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“Tonya filled me in on that part. She said that it was her idea to move to maid work, and she badgered you for months to join her. She said you never would have if she hadn’t picked at you.” Xavier raked a hand through his thick, dark hair. “She admitted that the biggest perk for you in moving to our company was that you wouldn’t be hit on nonstop by bar patrons.”
“Well, usually guys who hit on me are obnoxious,” she said, winding her red hair around her finger. “I wasn’t on duty that day. I was so sad. My boyfriend had dumped me. I was a mess, but I don’t regret what happened. I just had no way to explain it. Then there was Lisette throwing glasses at my face, and I figured you hooked up with girls all the time. That I wasn’t special.”
He caressed her cheek with his hand, and she leaned into the gesture, into the sensation of warm, callused hands against her face. “I looked for you. I tried to find you on Facebook and phone books and everywhere. I couldn’t. I promise you, Sandra. I never forgot about you. Maybe that’s why I always felt that connection.”
“Yeah, and I know Javier must have told you it was all some scam, that I’d tracked you down to seduce you, but I swear it was never like that!” she insisted, her voice breaking in its sadness.
He kissed her, his tongue promising her a world of pleasures all over again. Heat flared in her belly, and Sandra realized truly how much she’d missed him, ached for him, over these long weeks.
Xavier pulled back but held her hand as he spoke. “I wasn’t upfront with you either. I wanted to be left alone. When I went out to clubs, I would give my mother’s maiden name. I think we both played a part in all the mixed signals.”
“Why did you lie?” she asked. “We all know why I did.”
“Because I had an ex who almost ruined my life.”
“Tina.”
“Yeah, she ended up not getting the hint when I said I wanted to end the relationship. Then she stalked me and made tons of scenes that got ‘Xavier Villalobos’s’ image plastered on every tabloid site and all over social media. It was the biggest reason I started keeping a low profile after that, why I make myself like a ghost.”
“I see.”
“No, you don’t,” he said, his hand clutching hers tightly. “You don’t understand because I barely did till you left for America. I’d been hiding my heart for years, only doing flings. What we’ve had so far has been the first time I let it thaw in months. You did that. You’re my east, my sun.”
She rolled her eyes a little at the allusion to her other name, to being Juliet. “I think you’re laying it on a little thick, Xav.”
“No, not really. I was hiding and existing through life, and you changed that. I want to start over. I lied and hid things from you, and you did from me when my own behavior caught up with me.” He brought her hand to his mouth and kissed the back of it as he had before in the club. “I’m Xavier Villalobos of Catalan Food Distribution, and I think you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met.”
She blushed and spoke, daring to voice the truth. “Hi, I’m Sandra Gaines, and I’m the mother of your children. All six of them.”
“Ha-ha, very funny.”
She shook her head and dug into the drawer in her bureau. “Actually, that part’s quite real. Congratulations, Dad. I know this sounds impossible, but we’re the only other natural sextuplets Dr. Díaz has heard of.”
He studied the sonograms, his eyes growing wide as saucers. “You’re serious?”
“We’re going to be parents. I…you’re not mad at me?”
Xavier reached out and swept her into a hug, gathering her into him. “I’m scared for you. I can’t imagine how much this has to be on your body.”
“I’m barely three months. The worst and hardest is yet to come.”
“You were going to do this without me?”
She dug deeper into the drawer and handed him two pieces of paper. “Javier offered me money to go away. I was so humiliated that I took it, but the minute I got here, I shredded it.”
Xavier eyed both halves, then balled his hands into fists at his side. “I’ll kill him.”
Sandra’s shoulders deflated, and she surprised herself with her next words. “He was trying to protect you.”
“By lying about your sickness? By hiding my children from me? He didn’t have the right to mess in my business, to make me feel like this, let alone speak so sharply to you.”
“But…” she said, snuggling into him. “He was scared I was a gold digger. After Tina, I can understand. I get it now. He loves you, Xav. He wants what’s best for you. Javier just messed up big time in this case.”
“Oh, I’ll say!”
“I never would have taken the money. My parents and I would have figured something out if you really didn’t want us.”
Xavier looked at the sonogram and then placed both hands on her belly. She responded by setting her own over them. “There’s nothing on Earth I want more than you. No one I could ever love as much as I love you and now the little ones.”
