Alejandro was prepared for the breakup. What he hadn’t thought through was that he would have to delay his meeting to present the investment proposal to Gerald Robinson until after they called off the engagement. He didn’t want it to appear that he was using Olivia for his own personal gain.
He’d debated whether or not to tell Olivia about his plan to ask her father to invest in Hummingbird Ridge. He’d ultimately come to the conclusion that it was best not to involve her. It was a long shot that he would buy in anyway.
If Robinson said no, Alejandro was perfectly prepared to leave it at that—no hard feelings. He didn’t want Olivia to feel as if she needed to plead his case because she owed him.
Most people wouldn’t feel the need to get involved on someone’s behalf, but Olivia was different. Once she invested in someone, she was all in. Making sure her sister made it down the aisle was a case in point. She’d said more than once that she would make it up to him for helping her. A sixth sense told him that if she knew about the investor dropping out, she’d make it her mission to make that right. He couldn’t take that chance. He’d fight his own fight.
If Gerald wasn’t interested, he’d return to Miami and continue the frantic search for replacement funding. He could only hope that the Dailys wouldn’t find another buyer before that. They had been so kind to refund his deposit, though they had every right to keep the money as stated in the contract. But Jack Daily had said he couldn’t take the money in good conscience. That was one of the things that Alejandro loved about that winery in particular. It came from good stock, and he wasn’t simply talking about the vines. He was talking about the family who had invested generations of blood, sweat and tears to make it what it was today.
They were good people and if he was given the chance, he wanted to carry on that legacy.
However, the way they’d left things was that if a viable buyer materialized before Alejandro could come up with the money, they would have to take the offer.
The Dailys were ready for the next phase in their life. They deserved the chance to write this next chapter. He hoped he would be able to write his own next chapter at Hummingbird Ridge. It would put him a hell of a lot closer to Austin than Miami. It would be easier to see Olivia if she was into seeing him. Maybe then he’d be able to figure out what had made her so down on marriage and romance.
The band leader called the crowd to order, putting an end to Alejandro’s reverie. The man’s deep baritone voice introduced the bridal party. As Olivia walked in, Alejandro watched her scan the crowd and find him.
He’d never met anyone who could flirt with her eyes the way Olivia did. She had great eyes. He felt mesmerized as she stood with the other bridesmaids and groomsmen until the brides and grooms had entered the room, acknowledged their guests and took to the parquet floor for their first dance.
She looked confident and happy—not a bit worried—as she closed the distance between them. If she wasn’t worried, he wouldn’t worry. At that moment, he decided he was going to forget all the challenges he was facing with the vineyard and the charade and just enjoy himself tonight. It was one of the easiest decisions he’d made in ages.
* * *
Olivia couldn’t remember when she’d had so much fun at a wedding. It wasn’t usually her preferred way to spend a Saturday night. But Alejandro knew how to show a girl a good time. The ballroom was awash in gold and white and there were so many flowers and tiny golden twinkling lights it seemed like their very own secret garden right in the middle of the busy city.
Sophie and Dana opted not to torture the bridal party by confining everyone to a head table. Instead, the two newly married couples dined together and the rest of the bridal party was dispersed among the guests. It was no surprise that they had seated Olivia and Alejandro together. If they hadn’t, Olivia had been prepared to do some place card swapping—all for the sake of keeping up their charade, of course.
After dinner—a salad of warm goat cheese with gold and red baby beets; a surf and turf of filet mignon and sea bass served with truffle mushroom risotto—the dance floor heated up.
Alejandro was a good dancer. Olivia had no idea why she thought he might be reserved, but he wasn’t at all. They danced to every song and by the time the band slowed things down with a ballad, it seemed perfectly natural when Alejandro, her fake fiancé, pulled her into his arms and held her close.
In the past, Olivia had always had a problem with slow dancing because most of the men she’d danced with had accused her of trying to lead. They would tell her to relax, to feel and respond to the subtle messages they sent with their bodies. Obviously either they were much too subtle—subtext: not man enough—with their bodily messages or she simply wasn’t picking up their vibe.
Tonight, as she and Alejandro swayed to the music, was the first time she understood what it meant to let the man lead. Or maybe it was the first time she’d wanted to let someone else lead.
For the duration of the song, Olivia let herself imagine what it would be like if this pretend relationship was real. What would it be like to really be engaged to Alejandro Mendoza? She let herself go there, envisioning everything from what dress she would wear at their wedding—a mermaid-style gown that had caught her eye when she’d gone with Sophie for her final fitting—to what would happen on their honeymoon.
Ooooh, the honeymoon.
The thought made her breath catch. She closed her eyes as tiny points of warmth radiated out from her belly, making her lean into Alejandro and snuggle into his shoulder as they danced.
By the time the song ended, Olivia felt a little off-kilter. The two of them stepped apart, allowing a respectable amount of space between them. Sophie’s voice broke the spell.
“I hope you all are having fun,” she said. She was holding the lead singer’s microphone with one hand. She had a champagne flute in the other. “Before the night gets away from me, I wanted to take this opportunity to give a shout-out to my sister, Olivia.”
Olivia’s heart leaped.
Oh, no. Please tell me she’s not going to do what I think she’s going to do.
Olivia grabbed Alejandro’s arm to steady herself. He covered her hand with his left hand. She didn’t dare look at him because she was trying to catch Sophie’s eye to silently beg her not to do what it was becoming more and more apparent that she was about to do. But Sophie skillfully looked everywhere but at Olivia.
“My sister Olivia is my rock,” Sophie said. “She’s always thinking of and doing things for others. So often, she sacrifices her own needs for those she loves, and she doesn’t get the credit she deserves. Olivia and Alejandro, I’m sorry for doubting you two. They know what I mean by that, so I won’t bore you with the details. But I will say this—and my sister asked me not to say anything about this because she didn’t want to steal my and Dana’s thunder—because I just can’t resist. Olivia and Alejandro have some great news.”
She lifted her champagne flute and smiled broadly. “Everyone, please raise your glasses to the most recent Fortune Robinson bride-to-be and Mendoza groom-to-be. Olivia and Alejandro are engaged to be married.”
Chapter Eight
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.
&n
bsp; “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.
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