Authors: Phoebe Conn
Ana doubted her life would ever be the same. She leaned back in her chair. “I’ll probably stay only a week or two at my mother’s. Lamoreaux wants me to do his shoe ads even if I have only one good foot. Then there’s the movie. I can’t take off so long everyone forgets I exist.”
“You needn’t worry. You’re as lovely as always, if a bit thin. You’ll probably have more work than you can do when the cast is removed.”
“Let’s hope. Do the widows play cards? Maybe you could organize some sort of a tournament.”
“Excellent suggestion. While you finish your soup, I’ll see to the laundry.”
“Thank you. I want to take many of the same things.” She couldn’t get into a pair of pants, so long skirts would have to do. Her mother had a beautiful garden, and her stepfather grew herbs and vegetables for his café. Maybe she could stand out in the yard, play scarecrow and make herself useful.
On his way home from the airport, Alejandro stopped at Ana’s condo. Henry informed him she’d left for the airport a couple of hours prior. “Did she say where she was going?” He signed his name in the visitor’s book to prove he’d been there, if she cared to look.
“She’s visiting her mother, who’s a very charming woman, although she hasn’t visited in a while.”
Alejandro lounged against the counter. “I’m looking forward to meeting her. She lives in Rouen, doesn’t she?”
“Yes, Miss Santillan has brought us pastries from her stepfather’s café, and they are beyond delicious. The French have many faults, but they must be born knowing how to cook.”
“And design haute couture,” Alejandro added. He kept Henry talking a few minutes more so he wouldn’t appear as desperate as he was to find Ana. He ached for her, and he’d do whatever he could to make things right.
He’d noted Fatima’s number the first time Ana had asked him to call her and phoned her the next morning. “Please don’t hang up on me.”
“I told you I’d deal with you if you hurt Ana, so don’t you dare ask me to help you make up with her. She’s finished. Done. Through. Do you understand?”
“Yes, but I’d still like to come talk with you.”
“Why? It wouldn’t do you any good.”
“I want to adopt the kittens.”
“You what?”
“You heard me. Ana doesn’t really want them, and I do. I’ll come get them this morning if you’re at her condo.”
Fatima answered after a long pause. “I’ll let you have them on the condition you’ll return them if she wants them.”
“I’ll put it in writing.”
He’d spent more time at the hospital with his father than at home since he’d left the cruise, but the cats would have each other and as long as he fed them, they’d be fine on their own. He drove over to Ana’s condo and signed in. “How are you this morning, Henry?”
“Fine, thank you, Mr. Vasquez. You know Miss Santillan isn’t home.”
“I do, but I came by to pick up the cats. They need more attention than Ana can give them.”
“Are you sure that’s what she wants?”
“Yes, I am. Fatima knows I’m coming.”
Henry reached for the phone at the desk. “I’ll give her a quick call to let her know you’re here.”
Alejandro held his breath, but Fatima hadn’t changed her mind and invited him to come up. She let him in at his first knock. He was relieved she wasn’t holding a knife.
“I’ve worried Romeo and Juliet are here alone too much of the time, or I’d not be giving them to you. There’s a piece of paper on the dining table. Go ahead and sign for them.”
“I’ll be happy to.” He pulled a pen from his pocket, and after addressing the note to his darling Ana, he promised to take excellent care of the kittens and return them if she so desired. “There. Pin it up in her office so she’ll be sure to see it.”
“Don’t worry, she will. The real challenge will be to corral Romeo and Juliet and put them into their carrier.”
“I’d love a cup of coffee. If I sit here for a while, they should come to me, and it will make everything easier.”
Fatima rested her hands on her ample hips. “All I’ll give you is a glass of water.”
He took the chair at the head of the table. “That would be nice too.”
She plunked the glass down in front of him. “We both know the cats are an excuse to see Ana again, but you shouldn’t be sure it will happen.”
“Even if she hates me now, I still have hope.”
A perplexed frown crossed her brow. “You don’t understand.” She sat down beside him. “She’s more angry with herself than with you. She’s cautious about letting men into her life, and she’s furious to have made such a gigantic mistake with you. She blames herself for being gullible. I shouldn’t have told you, but I want you to see just how much damage you’ve done.”
He stared at his water. Even if he told Fatima about the baby, she’d see it as an excuse to trick Ana into marriage. Plenty of women had done that to men, but it didn’t justify his actions. “You’re right. I should have told Ana the truth. I didn’t have a choice about coming home early, but I should have taken her with me rather than leave her alone on the
Siren
.”
“And what, continued your lies? That’s not the right answer, Mr. Vasquez.”
“Maybe not, but it would have given me time to straighten out things before she discovered the truth on her own.”
“Well, it didn’t happen.”
Romeo brushed against his leg, and he picked him up to cuddle. “One down. Where’s the carrier?”
“I put it in the guest bathroom. If you’ll carry him in there, he won’t see us sneaking up on him with it.”
“Good plan.”
“Well, of course,” she scoffed. “
I
think things through.”
He scratched under Romeo’s chin. “Good advice, but I doubt cats plan anything at all.” The kitten stared up him as he carried him into the bathroom, and Alejandro pushed him into the carrier and closed the door. Romeo pushed his nose against the wire grid in the door and meowed to get out.
“When we get home. Now where’s your sister?”
“She’s the hard one to catch,” Fatima opined.
Just like her mistress, Alejandro thought.
Cats captured and all their gear stacked out in the hallway, Fatima leaned against the open door. “I was supposed to tell you Ana has gone to Brazil for a bathing-suit shoot.”
He smiled in spite of himself. “Fatima, you know that isn’t true.”
She shrugged. “I work here and pass on whatever messages I’m given.”
