She Slept With My Husband, So Her Fiance Rides My Balloon novel · Chapter 24 of 24
Chapter 24: Farolitos
By nine o'clock on Christmas Eve a thousand paper bags burned along the ditch bank.
Each had a handful of sand in the bottom and a candle standing in the sand.
The pickers had set them in a double line from the farm gate to the headgate, a mile of small gold lights on both banks of the acequia.
Their reflections lay in the black water, and the cottonwoods stood bare above them.
Neighbors walked the bank in coats and scarves with cups of cocoa.
Beatriz sat at the head of a folding table by the farm gate in her black cardigan, handing out biscochitos.
"Take two," she told everyone who passed. "It's Christmas."
The foreman's grandchildren went up and down the line with a taper, relighting every bag the wind put out.
Eloy and I walked the whole bank together, slowly, hand in hand.
He did not say anything, and neither did I.
Our breath rose in the cold.
The lanterns ended at the headgate, at the iron wheel where he had stood and offered to buy my ex-husband off.
The water ran by, low and dark.
The last bag on the bank burned a little apart from the rest, with one candle bright in it.
I stopped in front of it.
Eloy stopped too, and took the small box out of his coat.
His hands were not steady, and he didn't hide them.
"Del," he said. "You told me no, right here, when I tried to buy him off."
"I did."
"You were right. I was deciding for everyone, again."
"I know," I said.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of She Slept With My Husband, So Her Fiance Rides My Balloon are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend