Then Nana Ellen arrived with Justin, an assistant nanny named Veronica, and half the nursery items from the Houston house. Esme seemed taken with Justin and in awe of Nana Ellen, who even with her advanced age could bark out orders and organize with the best of them. Luckily, the woman who had spent many years chasing after him seemed to like Esmeralda, too, so he had one less problem there.
Marie, on the other hand, had become sullen and withdrawn. He wasn’t sure why, since he’d explained the whole situation. He’d tried to be positive and professional to his assistant, but when he’d heard her make a snide remark to Beto about Esmeralda, he dressed her down and warned her that he wouldn’t tolerate indiscretion or insults directed at his fiancée. She was off Saturdays, and he hadn’t seen her at Witches Haven the entire day.
A hand on his shoulder startled him.
“Ready?” Marc asked. “We should go to the gazebo, because—wow!”
Rafael’s breath caught a little as Esmeralda paused on the top stair. The dress she’d chosen flowed over her body in a liquid silver stream. Sequins glittered and created tiny rainbows that danced around her in a celebration of color and sparkle. She looked down at him, though, and didn’t smile, and his heart sank a little. Again he wondered why she’d seemed sure of her decision when she’d kissed him that day on the rock, and so withdrawn since she’d moved in after leaving her aunt.
“You’re not supposed to be here,” she told them, as she reached the bottom of the staircase. “Go away.”
“We’re going,” Marc assured her. “Look, if it doesn’t work out, I’m free—”
Rafael glared at him. “Don’t, Marc,” he growled. “Not even joking, okay?”
“Someone twisted his tail awfully early today.” Marc walked over and kissed Esmeralda on the cheek. “Go get married,” he told her. “Your presence is needed outside, Rafael. The groom doesn’t walk the bride down the aisle.”
“I’ll be there in a minute. Are you okay, Esme?”
She laughed, but the apprehension in her face was clear. “Sure. My mom’s been telling me all morning how I’d better not screw up this one shot in my life, my brother’s plastered, and the aunt I came to Truth to live with hates me.”
He wasn’t sure what he could say. He wanted to say “and your fiancé loves you,” but he couldn’t. He didn’t love her. And if the breathlessness he felt around her, the constant dread that he’d wake up and the summer would be over, argued that he might, maybe, love her after all, he refused to accept that. He wasn’t really her fiancé; he was her boss. He reminded himself of that sternly. She didn’t look ready to face any new dilemmas, and he didn’t push her to tell him what was wrong.
But he had to touch her. He caught her hands and squeezed them. “You’re incredibly beautiful, Esmeralda.” He lifted her left hand and kissed it. The diamond and emerald ring on her finger added its own sparkle. “This moment feels real,” he murmured and meant it.
“They told me to come walk Esme out,” her father announced gruffly from behind him, and he nodded.
“Go ahead,” he said, reluctantly letting her hands slip from his.
He rushed to get to the gazebo ahead of the bride, taking his place with Marc, and listening as the music began and guests clapped. Smiles greeted Esmeralda as she made her way toward him, and the sun on her dress was almost blinding. Lillie Mae, leaning a little on the back of her chair, caught her arm and halted the procession, and he saw Esme lean in to listen. He didn’t know what the old woman said, but Esme turned bright red, and she wasn’t easy to embarrass.
By the time the ceremony started, he suddenly realized it didn’t feel like a job. It felt like marrying a woman he could easily love.
• • •
The knock on the door startled her. Rafael? This was his room, and a husband didn’t knock on his wife’s door on their wedding night. Besides, he’d been using the study entrance all week, only coming through the master bedroom to rummage for clothing or take a shower. The first day or two he hadn’t even showered here, and she assumed that he’d used the guest room baths.
He stepped in and collapsed back against the door dramatically. “Please don’t make me go out there again!”
“You brought it all on yourself.”
