And Then He Kissed Me

by Curtis, Melinda

  With sluggish feet, Aubrey walked to the refrigerator and opened the door.

  All jars of slurry were accounted for, but one had been opened. The lid was popped up, an indication that it had been exposed to air. It would be ruined in twenty-four hours. Nino’s water bottle lay on the rack beneath it, most likely filled with slurry.

  With a heavy heart, Aubrey shed her wet riding leathers in the common room and left them to dry on a hook by the front door. The hall was empty. Only Sister Mary Rosa was waiting for her return.

  In the bedroom, Nino’s brow was furrowed, and he was mumbling with his eyes closed.

  “How is he?” Aubrey sat down, feeling as small and inconsequential as the stool that served as her perch.

  “I fear for his hand.” Sister Mary Rosa took the Dapsone Aubrey had brought and applied it to the golf ball-sized swelling on Nino’s hand. And then she turned to Aubrey with a dollop on her finger. “Put this on that zit forming on your nose.”

  Aubrey leaned out of range and pressed her fingers to her face, searching for acne. She found a swelling. Would her bad luck never end? Not only had she lost her nose, been stolen from, nearly killed Marcos Alfaro, and had her heart broken, but now she had a zit? The universe was indeed out to get her.

  Sister Mary Rose extended her small hand and raised her bushy brows. “Do you want to look like a teenager for Layla’s wedding?”

  “Oh, all right.” Aubrey leaned forward so the nun could tend to her blemish. “I need you to pray for me.”

  “I always pray for you, my child. And now I will pray for your husband as well.”

  Husband.

  Aubrey stared down at Nino’s pale face. “Do you think he’ll remember the ceremony?” It would be so much easier if he didn’t.

  “You will tell him.” Sister Mary Rosa’s hand covered hers. “He is meant for you. I prayed for you to find the perfect partner and here he is.”

  Aubrey stared at the chiseled lines of Nino’s face before answering. If he lived through this, a man that beautiful, that powerful, that rich, and that underhanded would never love her.

  “No offense, sister. But you’re wrong.”

  Chapter 15

  Nino cracked his eyes open and immediately closed them against the bright light.

  His limbs felt heavy and every breath seemed a struggle.

  “He shouldn’t be conscious right now.” A man’s voice, speaking in Spanish, cigarette roughened and authoritative. Unfamiliar.

  Nino felt like he was floating, but at the same time his limbs felt heavy and cold.

  “Marcos Alfaro never does what he should when he should.” Mateo’s voice drifted from somewhere to Nino’s left.

  Nino squinted toward Mateo. The world was fuzzy around the edges. Mateo sat in a chair. They were in a hospital room and Nino was in a bed with the guard rails up. But the light was too bright, and he closed his eyes once more.

  “Don’t try to speak, Mr. Alfaro,” said the man on Nino’s right. “You’re very sick and we need you to stay calm.”

  Despite the man’s advice, Nino felt a rising panic. He opened his eyes again, mere slits, and tried to speak, but he wheezed like Darth Vader.

  “He doesn’t heed advice very often. I suppose the punishment fits the crime,” Mateo said sarcastically. “Venom from the Murderess.” That’s what many called the Wandering Spider. “You must have indeed angered her if she injected such a debilitating dose.”

  Her. The only her Nino cared about was Aubrey. Was she safe?

  He tried to ask but gagged.

  “Mr. Alfaro.” Again, the smoke-roughened voice, louder this time, as if Nino was having trouble hearing.

  He wasn’t having trouble hearing. He was having trouble speaking!

  “There’s a breathing tube down your throat. Please, do not try to speak.”

  To hell with not trying to speak! Nino tried to lift his arm and rip the tube out, but his arm encountered resistance.

  “I’m going to up his dose of morphine. Try to reason with him until he goes under again.”

  No! Nino struggled to move. Struggled to breathe.

  “Nino,” Mateo’s voice sounded close. A large hand rested on his shoulder, holding him down. “You must rest.”

  Aubrey! Nino struggled once more, but he felt the pull of the morphine they were pumping in his blood. He was being sucked back into unconsciousness.

