Despite himself, Alex chuckled. “That bad?”
“Yeah. And since I’ve told you some of my secrets, it’s only fair that you tell me at least one of yours.”
Damn. She had been pretty honest with him so far, once she’d unburdened herself of the secret she’d been hiding from everyone for years. “It’s not that big a deal. I just — running a store wasn’t exactly how I thought I’d end up, you know?”
A look of confusion passed over her face. “But…it’s your family business, right? Why wouldn’t you end up there? I mean, I thought that’s sort of how it works down here.”
Not the sort of question most girls of their generation would have asked. But witch families followed their own rules, had their own traditions. Especially here in de la Paz territory, where things tended to be more rigid than in freewheeling Jerome. He hesitated, then said, “My great-grandfather started the store, and then my grandfather inherited it, and he passed it on to my father. He wasn’t the oldest child, but he was the only son.” He flashed a grin at Caitlin, who flushed prettily and picked up her sangria, trying to pretend she hadn’t been affected by his smile. Not that he’d meant it that way, but her reaction was interesting. Maybe she wasn’t quite as “all business” as he’d thought. “Four daughters, and then finally my dad. My grandfather was ready to tear his hair out.”
“He could’ve left the store to his oldest daughter,” Caitlin pointed out.
“Tradition. A woman wasn’t supposed to run the mercado.”
“That’s silly.”
Maybe to her, it was. The McAllisters seemed to have a more female-dominated culture than the de la Paz family. Yes, a prima ran things here…but that was sort of where the buck stopped, so to speak. “It’s how it was. Diego was supposed to take over for my father, but he never wanted to. I have a feeling part of the reason he married Letty was that he could go help her with her family’s vineyards and be safely away from Tucson and the store.”
Caitlin’s brows went up. “Isn’t that a little, I don’t know…cynical?”
You don’t know my brother, Alex thought, but he didn’t bother to voice the notion aloud. “Maybe. I don’t know. Anyway, that left me. My little sister doesn’t have any interest in running the store. Besides, it wouldn’t suit her talent.”
“What’s that?”
“She can…well, ‘talk to the animals’ sounds sort of Horse Whisperer-ish, but that’s basically what she can do. Knows how they’re feeling, knows the best way to work with them. She’s finishing up her degree in biology now, and then she’s going to vet school.”
An expression of not-quite envy passed over Caitlin’s face. “That’s a really cool talent.”
“I know. But obviously it’s not of much use when it comes to running a store. And my parents said to themselves, ‘Hey, Alex just got his degree in marketing. He’ll be perfect at running the mercado!’”
“So why the degree in marketing, if you didn’t want to manage the store?”
He’d never confessed his goals to anyone before. Not completely, anyway. A marketing degree was a good one to have, and the communications degree on top of that was just the cherry on the sundae. But Caitlin was gazing at him so earnestly, one dark russet eyebrow arched at an adorable angle, that he found himself saying, “I wanted to work in local television — you know, one of the stations up in Phoenix?”
“Wow,” she breathed. “Like a reporter or something?”
“No,” he replied, knowing that was the expected reaction. “I would’ve gotten a journalism degree for that instead of the marketing one. I wanted to do more behind-the-scenes stuff, maybe producing, once I’d put in my time as an intern. Since I’m bilingual, I could’ve tried for some of the Spanish-language stations, too, if the right opportunity presented itself.”
She sat back in her chair, looking impressed. “No wonder you’re grumpy about having to manage the store.”
“‘Grumpy’?” he repeated. “Is it that obvious?”
“Right now it is. But before this, I probably wouldn’t have guessed it was such a sore subject.” Her gaze slipped away from his, and she toyed with the napkin in her lap. “I’m sorry.”
“Sorry?”
“Sorry that you didn’t get to do what you wanted to do. But I guess that happens to a lot of us.”
She spoke simply, but he caught the trace of bitterness in her voice. “And what is it that you wanted to do? I mean, you’re going to Northern Pines, right?”