“Justin’s asleep, and only Marc and your family are still here. Well, plus two nannies. I broke Luc and Chief out of the porch, and they took over the study. Maybe they’ll dissuade Beto from walking in every five minutes.”
“When is everyone leaving?”
“Marc’s flying to Houston tomorrow and then he leaves for New Orleans. Poor guy. Never a moment’s rest.”
“You sound like you care,” Esmeralda snorted. “And my family?”
“Your mother and father are leaving tomorrow. Beto asked if he could stay.”
“No! I knew he’d try to pull something like this! He …”
“He asked me for the room he’s in now until he ‘finds something’ and a thousand dollars.”
Her anger morphed into shame. “God, Rafael, I am so sorry. I—you didn’t agree to anything, did you?” A thousand dollars? She thought suddenly of Paulette, and how Rafael admitted to letting her use him. At least he had thought he loved her. He had thought of her as a fiancée—not the drunk, vulgar brother of a woman who would be gone in eight weeks.
“I explained that with my mother and father coming home, and bringing their old high school friends with them, there wouldn’t be room.”
“Are they bringing friends?”
“Not that I know of. I wanted to let him down easy. So he asked for me to pay for a room for a month while he looked for work, and a thousand dollars to help him get a leg up. Don’t worry about it, Esme. We can’t help who we’re related to. I told him I could pay for one of the long-term cabins at River Court and loan him a hundred bucks. Then I told him he could have had five thousand dollars and the room, except he treats you like dirt and I won’t take that crap from anyone.”
“He must have loved that.”
“Yeah. But he took it really well, especially since he knows what I told him after that—that I’d punch him in the face and press extortion charges against him if I saw him again tonight.” He tilted his head, listening to the Lady Antebellum mix she’d been playing all afternoon. “Seems like I’ve heard some of those already,” he said.
She went over and turned them off, knowing that songs about needing someone and good times and not needing anyone were sentiments she couldn’t share with Rafael. Then she turned to the dresser and absently began to brush her hair, hoping he’d leave.
He sighed and walked over to sit on the edge of the bed. She wished he hadn’t.
As if he read her mind, he patted the comforter. “When I used to think about how I’d spend my wedding night, this never occurred to me. Come sit down.” He laughed. “Since that’s probably the closest together we’ll ever be in this bed.”
“No.” She put her brush down, and for a moment, she watched him in the mirror, remembering that first time she’d seen him.
“Refusing a dare, Esmeralda?” he chided.
She turned and leaned against the solid wood for support. “Rafael, you’ve asked me all week if something’s been bothering me. It has.”
“But you wouldn’t talk to me. We need to change that, Esme. Okay, out with whatever it is.”
“I’d started thinking, when we talked that day on those rocks, when you took my word about how I met Doug, when I started really thinking about you,” she hesitated, but wanted him to know. “I thought today—tonight—might be different. I was going to ask you to drop the hands-off promise.” She saw his eyes widen a little and thought he might have taken a deep breath. She knew she had his attention. “And if you said no to breaking the unwritten contract—well, I figured I could get you into that bed if I wanted to.”
“But … that’s not where you’re going now, is it?” he asked softly.
“No. Rafael, why did you lie? Well, I guess you were
honest in the first interview. When you said you wanted to buy me.” Her voice trembled a little as emotion swamped her and the day’s stress made her feel nauseous.
“I don’t know what you mean,” he protested. “What—”
“Why didn’t you tell me you gave Tía ten thousand dollars for me? Why didn’t you tell me I didn’t have a choice?”
He was silent so long she thought he wouldn’t answer. Then he pushed himself up off the bed with an oath that startled her and came across the room so quickly she couldn’t move. Or run. He gripped both her arms near the elbows and gave them a slight shake.
“You listen to me, Esmeralda Salinas Benton.” The emphasis on her new last name was unmistakable. “I do not buy women. I spoke stupidly that day, and I apologized. And as for buying you, I would have cut out the middle man and gone straight to you if I were interested in buying you.” He dropped her arms and folded his arms across his chest, still furious. “You’re acting insulted, but I’m the one who should be.”
