“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 you want? What would make you happy?”
Emily glanced around the restaurant rather than focusing on Javy’s questions. What did she want? Last night she’d come to the conclusion she wanted to see Javy again, to see if that quick start of excitement was due only to the emotions of the wedding, but now, with his restaurant in shambles, satisfying her curiosity seemed selfish.
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…” You, she thought, the fluttering in her belly proof of the unspoken words. But of course, she couldn’t admit that. She’d tried telling herself her rash and reckless behavior was nothing more than a reaction to her former fiancé’s betrayal. But she’d been unable to push aside the thought that last night had far more to do with Javier Delgado than it did with Todd.
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.
“Most of it will be cleanup and demolition before I can move on to the repairs. And…”
His voice trailed away as he looked around, and he dug his hands into the back pockets of his faded jeans, showing an uncertainty she hadn’t seen in him before. This other side, this shy, almost boyish side charmed whatever small part of her that hadn’t already been won over by his confident, almost cocky attitude.
“I’d like to do some remodeling.” He shrugged. “As big of a disaster as this is, it would be the perfect opportunity. We’ll have to close down while we make the repairs, so why not make some improvements, as well?”
“Like what?”
He waved a hand to a doorway off the main dining area. “We need to upgrade the bar. Make it into more of a sports lounge. Add some flat-screen TVs, couple of pool tables, electronic dartboards. It’s way too small right now, but we could steal space from the patio. Of course, that would mean building a new outdoor area, but there’s room if we take away a small section of the parking lot. It would be a lot of work but…”
“You could do all that? Tear down walls and everything?”
“Tearing ’em down is easy. Building them back up takes a little more skill. But I have a cousin who works construction. I know Alex would want to be in on the job. And the staff here…They could help out with trips to the hardware store and hauling supplies. That would make a big difference.”
Emily thought the biggest difference would be keeping his employees involved while the restaurant was closed and they were otherwise out of work. But judging by the casual way he spoke, Javy wasn’t looking for praise.
“Seems like you’ve given this a lot of thought,” she offered, although he didn’t sound as excited as she would have expected.
He gave a short laugh. “Probably more than I should. Maria isn’t big on change. I know she’ll want everything back the way it was…like nothing ever happened.” Despite the easy grin he flashed her, the spark in his dark eyes when he talked about the remodeling had faded.
“I’m sure if you talked to your mother about it, you could change her mind. You could convince her that it will be better than before.”
His handsome features twisted with a wry smile. “There is no better than before.”
Emily wondered what he meant by that, but his cell phone rang and, after a quick apology, he started talking to the insurance company before she had a chance to ask.
As Javy walked into the back office in search of a policy number, Emily took a moment to focus on the restaurant instead of on the damage. A series of photographs covering a wall of the front lobby caught her eye and helped her see beyond the disarray to how the place looked on a typical busy night. Some of the pictures had the faded yellow tint of age, but even without that telltale sign, she could have guessed the timeline by the fashions. She smiled at the sight of large mustaches, feathered hair and bell-bottoms.
In more recent shots, she could almost feel the energy pulsing from the vibrant pictures that caught waiters and waitresses with loaded trays as they ducked between crowded tables filled with laughing patrons. In a few of the frames, she spotted Javy. He wore what she assumed was the typical male uniform, a white button-down shirt and black pants, a sharp contrast to the colorful shirts and embroidered, tiered skirts worn by the waitresses.
His heart-stopping grin was on display in almost every shot, and she tried not to notice the interchangeable women by his side. Blonde, brunette, redhead, he didn’t seem to have a type, except the women had one thing in common—they were all beautiful.
Last night Emily had lain awake for hours, reliving the memory of Javy’s kiss even as she strictly told herself to forget it—to forget him. He had a reputation as a playboy, and that kiss had proved he had the skills to match. She’d be foolish to walk any further down a road that would only lead to heartbreak. But the more she argued how dangerous Javy was, the more…safe he started to seem.
Oh, by three o’clock in the morning she’d convinced herself she was suffering from sleep deprivation. But even at six, after a few hours of sleep, the idea still circled through her thoughts. Todd had hurt her when he’d cheated and lied and pretended to be something he wasn’t. He’d fooled her every step of the way.
But with Javy, her eyes were wide-open. She knew what he was and what he wasn’t, and she had no expectations beyond that. No plans of becoming a permanent fixture by his side in future photos. And as long as she kept that in mind, she had little chance of getting hurt.
