When they were in front of the house, he held her arm as she got down, then he rode away.
Kent was waiting for her. He looked younger than she remembered, but then he hadn’t had years of being married to one woman while loving another.
“Did you turn me in to my father?” she asked.
He gave a curt nod. “Carmen didn’t mean to tell me where you were, but she did. I was worried about you.”
“So you told Dad to come after me with armed guards?” She didn’t try to keep the anger out of her voice.
“I didn’t know he was going to do that.”
“Did you call the sheriff on him?”
“No. Carmen did. Your dad was so angry she was afraid her brothers would be hurt.” For a moment, he looked at his feet, then up. “I want to make sure that you understand what you’re doing. If you and I don’t marry, we’ll lose everything. There’ll be no company partnership. Your father even owns the house we’re to live in.”
“But you have Carmen. And you’re going to have a child.” She didn’t mean it to, but there was bitterness in her voice.
Kent gave a little smile—the one that used to make her dizzy with what she thought was love. “I needed to have some fun. You can’t begrudge a man that.”
This time, his smile had no effect on her. “What none of you thought of is that I want to have fun too. I need laughter in my life. I want what you have with Carmen.” She paused.
This isn’t what she wanted to say. “Kent, why don’t you tell them all to go screw themselves? You’ve been a victim of our selfish, greedy parents as much as I have. They’ve manipulated you too. Walk out. Leave them. Marry Carmen and live with her and your children and be happy. Maybe not rich, but happy.”
With every word she spoke, Kent’s eyes widened. “Are you sure you’re the kid next door? You don’t sound like her. That girl is absolutely perfect—and obedient. She’s like a porcelain doll. Unreal.”
Elise didn’t like that image of herself, but she knew it was true. But then, you can’t be a sassy, back-talking girl around people who you know don’t love you. “That’s who I tried to be, and now it’s wonderfully freeing not to have to be her.” She looked at him. “From what Carmen says, you two really love each other.”
“Yes. I can be myself around her. I don’t have to pretend to be some perfect hero.”
“If that’s supposed to transfer blame to me, it’s not working.”
He gave her a genuine smile, not one with feigned patience, as though she bored him. “You know, if you’d been like this before, I wouldn’t have needed anyone else.”
For the first time in her life, Elise saw him clearly. She had created a myth. In her mind, she’d made him into a hero and had expected him to be that person. No wonder he preferred a woman who yelled at him when she didn’t like what he did.
In that moment, she released everything. All the years of longing for something that didn’t exist, disappeared. Vanished forever.
Kent seemed to realize what had happened as the smile he gave her was tinged with a bit of regret. Everyone wanted to be a hero to someone! “So you’re going off with him?”
Not far away, in the shade of a big tree, Alejandro was still sitting on the black horse—and he was scowling at her. She’d taken quite long enough. “Yes, I am. He’s a good man and...” She wasn’t going to mention the word love to Kent.
“Carmen has nothing but good to say about both her brothers. She wanted me to help them get jobs.”
“I don’t think you have to worry about that. We’re helping ourselves.”
“So it’s ‘we’? Already?”
Elise glanced at Alejandro and he’d quit scowling. To her astonishment, he’d begun to unbutton his shirt. “I have to go,” she said quickly. “You’ll do whatever is necessary to get Dad out of jail?”
“Eventually. First, I might talk to your mother about her future grandchildren.”
“If you mean you and Carmen, are you forgetting that without me you aren’t related to my mother?”
Kent glanced at Alejandro. His shirt was now open all the way down to his washboard abs. “I predict that our kids will be first cousins.” He nodded toward Alejandro. “Think you can handle him? You haven’t had much experience and he looks serious.”
Elise remembered what Kit had said to Olivia. She gave a snort of derision, then quoted, “‘With sex, baby, no lessons are required.’” Turning, she looked at Alejandro. As he sat there with his shirt open and high up on a big black horse, all she could think about was him.
When she smiled at him and gave a nod, she knew just what he was going to do. With his head down, he urged the horse into a gallop and headed directly toward Elise and her former fiancé. Kent cried out in warning as he jumped back so far that he landed on his rear end in the dirt.
But Elise didn’t move. She just lifted her arm and as Alejandro thundered by, he grabbed it and pulled her up into the saddle behind him. She put her arms around him, her head on his back, and smiled.
“Amigos,” Alejandro said, making her laugh. Yes, friendship was an excellent aphrodisiac.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Summer Hill, Virginia 1970
Olivia knew it wouldn’t work. It couldn’t possibly actually happen. But the idea of going back in time was a wonderful concept. Ever since she’d seen the business card, her mind hadn’t stopped working. All the things she’d do differently kept running through her thoughts. She would prepare for the life she wanted, not the one she’d had, but the one with Kit.
As she’d driven the women to the house on—she smiled at the absurdity of the name—“Everlasting Street” she’d told herself it was all ridiculous. But that didn’t quieten her mind. When she talked to that young woman, Arrieta, that should have reinforced that it was all a made-up fairy tale.
Instead, it was as though she had been energized. Her foremost thought was that if after three weeks she forgot what had happened, then she’d have to fix things so they couldn’t be changed. She’d make them legal. Permanent, meaning marriage, and if she was to study psychology, she’d have to enroll in college.
Three weeks before Kit had been picked up by the military would probably be sometime in July, but she wasn’t sure of the date. The children had been there and those dear old men, and Bill and Nina, and... She took a breath. Her beloved parents were still alive. But back then, she and Kit hadn’t noticed anyone else. They were young and in love, and they’d sneaked away at every possible opportunity to have glorious sex.
Olivia closed her eyes tighter. She never wanted to open them, didn’t want to see Arrieta’s face, didn’t want to hear her say, “I don’t know what went wrong.” That’s what all charlatans said, didn’t they? Then they asked for more money.
And there’d be poor Elise, crying because all hope of escaping what was coming with her father was gone. How did one prove sanity when you had people who supposedly loved you telling the world that you were flat-out crazy?
Kathy was facing a life of being labeled as Ray Hanran’s castoff. After having met him, Olivia was sure that no one would believe that Kathy had been the one to want to get away from him. No, everyone would believe she was inadequate. Couldn’t hold her man. That was going to destroy her self-esteem.
Olivia squeezed her eyes very tight, knowing that she was deepening the lines that radiated out across her face. Ah, old age. The things you have to worry about.
“The cat broke them,” said a child’s voice.
“It was a demon cat,” said another child. “Green with purple spots that glow in the dark.”
“And it flies,” the first child added.
Olivia didn’t open her eyes, but at the memory of those deliciously familiar voices, the tears started coming. She let them find their way out and run down her cheeks.
“We’re sorry,” Ace whispered.
He always did have a soft heart, Olivia thought. Her face was wet and she was much too scared to open her eyes. Had she wished so hard that she’d conjured them? Like in some voodoo spell?