“You can thank me for that,” a voice piped up across the room. From a high-backed couch that had partially concealed her, Holly rose to her feet and pushed back the razored tips of her bangs. “I came up last night. I’ve been telling Nana all about you two.” She sauntered toward them, smiling enigmatically. “So now she knows everything.” She rolled her eyes in exaggeration. “Everything...”
Was Holly hinting at something? Did she suspect Jacinta and Lex’s relationship was fake? Jacinta found herself edging closer to Lex, as if to convince everyone they were a couple.
“Don’t pay any attention to Holly’s teasing.” Nana Alice tugged at Jacinta’s hand and led her toward the group of couches arranged under the glazed roof. “Come and sit down, and you can tell me all about yourself.”
“You’ll scare Jacinta off if you subject her to the third degree,” Lex said, following after them.
“Nonsense. She looks like she knows her own mind. If she thinks I’m being too nosey, I’m sure she’ll tell me off.” She turned her bright gaze to Jacinta. “Won’t you, dear?”
Jacinta responded with something noncommittal as she took a seat on the couch opposite Nana Alice. Lex sat next to Jacinta and took her hand in his, his body pressing against hers, and her heart skipped, though she knew it was just for his relatives’ benefit. Nearby, Holly examined her fingernails, her studied nonchalance giving nothing away.
Nana Alice began to ask Jacinta questions—what she did, where she lived, if she had any family. She answered as best she could, skimming over her job—IT consultant was truthful without giving too much away—and talking about Kevin as if he were just a normal younger brother.
“You sound as if you’re very close to your brother,” Nana Alice said.
“I am.” Glancing at Lex, she met his gaze rather defiantly. The quirk of his eyebrow was his only response. “We’ve had to rely on each other.”
“You poor things.” The elderly lady’s brow crinkled up. “You’ve lost both your parents?”
“No,” she was startled into replying. “My mother’s still alive.”
Next to her, Lex tensed. She’d never mentioned her mother to him. She knew that, because she never mentioned her mother to anyone. Except now. Somehow Nana Alice had gotten it out of her.
“Oh?” Nana Alice blinked, clearly puzzled.
Jacinta ran a finger down the front of her linen pants and moistened her lips. “Uh, she lives in Mexico, but we talk now and then.” A couple of times a year, if she was lucky. Everyone was still gazing at her, but she had nothing more to say. She glanced at Lex with growing unease.
“Here’s Hazel with the coffee,” Lex said as the housekeeper fortuitously arrived with refreshments. He rose to his feet and went to help her. Coffee and pastries were passed around, and the subject of Jacinta’s mother thankfully faded to the background.
But she should have known Lex wouldn’t forget. Half an hour later, they left the conservatory and climbed the staircase to their guest bedroom. As they walked down a long corridor, Lex said in a mild tone, “Why didn’t you ever tell me about your mother?”
“You never asked.”
He paused then said quietly, “I’m asking now.”
She stopped by a window and saw a maze in the garden just below them. How many gardeners did it take to maintain this place? She turned back to face Lex. “I really don’t see how it’s any of your business.”
“I’m not prying just to be nosey. When we broke up you said it was because you had to stick by your brother. That family loyalty was everything. Now I find out you have a mother who’s still alive, and you barely talk to her. Don’t you think that screams of hypocrisy?”
He was offended, it dawned on her. Not spitting angry, but a low-pitched displeasure. His lips were pulled into a tight line, his eyes were narrowed. Her heart tripped up; she didn’t want him to be angry with her over this. Not this.
“It’s not what you think.” She pressed a palm against her chest to collect herself. “We’re not estranged, really, but my mom...she’s not a very motherly person. She worked herself to the bone to provide for us, that was how she showed she cared, but the other mothering stuff, she wasn’t good at it. Especially when it came to Kevin. He’s always been high-strung, difficult, even more so when he was a kid. It was just easier for her to leave me in charge of him while she worked two jobs.”
“Why is she in Mexico?” Lex asked.