She had her own safety still firmly in mind as she wandered around the back of the restaurant, toward the bar and patio. When she caught sight of Maria through the sliding-glass doors, Emily immediately froze. Still stunned by the way she’d stood up to the older woman, Emily doubted she had it in her to go another round. But Maria wasn’t paying any attention to her. With the blazing summer sun outside, Emily doubted she could even be seen inside, and Maria’s attention was firmly fixed on the tables and chairs Javy had asked Tommy to move out of the way.
E
mily was ready to slip away unnoticed when she saw Javy walk over to his mother, bend down and urge her to stand.
“Another piece of my Miguel…gone. Soon there will be nothing left.” The words were muffled by the glass, but Emily could hear the devastating sense of loss in Maria’s voice.
“That’s not true. You still have the restaurant, you have your memories and nothing can take him from your heart.” Despite Javy’s encouragement, sorrow still pulled at his mother’s expression, and he quickly promised, “And I can fix the chairs and tables. I can cut away the worst of the damage, sand down the tables and chairs and restain them—”
“It won’t be the same, hijo.”
Maria was too focused on the furniture to see the expression on her son’s face, but Emily couldn’t pull her gaze away from the pain of rejection written across his handsome features. She wasn’t going to be any good at protecting herself, after all. She already cared enough to hurt for Javy. Did she really think she could keep her heart from breaking because of him?
Emily made her way back to the main dining area without Javy or his mother spotting her, and that was where he found her minutes later. “Hey, sorry that took so long,” he offered, his manner completely at ease, but Emily knew better.
She could still see the rejection he was trying to hide in the tension in his jaw and the faint lines between his eyebrows. If not for that brief scene she’d witnessed, Emily might not have noticed. But now she couldn’t not see it.
“Is everything okay?” she asked, even though she knew the answer he would give.
“Yeah, it’s fine. Insurance is a hassle, but we’ll get through.”
But it won’t be the same. Maria’s words seemed to echo in the dining room, and Emily didn’t doubt Javy could hear them, too.
No wonder he’d been reluctant to talk about his idea for the restaurant, already knowing how his mother would respond. Emily longed to give back a little of the confidence he’d given her when he took her hand and led her to the dance floor. But how could she say anything without revealing that she’d overheard their conversation?
Without words to use, she lifted a hand. She brushed her fingertips along the lines on his forehead before pressing her hand to his jaw. The scrape of his beard against her palm sent shivers racing up her arm and scattered goose bumps across her chest, as if he’d trailed that whisker-roughened skin across her flesh…His eyes darkened with desire, and Emily almost forgot why she’d touched him in the first place—other than for the sheer pleasure of touching him at all.
“I know you will,” she said softly. And maybe it wouldn’t be the same, but she sensed how important it was that he at least try—for his own sake and for his father’s memory. If only she knew how to convince him…
Lifting his hand, he wrapped his fingers around her wrist and slid her palm slowly from his jaw, across his chin, until his lips pressed into the center of her sensitized flesh. “You sound pretty sure about that.” She felt the heat of his breath and the words he spoke against her palm, a seductive sign language she had little trouble translating.
Forcing herself to concentrate, she said, “Maybe because I’m pretty sure about you.”
“But you haven’t even seen what I can do yet.”
Emily swallowed. “I think you can do anything you put your mind to.”
For instance, he could seduce her into forgetting everything, even the goal she had of trying to convince him to work on the furniture. And although playing with fire was safer than digging deeper into long-buried memories, a hint of disappointment that he wouldn’t confide in her lingered beneath the desire.
Except there wasn’t supposed to be anything but desire, Emily was trying to remind herself when Javy lowered their still-joined hands. His dark lashes fell, hiding his gorgeous eyes for a second, but not before she caught a glimpse of the helplessness she’d seen when he spoke to his mother.
He ran his free hand along the carved back of one of the nearby chairs. “My dad made this furniture. He worked on it in his free time, so it took months before he could replace the old pieces with ones that were uniquely his.”
“Your father was very talented.”
“I don’t know how many times he tried to show me how he carved every leaf, every flower. It took forever, and the restaurant already had a bunch of tables and chairs, and I wanted to be out playing with my friends. I just didn’t get it, and after a while, he gave up.” A muscle in his jaw clenched, and Emily could sense he was talking about more than learning his father’s craft—almost as if he felt his father had given up on him.
“Javy—”
“And now it’s too late,” he interrupted. “So, you’re wrong, Emily. I can’t fix this.”
