After the wedding, as soon as the brides and grooms were off in a send-off shower of sweet-smelling lavender buds, Alejandro drove Olivia home to her condo in the Barton Hills neighborhood of Austin.
All she wanted was to get out of her bridesmaid dress and the pinching heels, take her hair down and get away from the flood of congratulations that had washed in after Sophie’s little announcement.
They were both exhausted and contemplative, so they were mostly quiet in the car. They didn’t talk about a plan, but Olivia knew they needed to before Alejandro left her place tonight.
As she changed into her heather gray yoga pants and a soft white T-shirt, she came up with a plan and was ready to present a strong case when she walked back into the living room. Alejandro was on the same page because he took the words right out of her mouth when he asked, “What are we going to do now?”
“First, I’m going to open a bottle of wine,” she said. “That’s what I’m going to do right now.”
“Sounds good to me. Do you think that we’re okay sticking to the original plan?”
She stopped on her way into the kitchen and looked back at him. “You mean breaking up tomorrow?”
He shrugged.
“I was hoping we could stay in character at least until after Sophie and Mason were home from their honeymoon and settled into married life. Does that work for you?”
“When will they be back?”
“They’re only going away for a week. Mason has some business he needs to take care of. Then I think they’re planning a longer trip in the fall.”
He seemed to mull things over for a moment. “Yeah, I think I can make that work. I have some Hummingbird Ridge business, but nothing I can’t tend to while I’m here.”
“Great! A week should be long enough for the wedding sparkle to wear off and for us to realize we were swept away by the romance. Then we can ‘take a break.’” She bracketed the words with air quotes. “I’m happy to be the heavy. I’ll tell everyone I felt like things were just moving too fast. I’ll confess that I got caught up in the romance of the wedding and while I think the world of you, I need time to think things over. My family won’t be surprised, believe me. In fact, I’ll bet they’re already placing wagers on how long it will take me to call off the engagement.”
Alejandro frowned at her. “I thought maybe your cynicism about love was all an act, but you’ve almost convinced me that you’re really not a believer.”
He was quiet for a moment, as if he was giving her the chance to tell him he was wrong, that it really was an act. When she didn’t say anything, he asked, “What happened to sour you on love?”
Biting her lip, she looked away, toward the kitchen. Why did he care? She could read all sorts of things into that, but she wasn’t going to.
“How about that glass of wine?” she asked, trying to buy herself a little more time. “After the day I’ve had, I’m going to need a glass of wine or two if we’re going to have this conversation.”
“Sure, thanks. That sounds good.”
“Is red okay? I have white, but it’s not cold.”
“Red is perfect. May I help?”
She opened the cabinet and took down the wineglasses, hoping by avoiding the question he would get the hint that she didn’t want to talk about it. “I’m good. I’ve got this.”
The phrase was a pep talk for herself. Even though she didn’t really want to talk about it, maybe she owed him a little insight about her parents’ dynamics. After all, two Mendozas were part of the family and they were bound to pick up on the tension, if her sisters hadn’t already filled them in. Alejandro had been so good to help her, and he did care enough to ask. He didn’t strike her as the type who would dig just to be nosy. But why was he asking? What did that mean? She supposed it was possible for a man to care about a woman in a purely platonic way, although she had never had any successful relationships of that nature with men. And truth be told, if circumstances were different—if they weren’t practically family—maybe she would want more than something platonic with Alejandro. But if it got messy... No, she’d better leave well enough alone.
“When are Dana and Kieran back?”
“They are going to be gone longer. They’re heading to Paris for ten days,” she said. “Did you meet Elaine Wagner tonight—the new nanny they’d hired to care for Rosabelle? She was the kid-wrangler tonight. She has a son who’s just about Rosie’s age. She’s going to look after Rosie and her dog Sammy. You know that Dana and Kieran adopted Rosie after her father died, right?” She didn’t wait for Alejandro’s response before she continued.
“Having Elaine come on board has given Kieran and Dana enough peace of mind to know that they can get away for a while. After all they’ve been through—and with this whirlwind wedding—they deserve some time away.”
She looked across the open-concept kitchen and saw Alejandro watching her intently. Since talking about Dana and Kieran had seemed to divert the conversation from her folks, she decided to continue.
“When they get back they’re going to live at Dana’s house. They want to get a new place together, but with the wedding put on the fast track and the honeymoon trip to Paris they haven’t had a spare minute to begin the search. But Dana’s house has a nice big yard for Rosabelle and Sammy to play in. Really, there’s no need to rush the process. Everything will happen in good time.”
She paused to pull the lever of the corkscrew and yank the cork out of the bottle. She knew she was rambling, but it seemed to have worked.
She set aside the cork from the wine, a Cabernet Sauvignon from the Columbia Valley, which Wine Spectator had scored a ninety-six. She wasn’t a wine connoisseur, but she knew what she liked and she hoped this would be suitable for Alejandro. She poured the wine, secured both glasses between the fingers of her left hand, grabbed the bottle with her right and joined Alejandro in the living room. He was sitting on the couch, with one arm stretched out along the back. He looked so at home, like he belonged there.
