyes with an intelligent twinkle, just bordered by a hundred years of wrinkles.

The room stayed silent as Abuelita examined Blue from head to toe. After getting enough of an eyeful, she turned to Lucy and in a voice made lispy from more gums than teeth, she said something that Blue didn’t follow in the slightest. Her smile, though wrinkled and missing many teeth, resembled Lucy’s in the way it turned up at the very corners.

Everyone in the room cracked up, including Lucy. Well, everyone but Blue. He said, “Well, my talented interpreter?”

Apparently, the words were complimentary because Lucy wrapped her hand around the inside of his arm and said, “She said, ‘Ay bendito, mija, no me dijiste que era grande como un casa y fuerte como el elefante.”

Abuelita said something that made people chuckle and grin more, and Lucy said, “Y tan guapo.”

The tiny woman stepped forward and took one of Blue’s hands, patting it affectionately as she pulled him down to kiss both of his cheeks.

“Mucho gusto,” said Blue, hoping he was remembering the greeting from the previous night correctly.

“Mucho gusto,” repeated Abuelita with a wide, genuine smile. She was at least two feet shorter than Blue. “Ven,” she said. “Comen, comen.”

“She wants us to eat,” said Lucy. “In case you haven’t noticed, it’s the love language my family speaks.”

As they made their way across the small room Blue waved and nodded greetings at everyone he hadn’t formally met. The men, three of them including Chato, came forward and shook his hand, smiling all along.

The modest kitchen matched what Blue had seen of the rest of the house. A small refrigerator, a tiny microwave, a stove as old as Blue, and a single sink with a simple faucet. The oval table was big enough for about ten people to fit around and more than half of it was covered with food even though it was 10:30 at night.

Lucy handed him a plate then began scooping this and that.

“Gracias,” said Blue, earning an amused smile from Lucy. “Now what did she say? In English, por favor.”

“Look at you, busting out the Spanish,” said Lucy, putting what looked like smashed, fried bananas on her plate.

“You can’t grow up in Hatch and not learn a little bit of Spanish,” he told her. “What do you got there?”

“Patacones,” said Lucy. “Smashed, fried plantains. They’re my favorite.”

Blue slid a few of them onto his plate. “So?”

“Abuelita asked me why I didn’t tell her that you were as big as a house and as strong as an elephant.”

“Oh.” That was good news. “I think I also heard something about guapo.”

Lucy paused in scooping a rice dish onto her plate and raised an eyebrow at him. “Do you know more than you’re letting on?”

“Maybe,” said Blue. “Is that ceviche? I love ceviche.”

“C’mon,” said Lucy as she returned to the rice dish. “Fess up.”

“Maybe I’m fluent in Spanish. And maybe I’ve seen Three Amigos about a hundred times.”

“Never seen it,” said Lucy, popping a chunk of a tuber of some sort into her mouth.

“Then you wouldn’t know that the villain in the story is named El Guapo. It means handsome.” He pumped his eyebrows at her, bringing out that beautiful smile.

Lucy took a seat at the end of the table that wasn’t full of food and asked him, “Are you sure I didn’t say capo? It means hood, as in Little Red Riding Hood.”

Blue checked his back. “I left my red cape in Utah, so I doubt you said capo.”

“I actually think I said japo, which means Japanese.”

Chuckling, he took a seat next to her and picked up one of the thick plantain chips. “Yeah, that was probably it.”

Abuelita, a middle aged woman, and a couple of teenage girls came back in and filled in around the table. As Blue ate one plate-full and then another, the women chatted and cackled. The food was delicious and plentiful and Blue was enjoying watching Lucy interact with her aunt, cousins, and grandmother. He could tell Lucy’s Spanish wasn’t perfect, but every time she said something, it tickled a happy spot in Blue’s brain. This was much better than cruising Cuzco with the guys in search of treats.

When Abuelita noticed his empty plate she motioned at the food, and said, “Eat. Eat more.”

“Abuelita,” said Blue with a smile. “You speak English!”

In answer she rattled something off and Lucy explained, “She was a tour guide for decades. She couldn’t help picking up a little. But she never speaks it except when she’s being a tour guide. Never.”

“Well then I’m honored to hear a couple of words.”

Abuelita continued to talk as she offered dish after dish to Blue. Finally, when he accepted more of the amazing ceviche she relented and all of the women worked together to put the food away. Then they all returned to the front room.

A few of the people must have gone to bed and a few kids were crashed out sitting on the couch or on a lap. Everyone scooted and rearranged and found new chairs or moved to the floor to give Lucy and Blue room together on the low couch. Once again they found themselves crammed together and once again, Blue found himself loving it.

The family went back to chatting, and Blue went back to admiring Lucy, this time at close range. That was a face he could stare at for a long, long time. Her intelligence, wit, and everything else about her just made him want to spend more time with her to discover even more about her. The Spanish that rolled off her tongue was like sweet honey to his ears.

His other favorite was Abuelita, with her musical, lisping speech, knowing smile, and dark eyes that were bright even in the low light of the room.

Blue’s phone dinged so he checked it. His guys were five minutes out. He showed the text to Lucy, who started making farewells. It took all of the five minutes to say goodbye to everyone and … Blue didn’t really know what else was being said. He just said, “Adios,” about a million times.

The night had gotten colder so Blue put an arm around Lucy as they walked down the alley. They still took their time even though the rental car was already waiting for them. Blue asked, “Did I pass the test?”

“You were perfect,” she told him. “Did la familia pass? My grandpa’s name may be on most of the UNM science buildings, but I’m just a simple girl.”

“They were perfect.”

“It was nice of you to come and stay even though you couldn’t follow the language. Sorry I didn’t interpret all night.”

“It wasn’t practical,” said Blue. “Besides, there was so much conversation going on your lips would have fallen off, then what would I kiss?”

“Couldn’t have that,” said Lucy.

“I was just thinking how right you were about the concatonays or whatever those plantain things were called.

“Patacones,” she corrected.

They got to the car and before he opened the door he said, “Later I’m just going to say a bunch of words wrong just so I can listen to you speak Spanish more.”

Lucy leaned toward him, looked right into his eyes, and gave him a long string of Spanish. That did him in and he just stood there trying not to drool. In auto mode, Blue’s hand pulled on the door handle and Lucy hopped into the car, leaving him standing there, smiling like an idiot in the night.