Authors: Mara Jacobs
Darío
shot him a glare and Binky said no more. When they got to the green, Binky cleaned
Darío
’s ball, gave him his putter, then dropped the bag next to the walkway to the next hole and made his way over to Katie at the ropes.
Darío
’s playing partner was in trouble in the bunker and
Darío
stood on the green staring at Binky as he gave Katie a big hug, patted her tummy, then shook hands with the other man as Katie, presumably, introduced them.
When it was
Darío
’s turn to put
t
, he did so quickly, taking no more than a cursory glance at the line. He made the put
t
and turned toward Katie but she and the man were moving away, back
toward the clubhouse.
Binky had taken his bag an
d was walking to the next hole’s
tee.
Darío
nearly sprinted to him. “Well? Why is she here? Where is she going? Who is that man?”
Binky checked his yardage book, then got out
Darío
’s driver and handed it to him. “She’ll meet you at the clubhouse after the round and explain that all to you.”
Darío
looked at the man, dumbfounded. “That’s it?”
Binky nodded. “Oh yeah, she asked me to give you this.” Binky held out his hand, his fist wrapped around something.
Darío
looked at Binky’s hand as if it might strike him. He’d not given Katie a ring, so it was not that. No legal papers would fit in Binky’s closed fist. Cautiously,
Darío
put his hand out, palm out.
Binky placed the item in
Darío
’s hand and stepped back
beside
Darío
’s bag.
For the first time in two months, he felt a glimmer of hope, as he stared at the Chapstick in his hand.
Katie sat with her companion in the shade at the eighteenth hole drinking a lemonade and hoping she hadn’t made a huge mistake.
She would have loved to watch
Darío
complete his round, but Binky suggested waiting at the clubhouse, and honestly, she was probably getting too big to be walking so far in the Texas heat. Though the heat in early November was definitely not as bad as her first visit.
She stretched her legs out on the bleachers –
nearly
empty now because the first g
roups were still a few holes fro
m finishing – and thought about her first time in Texas.
It seemed an eternity ago, but her little bundle was the accurate timekeeper. Seven months. She rubbed her hand across her stomach and saw the man with her watch her movements, seemingly mesmerized by the life growing inside of her.
“Are you okay? Can I get you something?” he asked.
Katie shook her head. “No, thank you. This lemonade is just what I needed. Please don’t feel you have to sit here with me. I know you’d like to watch him play. I’ll be fine here.”
She could see the man struggle with the decision. He wanted to watch
Darío
play, but didn’t want to leave a pregnant Katie alone.
“Really, it’s fine. We’re close to the clubhouse, if there’s any problem.”
The man stood to leave, his decision made. He took a step away, then turned and took Katie’s hand. Katie thought for a moment that he might kiss it, but he just held it in his for a moment, giving it a gentle squeeze. He then set it upon Katie’s stomach. “Thank you for
bringing me here today
. It means more to me than I can say.” The emotion in the man’s voice conveyed his feelings. Katie only nodded, and the man walked away.
She rubbe
d her back and sat alone in the
bleachers, her thoughts going back to the steps she’d taken to get here.
After Ron had left her house that day she’d sat down and done some thinking. How could she not when the man she loved didn’t want her and the man she had loved did. Taking Ron back would be so easy. So safe. The strain of not having a baby gone, they could return to the marriage they’d once had.
But Katie knew that once she saw her child,
Darío
’s child, she would be haunted by her love for him. If their child had his chocolate eyes, how would Katie ever be able to look at them and
not feel the ache of emptiness she’d felt since losing
Darío
?
Ron was not the answer. Safe was not the answer.
She’d made the first move with
Darío
before and it hadn’t killed her. In fact, she was getting a baby – what she’d always wanted – because of it.
If she made the first move again, would she get what she now wanted most – a life with
Darío
?
The next day, she’d put the legal envelope in the mail, started doing some internet research, and called Sofia, hoping that
Darío
wouldn’t answer.
She was shaken from her thoughts by the sound of golf balls being hit. The tee on eighteen was not visible from the bleachers, but she saw first one, then another ball land in the middle of the fairway. She took the last sip of her lemonade and rose to meet the group –
Darío
’s group – and her future.
The golfers finished out at eighteen and made their way to the scorer’s tent. Katie made her way to the ropes on the other side, where the men would come out when they were done. Binky made his way over to her, as did the man she’d come with.
“Did you enjoy the golf,” Binky asked the man.
The man nodded, cleared his throat. “It was…it was…”
Katie couldn’t imagine what types of emotions the man was feeling. He couldn’t finish his sentence, but neither Katie nor Binky pressed him.
“Do you think I should stick around for the introduction?” Binky asked Katie.
“It probably wouldn’t hurt,” Katie said, feeling like a coward, but wanting as much moral support as possible when she talked to
Darío
for the first time in two months.
And for what would come next.