As she set the wine bottle down on the coffee table, she realized she was nervous. Even so, she took a seat next to him on the couch rather than choosing the gray toile-print wingback chair. It reminded her of that first night in the Driskill bar when she’d moved from the chair to sit next to him. She hadn’t been so drunk that she didn’t remember it had felt so natural to sit next to him and just lean in and start kissing him. Of course, they’d kissed many times since. She wondered what he would do if she leaned in and kissed him right now.
She was tempted, but she didn’t do it. Instead, she handed him a wineglass.
As had become their custom, they purposefully locked gazes before clinking their glasses. She thought about making another joke about good sex, but she just couldn’t summon words that wouldn’t sound rehashed or recycled, like ground they had already covered. Was that because she knew they were coming up on the final act of this performance?
With Sophie married and away on her honeymoon, did they really need to stay together? Wouldn’t it be easier to end it now? Sophie was a big girl, and if Olivia was perfectly honest with herself she knew that Sophie had gone through with her marriage of her own volition. Olivia and Alejandro dating or not dating, being engaged or not, would not make one bit of difference in her sister’s relationship.
If she knew what was best for both Alejandro and herself, she should tell him right now that it would be better for him to leave as planned. Funny though, she really wasn’t ready for this to end. She’d gotten used to him being around. Even if it was a farce, she had gotten used to being part of a couple with him.
Alejandro and Olivia.
Olivia and Alejandro.
She liked the sound of that.
She traced the rim of her wineglass with her finger. Even after only a week it sounded natural to link their names. Would they remain friends and keep in touch after he went back to Miami? Would he make a point of ringing her up when he came to Texas on vineyard business? She hoped so. In fact, she wanted that very much.
She looked at him, mustering the will to tell him he was free to go if he needed to, but instead, what came out was “If we’re going to make this engagement look convincing, don’t you think you should check out of the Driskill and move in here with me?”
He looked surprised, as if he hadn’t considered the possibility, and she braced herself for him to be the voice of reason, to not only decline but say everything she had been thinking only moments ago. That it was time to break up. Time to come clean. Time to move on.
“Are you sure?” he asked.
“Since short-term rentals are hard to come by and hotels are uncomfortable and expensive, you can move into one of the spare bedrooms in my condo,” she said.
“Short-term rental?” His brows knit together. “I thought we were only talking about a week.”
“Yes, well, I was just thinking that you might not want to pay for a hotel. Unless you want to, of course.”
She cringed inwardly. This wasn’t going the way she’d hoped. Maybe she should just make it easy on both of them and cut him loose.
“No. I see what you’re saying and I appreciate it,” he said. “I just don’t want to impose. It’s not easy having someone in your space, even for a week.”
True. But it was definitely easier to host a guest when you wanted the person there. And she didn’t mind Alejandro being in her space.
“It’ll be fine. And it’ll appear more convincing if we’re living together. It’s the least I can do after all you’ve done to help me.”
“It wasn’t such a hardship,” he said. For a moment, something shifted between them. She swore he was going to lean in and kiss her. But then she glanced down at her wineglass and when she looked back up the spell was broken.
“I will have to cook dinner for you while I’m here,” he said. “It’ll give me the chance to show off my culinary chops. I’m happy to say I know my way around the kitchen.”
“Did you learn to cook so you could get the girls?”
He laughed. “Of course. Works every time.”
She loved the way his eyes came to life when they bantered. Kissing him felt almost as natural as verbally sparring with him.
“How about this?” he said. “I’ll earn my keep by cooking for you.”
“Works for me. I’ve been told I have many talents, but domestic pursuits are not among them.” She chuckled.
“Hey, my birthday is next week,” she said. “Why don’t you cook dinner for me then? Otherwise, my parents might insist on celebrating with us.”
“Do you think so? I got the distinct feeling that your parents were avoiding me tonight after Sophie’s announcement. I’d mentally prepared myself for what I would say to them, but it was probably for the best that they focused on your sister’s and brother’s wedding. If your dad is one of those old-fashioned types that gets offended if a guy doesn’t ask for his daughter’s hand, I didn’t want to face the wrath of Gerald Robinson. That would’ve definitely been a party foul.”
“You don’t have anything to worry about. My father isn’t really the traditional type when it comes to love and marriage. In fact, if you asked his permission to marry me, he would probably think you were up to something. Or at the very least sucking up.”
“Have they said anything to you?” he asked.
“My mother cornered me earlier tonight. She said she was happy for us and she wants to get to know you better. She and my father want to take us out for dinner. Which means she wants to go out to dinner and my father probably knows nothing about it. She was trying to get us to come over tomorrow night, but I told her that we were both busy. I’ll keep putting her off as long as I can. Especially for my birthday.”
He picked up the bottle and refilled her wineglass. “What day is your birthday?”
“It’s next Saturday.”
“Maybe you should celebrate with them. When I was growing up, birthdays were always a big deal in our house. My mother would have a cake for us and we got to pick whatever we wanted for dinner.”