  “Dr. Summer is fine,” Mateo said, but from far away. “Rest and…”

  *

  “Dr. Summer!” Eugene burst into the lobby of the wedding reception in the grand ballroom of the Brighton Hotel. He hadn’t dressed for an evening wedding. He wore his same wrinkled khakis and green polo “I came the moment I heard. You were attacked by spiders in the jungle.” He wrapped his skinny arms around Aubrey and squeezed. “I was so worried.”

  “Eugene, I’m fine.” Aubrey worked to disentangle his arms, but it was like he’d double knotted them at the wrist. “I didn’t get bitten.”

  “Thank heavens.” Eugene buried his head in the crook of her neck. “I was surveying Caradoc’s cocoa suppliers the last few days. I’ve only just returned.”

  With effort, Aubrey thrust him away from her. “The spider jumped on me, but it was your boss who was bitten.” His boss. She couldn’t even say his name.

  “Mr. Alfaro?” Eugene paled. “Will he live?”

  For a moment, Aubrey couldn’t reply. Part of her wanted to give Eugene a sarcastic answer. Part of her was afraid the worst might have happened. Death. Disfigurement. Divorce.

  When Mateo had shown up in the medical helicopter, she’d given him an envelope with the unido certificate. He’d promised to update her on Nino’s recovery, but every time she called down to his office, the receptionist told her there was no change in Mr. Alfaro’s condition.

  “Excuse me,” Eugene said and scurried out.

  “What’s wrong with the nose?” Grandma Dotty came to stand beside Aubrey. She’d had the salon tint her short hair a lilac color that complimented the bright purple of her fringed flapper dress.

  “He can’t decide who he loves more–me or Nino.” Aubrey smoothed the red silk of her bridesmaid’s dress and forced herself to smile. “Where’s Elicio?” Layla’s grandfather.

  “At the cake table.” Grandma Dotty sighed. “I had to let him down easy. I’ve decided I prefer to be single.”

  “What?” Aubrey would have fallen out of her heels if her grandmother hadn’t steadied her. “What about your cold feet?”

  “I still have your socks.” Dotty nestled her head against Aubrey’s arm. “Besides, if I married again, I’d have to split time between my family and his. And I much prefer my family. I mean, just look at Maggie out there. She looks happy.”

  Maggie was dancing to a fast beat with a handsome man while holding a champagne flute. She had the glazed over, blissful look of a woman who’d drank too much. Violet was raiding the dessert table. And Lily was having a serious discussion with Elicio. None of them looked ready to leave.

  “I think I’m ready to call it a night,” Aubrey said, one bridesmaid to an old maid. “How about you?”

  Grandma Dotty yawned. “Yep. Can we say our goodbyes to Layla in the morning? She looks like she doesn’t want to be interrupted.”

  Layla and Diego were dancing to a slow song only they could hear.

  “There’s a brunch in the morning. We’ll be able to say goodbye to everyone before we get on the plane.”

  “Even Nino?”

  Violet heard Grandma Dotty’s question as she joined them with a plate full of sweets. “Is that rat still in the hospital?”

  “Yes.” Never mind that the rat in question was her husband. Aubrey hadn’t shared that detail with her family. They thought he’d been bitten and immediately medevacked to Quito.

  “You have to confront him,” Maggie said, having danced over. “You may despise him for what he did, but until you face him, you won’t get over him completely.”

  �
�She’s got a point,” Grandma Dotty said to Aubrey.

  “What could I possibly say to him and keep my dignity?”

  “She’s got a point,” Grandma Dotty said to Maggie.

  “If I can face the man who left me at the altar and then fell in love with my sister, you can face Nino-Marcos.” Maggie hiccupped. She’d be no fun on the flight home tomorrow.

  “You may have faced him, but you haven’t faced the fact that you never really loved Beck,” Aubrey pointed out, feeling less charitable since her family was trying to box her in to a confrontation with Nino.

  “She’s got a point, too,” Grandma Dotty said. At Maggie’s scowl, she added in a tentative voice, “Doesn’t she? Did I miss a point?”

  “That’s neither here nor there.” Lily waved her hand. “I’m telling Cletus we’re not leaving until you have your say.” Cletus was the family’s private pilot.

  Aubrey frowned.