“When I finished high school, she decided to treat herself and take a vacation. She met someone there, an expat, and now they have a winery in the mountains.”
“So you were still a teenager when you were left to take care of yourself and your brother.”
Jacinta winced. She opened her mouth to protest. No, it wasn’t like that. Mom did her best. She deserved some happiness after all those years struggling alone. She didn’t mean to leave us. But the words wouldn’t come out. For so long she’d been defending her mother, silently, in her mind, but now she couldn’t. Lex had expressed the truth so bluntly she couldn’t deny it.
“Don’t say that,” she muttered.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to criticize your mom, but, well, you’re being way too generous toward her. She shouldn’t have foisted her responsibilities onto you.”
“I didn’t mind. I—” A spiky lump formed in her throat. All the resentment she’d suppressed—resentment she’d barely acknowledged until now—suddenly rose up and gagged her.
The garden below her blurred as her eyes misted up. Lex said something she didn’t catch, and then his arms encircled her and drew her into his chest. She didn’t even think of resisting, just leaned her forehead against his shoulder and allowed his presence to envelop her. The resentment subsided. It felt so good to be held like this, to rest in his arms and let go of...everything.
“You don’t have to pretend it was okay,” Lex murmured against her hair. “Not to me.”
He was right. With Lex she didn’t have to maintain the facade, but years of habit were difficult to break, so she remained silent in his arms.
Down below, two figures moved across the lawn toward the maze. Nana Alice and Holly. They stopped and looked up at the house—looked up at them. Nana Alice waved and smiled, Holly smirked. Of course, they could see her standing here with Lex’s arms wrapped around her. They must look like a pair of starry-eyed lovers. She squirmed and went to free herself, but Lex held her firm.
“You don’t want to ruin a good impression, do you?” He lifted one hand to wave back at the two women in the garden. Holly gave them a thumbs-up. Jacinta didn’t know if that was meant ironically so she stopped wiggling in Lex’s embrace. When the two down below had moved off, he slowly released her.
“For the record,” she said, “my mom does make an effort to keep in touch with me and Kevin.”
“And I’ll bet each time she calls, you say everything is just fine and not to worry.”
“Everything is fine now. Can we drop the subject?”
“Okay.” He gestured to a side passage. “We’re staying through here.”
The corridor led to a separate suite away from the rest of the house. She walked into the room and found an oasis of tasteful calm. The bedroom and its furnishings were a symphony of restful shades in taupe, cream, and chocolate brown. Tall windows looked out on a panoramic vista of lush gardens and rolling countryside. A king-sized bed, draped with crisp Egyptian cotton and piled high with pillows and cushions, dominated the center of the room.
“What a lovely room.” She couldn’t stop staring at the bed. It looked enormous and amazingly comfortable.
“There’s an en suite bathroom and a walk-in closet.” He gestured at their suitcases, which had been deposited at the foot of the bed. “Do you want to unpack?”
“Yes, I’d better hang up those new clothes before they get too creased.” She tried to ignore the bed as she moved to her suitcase.
“Hazel can get them pressed, if you want.”
“Oh no! I couldn’t do that. She must have more than enough to do.”
His lips twitched. “You don’t have to sound so outraged. We have plenty of staff here, all of them paid well to do their jobs, which can and does include ironing.”
Feeling a little gauche, she unzipped her suitcase and lifted out a few things. “I’m not used to someone else doing my ironing, that’s all.”
“You don’t find it easy asking for something for yourself, do you?”
“You don’t either,” she shot back.
“I disagree. I have something to ask of you right now. Something just for me.”
The drawl in his voice hitched her breathing. Between them, the bed stretched high and wide and inviting. Involuntarily her gaze flickered over the sheets before lifting to clash with his. The simmer in his eyes set her blood fizzing.
“You, ask?” She clutched a dress to her chest. “That’d be a nice change.”
He shook his head slowly, the blue sizzle of his eyes trapping her. “I’ve never done anything without your consent, as that episode in the changing room proved.”