He did.
‘There’s nothing to decide. We don’t have to discuss it. I’m so angry with him, Izzy. Part of me doesn’t even want to go for a few days, and still he goads—women’s work…’ He shook his head. ‘You don’t need this now.’
‘But I do,’ Izzy said. ‘Because I’m a lot stronger than you think. I’m certainly stronger than I was even a few weeks ago, even since yesterday. You can tell me about things like Toby and that you’ve just got a call that your father is sick and how difficult that must be for you, how hard it was to get through Toby’s funeral with your father so ill…We chose the wrong words, Diego—that we will last for as long as we make each other happy. Well, that’s not real life. How about we will last as long as we make the world better for each other than it would be without?’
‘Better?’
‘Better.’ Izzy nodded. ‘Because I’d have got through all this and I’d have been fine, but it’s been better with you. The same way you’ll get through your father’s illness and whatever lies ahead…’
It was a new contract, a different agreement, and Diego checked the small print.
‘What do you want, Izzy?’ Diego asked.
And she screwed her eyes closed and made herself say it.
‘You,’ Izzy admitted. ‘And I’m sorry if it’s too soon and too much and too everything, but that’s how I feel.’
‘Where do you want to be?’ She peeled her eyes open just a little bit and he wasn’t running out of the door and collapsing under the pressure of her honest admission—he was just standing there, smiling.
‘With you,’ Izzy said, and then made herself elaborate. ‘And if that means going to Spain, I will. As soon as she’s big enough…’
‘Tilia comes first.’ Diego stood firm. ‘Always in this, she must come first.’ And he sounded like a father and then she found out, he felt like a father. ‘Always people tell me that my job will get tougher when I am a father—it annoys me, because I was there for Fernando. Always I tell them they don’t know what they are talking about.’ He looked right at her. ‘They were right. Toby’s funeral was awful, for all the reasons they are all awful, only it wasn’t that my father was sick that upset me, it was how I felt about Tilia. She was a patient on my ward and I had to work, to look after her instead of be there for her…’ He closed his eyes in frustration. ‘Do you know what I want, Izzy?’ She shook her head. ‘Today, when Rita was going on, I wanted to take out my phone and show her a photo of Tilia, and I want to tell my mother when she calls and she thinks it is a baby crying at work that I am not at work—I am with my family.’ She caught her breath. ‘I want you and Tilia as my family.’
And good families tried to sort things out, even when the phone rang during important conversations. Diego let it continue to ring.
‘Then tell her,’ Izzy said.
‘Tell her?’ Diego checked, and Izzy nodded. ‘You’re sure?’
‘Very,’ Izzy said. ‘We don’t have to hide anything, we can tell people and it’s up to them what they think.’
‘We know,’ Diego said, because they did.
It was time for the world to know the truth they had just confirmed. He pressed redial and put it on speaker and then took a deep breath as his mother answered. ‘Qué pasa?’ He tipped into Spanish, chatting away to his mother, and she heard the words bebé and Tilia and novia, which Izzy knew meant girlfriend, and he occasionally rolled his eyes as his mother’s voice got louder, but Diego never matched it, talking in his deep, even voice as madre got a little more demanding. And Izzy guessed when he used the word prematuro and his mother became more insistent that he was telling her it wasn’t so easy—that his familia couldn’t just pack up and come, and she stood there in wonder because he was talking to them about her, that she too was his family.
‘Te quiero.’
He ended the most difficult call with I love you and when Señora Ramirez huffed, Diego grinned and said it again. ‘Te quiero.’
‘Te quiero, Diego,’ his mother admitted finally.
‘Better?’ Izzy asked, and after a moment he nodded. ‘I said that I will be there for the operation and I have said I will come out again just as soon as I can…’
‘What did she say about us?’
‘That it’s too fast, too soon—even though I lied.’ Diego gave a bit of a sheepish grin. ‘I hope you don’t mind but we’ve been together a few months, not a few weeks.’
And then he kissed her and that made it better too.
His kiss made things better—they didn’t fix, they didn’t solve anything, they just made it all so much nicer.
‘Te amo,’ Diego said. ‘It means I love you.’
‘I thought it was Te quiero,’ Izzy said, and she smiled because there was a lot to suddenly get used to and, oh, yes, a new language to learn too!
‘Te quiero, what I said to my mother, does mean I love you,’ Diego explained, ‘but it’s a different I love you. Te amo I save for you.’ Then he kissed her again, made the world just that bit better till it was Izzy’s turn to admit it.
‘Te amo.’ She spoke her first two words in Spanish to the only person who would ever hear them, to the man she had loved from the moment she had met him, to the man who, it turned out, felt the same.
