“I have you.” She laid her forehead against his back, and he intertwined his fingers with hers at his heart. “She might get more money, but I have you. I win.”
Chapter 16
Maya would never get used to leisurely afternoons shopping in stores where they gave you champagne for free, but Javi’s sisters had asked her to spend the day with them wedding dress shopping.
She didn’t think she had many thoughts about wedding dresses, which was probably a good thing, given that Javi never mentioned them getting married. He didn’t talk about the future really, nothing beyond next week or next month. It didn’t make her fear that they were temporary, exactly. She worried that she was a rebound. He didn’t mind their squishy domestic situation, but they didn’t really talk about it, either.
Alana twirled in a gorgeous, white dress that did nothing for her. The lines were all wrong. It must have showed on Maya’s face. “You don’t like it.”
“You don’t like it either,” Maya said. She hadn’t spent much time with the middle sibling, but Alana was decisive and straightforward. She got why she and Cole were a good match.
“You’re right.” Alana started back for the dressing room.
“This is the ninth bridal salon we’ve been to.” Carla finished her glass of champagne, and one of the employees appeared with another.
Maya declined more libations and stood up. “Let’s see if we can find something a little more unique.”
“My older sister is not unique.” Carla’s words held the particular bitterness that only baby siblings could fully embody.
“But the dress isn’t for her. It’s for Cole.” Maya thumbed through a couple of blush dresses. “Cole’s had the Southern debutante. Told me all about it, cried all over my bar about it one Friday night.”
Maya pulled out a dress and Carla actually gasped. “Our mother is going to have a heart attack.” She took a sip of champagne. “Which means it’s perfect.”
Maya pointed at Carla. “You’re trouble.”
She clapped her hands and looked almost gleeful about perturbing her mother. “I know that, but it’s a secret.” Maya doubted that very much. The youngest Hernandez sibling was loud, brash, and uninhibited. She was also engaged to maybe the most boring person Maya had ever met. The contrast made Javi’s youngest sister a little more interesting.
Alana came out and saw the dress. Her eyes widened, and she made grabby hands at it. Maya was relieved and satisfied that her choice had gone over well.
The saleswoman wasn’t quite as happy. It probably wasn’t good for her street cred if someone the customer brought with her ultimately picked out the dress.
While they waited, Alana and Carla looked at each other pointedly. They had a silent conversation that would have made Maya uncomfortable if she didn’t do the same thing with Felix all the time.
Finally, Alana said, “I have a very important question for you.”
Maya made a motion for her to continue, even though she feared that all the friendliness and banter had all been a front and they were about to interrogate her about her past. Shit, Alana was a smart woman. She’d probably been deep Google searching in order to protect her older brother from another gold digger.
“I think you should be one of my bridesmaids.”
Whatever Maya had been expecting, it wasn’t that. “Uhh. Are you sure? That will be really awkward if your brother dumps me before the wedding.”
Both of them laughed at her. “Our brother is obsessed with you. No way he dumps you.” The saleswoman returned with the dress, and Alana walked behind a curtain to put it on.
Carla said, “You can say no, but Alana would be hurt. She doesn’t have a ton of female friends—not because she’s the kind of girl who doesn’t—she’s been busy.” She paused to ask for more champagne. This time Maya would join her. “And you are going to be part of our family.”
Maya looked down at her hands; she was unsure whether she should share with Carla, whether what she had to say was private. She’d never done any of this serious relationship stuff, and she was always afraid that she was going to mess it up. Maybe Javi had been right to choose someone else. The urge to run, the one that Javi usually tamed with a touch or dirty sex, came roaring back. Blood rushed through her ears, and it didn’t even make sense. It was totally normal for a friend to ask her brother’s serious girlfriend to be in her wedding. “I don’t know.”
“Like she said, you can say no.” Alana came out of the changing room and Carla squealed.
Maya did, too. But on the inside. “That’s perfect, Alana. You have to get it.”
Alana looked in the mirror like a woman in love. That’s the way she had to look on her wedding day. “I’m only buying the dress if you agree to be in the wedding.”
“Shut up.” Maya’s words were harsh, but she didn’t for one minute believe that her being in the wedding was that important to Alana.
“I’m totally serious.” Alana met her eyes, totally stone cold. Maya could see why she was the toughest negotiator in the family. She was really going to leave the best dress ever at the store if Maya didn’t agree to be in her wedding.
Maya couldn’t see why it was so important to her. “Well, fine then.” She could always back out after the dress was paid for.
Carla clapped her hands together. “Now that’s taken care of, we need to find Maya a dress for the bachelor auction. One that says, ‘bid on my man and die.’”
What had she gotten herself into with this family?