Maybe it was too late to resolve whatever conflict had existed between Javy and his father, but Emily felt the slow burn of anger that Maria couldn’t see how important it was for Javy to do this for her, for his father’s memory, for himself. How could she simply brush all that aside?
Despite the finality of his words, he wouldn’t have made the offer unless he could do something to repair the furniture. It was his mother’s lack of faith, not his lack of ability, that was holding him back, and Emily simply couldn’t let it end there.
“How do you know?” she challenged.
“What?”
“How do you know you can’t until you try? What was it you told me last night? No more standing on the sidelines. Right?”
A slow smile kicked up the corners of his mouth, but more than practiced seduction backed the expression as a hint of light rekindled in his eyes. “You think it’s time to dance?”
If her heart had any say in the matter, it was time to do the samba, the tango, and a little salsa dancing, as well, as long as Javy was her partner. Caught up in the moment, Emily said, “You should talk to your mother about remodeling the restaurant, too.”
Javy’s grin faded away, and he shook his head. He pulled his hand from hers, and Emily tried not to see the move as a rejection. “She’ll never go for it. Believe me. It’s her place, and it’s her call.”
“Her place?” Emily echoed. “And what? You just work here?”
“Something like that.”
Emily didn’t believe it for a moment. “Javy—”
“Look, Emily, my mother doesn’t want to make any changes, and it’s better to just let it go.”
“Better? Or easier? Because, believe me, I know all about doing things the easy way.” During the long night, when she hadn’t been thinking of Javy, she’d had plenty of time to face some less than flattering facts. “I almost got married because everyone told me how perfect Todd was and how happy we’d be. It was easier to believe they were right than to take a stand and tell my entire family they were wrong.”
“That’s hardly the same thing,” he argued, brushing by her as if the last few moments had never happened.
“Of course it’s not the same. I seriously doubt you would have accepted Todd’s proposal no matter what my family said,” she retorted, earning a dark look that he probably thought would scare her off but only made her that much more determined.
Catching his arm, she had to remember to focus on what she was saying instead of on the warm skin and muscle beneath her palm. “You know the restaurant will be better with those changes,” she said softly. “If it’s a matter of money, I can—”
Jerking away from her touch as violently as if she’d stuck him with a red-hot fork, Javy snapped, “No.”
Emily had known she’d risk offending his ego when she offered the money, but she hadn’t expected such an abrupt refusal. “Won’t you even consider—”
“No, Emily. Forget it. I’ve taken all the money from your family that I’m going to in this lifetime.”
Taken money? “What are you talking about? How could you take money from my family? You don’t even know my family.”
But as the anger faded from his expression, replaced with a look of guilt and regret, Emily realized this was
no misunderstanding. Javy knew exactly what he was talking about, and she wasn’t going to like hearing it. A muttered curse beneath his breath confirmed her fear.
“I’m sorry, Emily. I thought…I thought you knew.” He reached out a hand, and this time she was the one to pull back.
“Knew what? Tell me. All of it,” she demanded despite the uneasy churning in her stomach, unwilling to be appeased by less than the truth.
Sympathy shone in Javy’s dark eyes, an emotion Emily was far too familiar with. “Your family paid Connor to stop seeing you all those years ago. That’s why he left town. He figured you were never going to go with him, so he took the money…and gave it to my family.”
Chapter Four
Color faded from Emily’s face, leaving behind a vulnerability etched in her delicate features. Javy swore beneath his breath. He could have kicked himself for blurting out what he hadn’t realized until then was a secret.
“Connor gave us the money to save the restaurant after a fire destroyed the kitchen. I’m sorry, Emily,” he repeated. He’d had no right to attack her when she’d only been trying to help. When she’d been…
Right, his conscience taunted, but he thrust the thought aside. Emily didn’t understand. The restaurant was his mother’s heart and soul, her last, best tie to her husband. Making changes or not making changes was up to her.
And even though Javy wished she trusted in him, she didn’t. At least not the way she had in his father.
Not the way Emily believed in him.
He’d seen the faith and confidence glowing in her eyes, and it warmed something deep inside his chest, lighting fire to the dreams he’d been denying. But hadn’t he learned already that dreams were like quicksand? Seemingly real and solid on the surface, but completely unable to bear the weight of reality? He’d had too many dissolve beneath his feet.
And Emily Wilson, with her turquoise eyes and glorious golden hair, was as much of a dream as anyone he’d ever met. But it was the way she got under his skin, the way she made him want to believe in something more, that made her so seductive—and so dangerous.
The Wedding She Always Wanted Page 5