She peered up at him, anxious for approval on her friend’s behalf. Don’t hate me for loving her.
“It’s beautiful,” Javiero said with surprised appreciation as he studied the expression of concentration Kiara had caught on her face, one that conveyed both the excitement and angst of becoming a new mother. The fact the book was a self-help on motherhood injected a poignant irony to the composition, but Kiara’s deep affection toward her and the affinity all mothers felt toward one another imbued the image as well.
“She’s very talented,” Javiero said after a long minute.
“So talented.” Scarlett hid her gush of fresh tears by plucking the envelope from where it was attached to the back of the frame and swiping her sleeve under her eyes to read it. “Oh, gosh.” She blushed again. “I wouldn’t think anyone would want a pregnant stranger on their wall, but she had several offers. This is a list of collectors to contact if I ever want to sell it.” She showed him the extremely healthy bids.
Javiero gave a low whistle. “That’s a very generous gift. I’ll arrange to have it insured.”
“She is generous. So warm and funny. I miss her a lot,” she said before she thought better of it.
Just as she feared, Javiero seemed to take that as a nudge for him to mend fences with Val. His mood slid into the tundra of the subarctic. He offered her a tissue, but his compassion stopped there. “You’re texting and calling her, aren’t you?”
She tried not to, knowing he barely tolerated their friendship. “We’re both busy.” She blew her nose, embarrassed. “I don’t mean to cry. I think I’m grieving a little.”
“For Dad?” He withdrew even more.
“For the way things were. Life wasn’t perfect in Greece, but those problems were familiar. I knew how to surmount them. I…” She hesitated, not sure how he would take this. “I feel lonely here. Which isn’t rational,” she rushed to add. “I was lonely on the island, too. At first. Working for Niko didn’t leave time for any sort of personal life. The staff kept a polite distance because I gave them orders on his behalf. If I accompanied him anywhere, I was there to work. Then Kiara joined us and she was caught in this strange middle ground, too. She wasn’t family, but she wasn’t an employee. We became very close.”
His cheek ticked. After a moment, he said, “My cousin invited us for dinner. I put her off because you’re spread so thin, but maybe an evening out would be welcome?”
A few members of Javiero’s extended family had dropped by to meet Locke. They had offered Scarlett a variety of cool, curious and cautious welcomes. That particular cousin had a baby a few months older than Locke and had seemed genuine in her offer to make tea if Scarlett wanted to visit and swap war stories, but Scarlett wasn’t anxious to admit to a stranger that she was struggling.
She could tell Javiero was trying to help, though. She forced a smile. “That sounds nice.”
Accepting that dinner seemed to open a floodgate. Invitations poured in and they were out every other night for the next while, throwing off what little routine Scarlett had established. Most were intimate soirees, but that still meant she was tied up in the evening and had to make time midday for trying on dresses and finding a hostess gift.
It was awkward in other ways, too, especially when they returned to Madrid for higher-profile events. Scarlett was used to wearing a pretty dress and making small talk, but with Niko she’d been relegated to the background. He would introduce her, and then she would largely be ignored.
With Javiero, she was his date. He brought in stylists to up her wardrobe game, and there was no retreating to the sidelines after twenty minutes. He wasn’t the focus of attention because of his attack or his new baby or his mysterious affair with his father’s PA, either. He was Javiero Rodriguez, a marquis guest for any hostess or gala.
Which put Scarlett in the spotlight alongside him.
Thankfully, her Spanish was decent, and she had her position as trustee of Niko’s fortune to mention whenever someone tried to dismiss her with, “I suppose the baby keeps you busy.” The fact she held such a prestigious position always earned her a reevaluation.
It didn’t quash the oblique inquiries as to her exact role in Javiero’s life, however, and apparently he had grown tired of it.
She came back into their room one evening having just fed Locke. She wore only her silk robe and was about to shower and finish getting ready for the charity ball they were due to attend.
Javiero had just come out of the shower. His hair was damp and he wore only a towel, comfortable now in letting her see the scars down his chest. They no longer alarmed her. They were merely a part of him—the same way his nipples were that light shade of brown—but her mouth went dry as she took in his burnished shoulders, muscled chest and abs that went on for days. Especially when he assumed that commanding air and gave her a thousand percent of his focus.
“We’re engaged,” he informed her.
“We are?” He caught her off guard completely with that pronouncement.
“We are.” He produced a velvet box and opened it.
She was further dumbfounded.
“It’s beautiful,” she said of the gold setting that held a round white diamond and at least a dozen smaller stones. The blue-green gems made it truly eye-catching, though. “Sapphires?”
“Blue emeralds. Trilliant cut, or so I was told by the jeweler.”
“It’s not a family ring? It looks like an heirloom.”
“It probably was,” he said drily. “And like my grandfather, whoever owned it must have had to sell his wife’s jewelry to hang on to his house. I was looking for something like what my grandmother wore in our old family photos, and