* * * *
Javi’s father didn’t come into the office very often anymore. It didn’t smell right to Javi that he was there on a random Wednesday. Still, he had work to do that he tried to focus on until his father knocked on his door.
“We’re going to lunch.” Hector didn’t ask questions when he thought the answer would be no. He gave orders, especially to his children. The only person he didn’t do that with was his wife. Sometimes Javi thought that his father would have been happy not to have children at all. That he resented the fact that he didn’t have his wife all to himself.
That’s why it always struck Javi as weird that he pushed his children into settling down. Sure, most of Javi’s childhood friends married in their twenties; most people in Miami did, but his father was ultra-traditional about it.
“Where are we going?”
“Yardbird. Your mother won’t let me eat fried chicken anymore.”
At least Javi would get a good meal while his father chewed him out.
In the middle of the day, the traffic wasn’t too bad from Coral Gables to the beach. Still, Hector didn’t talk on the way to the restaurant, save a few remarks about how Javi’s Porsche was too much car for the city and how he drove too fast. His father didn’t say why he’d come in the office and insisted on lunch until he had a bourbon in hand.
“Alana’s been impressed with your work lately.”
Javi nodded instead of answering the question his father hadn’t asked.
“I had thought you would start dating someone appropriate again once you got out of those clubs, but you couldn’t stay away, could you?”
Javi’s stomach sunk. His father’s disapproval was always a blow, but now, when he took aim at Maya, he couldn’t block it out.
“Maya’s not like the girls from right after the divorce.” Javi took a sip of his bourbon so he wouldn’t look like he was on the defensive, even though he was. “She’s a serious painter. A gallery is looking at her for a solo show.”
“So, are you serious with this artist?”
Javi’s insides twisted. His father clearly hadn’t approved of Maya at the engagement party, but he’d hoped that his mother would have talked some sense into him. Maya had been nervous, especially under his father’s scrutiny. And she apparently had good reason to be worried.
He took a drink of bourbon that burned on the way down. “Yes. Very serious.”
His father grimaced.
“You realize that she has a past?”
“Yes, she’s told me.” A sense of rightness about their relationship warmed him and gave him courage.
“She told you that her father ran con games for a living, until he ended up in prison for trying to kill her mother?”
Javi tried to hide his shock. He didn’t know that, and he didn’t like that Maya hadn’t told him the whole story. But he wasn’t about to air his relationship issues when his father didn’t approve of the relationship in the first place. “I know that her father is in prison. What does that have to do with her?”
“I’m concerned that your judgment about her is as impaired as it was about Karrie.” Hector put down his glass. “If the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, this girl could be a lot worse than the last one.”
And there it was. Javi would never be more than a screw up in his father’s eyes because he’d made a mistake. “Plenty of people get divorced, Dad. Andy Padilla and his wife just split.”
“Yes, but not everyone puts the family business at risk when they do.” His father shook his head and took a bite of fried green tomatoes. “You weren’t even smart enough to get a prenuptial agreement. Sometimes I wonder if you’re my son or some sort of changeling.”
His dad wasn’t fucking around with the insults. He was usually kind of aloof. But damn. That was a body blow. “We look too much alike to not be related.”
“Maybe so, but I am not interested in losing more of what I’ve worked so hard for if you continue on with this painter.”
“Why don’t you order another scotch and tell me how you really feel?”
He and his father stared each other down for almost a minute. He didn’t need to say out loud that he had married Karrie in an effort to please his father. Like bringing home a blonde whose family tree could be traced back to the Mayflower would prove to his father that he was acceptable and responsible. Despite the fact that his father had worked for everything he had, he was a snob.
But he was done trying to prove anything to anyone. He was finished trying to be acceptable to his father. Javi recognized this conversation for what it was. His father had handed over most of the control of the business to him and Alana. He’d let his certifications lapse. Hector was bored and he missed pulling strings, making deals, and holding power. He was interfering in Javi’s life because he didn’t have anything better to do.
His father broke the stare first, and Javi felt a bit of victory. He was going to decide how he lived his life, free of his father’s influence. Hector motioned the server for another scotch and they ordered lunch.
“You know, it would be easier for the lawyer if you weren’t living with a new woman. It will look bad in the courts.”
“How did you know we’re living together?” Javi didn’t even know if he and Maya were living together. No official conversations had happened. He didn’t want to spook her. Whenever he mentioned doing something even a few weeks in the future, she looked freaked out.
“Your sisters talk to your mother and she talks to me. I listen.”
“Sometimes.” That made his father smile.
“I always listen to your mother. Her voice, to me, is melody.”
Javi snort-laughed. His mother could hide it sometimes, but she still had a harsh South Boston accent that hadn’t faded completely after thirty years in South Florida. “My sisters talk too much.”