Darío
was the first player out of the trailer used as a scorer’s tent. His eyes swept the area and rested on her. Katie felt the familiar tingle
go
through her body as his warm eyes raked over her and his crooked smile showed up
.
He came over to them, ignoring – for the first time that Katie had ever noticed – the autograph seekers along the ropes.
When he reached her, his hands reached out to her tummy then stopped, midair. He dropped his hands. “Katie,” was all he said.
“
Darío
, I have someone I’d like you to meet.”
He took a deep breath, as if bracing himself, and nodded for her to go on.
“
Darío
Luna
, meet Miguél de la Sol.”
Darío
instinctively reached out his hand to shake the other man’s, but Katie saw it freeze as she added, “Your father.”
Three hours later
Darío
’s head was still spinning.
His father.
Katie had bowed out of dinner, saying
he and his father
needed time alone. He’d balked at that, wanting some kind of support when talking for the first time with the man who fathered him. But Katie had been insistent.
Darío
had wound up in a restaurant with a man he’d never met before. One
who
he’d thought he’d never meet.
His father had never known he’d existed.
Darío
had sat and listened as Miguel de la Sol poured out his story. He’d been young and scared when Sofia had told him she was pregnant. When she’d said she was going to keep the
baby and stay in San Barria instead of traveling the world with Miguel, he left town, hurt and confused.
But several months later he’d returned. He’d come to realize he wanted Sofia to be his wife,
wanted to
raise their child together. When he went to her home, her parents had told him she and the baby had died in childbirth. There was such a pallor over the house, a sense of death, that Miguel had never thought to question what he was told.
Darío
knew that the last was true. There probably was a sense of death in the
Luna
household because by that time they had thrown Sofia and her large belly out. They’d never spoken to her again, certainly had never acknowledged
Darío
.
The greenskeeper at the resort, Sergio, and his
wife had taken pity on Sofia. They t
ook her in and sheltered her – and then
Darío
– until Sofia was able to work at the
c
ountry
c
lub and support herself and her baby.
When
Darío
had told Miguel of these events he had seen the pain in the man’s eyes and knew that Miguel spoke the truth.
If he had known Sofia was alive, that she’d had his child, he would have been there. Been a part of their lives. Given
Darío
his name.
They’d sat in the restaurant, years of unshared lives between them. At one point Miguel had broken down in tears. At
another
,
Darío
had.
All tho
se years of searching galleries or
wanting his face on the covers of magazines so that his f
ather would know he’d done well and hadn’
t need
ed him. All for a man who didn’
t know he was alive. Who’
d mourned the loss of an unborn child years ago.
Now, driving to Katie’s hotel,
Darío
was emotionally wrung out. He must somehow summon the strength to see Katie, to fight for her as he hadn’t in Spain.
His evening with Miguel had shown him that he had to seize what he wanted while he could. It could be taken away at any moment.
He’d thought he was doing the right thing letting Katie return to Ron, the man she loved. But now his yearning for the family he’d never had
, the family Miguel and Sofia had
had
ripped away from them, and his love for Katie, meant more to him than his honor.
He must win her back from Ron.
He just prayed it wasn’t too late.
Katie opened the door of her hotel room to
Darío
. God, he looked so good. But tired, and he looked like he may have lost some weight since the last time they’d seen each other. She quickly shook the memor
y of that bleak day in the Spanish
airport out of her head.
They were starting over.
She hoped.
She waved him into the room, careful to step back as he passed, not wanting to get too close in case she felt the overwhelming urge to launch herself into his arms.
He seated himself on the bed of the small room and she took the chair opposite him.
She couldn’t read the emotion on his face. She waited. Soon, his eyes, his beautiful chocolate eyes, filled with tears.
“Thank you,” was all he said.
She could sense him trying to gain control and waited. It took several minutes, but she sat quietly, watching him. Memorizing him in case her plan backfired and this would be the last time they’d see each other.
When his voice was under control, he looked at her and asked, “How?”
She shrugged. “It wasn’t that hard. I told you that with the internet and my connections with news agencies that I could probably find him fairly easily.”
“But you needed a name to do that.”
She nodded. “I got the name.”
He raised an eyebrow over
a
chocolate eye.
“I got the name from Sofia.”
That sent the other eyebrow up. “You spoke to my mother?”
“Yes.”
“She didn’t tell me.”
“I asked her not to.”
“But why,
Gata
?”
Gata. H
e still called her Gata. Katie’s confidence rose.
She could do this. She’d set out to seduce him in Irving. She’d made the first move in Akron. She could go after a man.
Her man.
“I thought it was important for you to find out about your family before you started a family of your own. You told me once you’d
wanted to
have that behind you before you became a father.”
He nodded, but said nothing, waiting.
“And you’re about to become a father,” she needlessly added.
His warm eyes settled on her belly, a look of peace crossed his face. “
Sî
,” he said.