  “She’s got a–”

  “Don’t say it.” Aubrey cut her grandmother off and marched out of the ballroom. “I’m going to look like hell in the morning.”

  “How do you know?” Grandma Dotty trotted beside her.

  “Because I’m going to toss and turn all night trying to figure out what to say to him.”

  “You’ve got a point,” Grandma Dotty said enthusiastically. “I’d loan you my night cream, but it only helps with age spots, not stress circles.”

  Chapter 16

  Nino’s mother and abuela sat on either side of Nino’s hospital bed, holding his hands and praying in Spanish.

  If Nino hadn’t known better, he’d have thought he was dying. As it was, he was wiped out from battling the infection from the spider bite and the lingering impact of strong medicine. He was on forced bedrest. He’d asked for his phone several times, but no one seemed to know where it was.

  The old Nino, the man who’d never met Dr. Aubrey Summer, would have ranted until a new phone was brought to him. The old Nino would have demanded reports from his businesses and the financial papers. The old Nino would have sent his family home and demanded to be released.

  But the man who’d met and fallen in love with a botanist from New York City, the man who’d enjoyed a slow tango in the ballroom and the beauty of his country from a sidecar could wait to return to his previous life, because he was waiting for Aubrey to fulfill her bridesmaid duties and return to him. If she decided to return to him. He could not in good conscience go after her, not when he’d tried to steal her trade secrets by hiring her research assistant and applying charm. No. She would have to decide if Cantuña was the man for her.

  And so, he did as the doctors ordered and stayed in bed. But he watched, and he waited, and he listened to his family’s prayers.

  That’s when he began to see him.

  Not a hallucination or God. His father. He could have sworn Marcos Alfaro Senior was walking the halls. Either that or there was someone on the medical staff with silver hair who shared Nino’s proud carriage. The man always seemed to pass just as Nino turned his head to look out the window and wonder what Aubrey was doing.

  He turned his head now. Layla’s wedding had been held last night. Where was Aubrey? If she didn’t visit by tomorrow he’d know his fate. He’d know his love was going to go unrequited.

  Another ghost of his father passed, his image caught out of the corner of Nino’s eye.

  His mother startled out of prayer and out of her seat. She hurried to the door, flat shoes slapping on the linoleum, and clutched the doorframe as if she needed it for support. “Marcos?”

  Nino’s grandmother halted her prayers, kissed her rosary beads, and made an uncharitable sound of disapproval as she joined her daughter at the door. “Him,” she said in Spanish, repeating the disapproving sound.

  His mother and grandmother were cut from the same cloth–average height, dark hair pulled away from their care-lined faces, huggable frames and soft, forgiving hearts. They both straightened their backs and looked unforgiving.

  Marcos Alfaro Senior was indeed in the hall. Nino pushed himself higher in the bed, prepared to defend his family from whatever agenda his father had.

  “I came to see my son.”

  The old Nino, the one who’d wanted to take away every cent of his father’s, expected to see a man with chin held high and a sharp gleam in his eye, the kind that assessed weakness and planned attacks. But perhaps he’d been looking in the mirror too long. Perhaps he didn’t remember the man who’d come to the Brighton the day before he’d been bitten by a spider and tried to tell Nino what he was missing in life.

  His father’s eyes were filled with sadness as he stood squarely in from of Mama and said, “I’m sorry.”

  The snort of disbelief and rejection that filled the air came from Nino’s abuela. His mother remained silent, much as Nino had remained silent during his father’s confession earlier in the week.

  “It is too late for forgiveness,” Abuela said. “Go. You are not wanted here.”

  His father hesitated, still staring at the wife he’d left behind. Somewhere in the dark recesses of Nino’s heart, somewhere that remembered the first five years of his life with a father who’d loved him, a spark of compassion burst into flame.

  “Mama,” Nino said quietly.

  Mama clutched her rosary beads and gave Nino a brief half-glance over her shoulder. “It is never too late to forgive someone you love.”

  Love and pride swelled in Nino’s chest where last week there would have been anger and a bitter determination to deny his mother this small gesture that he now knew meant so much to his father.

  “You may go in peace. Our son will recover.” Mama drew Abuela back to their chairs at Nino’s bedside.

