Cinderella in Overalls by Carol Grace

forth when she walked through the door. He told her the license was ready, but the ownership papers weren’t processed yet. They could check back later. What he didn’t tell her was that even when the papers were ready he wasn’t going to let her drive home alone in the dark, no matter how much experience she’d had with trucks and tractors.
    She nodded and he looked around. Customers were still waiting for tellers. Bank officials were in deep discussions with important clients behind closed doors. Banks and stores stayed open until 7:00. Josh usually worked late. But not tonight. Not with Catherine standing there with one braid over her shoulder, her face tilted up to his, her expression hopeful and expectant. He had a wild desire to grab her arm, run out the front door and get lost in the bustling, vibrant city out there.
    He did the next best thing. He led her firmly out the door with his hand on her elbow.
    “Where are we going?” she asked.
    “I don’t know. You know the city better than I do Take me somewhere I haven’t been before. That won’t be hard. I haven’t been anywhere.”
    “Anywhere?” Her eyes sparkled and her lips curved in an enticing smile.
    A rush of dizziness engulfed him, and he steadied himself by holding her arms. After weeks of living and working within a four-block radius, he had a desire to expand his horizon. “Anywhere,” he said.
    They started down the avenue, past galleries filled with silver, pewter and antiques. They mingled with shoppers, workers and Indians dressed like Catherine and bureaucrats dressed like Josh. The sun was setting on the flatlands that surrounded the city, and a cool wind threatened to send Catherine’s hat flying. In front of the San Francisco Church at the end of the street, he stopped to take it off her head and smooth her hair. He longed to loosen the braid, to feel the masses of dark hair in his hands.
    The stone-carved statue of Saint Francis in front of the church smiled benevolently, but they didn’t linger. Catherine took his hand and led him around the corner down an alley lined with small, elegant shops. In front of a store crammed with soft leather goods she paused.
    “Have you ever been to a peña ?” she asked.
    He turned her hat on the palm of his hand. “I don’t think so. What is it?”
    “An open-air restaurant with typical food and folk music. You’ve been in La Luz for a month and nobody’s taken you to a peña ?” she asked incredulously.
    “Nobody’s taken me anywhere... except to the Rodriguez Market. They told me I could find everything I needed there. They were right.’’ He gave her a smile that made her heart skip a beat. She folded her arms across her waist. Deliberately she tilted her head and surveyed his suit jacket. Her gaze lingered on his vest.
    “What’s wrong?” he asked.
    “It gets cold at the peña after the sun sets. You need a sweater.”
    He opened the door for her to the brightly lighted shop, and they breathed deeply of the warm, earthy smell of leather.
    “What about a jacket?”
    “You’d buy a leather jacket just like that?”
    “I need a leather jacket. I’ve always needed one. I just didn’t know it until now.”
    Hearing this, an attentive clerk slipped up behind him and helped him remove his suit coat. His vest came off next. The first jacket he tried on was brown with wide shoulders and tucked in around the waist. It made him look like a World War One flying ace.
    Catherine couldn’t stop staring. Where was the conservative banker, the one who ate at the same restaurant every night? She warned herself he was still there, just a breath away, under a layer of leather. But here was a man who was buying himself a jacket so he could go to a new restaurant. Here was a man who was taking a chance on a group of poor women on the strength of his intuition and her recommendation.
    In a momentary panic she wondered what she’d started the day she had barged her way into his office. But it