father is that Mauricio guy?” Billie asked, taking a few steps away from Scarlet and picking up her sunglasses from the ground.
She handed them to Scarlet and she put them on. “I thought so. But the guy has a twin brother. They switched places that night.”
“Okay, obviously we are mad about this. What do you want me to do? I can reach out to our press contacts and start a smear—”
“Not yet. I don’t even know this guy. He invited me to join him and his family for brunch after the match. I was hoping you’d come with me,” Scarlet said.
“Oh, hell yes, I’ll be there. What’s his name?” Billie asked, pulling her smartphone from her pocket.
“Alejandro Velasquez,” Scarlet said.
“Shit, are you kidding?”
“Do you think I’d joke about that? Why? Who is he?”
“Well, let me do a quick internet search to confirm it but I’m pretty sure he’s a tech genius who owns a billion-dollar software company.”
“So why would he do something so immature, like pretending to be his brother?” Scarlet asked. “B, what am I going to do? You know my family... I thought—”
“I’ll do some research while you watch the match. Then at this brunch thing we can see what kind of family he has, what kind of people they are. Maybe the switching-places thing was innocent. Whatever happens you’ve got me by your side,” Billie said as she hugged Scarlet.
She wasn’t alone. Why, then, did she always feel that way? Billie was the best assistant she’d ever had but, in a way, she was just like the nanny Scarlet and Tara had shared growing up. Paid family. Though she knew Billie wasn’t with her just for a paycheck.
“Thanks, B,” she said. “This has completely screwed with my head.”
“That’s saying something. Nothing ever rattles you.”
She had to smile at that. She had built up a resistance to the kinds of situations that would freak out most people. But this... Maybe it was the fact that Tara wasn’t here for her to talk to about it. Tara would be able to make her laugh about it even though a part of her was hurt.
Scarlet couldn’t help but think that maybe he hadn’t worried about lying to her because of who she was. Because she was the kind of person who’d lived her life going from one scandal to the next. She had a reputation. So lying to her hadn’t worried him.
She hoped that wasn’t the case.
But then she’d learned that hoping was a waste of time. She’d hoped her dad would stop marrying younger women and actually be a parent to her and Tara. She’d hoped that Tara would stop using and get clean. Now she was hoping that Alejandro Velasquez was a decent guy...
Alec had grown up playing polo with his brothers. The Velasquez family had been horse breeders for generations, and Alec’s dad had been playing on a team with Tio Jose and their cousins since they were children. So riding was second nature to Alec. His four-player team generally consisted of Alec, Mo, their eldest brother, Diego, and the youngest Velasquez, Inigo, with either Malcolm Ferris—Mo’s best friend—or their dad often subbing for Inigo, who was gone a lot of the time on the Formula 1 circuit. Technically Inigo wasn’t supposed to play when he was home because of insurance concerns, but the Velasquez men had a problem with following the rules.
Diego was always number one—the goal striker. He’d always had a good eye for hitting goals, so it made sense for him to play in that position. Alec and Mauricio traded off being number two, the forward, and number three, the pivotal player who switches between offense and defense. Then number four protected the goal. Malcolm was really good at that position and since they’d grown up playing with him, he knew everyone’s strengths and weaknesses.
But when the third chukka ended, Alec knew his brothers and Malcolm weren’t pleased with his performance. It didn’t help that they were playing against Bart and his friends, who’d all played polo professionally at some point in their lives.
Alec hung back from the others trying to search out Scarlet in the crowd. He finally spotted her standing with Zaria and laughing at something Bart’s sister had said. Scarlet’s head was thrown back and he felt a jolt of lust just seeing her happiness.
“You’re not going to be in a state to even talk to her if you don’t get your head in the game,” Mo said, coming over to him.
His twin was known for his hot temper, but since he and Hadley had gotten engaged, Mauricio hadn’t been giving in to it as often. For a while after Hadley and Mo had broken up he’d been getting into fights with everyone in town and drinking way too much. It had been Mo’s way of dealing with losing Hadley while not having to admit he’d pushed her away.
“I’m trying,” Alec said. “I wasn’t expecting to see her today. Why is she here? And how am I going to make up for lying about being you?” he asked his twin. She’d thrown him and he wasn’t used to being caught off guard. Part of the reason he was so successful was that he could usually envision all the possibilities in a situation. But this was completely out of left field. He’d done some research on Scarlet—she was known for moving forward and rarely going back to anything or anyone.
Mo sighed. “Dude, I have no clue but winning the game would probably go a long way to impressing her.”
Alec knew the outcome of this match didn’t matter to her at all. “I think that would make you happy, not her.”
“Maybe your right... But damn, you’re in trouble now.”
“What?” he asked, glancing over at Scarlet and noticing that his sister, who was almost six months pregnant, and his mom had joined the group Scarlet was in.
Oh crap. That was all he needed: Bianca and his mom over there talking to her. “I wonder if Dad wants to play for me for a minute.”
“No. Don’t do it. There’s nothing you can say to make anything better. Plus, Dad hasn’t played in a couple of weeks and he’s taking care of Benito,” Mo said, referring to their little nephew. “Come on, time to finish the match.”
Alec’s performance was as crappy in the last two chukkas as it had been in the first four. He gave his twin a wide berth when they were in the locker room, showering and changing. He wasn’t looking forward to joining his family, who were up on the second-floor balcony of the main barn area. When Diego and Alec had started designing and developing the polo grounds, they’d known they wanted a place for the family to hang out after matches. In fact, Diego was hiring an event manager to run the space as it had become popular with many of the townspeople in Cole’s Hill.
When he left the locker room, he went to the barn instead of up to the balcony where everyone was waiting, including Scarlet O’Malley. He wished he had his laptop with him but instead he leaned against Dusty his polo pony’s stall, took out his phone, pulled up the internet and deployed the search algorithm that he’d developed to find all imprints left by a person on the web. It wouldn’t help him in time for the brunch he was having with Scarlet and his family, but afterward he’d have a better idea of who she was and why she was here.
One night in her bed had whetted his appetite for her but he’d resigned himself to never seeing her or touching her again. There was just too much explaining to do, so he’d figured that she’d just be one of those women he thought about wistfully from afar. But now she was back and he wanted her, as badly as he had the first time he’d kissed her.
Dusty lifted his head and looked toward the barn entrance. Alec turned and saw Scarlet walking through the doors toward him. He took a deep breath as he pocketed his smartphone.
“Hello.”
“Hi, Alejandro. I was waiting for you upstairs,” she said.