And now they were a family.
Epilogue
YOU can’t do it for her.
You can’t change the world.
She might go back…
Diego didn’t say any of those words and Izzy would love him for ever for it.
There was a trust fund for Tilia and when she was old enough and deciding her options, Izzy could tell her that her father was still supporting her.
And there was the house to fall back on as well.
A house Izzy had wanted to get rid of, a house she had hated, but now she could remember the good times there too.
And perhaps she could just sell. There were some gorgeous cottages along the coast she had considered but, as Diego had pointed out, his apartment had brilliant views and they could babyproof the balcony.
Diego was Daddy, or Papà.
They didn’t ram it down anyone’s throats, and certainly not to Henry’s parents, but behind closed doors, when it was just they three, no one really knew that this very new couple were an established family.
And, no, Izzy couldn’t change the world.
But she could help when someone wanted to change theirs.
‘The washing machine jumps,’ Izzy explained. ‘If you put in too many towels, you’ll find it halfway across the kitchen.’
‘Thank you.’ Evelyn stood in the hall, her face bruised and swollen, leaning on her son for support. ‘We won’t stay for long…’
‘Stay for as long as you need,’ Izzy said, and she meant it. ‘Get your son through his exams, take your time…’
Many phone conversations, and a couple of sessions Izzy had arranged for Evelyn with a counsellor who specialised in these things had all helped Evelyn in her decision to take those first steps to empowerment. And on the eve of Izzy heading back to Spain, she realised why she’d chosen to keep the house.
‘How long are you away for?’ Evelyn asked.
‘A couple of months this time around,’ Izzy said. ‘We’re back and forth a bit. Diego’s father hasn’t been too well, but he’s improving.’ She glanced at her watch. ‘I really have to go.’
And she knew, she just knew as she handed Evelyn the keys, that in six months or a year those keys would go to someone else who needed them—and Izzy wished she had a thousand keys, or a hundred thousand keys, except she didn’t. She had one set and she would do her level best to use them wisely.
‘How is she?’ Diego asked, as Izzy climbed into the car, and looked over at four-month-old Tilia, who was sleeping in the back.
‘She’s going to be fine,’ Izzy said. ‘She just doesn’t know it yet.’ She looked at Diego, his face surly as it always was as they were about to head for his home. He loved St Piran but, despite
it all, he loved his family too and so, after a lot of toing and froing, they were heading for a few months in Madrid. Diego had a temporary position at his father’s old hospital and Izzy, well, she wanted to practise her Spanish.
‘It’ll be fine.’ Izzy grinned. ‘Your dad’s being lovely now.’
‘Yes, there’s nothing like a brain tumour to help you get your priorities straight in life. At least he’s stopped saying I’m gay.’
That still made her laugh.
She looked at the love of her life, at a man who hadn’t stuck by her—no, instead he had pushed her.
Pushed her to be the best, the happiest she could be.
To go out, to make friends, to work, to laugh, to love, to heal, and she was ticking every box.
He put a smile on her face every day and watching him scowl as Heathrow approached, and later, watching him haul the luggage off the conveyor belt when they landed in Madrid and Diego braced himself for another round of facing his demons, Izzy was more than happy to put a smile on his.
‘I’d help, but I shouldn’t be lifting.’
‘I can manage.’
There was the stroller and another of their suitcases whizzing past but Diego missed them and turned round, that frown on his face he got when he didn’t quite get what she was saying.
‘Tell him he’s going to be a grandfather,’ Izzy said. ‘That should keep him happy.’
‘A grandfather again,’ Diego said, because at every turn, with everyone, Tilia was his, and Izzy knew a new baby wouldn’t change that fact.
She knew.
‘What took us so long?’ Diego pulled her and Tilia into his arms, and kissed Izzy thoroughly right there in the airport, but this was Spain so no one batted an eyelid.
Six months from meeting and now two babies between them—and Izzy defied anyone to say it was way too soon.
They’d been waiting for each other all their lives.
All the characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author, and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all the incidents are pure invention.
All Rights Reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Enterprises II B.V./S.à.r.l. The text of this publication or any part thereof may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, storage in an information retrieval system, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher.
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First published in Great Britain 2010
Harlequin Mills & Boon Limited,
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© Harlequin Books S.A. 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4089-1841-8
Table of Contents
Cover Page
Excerpt
Title Page
St Piran’s: The Wedding of the Year
Dear Reader
Other Books By
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Epilogue
St Piran’s: Rescuing Pregnant Cinderella
Dear Reader
About the Author
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Epilogue
Copyright
St Piran's: The Wedding of The Year / St Piran's: Rescuing Pregnant Cinderella Page 31