She couldn’t stand so close to him with his anger so apparent. She walked to the far side of the room and opened the door to the balcony. “My aunt was having a meltdown the day I left. I didn’t want to believe her, but she told me to ask Marie. I did. She wouldn’t exactly say yes, but she also didn’t say no—just mumbled that a husband wouldn’t buy a wife, so maybe I should ask you.”
“Have you ever used an online dating service, Esmeralda?”
His question was so unexpected that she couldn’t understand it. When she did, it made her angrier.
“Don’t you patronize me! If I pay a few bucks for an introduction that is not like some money-out-his-nose jerk paying my aunt to be sure I wind up with him.”
“No?” She could see Rafael let go of the anger, see his face become the reasonable, unemotional mask he must have perfected over the years. “You pay a finder’s fee, don’t you? You don’t guarantee you’ll fall in bed with any guy you might meet, do you?”
“But …”
“Esmeralda, one of the reasons I didn’t tell you is that I wasn’t happy about it either. I accused your aunt of pimping—because I was outraged that she wanted money just to mention the job to you. But she insisted it was nothing more than the fee companies pay employment agencies to find qualified candidates for important positions. And nothing—nothing—is more important than the position of wife.”
Why did he make everything rotten sound better?
“Lillie Mae knew. And who else?”
“Jade Brockton. He’s the owner of—”
“The Silver Boot and Booty. Lillie Mae told me. Did they get finders fees?”
Rafael ran a hand over his face. “I wish you’d just let it go, Esme. Has it ever occurred to you that I don’t want to tell you the things you don’t want to hear? That I’m afraid the truth will hurt you? No, they didn’t get a penny. They were offended I’d asked, but since your aunt had insisted—well, I wanted to be fair.”
“I wonder if she had your job in mind when she told me to stay.”
“What do you mean?”
“When I told Tina—I am not going to call her tía anymore unless I’m speaking Spanish—that I’d come to take her up on her invitation and move in with her, she wasn’t happy at all.”
“That’s more or less the impression I got,” he agreed.
“You … how do you know?”
“I was in her office waiting for her. You can watch the whole floor through the glass. She seemed angry, and you looked … wounded.” She started to protest, but he held up a hand. “You asked,” he reminded her, gently.
“Yeah.” She suddenly felt too tired of all the pain coming from and leading back to her family to deal with someone, even if his intentions were good. So she stretched and walked over to the door connecting the study and bedroom. “Rafael, this is your room and all, but …”
“I should scram?”
“Please?”
He nodded. “Scramming,” he agreed. “But Esme, if you need anything—or just want something—come tell me, okay?” Then he grinned. “Especially if it’s just kicking your family’s collective asses.” He stopped in front of her, leaned over, and kissed her softly. “Don’t let them hurt you.”
She bit back a sob and managed a carefree snort. “Why should I let marriage change anything now?”
“Esme, I mean it. Don’t joke about what hurts you so much. If I can do anything to help you with them—anything—I will.”
“Okay.” She lifted her hand and touched his cheek. “Thanks.” She nudged his arm. “Out you go. Oh, and Rafael … don’t knock on my door. I don’t think husbands knock on their wives’ doors.” She grinned at him. “It’s not manly.”
He laughed and then closed the door softly between them. She heard the lock click.
“You, on the other hand,” he told her through the wood, “are welcome to knock.”
She laughed, too, and wished that she really could.
• • •
Easy living would kill her. Esmeralda stretched her legs out on the couch and smiled at Justin, playing on the floor between the two huge Danes. Rafael had flown to Houston, but promised to be back in time to take her to dinner. In the six days since the wedding, she mostly had eaten and listened to music. Nana Ellen let her play with Rafael’s cherubic nephew, but she always hovered about, maintaining the chain of custody. The inactivity was killing her, even though she had managed to ride every day this week, a new lifetime best.
