Chapter 10: Commitment
The first minutes of the journey home were filled with suspenseful silence. With a smirk that deepened the dimple on her right cheek, Isabela quietly stared at me. I tried to look straight ahead and keep a smile from spilling onto my face, but I couldn't hold it in and finally chuckled.
"What?" I asked her.
"How—when... where did you learn to shoot like that, Papa?" she asked, her hazel irises seeming to glow as she stared at me.
"You were impressed?" I raised my eyebrows, asking the obvious.
"You were like... pew, pew, pew." To the best of her acting abilities, she mimicked me firing the rifle. "You hit all the cans with a single shot, didn't he, Teniente?"
"He sure did, Señorita. And each of them, squarely hit," Vicente answered from the driver's seat as he reined the pony in, taking a sharp turn as we left the narrow trail for the main town street.
"You too, Vicente?" I asked, thoroughly amused.
"Yes, I was, Señor. Unlike you, I'm not too prideful to give credit where it's due," he replied.
I was in such a good mood that I didn't mind his smart mouth. I shamelessly, thirstily drank in the praise.