Stacy Connelly – The Wedding She Always Wanted (страница 8)
Emily lifted a hand to push her hair back from one shoulder, and the diamond bracelet she wore caught enough light to send prisms dancing across the restaurant. For a crazy second, Javy thought of the fake diamond engagement ring he’d bought for Stephanie.
Simulated, the salesgirl had called it. It had been all he could afford at eighteen, and as a symbol of his foolish teenage love, the diamond had been 100 percent genuine. But to Stephanie, the ring had been a cheap knockoff, and his best had been nothing but second rate.
Shoving aside memories—as well as any asinine thoughts of spilling his guts—he asked his young night manager, “Do me a favor, will you, Tommy? Move the damaged tables and chairs into the back, okay?”
Puzzled, the younger man asked, “Um, where do you want me to put them?”
“Just try to find some place out of the way.”
As the younger man grabbed a carved chair in each hand, Javy turned back to Emily. He still wasn’t sure why she’d come to the restaurant, but this definitely wasn’t the way he wanted her to see it.
He was proud of his parents’ place, of the hard work and dedication that had made Delgado’s into a neighborhood landmark. He would have liked to show it to her at its best—on a Friday night, with the music blaring and every table filled by happy, hungry customers.
Not now, not like this, with the damp smell of stagnant water already replacing the restaurant’s once mouthwatering aromas of peppers and spices, and with unwanted emotions and memories creeping past his defenses.
“What are you doing here, Emily?”
At his question, soft color slowly bloomed in her cheeks—like the petals of a rose unfolding. The effect was so beautiful and so stunning, he would have sworn she did it on purpose if he hadn’t been pretty sure such a thing was impossible.
“I shouldn’t have come. It was a mistake. I was thinking that I could help, but it’s not like I can do—” she waved her free hand to encompass the mess around them “—anything.”
Even without Emily’s pronouncement, Javy would have bet the restaurant that major remodeling work was not her forte. That her experience was with hair dryers, not handsaws, and that the only nails she was familiar with were the ones painted a delicate pink on the tips of her fingers and toes.
But he also knew from listening to Connor moon over his girlfriend years ago that Emily could sing and dance. She’d been in dozens of beauty pageants and plays while growing up. That she was a skilled equestrian and had been an honor student. He could only imagine she’d honed those talents at college and in the years since.
Yet, for reasons he couldn’t begin to imagine, she was ready to dismiss all that with the flick of a wrist to help him. The curiosity urging him to discover all the reasons why told Javy his mistake would be in asking her to stay.
In the end, he didn’t have a chance to say anything. The front door opened, letting in a blast of heat and sunlight and a prayer in Spanish as his mother stepped into the restaurant. At work, she normally wore the same style dress as the rest of the female staff—a colorful blouse and embroidered skirt. It was strange to see her there dressed in a plain olive T-shirt and khaki pants. Her haste to leave the house showed in her hair, which she had left loose to fall to her waist. It had to be his imagination that overnight more gray seemed to shoot through the dark strands.
“It’s not as bad as it looks, Mama,” Javy said immediately, not wanting to consider her reaction when she saw the worst of it.
“It’s bad, Javier. Like the fire …”
Javy flinched at the reminder of his failure and the disaster that had almost destroyed them. “It isn’t,” he insisted. “It’s not that bad. I can fix it.” His voice trailed off as for the second time, he lost his audience in the middle of his inspirational speech.
Maria stared at Emily, but unlike Tommy’s wide-eyed infatuation, disapproval was written clearly on his mother’s face.
Realizing Maria was speaking Spanish to exclude Emily, he glanced at her, an apology in his eyes, and drew his mother aside. “Only me what, Mama?” he asked in English.
“Only you would bring a girl to the restaurant now. Bad enough you have a different girl in here every other week, but today? It is a disaster, and you bring a date.”
His dating, or more specifically, his refusal to settle down, had long been a point of contention between them, one he refused to get into now. “We aren’t on a date,” Javy argued, but Maria would hear none of it.
“Do you think I do not recognize this girl? The one Connor was seeing all those years ago. The silly girl who did not think he was good enough for someone like her—”
“You’re right.” Emily stepped closer, covering the distance Javy had tried to put between them, and joined a conversation that she was smart enough to realize was about her. “I was a silly girl back then.” Meeting Javy’s gaze, she added in Spanish,
Javy felt his jaw drop, and he ducked his head rather than let his mother see the smile he couldn’t hold back. Muttering beneath her breath, Maria stalked off to the kitchen. As he met Emily’s gaze, he let out a low laugh.
She winced. “I shouldn’t have done that. I’m sorry—”
“Don’t apologize.” As much as he loved his mother, she was a force to be reckoned with, and few people tried. He couldn’t remember the last time anyone had silenced her. He never would have guessed Emily Wilson would be up for the job.
Once more she was showing him she was nothing like the spoiled rich girl he’d figured her for. She had spirit—buried deep, maybe, but still burning, despite what life had thrown at her. She’d shown it at the reception when she’d stood up to the gossips talking behind her back and just now with his mother.
His mother had taught him Spanish straight from the cradle, so he certainly hadn’t needed to think about translating the sentence Emily had spoken in perfect, if unaccented, Spanish. But it was as if his body had interpreted the words before his brain had even had the chance. Emily was a woman, no question about it. A fact both his body and his brain fully appreciated.
“You’re incredible, you know that?”
She gave a questioning laugh. “Because I speak Spanish?”
“No, Emily, not because you speak Spanish.”
Their gazes locked, and the low vibe of desire picked up speed until Javy half expected the windows to start shaking. Another wash of color lit Emily’s cheeks. As incapable of accepting a compliment as she was at recognizing her own worth, she ducked her head and quickly explained, “Foreign language was a requirement at my school. My mother wanted me to take French, but my father thought Spanish more practical.”
“I would have bet you spoke French.”
“Well, I did take French my junior and senior year to make my mother happy. But my father was right about Spanish.”
“So, you did what your father wanted, and you did what would make your mother happy,” Javy said, seeing a pattern she had likely followed most of her life. “What about you, Emily? What do
Emily glanced around the restaurant rather than focusing on Javy’s questions. What
Her breath caught when she turned back and nearly bumped into him. He’d moved closer as she focused on the damage, and now stood mere inches away. Dark circles lined his eyes, and a hint of beard shadowed his jaw, evidence of the first of many long nights and the hard work ahead.
“I want …”
After all, during their engagement, Todd had kissed her good-night countless times, and not once had Emily given in to the urgency to take that kiss beyond a bedroom doorway. Like their wedding, their wedding night was to have been perfectly arranged, a night filled with flowers, candles and champagne. But all the romantic staging in the world couldn’t add what Javy’s kiss had shown her had been missing from her relationship with Todd—unplanned, unstaged, undeniable desire.
Admitting that to herself was bad enough; admitting it to Javy would be giving him an advantage he didn’t need.
“I, um, want to hear more about how you’re going to fix the restaurant,” she said lamely, recalling the conversation she’d interrupted when she first arrived.
Javy didn’t immediately respond, and Emily reminded herself that his dark eyes couldn’t possibly see the thoughts bouncing wildly through her brain … or the desire doing a far more seductive slide through her body. She wasn’t entirely sure she believed it, though, and was relieved when he finally answered.