The Night She Got Lucky Read Free Page B

in the place again, Piers had said to Lucio his first night in the apartment. Stay as long as you'd like.
    Lucio sighed. The rich and rewarding life he'd built for himself over twenty years was gone. It had collapsed'
se derrumbo
that was the only word he could use to describe it. Instantly, he'd gone from the peak of his success to piecing together a day-to-day existence.
    Just months ago he was finishing an assignment in the northern deserts of China, chronicling the effect of pollution and climate change on the region's wildlife. He had finalized travel plans for his next assignment, to Galapagos. And he'd recently learned he'd won the prestigious Erskine Prize for achievement in nature photography. He began to make travel plans to be in New York in December for the ceremony, where he'd be handed a check for a quarter of a million in U.S. dollars.
    And then it all came crashing down.
    First, some of his raw digital video went missing. Soon after, the U.S. embassy in Beijing sent word that Lucio was in danger of being deported. The missing video had been leaked to the Chinese government, which found the images shameful, and in Lucio's opinion, they should have. At first, the Chinese claimed Lucio's work was hostile to the People's Republic. Days later, the Chinese amped up their claim, calling Lucio's work an act of espionage intended to weaken the country's international standing. Two additional details made the mess even messier: About fifty thousand in
Geographica
funds had been drained from Lucio's expense account, and word got out that Lucio had been bedding his official Chinese guide, the thirty-year-old daughter of a high-ranking government official, and the man went nuts over the shame his daughter had brought to him.
    Days of in-person and Internet meetings followed. Lucio admitted it; he lost his cool a few times with the Chinese, the American consulate, and with his
Geographica
editorsbut the accusations were pure insanity! Lucio vehemently denied charges of spying and stealing the money from his own expense account. It was all rubbish.
    Nobody seemed to listen. Before he knew it, he was kicked out of the country and released from his
Geographica
contract, putting an end to a long and profitable professional alliance.
    Piers encouraged Lucio to come back to San Francisco. That's what Lucio didwith his tail between his legs and his wallet openready to funnel every dime he had to his lawyer, who he prayed would untangle the string of misunderstandings. But that had been three months ago. With each day, it seemed to Lucio that the nickname he'd carried since childhood no longer fit him.
    He shook his head and rose from the stone wall, deciding to stroll into the heavily scented gardens of Rick's Sonoma Valley paradise. It was funny how life sometimes doubled in on itself. He was thousands of miles from the fig trees and strawberry patches of his childhood, but this place smelled much the same to him, and the scent had conjured up long-buried memories.
    Alma had worn a simple ivory lace dress that fell to mid-calf, accented by an angry scowl. She carried a bouquet of wildflowers in front of her belly, camouflaging the baby that grew inside it. Lucio recalled how his throat had tightened at the sight of herand it wasn't out of joy. Unlike Rick and Josie's ceremony, his own wedding hadn't been about love. Or even family alliances. It was simply the only choice given to two hormonal kids who'd shucked their common senseand their clotheson a hot spring night at the riverbank.
    The truth was that when Alma lost the baby just weeks after the wedding, Lucio was relieved. She blamed him, of course. He was the one who had dragged her to the ugly, dirty, crowded city and was too busy with his studies to take care of her. Her brothers came to Seville to fetch her back to their village. The annulment papers came within a month.
    At the time, Lucio felt as if he'd dodged a bullet. The life he planned would not have been possible