As she neared the corner to the hallway that led to their room, Dulce’s angry voice accosted her ears. They were at it again – or at least Dulce was.
Carmen stopped at the corner, uncomfortable with the heat of the exchange, yet unwilling to interrupt. Dulce was so angry that tears were rolling down her face. She stepped closer to Alex, her hands balled into fists at the end of stiff arms. Her nose was mere inches from his as she hissed something in Spanish.
Alex placed his hands on her shoulders, gently pushing her back. Without warning, she dived at him, throwing her arms around his neck and pressing her body against his. Carmen gasped as Dulce kissed him passionately on the lips.
To his credit, Alex didn’t visibly respond, but neither did he push her away. It was impossible to determine if his lips were responding, but the duration of the kiss indicated Dulce might be getting some kind of encouragement.
Dulce stopped the attack as suddenly as she started it. Dropping her arms, she stepped back and wiped her mouth, staring up at him as though he had initiated the incident.
Alex stared down at her with a bewildered expression. Dulce spun around and marched away from him. When she spotted Carmen, her eyes widened, but she kept walking.
Alex turned red when Carmen stepped forward. “Carmen,” he said reaching for her.
Carmen shoved a wide-eyed Destiny into his arms and turned to follow Dulce. She’d deal with him later. Right now she wanted to talk to Dulce.
She caught up with Dulce at the top of the stairs.
“Wait a minute, Dulce. I think you owe me an explanation. What have you two been arguing about, and why did you kiss your brother like that?”
Dulce turned, and for a moment Carmen thought she might strike her. Dulce’s eyes were bloodshot and her cheeks were covered with tears.
“He is not my brother!” she hissed. “Señor Medena married my mother when I was a baby. I have his name, but he is not my father.”
Carmen stared at her. Apparently Señor Medena had two children who denied him. Still, if Señor Medena adopted Dulce when she was a baby and raised her, then he was her father – blood relative or not. However, Señor Medena didn’t raise Alex.
“It is always Alex,” Dulce continued in a bitter voice.
Carmen waited. It was difficult to determine whether Dulce meant it was always Alex she loved or that Señor Medena favored.
“You think he is handsome,” Dulce continued, “and you love him. I know him when he was boy and I love him then. I do not tell him. He must come to me. That is the way it should be, Mama says.” She started to cry. “I loved him and he left me. He has you and now he forgets me.”
That was a lot of information to digest – information Alex could have provided years ago. But then, why would he? As Dulce had pointed out, he was trying to get away from the family. How long did he think he could hide them – or avoid them, for that matter? And then there was the matter of Tessa. If Katie hadn’t disclosed that incident to her before she met Alex, would he have revealed that facet of his past?
It would have been impossible not to feel sorry for Dulce. How sad. Carmen took a breath.
“Alex never knew how you felt?”
Consumed with sobs, Dulce simply shook her head. Finally she wiped her eyes and glared at Carmen. “You want his money.”
Carmen caught her breath. To her, the idea was ludicrous, and yet, it probably looked that way to Dulce.
“I didn’t know about any of this until we came down here for a visit,” she defended. “Why is it so difficult for you to believe I love him when you love him so much?”
Dulce gave her a poisonous stare. “I can give him son. He would not have to pay stranger to have his baby.” She waved a hand at the house and leaned toward Carmen. “This is the life he was born for.” She hissed.
Carmen recoiled from her words and the hatred. Alex wasn’t paying a stranger to give him an heir. She felt as though a cold hand grasped her stomach and squeezed hard. Or was he? Was this surrogacy actually an attempt to get an heir? Was that what they had been arguing about? Was that why Alex didn’t want to talk to her about it?
She eyed Dulce distastefully. “Alex doesn’t want this kind of life. He’s been clear enough about that, and yet it’s being pushed on him.”
Dulce lifted her head and managed to reclaim some semblance of pride in spite of the situation.
“First it is Tessa. Now it is you. He does not know what he want. One day he will know.”
In other words, when he shook himself free of his current family, he would come to Dulce. Alex didn’t abandon Tessa, though, and Carmen wasn’t about to walk out on him like Tessa did. Was that what Dulce was arguing with him about – that he didn’t know what he wanted? That familiar cold feeling washed over her again with a wave that was staggering. Or was she trying to convince him that his wife was going to walk out on him?
Carmen shook her head and turned away. Conversation with Dulce was futile. Alex knew very well what he wanted. He always had. If he had passed Dulce over, it was because she wasn’t what he wanted. She had no trouble believing that part. Dulce was beautiful, but she would forever be trying to run his life.
Alex was pacing the room when she returned. The door to Destiny & Jonathan’s room was closed. He turned to her.
“Carmen, I didn’t know,” he said, reaching for her.
Carmen avoided his hands, turning to the closet. “So she said.”
“But you don’t believe us.”
It was a statement that would have sounded better if it hadn’t included the word us. She pulled the suitcase out and placed it on the bed.
“You knew when I was arguing with you. You knew before I did.”
For a moment he frowned down at her. “What?” he finally said.
She looked up at him. “When we first met, we were arguing all the time, but you still suspected how I felt about you.”
Comprehension untied his brows and sent them upward. “I knew because I was in love with you. I was watching for some encouraging sign. I would have seen it even if it wasn’t there.” His tone was terse.
“So you never suspected . . . It doesn’t matter.”
“Of course it matters,” he said, following her to the closet and watching anxiously as she started removing clothes. She took out some of his and hers so he wouldn’t think she was packing to leave him. She silently folded them and put them in the suitcase while he watched.
“What are you doing,” he finally asked.