She was surprised that she missed Rafael. He usually was hard at work in his study, and she’d be with the horses or walking the grounds for hours at a time. Frequently, though, she sat in the study when he was there, to read or watch a baseball game. The presence of another person was comforting, and when she’d let herself daydream about Rafael while he sat there unawares, keyboarding away, well—the time was well spent.
“Time for me to take him,” Nana Ellen declared, coming in to swoop him up. She pressed kisses on his bare feet and he giggled and squirmed, making both of them laugh. Motion near the door made Esme’s head swivel. Marie stood there, her face hard, clearly not ready to be friends anymore.
“Good morning, Marie.”
“Good morning, Ms. Salinas,” Marie responded, with even more of a sneer than before the Bounty Collins incident.
Because Marie’s hostility annoyed her, Esme smiled back. “It’s Mrs. Benton, now,” she reminded the other woman. “If you don’t mind.”
Marie frowned. “I do mind. You married Rafael, you tried to pick up Bounty—and you got me suspended.”
Marie had been gone? Thinking back, Esme had to admit to herself that she hadn’t seen her around and really hadn’t cared.
“I don’t know how I could have done that.”
“I sent Lillie Mae the picture of you and Bounty,” Marie explained indignantly. “I thought the town needed to know who you were.”
“And who am I? Besides Rafael’s wife?”
“His wife!” Marie’s snort was derisive. “We both know you’re not that, don’t we? I’m his assistant. I wrote the check to your aunt. There’s nothing about you I don’t know, Esmeralda.”
“Why did you ask me out, feeling the way you do?”
“I thought I might be wrong. But I wasn’t. I came in here to see Justin. He looks like his daddy, don’t you think?”
“I don’t know his daddy,” Esme pointed out.
“Sure you do. Bounty Collins is his daddy. They look just alike. He wanted to start custody proceedings, but I told him he should wait.”
“Why should he—if he really believes he’s Justin’s dad?” Esmeralda demanded, worried.
“Because,” Marie said, gleefully, “you’ll be gone in two months. All Rafael’s crazy plans will go down the toilet. If Justin’s dad is a happy, married man and Rafael’s a vengeance seeking madman—guess who’ll get custody?”
“I didn’t know Doug was married.”
“Oh, he isn’t.” Marie smiled and
held up her hand, showing an engagement ring. “We’re getting married two weeks from now. My life will be starting out with Bounty and his son—and your job will be winding down. ’Bye now, honey.”
Her former elementary school colleagues in Rose Creek always warned each other not to think that a day couldn’t get worse. A bad day could always get worse. When Esme saw Beto’s name and number on her cell phone, she wanted to hurl the device against the wall and just get a new one. With a private number.
Instead, she clicked the call on and waited for the day to get worse.
“Hey, sis,” Beto slurred. “Guess where I am.”
“I don’t care where you are. Why are you calling?”
“Well, a friend and I were talking, and he thinks maybe I’m being selfish. Maybe I shouldn’t have kept it to myself all those years.”
Esme’s heart hammered. Was he going to apologize for that incident so long ago? Maybe he felt driven to confess to their mother that she hadn’t lied. “What are you talking about, Beto?”
“Look, sis, here’s the thing. I’m in a bit of a fix. But I got something really important to tell you. Come to Tía’s and talk to me. Oh, and I need the rent money for one more month. Because after that, I’m gonna be payin’ my own way. Forever.” He hung up on his end.
She stared at the phone, knowing that she’d probably be either disappointed or infuriated. Knowing, too, that she didn’t have a choice.
Sighing, she went upstairs for her purse and checkbook.
• • •
Esmeralda didn’t see her aunt anywhere, but Tom greeted her warmly and Angel hugged her as if she were a lost child returning home safely. Then she pointed wordlessly to a corner booth in the back, where Beto sat, facing the wall.
His Temporary Wife Page 19
