Because It Is My Blood (Birthright #2)(36)

“I don’t even think you have a boyfriend. Maybe you are saying this to be nice, but you are not nice at all. Maybe you just think you are so much better than us!” Luna yelled. “Because you are from New York.”

“No, it’s nothing like that.”

Luna pointed her finger at me. “You need to stop leading Theo on.”

I assured her that I hadn’t been.

“You are stuck to him like glue every day! He is a baby, so of course he gets the wrong idea.”

“I honestly only wanted to learn about cacao. That’s what I came here to do!”

Luna and I continued to turn over the beans in silence.

Luna sighed. “I am sorry,” she said. “But he is my brother so I am protective.”

I understood very well about that.

“Don’t mention that I said anything to you,” Luna said. “I don’t want to embarrass him. My brother has much pride.”

After the beans were dried, they were gathered up into burlap sacks so that Theo could drive them down the mountain back to the factories in Oaxaca. This took several trips. “Would you like to come with me?” he asked before the last of that season’s drives.

I did want to go with him, but after my conversation with Luna, I wasn’t sure if I should.

“Come, Anya. You should see this. Don’t you want to see where the beans end up?”

Theo offered me his hand to help me into the truck, and after a moment’s consideration, I accepted.

We drove for a while in silence. “You are quiet,” he accused me. “You’ve been like this ever since I got back from the city.”

“It’s … Well. Theo, you know I have a boyfriend, don’t you?”

“Sí…” He drew out the word. “Yes, you told me.”

“So, I don’t want you to get the wrong idea about me.”

Theo laughed. “Are you worried that I like you too much, Anya Barnum?” Theo laughed again. “That is really very conceited of you!”

“Your sister … She thought you had a crush on me.”

“Luna is a romantic. She contrives to set me up with everyone, Anya. You can’t listen to a word that comes out of her ridiculous mouth. You should know that I don’t like you at all. I find you just as ugly as the day we met.”

“Now you’re being hurtful.” My hair was longer, and I knew I wasn’t as sickly looking as when I had arrived.

“Who is being hurtful? What of my feelings? You could barely look at me when you thought you might have to reject me,” he teased me. “Apparently, we are both completely repulsive to each other.” Theo reached across the seat to ruffle my hair. “Ay, Luna!”

The beans were unloaded at the main factory in Oaxaca, where they began the process of becoming chocolate. “Let me give you a tour,” Theo said. He led me through the factory, which was bright and terribly modern-looking compared to my dark and timeless farm. (Yes, I had begun to think of it as my farm.) The beans we delivered would be cleaned today, Theo explained, then they’d spend the rest of the week being roasted, winnowed, milled, cocoa-pressed, refined, conched, tempered, and last, cured. There were rooms for each step. At the end of this, you were left with the round hockey puck–like disks of chocolate that were the signature creation of the Marquezes. At the end of the tour, Theo handed me one of the disks. “And now you have seen the entire life story of Theobroma cacao from start to finish.”

“Theobroma?” I asked.

“I told you it was a family name,” Theo said. He went on to explain that he had been named for the genus of the cacao tree and that his was a Greek name given by a Swede who had been inspired by the Mayans and the French. “So you see, mine is a name from everywhere.”

“It’s a beautiful name…”

“If a bit feminine, didn’t you once say?”

“Where I’m from, once they found out about your name, they’d probably think you were a criminal,” I said without thinking.

“Yes … I have often wondered why a girl from a country where cacao cannot be grown and where the substance is banned would be so interested in its production as to stay with a family in Chiapas. How did you become interested in cacao, Anya?”

I blushed. I could feel we were beginning to tread on dangerous ground. “I’ve … Well, my father died, and chocolate was his favorite.”

“Yes, that makes sense.” Theo nodded. “Sí, sí. But what will you do with all your knowledge once you go back to your home?”

Home? When would I go back home? It was nearly 80° and I could feel the chocolate growing soft in my hand. “Maybe get involved with the legalize-cacao movement? Or…” I wanted to tell him about me, but I couldn’t. “I haven’t decided yet, Theo.”

“Your heart drew you to Mexico, then. That is how it is sometimes. We do things without knowing entirely why, just because our heart tells us that we must.”

Theo could not have understood less how it was with me.

“Come, Anya, we need to get back to the house. The night after the harvest is done, my grandmothers always make mole. It takes all day, and it is a mucho big deal so we can’t be late.”

I asked him what mole was.