  Nino and his father exchanged glances. It would have been easy for the older man to take the money from Caradoc Confections and never look back, but he hadn’t. He’d tracked Nino down to give fatherly advice. He’d lingered at the hospital to check on the condition of his son. Nino nodded to his father, granting forgiveness, although he would never forget.

  A few minutes later, Aubrey appeared in the doorway. Her hair was braided elegantly at the back of her neck. She wore a simple blue skirt, a frilly, flowered blouse, and sandals. She looked like spring and romantic promise. Nino’s heart soared.

  Until he looked in her eyes and registered the cold chill of winter.

  “This does not look like one of Nino’s women,” his abuela said. “Are you a nurse?”

  “She’s carrying a backpack,” his mother said, narrowing her eyes the way she did at the women he dated. “Are you a doctor? If not, please go. Family only.”

  Aubrey clutched the top strap of Nino’s backpack, the one he’d taken on their trip to her family’s cocoa plantation. It hung at her side as if she didn’t want to touch it.

  “This is my granddaughter.” Dotty edged her way inside in white slacks and a red polka dot blouse. The soft purple wash she’d put on her hair was an improvement over the bright yellow wig. The elderly woman was still growing, still spreading her wings. “Aubrey saved Nino’s life and we can’t leave the country until she tells him what a jerk he is.”

  “How dare you intrude. My son is ill.” Nino’s mother stood, letting her rosary beads clack.

  “Please, Mama. You don’t understand.” Nino reached for his mother’s hand, but only managed to clasp her beads. “This is my friend, Dr. Aubrey Summer.”

  Aubrey blanched at the word friend. “I needed to return this to Nino.” She put his backpack on a spare chair in the corner. Nino’s water bottle was in one side pocket, his cell phone in the other.

  The water bottle. The one with Cantuña’s insignia and the dents from his chicken-swerving motorbike accident. It seemed important. Chillingly important.

  Frowning, Nino struggled to remember…

  He’d sipped from it during the ride in the sidecar. And at the convent…

  He’d poured the water out. He’d opened a jar of yeast.

  His f
rown deepened. Had he poured a yeast sample into it? He hoped not. But he couldn’t remember.

  Aubrey’s knitted brows seemed to imply he had.

  “Have you opened it?” he asked.

  Aubrey shook her head.

  “I’m sorry, mi cielo,” Nino said, ignoring his mother’s gasp at the term of endearment.

  “It’s too late for apologies.” Aubrey’s hand lingered on the water bottle’s lid, before she snatched her hand back.

  “It’s never too late for apologies and forgiveness.” His words strained a throat raw from a breathing tube. “That bottle…It’s not what you think.” He hoped. How could he remember that he loved Aubrey and not if he’d betrayed her?

  Her spine straightened and some of the determined Aubrey returned with a flash of milk chocolate eyes. “You tried to steal from me.”

  “From me, too,” Dotty piped up.

  “How dare you speak to my son this way.” His mother clasped his hand and held it to her breast. “He nearly died and–”

  “Your son is a liar and a cheat,” Aubrey said in a soft voice, as if reluctant to cast stones. “Cantuña.” She didn’t say it in a flattering way.

  Nino nodded. It was the least he could do when Aubrey was right.

  Abuela got to her feet and shook her fist, whiskered chin thrust out. “We’ll take this outside to the hall.”

  In the midst of his life disintegrating in front of him, Nino had to admire his grandmother’s fighting spirit.

  “We can take them, Bree,” Dotty said, eyes wild. “I’ve got a black belt in Tae Kwon Do and you passed that self-defense course when you were twelve.”

  “There will be no fighting,” Aubrey said in English before repeating it in Spanish.

  “That’s encouraging to hear.” Mateo hovered in the doorway, holding some paperwork.

  Nino’s family erupted in accusations in Spanish, appealing to Mateo, who indicated they should sit. “We have much to discuss.”

  Aubrey paled. “I need to go.”

  “Stay,” Mateo commanded.

  “Please,” Nino added. Whatever it was Mateo had to discuss, Nino hoped it was important enough that Aubrey would forgive him, if not now, then years from now.