“I’ve always wanted to see Brazil.”
“I wouldn’t leave too soon.”
That was all the help she was likely to offer, and he thanked her for it.
Ana ate a delectable croissant her stepfather had baked that morning and licked the butter from her fingers. “This is the absolute best croissant ever baked, Claude.”
“Better than the chocolate-filled?” he asked.
“For breakfast yes. The chocolate are luscious for dessert.”
They were seated on the terrace of the charming stone cottage he shared with her mother. “I’m so happy you could come for a visit. Your mother has worried herself sick since your accident. She was certain you weren’t telling us all you should.”
Reclining on a chaise longue, she gestured toward her cast. “It’s only a broken leg and a scar everyone tells me barely shows. I wanted to come visit you.”
Claude studied her closely. “There’s something in your eyes, a sorrow you’re not revealing.”
“I hate being unable to work, that’s all,” she lied smoothly.
Claude was in his sixties with thick gray hair he wore smoothed back. He described himself as merely plump, and he had such a charming personality no one ever remarked on his weight. “There is a musician who plays at the café on Sunday afternoons. You might find his company entertaining.”
From the day he’d married her mother, he’d been seeking the perfect Frenchman for her. She smiled at his latest effort. “I’m sure he’s a nice man, but I’ll be gone soon.”
“You’re too pretty to be alone. Your mother is so happy with me. You must give a nice man the chance to please you.”
Restless, she shifted her position but still couldn’t get comfortable. “Claude, enough, please.”
“Forgive me, but I must try. Now it’s time for me to go to the café.” He stood and leaned down to kiss her cheek. “Your mother is thrilled you’re here.”
Ana had outgrown a need for a mother to manage her career in her late teens, and while they still shared a love of fashion, they hadn’t remained close after Carol had remarried and moved to France. Carol was tall and slim despite Claude’s butter-laced cooking, and had swiftly taken on a Frenchwoman’s elegance. Ana smiled as her mother joined her on the terrace.
“What would you like to do today?” Carol asked. “We’ve toured the cathedral, and it would be difficult to do again with your crutches. I’ve been meaning to buy some new lingerie. Why don’t you come with me, and we’ll have lunch at Claude’s café.”
Ana wanted to do absolutely nothing, but her mother would keep proposing activities until she gave in. “My lingerie is a bit ragged, so let’s go.”
“Your lingerie is never ragged, my sweet, but a woman always needs something new.”
Ana had been to the shop with her mother on an earlier trip, and again posed for a photo with the owner, a Madame Cotillard, who often posted ads featuring her from
French Vogue
. The shop held a delicious lavender fragrance from the sachets hidden among the satins and lace.
“I’m so glad to see you looking well,” Madame Cotillard exclaimed. “When I read about your accident, I feared the worst and said many prayers for you.”
“Thank you. Clearly they were effective.” She sat in the pink damask chair men used when accompanying their wives and girlfriends there. It was discreetly placed at the rear of the shop so they’d not be seen through the window. Alejandro would have loved the place and insisted she buy lingerie in every color of the rainbow. She shut her eyes tightly to force away his image, but he stubbornly lingered in her thoughts. When her mother had made her purchases, she bought the blackest lace bras and panties Madame Cotillard carried and folded the pink bag into her purse.
Claude’s café overlooked the Seine and was popular with tourists and locals alike. Ana liked the tables out front but today asked for something inside.
“Of course, you do not wish to be troubled by admirers,” the chef replied. “I have the perfect cozy table for you and my bride.”
Ana had always thought his devotion to her mother was sweet, and clearly her mother thrived with his loving attention. She had to remind herself she was only twenty-four and had plenty of time for true love to find her too. For today, she’d satisfy the longing with a dozen escargot, dripping with garlic and butter.
Alejandro stood with Carlotta beside his father’s bed. She had wept continually since her husband had entered the hospital, and he marveled at how anyone could hold so many tears. The doctors had yet to recommend they take his father off life support, but he knew it had to be coming. He’d prepared himself for it, but Carlotta would never agree. They had the resources to maintain his father in a coma forever, but that wouldn’t be what Orlando would have wanted. He’d been far too ambitious and active a man to welcome a vegetative state for even a day, let alone the years he might live on the edge of twilight.
“I need to check in at the office,” Alejandro told her.
“I’m sorry everything has fallen on you when you wanted another life,” Carlotta whispered between sobs.
Amazed by her unexpected sympathy, he hugged her shoulders and left rather than agree. He’d worked for his father before returning to the university and knew exactly what was expected of him. His father had a responsible staff, but they were in a daze along with his stepmother, and no one had stepped forward to oversee things. He’d train someone himself if he had to, but he wasn’t going to devote the rest of his life to the Ortiz Line. Although his father had tried to trap him, he’d broken free, and he’d do so again at his first opportunity.
When he returned home that evening, the cats were asleep in the middle of his model village. They hadn’t swatted the little cubes onto the floor, just curled themselves around them. They lifted their heads and focused their yellow eyes on him. “I hope your day was better than mine.” He hung his coat on the peg by the door and went to them. Romeo pushed against his hand while Juliet sat up and watched. He dropped Romeo to the floor, and Juliet jumped down by herself.
“I thought you two liked your bed.” Before he left in the morning, he’d pack up the little houses to keep them safe, and maybe put their bed on the table. He’d be spoiling them, but why not? He filled their bowls and went into the kitchen to see if he had anything he could possibly eat for dinner. Sorry he hadn’t bought something on the way home, he ate a cheese sandwich, leaning against the counter.
No matter how he added up the days, Ana had to realize she was pregnant soon. He needed to work on how he wanted to respond, but the words wouldn’t come any easier than his so-called proposal.