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Adrian had gotten dressed and disappeared out through the door of the cottage before she’d had a chance to get her bearings. By the time she’d pulled on her dress and made it up to the main house Adrian had already left. She’d gotten the name of the hospital from Diego, pulled up directions and driven here as quickly as she could.
Anxiety rippled through her. She’d texted Adrian once she’d reached the hospital but had received no reply. What if Isabella had permanent injuries, or worse? She knew life could be cruel, but this... After so long, Adrian and his mother were on the verge of reconciliation. What if that possibility was on the verge of being yanked away?
The pain of losing a parent was something she wouldn’t wish on her worst enemy, and certainly not on the man she loved.
If their time together in the cottage hadn’t cemented it, being confronted with the potential loss of another person in her life had given her the courage to finally admit the truth to herself. She was deeply, hopelessly in love with Adrian.
As if her thoughts had summoned him, he walked into the waiting room. His eyes settled on her and she barely resisted flinching at the coldness in them that threatened to freeze her in place.
Limbs shaking, she stood and walked over to him. “Your mother...is she...?”
He placed a hand at the small of her back and guided her down the hall into a small chapel. Wooden pews sat in neat little rows in front of an altar and a stained-glass window. The dim light cast shadows over Adrian’s face, lending even more menace to his countenance.
“She’s in surgery. Another driver hit her on her way home from Granada. She has a broken wrist, a concussion, and some cuts from broken glass. But she’ll survive.”
Relief left Everleigh’s knees weak. She started to move forward, to hug Adrian and offer him comfort, but then she stopped. Obviously something was still horribly wrong.
“I’m very glad for that,” she said softly. “But what are you not telling me?”
He stared at her, his gaze moving over her face and her body with laser-like precision. But unlike a few hours ago, when her body had responded with fire and desire, his current perusal left her feeling cold.
“I’ve arranged for you to fly back to the States tomorrow.”
For a moment she couldn’t speak. “Why?” she gasped finally, inwardly cursing the weakness in her own voice.
“We’ve had our fun, Everleigh, but it’s over. Your work with the Cabrera Wine marketing team is complete. And I received an email after I finished with the doctor. The HR panel is going to offer you the position of director of Fox. You have what you wanted. You can go home.”
Hot tears pricked her eyes. There was no joy in finding out that she’d gotten the job. “Is that what you think? That I just wanted to be director? That everything that happened between us...that it wasn’t real?”
He shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. Whatever it was, it’s done.”
The cold cruelness in his tone didn’t match the Adrian she’d come to know and love over the past month. No, this wasn’t like him at all.
“Adrian... I don’t understand why...”
He held up a hand. “I thought I could do this, Everleigh. Let you in. Let my mother in. But I was wrong.”
The last four words delivered a blow to her heart so forceful she took a step back. “Why?” she croaked.
“I learned a long time ago that when you care about someone you give them power over you. Power to hurt you, to control you.” He gestured at the room around them. “My mother, Nicole... I’m not going through it again. I can’t.”
Her mouth dropped open. “So...you’re going to throw away a reconciliation with your mother and a...a future with me because you don’t want to risk getting hurt?”
He took a step forward, his eyes hardening into icy shards. “Yes.”
It was another blow to her heart. She wasn’t worth the risk.
“You loved yourabuela,” she said.
“I did. She was the one constant in my childhood. But I still gave her power by loving her and being loved by her. And when she died...”
His voice faltered and she saw the sorrow in his eyes, saw the little boy who had experienced too much loss. But before she could say a word his mask slid back in place.
“When she died, so did my ability to love anyone else.”
Oh, Adrian.
She grabbed onto the back of a pew before she fell to her knees. She wanted to reach out, to hug him and tell him all the reasons she loved him, to comfort this man who clung to the familiarity of past pain.