Olivia shifted, and pulled one foot up and balanced it on her knee. She began to massage her foot. When she noticed him watching her hands, she said, “Sorry, my feet hurt after standing in those heels all night.”
“Here,” he said, “put your feet in my lap. I give a mean foot massage.”
* * *
She looked a little taken aback. For a moment he thought she was going to refuse, but she swung her legs up onto the couch and stretched out so that her feet were in his lap.
He used his thumb to draw small, firm circles on the ball of her foot.
She tilted her head back and moaned. It made him think of the night in the Driskill bar when she kissed him. He had a nearly overwhelming urge to lean over and see if her lips tasted as sweet as they had that night. But it probably wouldn’t be a good move since he was going to be moving in with her and they needed to keep things cool just a little longer.
“That feels so good,” she said. “Are you close to your parents? It sounds as if they made a big deal over making you feel special on your birthday.”
“I’m close to my dad. My mom passed away about five years ago.”
“I’m sorry.”
He shrugged. “Thanks. My mom was a wonderful woman. We all took her loss pretty hard. But it’s good to see my dad happy again with Josephine. There was a time when it seemed like he would never be the same again. I know you and your sisters are close but are you close to your folks? You seem like you’re avoiding the question.”
“Maybe I am.” She sat up and pulled her knees into her chest, hugging them and still managing to hold her wineglass. “My sisters and I are solid, but my parents? They sort of live in their own worlds. Separate worlds. I guess I might as well tell you because you’re bound to hear about it anyway. This reporter, Ariana Lamonte, has been doing a big exposé on my family. My dad mostly. Last year, evidence surfaced that he is actually part of the Fortune family.”
Alejandro nodded. “The Fortunes are a big Texas family. Seems like everybody’s related to them in one way or another—or at least most people have a close degree of separation. My brother Cisco is married to Delaney Fortune.”
Olivia shrugged. “This is still new for me. I’m still trying to digest it, because the implications are pretty damning. Not only does it mean that my father has been lying to us about his identity for as long as my brothers and sisters and I have been alive, but we are also coping with the fact that my father seems to have other children who keep popping up. Illegitimate ones.”
She closed her eyes and rested her forehead on her knees. A moment later, she looked up at him.
“I probably shouldn’t be telling you all this, but for some crazy reason I feel like I can trust you.”
He reached out and put a hand on her arm. “You can trust me, Olivia. It sounds like you’ve been through a lot of change this year.”
She nodded. “Not just this year. The truth has been a long time coming. I’ve always known that my parents didn’t have a great relationship. I just didn’t know why. But now that all of my father’s illegitimate children keep crawling out of the woodwork, it’s just hard for me to be around my parents. Their relationship is such a farce. I have no idea why they stay together because it’s all a lie. So you can see going to dinner with them for my birthday would be the ultimate torture. Will you please be my knight in shining armor and save me from that?”
He brushed back a strand of hair that had fallen into her face. He had heard rumblings about Gerald Robinson’s Fortune connection, but nobody seemed to know the true story. He hadn’t heard about illegitimate children. No wonder Olivia was freaked out about love and relationships.
“I wouldn’t want to do anything else,” he said. “You know, love is a tricky thing. My parents showed me the best example of true love and commitment. It was real and perfect. Not only did I see it in my parents’ relationship when my mother was alive, I’ve experienced that deep kind of true love myself. Yet I’m even screwed up when it comes to love. That’s because when you fall in love, you’re so vulnerable. You open yourself up and you expose yourself to the worst pain—”
The words got lost in his throat. Olivia put her hand on his. He looked at her sitting next to him on the couch in her yoga pants and fitted T-shirt and somehow the possibility of falling in love didn’t seem so out of reach anymore.
“Sounds like you’re speaking from experience,” she said. “How did Anna break your heart?”
It had been years since he’d talked about this, but he heard himself speaking before he could stop himself.
“Anna Molino was my high school sweetheart. We would be married right now if fate hadn’t been cruel. Anna died in a car accident when we were just twenty years old.”
“Oh, Alejandro, I’m sorry.”
Maybe it was all the pent-up emotion that he had been harboring for years; maybe it was because he was actually starting to feel something for this beautiful woman. Whatever the reason, he reached out and ran his thumb along her jawline, moved his hand around so it cupped the back of her neck and lowered his mouth to hers.
When their lips met, he lost all sense of time and space. All he knew was things hadn’t felt this right in ages.
“Do you want to stay here tonight?” Olivia whispered. “We can go to the Driskill and get your things tomorrow.” Her expression was so earnest, he almost said yes, but if he stayed he wasn’t sure what might happen. He needed some space to think about what he was getting into by moving in with her—even if it was only for a week. He needed to figure out if he could handle it.
“In the guest room,” she amended as if she was reading his thoughts. “Because we probably shouldn’t be kissing like that unless we mean it.”
“You’re right,” he said. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that.”
“Don’t be sorry,” she said. “I’m not. But we probably should save the action for our adoring public.”
He stood.
“On that note, I should get back to the hotel tonight.”