“Packing,” she said. “Or have you changed your mind about leaving tomorrow?”
He snorted. “I wasn’t the one who wanted to come here in the first place.”
True, he wasn’t. She continued to pack in silence. They couldn’t leave here soon enough as far as she was concerned. This wasn’t a home. It was a house full of people who happened to be related to him.
“You’re jealous,” he said.
She finally looked up at him. “You’ve got that much right.”
His gaze wandered over her face, coming back to her eyes. “What part have I got wrong, Carmen?” He said softly. “Why are you disappointed in me?”
Looking into that semi-sweet chocolate gaze, it was easy to understand why Dulce lost her composure. Right now she’d like to kiss those smooth lips – and she might if she didn’t know where they’d been last. The memory gave her resolution.
“At least I admit I’m jealous – and I have every reason to be. But your father didn’t kiss me, and Josh didn’t . . .
There was no point in dredging up the past again. Whether something actually happened wasn’t the issue. She met his searching gaze.
“Why are you always blaming me? You didn’t say a word to your father, but you snarled at me as though I did something wrong. I didn’t.”
She slammed the suitcase shut and glared at him.
For a moment he merely stared at her, his expression unreadable. Then he turned away and rubbed the back of his neck in that way he did when he knew he was wrong but wasn’t sure why. Finally he turned to her, his voice controlled.
“I’m going to take Destiny and Jonathan down to say good-bye.”
Aside from his solemn expression, there was nothing in the way he acted with the children that might indicate anything was wrong between them. When they left, it sucked the life from the room. She sat down on the edge of the bed and stared at the floor.
She was jealous of Dulce, but she had no reason to be. Alex wasn’t interested in Dulce. Her actions had clearly taken him by surprise. Dulce didn’t have anything he wanted – unless it was the ability to have children. And yet, if Señor Medena hadn’t been so pushy, would he have accepted the inheritance? If Dulce hadn’t chased him so hard, would he have fallen in love with her?
It was pointless to think about alternatives. Who could say what might have been if the smallest thing had been different in their lives? Alex had trust issues, and they were there before she married him. The problem wasn’t Dulce or his father. The problem was how they were both reacting to the situation. Fighting with each other wasn’t going to do anything but play into the hands of those instigating the trouble.
If his family wanted him to come back, they would have to get rid of his current responsibilities. It wasn’t simply a personal matter to Dulce. No matter what she said, getting him back meant financial security – a roof over her head and everything that went along with it. Her attitude wasn’t as Alex had said, ‘sour grapes’, and he knew it. But then, he had made it clear from the start that he didn’t want any of them in his life. He had tried his best to push them out of it. She had been the one who pushed him back into it. He hadn’t lied about any of it. He had simply avoided it. That wasn’t going to be the answer, and he must know that by now. In fact, he must be struggling to float on the ocean of problems this family represented. He needed her support, not her criticism. If they were truly soul mates, she should be in his corner all the way. There was no riding the fence on this one.
With that in mind, she went downstairs to collect her valuables.
Alex was lounging with one shoulder against the wall on the other side of the family room when Carmen walked in. She stepped inside the door with her hands behind her back and leaned against the opposite wall, watching him.
His gaze searched hers. Apparently he found what he was looking for, because a smile touched the corners of his mouth and his eyes warmed.
Carmen smiled, basking in the warmth of his attention. Finally she turned to Destiny and Jonathan.
“It’s getting late. You’d better go to bed now.”
Destiny slid off Felipa’s lap and ran over to her. Carmen picked her up and turned as Jonathan joined her. They all said goodnight and then headed upstairs. Alex remained behind. He probably wanted to say good-bye privately.
By the time she finished bathing and dressing Destiny, Jonathan was in bed. Carmen kissed Destiny goodnight and shut the door to their room. She showered and changed into her new nightgown, but Alex was still downstairs when she crawled into bed. She lay quietly for a long time thinking about all that had happened, and the new babies. Had they made a mistake? Not that it mattered at this point. Whether it was an unforgivable sin or a miracle, the twins were living babies now. Even if they could change things, she didn’t want to. Alex wasn’t buying an heir. It wasn’t in him to do that.
Somewhere in her musings, she finally fell asleep.
She woke when the bed sank with the weight of a person sitting down. Lifting her head, she glanced at the clock. It was after midnight. She rolled over and rose up on an elbow.
“Alex?”
“I didn’t mean to wake you,” he whispered as he crawled into bed.
“Are you just getting back?” She asked
“Yeah. We had some late visitors.”
“Oh.” More people she wouldn’t know. He had a lot of friends in Texas.
He lay down on his back and pulled the covers up. She dropped to her pillow, wondering if she was the only one who thought their exchange across the living room ended the quarrel.
She felt for his hand and knew an instant warm rush when she found it. That was all it took. He rolled to face her, his other hand seeking her waist and drawing her close. She eagerly slid into his embrace and welcomed the warm lips that sought hers.
Later as she lay awake beside him, listening to the sound of his breathing, it occurred to her that they had fallen into the pattern of making up by making love. When did that start – and was it a good thing? They hadn’t actually settled anything, and yet they were no longer quarreling. Maybe they were both a little wrong . . . and a little right. In any case, there was nothing that couldn’t wait to be discussed at home. They would be there tomorrow night, so there was no point in making the remaining vacation time unpleasant.
She rolled over on her side away from him. Alex rolled over and laid an arm across her waist, cuddling her close without waking. She smiled, stroking his arm with her hand. Even in sleep he was irresistible. He was a good husband and father. Why did she question him? Wasn’t he allowed to be human?