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I’d know that you loved me.
He heard the words she never said and, deep within him, he felt something start to shake, to tremble under the hurt and the pain they had both borne in silence.
‘Why didn’t you come for me?’ she asked in a small voice.
He clenched his jaw, his teeth almost cracking under the pressure. ‘I couldn’t,’ he said, ashamed of himself now.
‘Why?’
‘Because,’ he said, the truth gravel in his throat, ‘I had failed you,’ he admitted finally and the anchor tying him to guilt and anger and grief loosened a little. ‘All those years of desperately trying to succeed and when it came to the most important thing in my life—you—I had failed. And I couldn’t face the possibility of seeing that when you looked at me,’ he said, closing his eyes against the wave of pain as the soul-deep truth came out. ‘So I didn’t. Because if I didn’t see it, if I didn’t come and find you, then it hadn’t happened. I hadn’t failed you and you hadn’t left me.’
He felt her hand cup his jaw and gently turn him to face her. She waited for him to open his eyes and, when he did, he saw the same complexity of understanding, guilt, forgiveness and hurt that gripped his heart in a vice. In the silence Emily placed her head on his shoulder and they stayed that way until dawn crested the gorge, burning away the darkness and pouring gold across blue, neither moving until Diabla howled at them for denying her breakfast.
Three hours later, after feeding Diabla and falling into bed, exhausted and sleep-deprived, there was adrenaline-inducing pounding on the door. Javier cursed viciously as Emily sprang up from the bed, worried that whoever it was would smash down the door. Still groggy from the emotional revelations the night before, it took a moment for Emily to collect her thoughts.
She looked across at Javier, who had thrown off the sheet and stalked from the room in a pair of black cotton trousers, trying to ignore the heat she felt from watching the way the muscles across his back shifted as he rolled his shoulders as if readying for a fight.
Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang...
The sound shot out like bullets, startling her all over again.
Javier yelled at the door and a shout came back, quick and hot, Emily just about catching,‘Abrete, bastardo,’before Javier fired back something that would make the devil blush.
Emily was standing at the top of the stairs by the time Javier pulled the door open to reveal Santiago, hanging from the door frame, a bottle of champagne spilling onto the courtyard floor.
‘Cristo, Santi, what time is it?’ Javier demanded.
‘Time for drinking,hermano,’ Santi replied, before pushing his way into the house. He came to an abrupt stop when he caught sight of her at the top of the stairs and spread his arms open in welcome. ‘Emily!Mi hermosa!It is so good to see you! What did this reprobate do to get you back?’ Santi demanded.
‘He faked amnesia,’ Emily replied, unable to contain the smile that pulled at her lips from Santi’s shocked outrage. An outrage that was perhaps a little too dramatic, making her think he already knew.
‘Cabrón!’he exclaimed, punching Javier not so lightly on the shoulder. ‘What is wrong with you?’ he demanded in an award-worthy performance.
‘Me? It’s...’ Javier flicked a glance to the watch on his wrist ‘...ten-thirty in the morning, Santi. What the hell is wrong with you?’
‘Nothing, Casas. Absolutely nothing!I,’ he exclaimed with dramatic flair, ‘have been nominated for an ETTA,’ he concluded, mock polishing his nails.
Emily gasped out loud, rushing downstairs to congratulate him. The ETTAs were world-renowned industry awards and only the best of the best were nominated. ‘Santi, that’s fantastic news!’ she cried, embracing him warmly and missing the warning glare that Javier shot over her head at his best friend. ‘Where is Mariana?’
‘She’s coming—she just had to stop at the bakery. The woman cannot pass achurroat the moment without eating it. Even the smell, I swear,amigo, it drives herloca.’
As the two men embraced, Emily felt a flutter in her heart as she remembered how distant she had kept herself from the beautiful couple. Mariana was generous and funny, while Santi’s charm was infectious, but Emily had always felt awkward that they’d had to resort to English while she struggled with the new language and, just as she was beginning to get to know them better, Santi’s work took them to Australia for a year and she had not seen them since. But now she wished that she’d not held herself back from the easy affection Javier’s friends had offered.
Santi grandly placed the already open bottle on the table, turned to Javier and pulled him into an embrace.
‘Mi amigo, I couldn’t have done this without you. If you hadn’t...’ Santi stuttered, overwhelmed with emotion.
Emily watched as Javier shook off the praise, as she connected Santi’s words with what Javier had told her since she’d come back to Spain. Javier had clearly invested a lot of money in Santi’s first film and more, a risky move for a twenty-one-year-old, especially one who feared failure. But she could see how important it had been for both men, their bond irrefutable.
She heard Mariana shouting at Santi before she appeared at the doorway and smiled as she translated the accusation of Santi’s desertion, just so that he could go and get his drinking buddy. She was at the doorway when she exclaimed at Emily’s presence in much the same way as her husband had—and Emily found herself in a warm embrace, pressed up against averypregnant belly.
‘Oh, my...’ Emily said, her eyes wide and her hands on Mariana’s shoulders.
‘Twins.’
‘No!’ she exclaimed in shock. ‘When are you due?’ she asked, fairly concerned that it was within the next hour.
‘Not soon enough. It’s all his fault,’ Mariana groused affectionately. ‘We’re never having sex again.’
