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He was going to be all right. She just knew it. She and her family rode like the wind on their way back as soon as she felt a single thump of his pulse. Gone were the chupasangres and any hint of sedientos in the woods. She had nothing to do but to speak to him the entire journey home.

“You better come back to me, Lalo, or I will wreak havoc on you in the afterlife. If you don’t wake up, so help me, I will spit on your prized books.”

She didn’t know how to speak sweetly, and she had a feeling he wouldn’t recognize it was her if she did. So she kept threatening him until they laid him down to rest in his bed.

For a day and night, she and Fernanda had taken turns staying by his side. She read that ridiculous note he had left behind in the desk.

Carolina, I think I might like to kiss you, it said.

No. I really want to kiss you. Do not laugh at me for it. I find you utterly enchanting in every way possible. Had we more time together, I believe you would have come to love me as much as I fear I love you.

I know it is sudden but…“what is a few moments when our souls have known each other since the beginning of time?”

She grinned. He still quoted the sonnet wrong.

Carolina had laughed and cried over the note. She held it now as she paced in the garden.

Her energy was building, her irritation too. What if he didn’t come back to her?

No, she wouldn’t even let that thought grow in her mind. She would continue to hope.

She needed to focus on something else. She opened and closed her fist. It still ached from the night before. Rafa had slipped into Lalo’s room while Carolina sat by his side. One look at Rafa’s face and her annoyance bloomed. She stomped over to him and popped him in the nose.

“That is for trying to give Lalo my pony to ride,” she’d said.

Carolina punched him again.

“That is for being a torment to the man I love,” she’d added.

Rafa clamped a hand over his face. He held his other hand up in surrender. “Apologies!” he said through his fingers. “I came here to offer my apologies!”

A tiny bit of her vitriol had eased. “Why?”

“I was a selfish prick. I thought I could bully my way into being your husband, and it wasn’t right. I am sorry, Carolina. Honest.” His eyes flitted to Lalo’s prone form. “I heard about how you two risked everything on the mountain. I…I came here to commend you for being braver than any of us ever could be.”

When Rafa left, Carolina had cried some more. Lalo had been the brave one. He was best of them all.

She kicked a rock now, then watched it soar.

“Careful. Wouldn’t want to stub your toe. I’ve heard it’s rather painful.”

Carolina froze. That voice. That was his voice.

She spun and gasped.

There, standing in nothing but a long child’s shirt, was her Lalo.

“Are you real?” she whispered.

He grinned. And oh, what a beautiful grin it was.

“Why don’t you come and see for yourself?”

Carolina let out a sound that was part scream, part cry and bolted for him. She jumped, wrapping her arms around his neck. His skinny legs buckled, and they tumbled into the grass.

He groaned, taking the brunt of her weight and force.

“Trying to kill me again, I see,” he moaned, still grinning.

“You’re…you…”

“I’m here. And I am very much alive. Thanks to you.”

A sob escaped her. “You kept your promise! You came back to me!”

“I was too frightened not to.”

“Very smart of you.”

“Indeed.”

She realized they were lying on the grass for anyone to see. But she didn’t give a single damn about propriety.

“I’m going to kiss you, Lalo Villalobos.”

“On one condition,” he said.

“Anything. Anything at all.”

“You marry me. Here, in the sun, with the ones we love and the ones we lost watching over us.”

“Marry you?”

“Yes. I have pretended to court you for long enough. I want it to be real.”

“You are a glutton for punishment.”

“When it comes to you, I suppose so. Say yes. And then we will do whatever it is you wish. I’ll even learn to properly ride a horse.”

She narrowed her eyes. “You have become bossy now that you are human again.”

“And you are still a tyrant.”

“You have some nerve to speak to me in such a way after what you just put me through.” She tilted her head up. “You know what? I don’t think I need that kiss anymore.” Smirking, she began to pull away.

Lalo’s mouth opened in surprise. “But—”

His words were cut off as she brought her lips upon his.

He wrapped his arms tight around her, sealing their love in the warmest of embraces.

Slowly, she eased back. She wanted to see him up close, wanted to note the sun shimmering in his honey-colored eyes.

Lalo smiled. “What are you thinking at this very moment?”

“I’m thinking how wonderful it is to be alive.”

He chuckled. “Me too.”

Stars above, she loved this man.

“So? Will you marry me?” he asked, hope shimmering in his gaze. “Will you experience whatever the world has to offer with me, Carolina Victoria Fuentes? Will you dance with me always? Now, and when we’re old and gray, and thereafter, when we find ourselves in el Cielo?”

She brushed her lips against his warm cheek as butterflies twirled inside her stomach. “There’s nothing I want more,” she said. “My answer is a wholehearted yes.”

Carolina brought her lips back to his.

It was a perfect kiss.

One that would last for a lifetime.

And into the next.