self-protection. Time to move on, and what better way than to reach for the hand of a certain handsome prince who, from what he’d told her about his relationship with his parents, just might be experiencing a little shift in the wind himself?
She looked down at the small gravestone. She kissed her fingertips then slowly caressed the name and date etched there before standing tall. As she walked to her car she knew that part of this healing, part of moving forward would come from sharing everything with Rafael. Talking about it over the phone wouldn’t be the way to do it, but with any luck his mother would improve and he’d be back soon.
Her chest filling with a buoyancy she hadn’t felt in a long, long time, Gabby fished her keys from her purse and got into the car. Then her heart smacked into her ribs when she saw Rafael had called and left a message.
A giddy feeling of joy bubbled through her, and she quickly brought up her voice mail. His voice was odd, not warm like it usually was. Not even filled with its normal confidence, and in seconds the bubble deflated and flattened completely.
Her ears rang as she listened to the classic brush-off. “It was great knowing you, and I wish you only the best for your life...” Then his final quiet words felt like a hard slap of reality. “Adios, mi bella.”
Adios, mi bella.
She wasn’t sure how long she sat in the car, hands still holding the phone limply in her lap. Her pants, damp from the grass, now chilled her to the bone, and somehow she finally managed to lift her hands to the steering wheel to get the engine running and the heat on.
What a fool she was. Thinking Rafael, a man who’d stated more than once that he didn’t believe in long-term relationships and forever-after, would want to be with her longer than a few days or weeks. But even as that knowledge felt like a huge hole in her heart she straightened her spine. Looked into the rearview mirror, swiped away the tears leaking from her eyes, and saw the new Gabby. A stronger Gabby. A woman who was moving on from the past to a new future. A person who deserved someone who loved her—hadn’t Ben said any man would be lucky to have her? She’d thought maybe Rafael was that man, but that had been a pipe dream. A fairy tale.
Her cold hands gripped the steering wheel. Once she found a new job she’d find a way to balance work with finding a life that included other things. Maybe she’d even get lucky like Ben and find someone to love who’d love her back.
The hardest thing she’d ever done had been dealing with the loss of her baby. The next hardest thing?
Forgetting all about Rafael Moreno.
“SO YOU AGREE that your mother looks good? That she’s recovering well?”
Rafael looked at the anxiety in his father’s eyes as they walked to his mother’s room, surprised all over again at the intensity of it. Though he supposed he shouldn’t be. Even if his parents didn’t have a particularly close relationship, they’d still been married for over thirty-five years, so that had to mean something.
“The angioplasty went well, and every test so far shows she’s doing very well. I’m sure they told you they’re planning to release her tomorrow for some T.L.C. back at the palace.”
“Yes. But I wanted to make sure you agreed with that.”
Just yesterday, his father’s words would have pleased him. At that moment, though, he didn’t seem able to feel much more than a heavy emptiness. “I agree with it. I’m guessing you’ve scheduled more nursing care than she wants, and she’ll be chafing at the bit about everyone fussing around her.”
His father chuckled. “She’s already chafing. You know your mother.”
They entered the room, and his mother promptly frowned at him. “You’re giving me that disapproving look,” he said. “Never thought I’d miss it, but at least it shows you’re feeling pretty good.”
“I’m wondering what’s happened with your latest scandal. Really, Rafael, it’s unbelievable.”
“Why do you always pick the wrong women, son?” his father chimed in. “It’s like you do it on purpose.”
He stared at his father. Maybe he did. Maybe he’d always chosen women he knew were “inappropriate” as part of keeping his distance from them. But Gabriella? He hadn’t really chosen her.
He’d been irresistibly drawn to her.
“Maybe I’ve done that in the past, Father, but Gabriella Cain is different from any woman I’ve ever known.” He might not be able to be with her again, but he wasn’t about to tolerate anyone saying nasty things about her. “She’s not only beautiful, she’s smart and good at her job and beyond caring to her patients. I don’t know the whole story the media’s been throwing out there, but I do know it has to be sensationalized and maybe even totally wrong. If you met Gabriella, you’d love her.”
His mother’s frown lifted into raised eyebrows, and she cocked her head. “Sounds like maybe you love her.”
He stilled. Pictured Gabriella’s sweet face and fiery hair and the tenderness in her eyes, and knowing he’d never see any of that again physically hurt.
Love her? Maybe he did. What he felt for her was unlike anything he’d felt before. But love was fleeting, he knew.
Both his parents were looking at him expectantly, but he didn’t want to talk about Gabriella unless he had to, and changed the subject. “How does the surgical entry wound feel, Mother? Has the pain lessened?”
“Yes. It’s not too bad.”
“I’ve seen them change the bandages, and it looks bad to me,” his father said. “Your mother’s just tough. Always has been.” As he looked at his wife the man’s eyes were filled with a warmth and softness Rafael had rarely seen.
“Is that a compliment or something else?” His mother reached for his father’s hand and smiled at him.
“A compliment. As though I’d give anything else to my very special wife.” He held her hand tight, leaning to give her forehead a lingering kiss.
Rafael stared at the way his parents looked at one another. At the...the love in his father’s eyes as he gently stroked her skin, bruised from the needle sticks and IV.
His parents did love each other? Even though their marriage had been arranged and the time they spent together seemed to be far less than the time they spent apart? All Rafael had ever noticed had been cordial respect between them, but maybe because they were his own parents he hadn’t really been looking.
All those questions and revelations jumbled around in his head until everything settled into a new order and a clear focus. And with that focus came another vision of Gabriella.
Until this very second, once his mother was completely well, he’d planned to keep living his life the way he always had, moving from place to place and from woman to woman and from job to job. Never dipping his toe deeper than the shallow end of the pool for fear of becoming trapped and emotionally entangled, ending up in a long-term loveless situation like his parents and brother.
Except, apparently, he’d been wrong about that. And could that mean he might be wrong about his sibling’s marriage too?
It didn’t really matter. What mattered was that he’d closed his mind and heart to any possibility of real love. Had shut it tight, not even realizing he’d been doing it. But wanting to see inside Gabriella’s heart and mind for the time he was with her had cracked his heart and brain open instead, just enough to let in a sliver of light. Instead of learning her secrets, she’d gently but directly gotten him to spill his own. To explain that he was the black sheep and always would be. Instead of judging him, she’d believed in him. Believed his parents must, too.
And he was damned if she hadn’t been absolutely right.