Page 48 of Her Spanish Scandal

“I know that.”

“Then act like it. Go back home and talk to him. Running away has never solved anything, has it?”

“No, it hasn’t. But there are some things that even I can’t fix.”

Rina didn’t say anything for a moment and Kara heard the call for the first-class passengers on her flight to board. Was she going? She had no idea. Part of what her sister said made sense. But staying meant dealing not only with Gui and the fact that she’d left, but also with the reporters and Elvira. And she wasn’t sure she was ready for all of that.

“Tell me what they are.”

“Rina, you can’t fix my problems.”

“Of course not. But Gui can. I told him he had to make you happy.”

“He has.”

“He isn’t right now.”

“What do you want me to say?”

“I want to know what you need to be happy, and then I’ll call Gui and tell him to do it.”

She almost cried at her sister’s words. Didn’t she realize that telling Gui what she needed to be happy wasn’t the solution? “I need him to figure it out on his own, Rina. If I have to tell him how to fix what’s bothering me, then we’ll never really be happy together.”

“What do you want?” Rina asked.

The attendants started general boarding of her flight, and she picked up her overnight bag and moved toward the line of passengers.

“Kara? Don’t leave him. Not yet. Go back there and talk to him.”

“I can’t, Rina.”

“Why not?”

“Because he doesn’t love me. He doesn’t believe in that kind of emotion, and that’s the only thing that will make the things he said to me last night disappear. And it would make the things that the media always says about me seem not important.

“But he’s not that kind of man, and I’ve just realized that I am not the kind of woman who can compromise on this. Falling in love with Gui was the most powerful thing I’ve ever experienced, and to know that he doesn’t feel the same way for me…I just can’t stay.”

Rina took a deep breath. “Oh, honey. I warned you about men like⁠—”

“Please don’t say you told me so. I thought you were warning me because I am fat and he’d never fall for a big girl.”

“Kara Evelyn deMontaine, you aren’t fat and I will not tolerate you saying that.”

“Rina—”

“No. Enough of that kind of stupid comment. I warned you off of Gui because I thought he couldn’t commit to one woman, and I didn’t want to see you hurt.”

“I love you, Rina.”

“I love you, too, Kara. Be safe wherever you decide to go.”

She said goodbye to her sister and eyed the line to board the plane. Was she really going to leave behind the only man she loved?

Chapter Twelve

Gui had never lost anything that mattered to him. He’d walked away from Elvira years ago, and when he’d come back, she’d found another lover. He’d made peace with that. He’d used her marriage to drive himself further into the kind of emotional isolation that had always made him feel comfortable.

But losing Kara was horrid. It had been three days since he’d seen her. Yesterday he’d sat with Elvira and his family during Juan’s elaborate funeral service feeling a huge hole where Kara should have been by his side. Today the world was going on without him, and he found he couldn’t function. Rina had been absolutely no help in finding Kara, calling him once and telling him that Kara was safe and that was all that he deserved to know.