Faith in You by Charity Pineiro Read Free Book Online Page A

think.” He sat up again, seemingly giving up on freeing himself, and moved over on the bench.
    Carmen sat up as well, reached for him and encountered something long and hard and … thin, encased in fabric. “Is that --”
    “The stick shift,” he groaned. “Lord, darlin’. I’m sorry. This is not the way it should be between us.”
    She let go of the stick shift, pulled up her suit, and moved next to him. She cupped his cheek and stroked a finger against his lips. “Maybe some other time, Paul. When you’re not trapped in the door and I can really find your --”
    “Enough, please. This wasn’t right and I’m sorry. You deserve better than this.”
    Carmen sensed his anger and frustration and wanted to help ease his misery. “I deserve
you
. When it’s time, really time for something this special, it’ll happen and it’ll be right.”
    Paul buried his head against her breasts where she cradled him to her tightly and reassured him with her touch. “How can you be so sure of things?”
    “I’m not,” she admitted. “But I learned the hard way that you need to think positively. That you need to have faith.”
    “Tell me,” he said, settling her against his side in the dark. He wished he could see her face, but there was little moon and the inside of the cab was nearly pitch black.
    “Tell you what?” she asked, the confusion clear in her voice.
    “Tell me what forced you to think that. What gave you the faith and strength to go on,” he urged.
    Carmen tried to see him, but couldn’t. The darkness clothed in her in anonymity and made it possible to tell him a little about the things that had shaped her, given her that philosophy in life. She told him about her early life in Cuba, how hard it had been. About their boat trip to the United States and her fears that they would never make it and be forced to go back. “I prayed and prayed and told myself it would be all right. I was little, but I knew if my faith was strong enough, it would come true.”
    “And it did,” he finished for her.
    “Yes, it did. From that day on, I’ve lived that way,” she said confidently.
    Paul wished he could have such certainty in his life. Such unshakable assurance that if one believed enough it would happen. He had wanted to have faith his whole life that his parents could love him like other parents did. He had wanted to have faith that his brother could be like other brothers. A friend. A combatant even, but still there for him. None of that had ever happened and he had lost his faith and erected defenses against the hurt of the failed relationships in his life. Against building new relationships, certain they were doomed to fail as well.
    Until Carmen had come into his life. Somehow she had found a crack in his armor and given him a reason to try and believe. A risk, he knew and a knot of fear clenched his middle, made him hold her tighter.
    Carmen returned his embrace, sensing the cold that had settled into him. She warmed him with her body, wanting to find a way to warm his soul and give him that spark which would allow him to think it was possible. She knew it might take time, but it would happen. So she held him and let him draw from her what he needed until he finally mumbled a husky, “It’s time to go.”
    She released him then physically, but a small part of her still held him to her and believed.

Chapter 6
    Carmen picked at the food on her plate and dug trails through the mix of black beans and rice with her fork.
    “If mom saw you doing that, she’d tell you to stop playing with your food.” Connie ate her own rice and beans with gusto. She took one last piece of the Cuban steak and chewed it thoroughly before addressing Carmen again. “Something bothering you today?”
    Carmen shrugged, forked up the last fried ripe plantain, and wolfed it down. “Nothing … well, maybe,” she admitted reluctantly.
    Connie narrowed her eyes and studied her sister, knowing that there were many things that