Mexican Hospitality

"It doesn’t strike me as a little fucking odd," Ana blazed back at him, "People move here with little blonde girls all the time. And there are plenty of Angie's in this world Mister Davis."

Standing up, he opened the door to the car. "I'm going back to see if that was her. You coming?"

"You can’t just walk up to every little blonde girls here and say I'm your daddy!" she said pressing him against the truck, "Soon you're gonna scare them and they are gonna call the cops."

"No shit. I was just going to drive by and see if it was her. It’s my kid. I should be able to see well enough from the car." His mind was already running over what he was going to say to her if it was his Angie. She had to be worried about what happened to her father.

Analiza felt a sharp surge of electricity run through her body from where they were touching. She let him go as if he had the plague and stepped back, "Fine," she said, "But if you touch her I'll kick your ass."

"I won't," he said in a low tone. Her closeness almost not registering with him as his mind was on his daughter. He turned and got back into the little truck. When she climbed in with him he looked over at Ana. "I'm sorry I grabbed you. I guess I got a little excited." He looked down at his hand, the palm of it still registering the touch of her skin upon it. "I won't touch you like that again." In fact, he never touched any woman. Never raised a hand to one, which may be why his hand was letting him know that he had stepped over a line, something he wouldn't ever have done before. The loss of his daughter having a more profound impact on him than he wanted to admit.

Analiza took a deep breath, "Ok," she said. As the truck turned she told him to stop as they reached the little girl, "Hey Angie," she called, "Como esta?" she asked in Spanish. "Muy bien ahora," the little girl said in careful Spanish. "Bueno, donde esta mamita?" Analiza asked. "No se," the little girl said sadly. Analiza turned troubled eyes to Jordan.

He looked at Ana and saw the look in her eyes. "What?"

"She doesn’t know where her mother is," Analiza said. She turned back to the little girl, "Donde a voyando?" she asked. The girl only shrugged.

Jordan leaned forward, not able to contain himself and looked at the girl, wondering if this was his Angie.

"What did she say now?"

"I asked her where she is going and she doesn’t know," Analiza said, "Ok sweetie get in," she said in Spanish as she pushed open the door to pull the little girl into her lap then closed the door.

He finally got a good look at the girl, it had to be his daughter; he knew it had to be. He looked at her, but she was wrapped up around Ana's lap and wasn't looking at him. He reached his hand out, close enough to almost touch her. He felt electricity tingling on his hand as he yed ted to touch her, but he pulled back at the last minute not able to do it. The search for her had been his whole life and now it was almost over. If he could bring himself to let it end.

It bothered him that she knew so much Spanish. It seemed like a lot more than she could have picked up in just six months or so. Maybe her mother had this planned for a lot longer. On top of bothering him, it saddened him because it meant that that was one more thing that would separate him from his daughter.

"Take us back to the motel," Analiza told Jordan, "Tengas hambre?" she asked the little girl who nodded. Ana kissed her on the cheek, "Don’t worry, I'll make you your favourite!" The little girl bounced on her knees, "Peanut butter and pickle sandwich?" she asked. Ana made a face but then smiled, "Of course Darling."

Jordan kept his eyes on the road, afraid to say anything. Soon they were pulling into the parking lot again.

Angie hopped out of the truck and then turned to say gracias to the driver and froze. "Mi padre?!" she asked looking from Analiza to Jordan. Analiza's eyes burnt with tears, "Si, at least I think so." Angie walked up to Jordan and stopped looking up at him.

Jordan squatted down in front of the little girl, the tears streaming down his cheeks. "Angie? Is that you my little ditu?"

"But you can’t be here," the little girl said in a confused voice, "Mamita dije que..." she stopped herself, "Mom said you were....dead."

"No, no my girl. Mommy must have been mistaken. I'm not... I was just..." he looked up at Ana with a confused look. How do you tell your girl that she was taken from you without making her hate you or her mother?

"Not now," Analiza told Jordan as she saw his eyes, "Come on Darling let Aunty Ana make you something to eat. Peanut butter and pickles," she said taking the little girl's hand. While Angie ate Analiza took his hand and led him to a window, "what now?" she asked softly.

He looked out the window and let his head hang. Squeezing Ana's hand he whispered. "I don't know. I don't want to just take her; it would confuse her too much. What about the Police? Would they be able to help if we took her there? I don't want her to hate her mother, or me. But I..." His voice trailed off as he looked out the window.

Analiza was surprised and had it been any other man at any other time she would have kicked him in the groin, "How far is the custody battle? The police here are no help and if the mother can’t be found then technically you are not just taking her."

