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Lola tried to tell herself she didn’t care. After all, she wasn’t the one who’d demanded marriage. She and Jett had done fine without Rodrigo before. They could again.
She just wished if he’d changed his mind about their marriage that fast, he would tell her, so she and Jett could go back to New York, where they belonged. Where she had friends, people who would at least answer when she called!
Rodrigo only ignored her. Just that morning, Lola had gotten the thrilling news that she’d passed her GED, forwarded to California from her address in New York. Rodrigo had been the first one she’d wanted to tell. After all, he’d encouraged her, telling her she should have gone to college or even law school. Almost bouncing with excitement, she’d dialed his number.
But he didn’t pick up his phone. Even after she called him multiple times. Finally, disconsolately, she texted him the news. He hadn’t responded to that either.
Of course he hadn’t. He’d given her the silent treatment all week, ignoring her calls, and even simple messages like her asking where things were in the house or if he’d already arranged a doctor for the baby. Even the message she’d sent him yesterday, informing him of the six-figure gift she planned for her baby sisters, had gotten no answer.
It was enough to make her hate this beautiful beach house, where they’d once been so happy. And yearn to be somewhere else. Anywhere. But especially New York.
Wrapping her arms around herself, drawing her cashmere cardigan closer, Lola looked out the wall of windows overlooking the pool and, beyond that, the ocean and sky.
The sun was golden and warm, just like it had been the day Rodrigo brought her back here as his bride. He’d looked at her with so much emotion in his dark eyes before he’d kissed her. He’d made love to her with such fire and heat, such explosive pleasure, even more spectacular than she’d felt during their affair. She’d looked up into his handsome face as his body covered hers, and for one moment, she’d imagined their marriage could be about more than duty.
But obviously, she’d thought wrong. Because when
Rodrigo had gotten up from the bed, he’d looked at her as if he hated the sight of her. And ever since, he’d ignored her, as if she were Typhoid Mary and he was afraid he might contract her disease from wherever he was in South America. If he really was in South America.
What had she done, to make him suddenly want to not only leave the bed but leave the continent?
Tess and Hallie would know, she thought suddenly. Hallie was always so sensible and practical, while Tess was idealistic with those rose-colored glasses. Missing them, she felt a lump in her throat. She’d sent them messages about her GED, and unlike her husband they’d immediately called, to cheer for her.
“Lola, you’re so sneaky!” Hallie had said. “You never even told us you dropped out of high school when you were a kid!”
“You should have told us you were working for your GED,” Tess chided. “I could have baked you cookies to help you study!”
Lola smiled now, thinking about them. Then her smile faded. What would Tess and Hallie say when they learned she’d left New York without telling them, and now lived in California? What would they say when they learned the identity of Jett’s father, and that Lola had married him without inviting them to the wedding?
She should have told them, when they were congratulating her for passing her GED. She’d tried to. But the words had stuck in her throat. She wasn’t like her friends, wanting to talk and talk about their unsolved problems.
Lola solved her own problems. Then she’d talk about them.
And the problem of her marriage felt very much unsolved. How could she explain why she’d married Rodrigo and moved to California at his demand, only for him to promptly dump her and Jett here and disappear?
Suddenly, Lola narrowed her eyes. She’d tried to be patient. But she’d had enough of waiting and wondering.
Any action was better than this.
He’d told her to spend his money? Fine. She would.
Going into Rodrigo’s home office, she found his checkbook and wrote out a six-figure check, which she signed with a flourish. Anger made her fearless. Getting an envelope and paper, she wrote a letter to her sisters, the first time she’d written them in seven years.
Seven. She’d never meant to fall out of her sisters’ lives so completely. But the days had passed so fast. Already, Johanna was twelve, and Kelsey was fifteen. Fifteen. The same age Lola had been when her mother died. When she’d decided to make it her life’s mission to save her family.
She’d failed then. But maybe, if her little sisters knew how hard she’d tried, they would forgive her. And this check couldn’t hurt, either.
With a deep breath, Lola signed the letter and tucked it into the envelope with the check. Sealing it, she wrote the address she’d long ago memorized by heart.
Her hand shook as she left the home office. Collecting Jett from his playpen in the sunny main room, where he’d been happily chewing on toys, she felt so elated at what she’d done, she sang him a song she used to sing to her sisters. The baby giggled and cooed as she danced with him, pausing to look out through the windows at the bright blue ocean and sky.
Then she stopped. What if it didn’t work? What if her sisters ignored her, just like Rodrigo?
Squaring her shoulders, Lola forced herself to go into the enormous, gleaming kitchen, where she found the housekeeper taking bread out of the oven. It smelled delicious.
“I made your favorite, Mrs. Cabrera,” Mrs. Lee said, smiling. “I know how much you love it.”
“You’re too good to me. I was, um, wondering...” Lola nervously held up the envelope. “Is there any way you could take this to the post office? I’d do it myself but...” But I’m scared I’ll chicken out.