“We were just starting the custody battle, but after she ran away with Angie, I was given full rights; assuming I ever foher.her. But that only applies to their jurisdiction for now, so technically she is still her mother." He turned around and looked at Angela. "What does she mean she doesn't know where her mother is? How long has she been gone?" Jordan would ask himself, but since Ana knew Angie, maybe it was better if she asked her. It was his child, but there was a lot of stuff to get over; from both with the child who thought he was dead, and he who just wanted to kill her mother.

"Muneca Mia," Ana said turning to Angie, "how long has your mother been gone?" she asked. Angie shrugged, "A few days... three I think." Ana then turned and translated to Jordan.

He looked at Angie incredulously. "Who has she been staying with? How has she been eating?" His mind raced with the possibilities. "She hasn't been alone with her mother for six months, does she know any of her mom's friends, at least enough to take us to one?"

Ana rested her hands on his shoulder to steady his words, "shhh," She said, "Keep your voice down you'll scare her. I know her mother's friends. Marcus is one we can talk to him. But I won’t have you man handling him."

He lowered his voice again. "Yeah, ok. Who is Marcus, what is he to her?"

"Just friends," Ana explained, "He's at the front desk. I'll watch her. Go."

Jordan nodded and walked out of the kitchen towards the office. As he walked, his worry turned to resolve. "Hola Marcus, un momento, por favor." He knew he mutilated the accent, but at least he hoped he got the words across. He leaned against the office window. "I'm looking for information on a Katherine Davis, came here a while wit with a little blonde haired girl. Know who I am talking about?"

"Oh you mean Little Angie's mom," Marcus said smiling and moving to sit next to Jordan, "Yah I know her. That little girl cried for days for her papa...We finally got her to stop by telling her that he went to a better place... It wasn’t pretty though."

Jordan's jaw set and he grabbed the top of the counter, his knuckles turning white. "Have you seen her in the last day or two?"

"Now that you've mentioned it no," Marcus said thoughtfully, "But then again she normally disappears. Angie would come looking for me when she did and I would watch over her... You mean Angie is missing? Where is she?" Marcus panicked.

"Angie is ok... Ana is watching her. I'm looking for her mother. What do you mean she 'normally disappears'?"

"Well mostly at nights," Marcus said, "The last time it was for a week. Then she came back... We don’t know where she goes or what she does but she normally comes back with money. Lots of it."

~Damn it,~ He didn't want to think about how she was coming up with the money. "Where does she live?"

"To tell you the truth I have no clue," Marcus said, "Angie shows up here when she's gone and she shows up to get Angie when she comes back."

"Hrm.. Ok. Thanks for your help Marcus." It actually didn't help that much, but at least Marcus was polite and seemed receptive to helping Angela. Jordan left the office and walked back into the kitchen.

Ana and Angie were on the ground gasping through laughter and tickling each other, "Hey I thought you said you weren’t ticklish!" Angie said in Spanish. "I wasn’t..." Ana grinned. "My daddy is ticklish," Angie said in fluent English.

"Well, only to Angie," he said out loud. When Ana got up off the floor, he motioned her over to him. The look in his eye telling that he wanted to talk to her alone.

Ana held Angie in a hug and stood up, "I need to talk to you papa for a bit ok, go see Marcus," Angie stopped long enough to hug Jordan's leg before bursting out the door yelling, "MARCUS!!" Happily. "What’s up?"

He waited while Ana came over to her and Angie had left earshot. "Marcus said that Katherine leaves all the time, mostly nights, but has been gone most of a week before. Says he watches her. Anyway, he doesn't know where she is or where she lives. I'd like to find her. As much as I hate to admit it, I'd kill me if something happened to her. For Angie's sake. I could care less myself." As he spoke he noticed that Ana was standing close enough to him that he could see a thin sheen of sweat on her skin, she almost glowed in the sunlight from the window. "Anyway, I'd like to try to find her. If you think that is a good idea." She seemed to have a much more level head than he did in this matter and he thought defaulting to her judgement was the right thing to do.

"You're in Mexico," she said with a heavy accent, "Gouck uck finding her... You could wait for the party tomorrow."

"I thought the fiesta was tonight?"

Ana shook her head, "That’s what I said... What did I say?"

"You said something about I could wait until the party tomorrow. At least that is what I thought I heard."

Analiza was thinking of how great his arms would feel around her. Her head wasn’t clear, "I meant tonight," she said blushing and looking away, "But you need to take your little girl out shopping. She will show you what dress to buy."

"She will show me... Wait, you giving her hints?" Jordan couldn't help but smile, the innocent look she gave him already spoke volumes.

Ana gave him a wide, sexy smile, "I am doing nothing of the sort," she grinned and walked out of the room and headed to the front desk.