“But still, if you could make Karrie believe that there was a smidgen of a chance that you could get back together, she might drop the petition.” His father took a bite of fried chicken and his face filled with momentary bliss. He supposed that he ought to let the old man have his pleasures. Allow him to interfere.
His father also had a point. Maybe Karrie had heard that Maya was with him, and had gotten jealous. That, combined with the fact that that business was doing much better than it had been during their marriage, might account for the legal action. Javi just didn’t know. That’s why he wanted to talk to her.
“I’m going to talk to her, to see.”
“Don’t tell her about Maya. You did break your vows to Karrie by ending your marriage. She might not be over that, and she’d entitled to feel out her grief. If your mother had ever left me, I would have destroyed any chance at her happiness.” That was maybe the most his father had ever said about his feelings to Javi. But it was deeply twisted that his father only wanted his mother to be happy on his terms. Not surprising given his attitude towards his children’s lives, but twisted just he same. “Marriage is sacred.”
“I know that. I’m not sure I’m doing it again. But, if I do, it will be with someone I truly love. I was too young to get married. Karrie and I were never—we never felt as intensely as you and Mom do about each other.”
“Do you love this artist?”
He knew he was falling for her, but he wanted to tell Maya that first. And he wanted to be sure about her feelings for him before he presented her to his family as his forever. “I care for her very much. More than I did for Karrie. I won’t hurt Maya in order to avoid paying Karrie off.”
Hector sat back and looked at him with narrowed eyes. “My son was never one to take the easy way out.”
“Just let me do this my way. Don’t interfere.”
His father grunted and finished his chicken. Then he ordered dessert and let Javi pick up the check.
Chapter 17
“These are really remarkable.” The art dealer was blowing smoke up her ass. “The lines and passion. You’re doing something very new.”
Even though Maya knew better than to believe a word that the other man said, she blushed. Maybe he wanted to sell her work, but he also wanted her. The way he’d licked his lips and he looked her up and down told her that. Before Javi, she might have slept with him. Art guys tried hard in bed; the ones who liked girls really liked girls. But now, it was distasteful and the art would have to stand up on its own.
“Thank you.”
“I’m just being honest.”
She looked over at Felix, who was standing by the door. He gave her a thumbs-up.
“It’s still gratifying to hear that you enjoy my work.”
The walked over to the large-scale canvas that she’d started after the first night with Javi. He leaned closely to it. “I have a client who is going to love this.”
“How much are you thinking he’d pay for it?” She’d been spending so much time with Javi lately that she hadn’t been able to take many shifts at the club. Plus, the other bartenders had asked what she was doing there after Javi made it clear to Natalia that they were seriously dating. Straddling the line between working class and the white collar boyfriend was becoming untenable.
And she didn’t want anyone—particularly in Javi’s family—to see her as a charity case or a hand out. Javi had already shelled out for a batch of supplies. She needed to be able to pay her own way—ideally through selling paintings rather than slinging drinks.
The dealer quoted a number that was so far above what she’d had in her head that she didn’t respond for long moments. She just stood there, choking on air.
“Is that less than you were thinking?”
“No. Um…I mean…it sounds about right.” She looked over at Felix, and he still looked to be in shock.
“My gallery is doing a show in a month. How many more can you have ready?”
“How many do you need?”
The dealer laughed. “You have my number. Call me when you know what it looks like. I have a couple of artists I can use to fill in space, but you are extremely talented and I’d like to do a solo show.”
Maya nodded. The dealer stood up from the small table and chair Felix had set up for the meeting. “Thank you.”
The dealer kissed her on both cheeks. “I look forward to doing business with you.”
Javi sauntered in and saw the other man bent at her cheek. He stiffened and went cold, like he always did when he was pissed about something.
She didn’t want to put her new business associate off, but she also really wanted Javi to cool it with the jealous shit. They’d been together less than a month. He hadn’t earned the right to be jealous.
Still, she introduced the two men and resisted the urge to roll her eyes while they stared each other down. Men.
Felix walked the art dealer to his car, but she turned her back on Javi. He grabbed her from behind and growled in her ear. “That guy wants to fuck you.”
“Too bad for him that I have a jealous boyfriend.”
He squeezed her tighter. “That’s the first time you’ve ever called me your boyfriend.”
She hadn’t realized it. It had slipped out. She didn’t care to take the words back, so she sniffed and broke his hold. She had a few brushes to clean before they left to get ready for the bachelor auction.
She didn’t like the idea of someone else getting to go on a date with Javi, but she was not excited about going to her first charity event as a guest instead of a server. On the other hand, the dress Carla had insisted on putting on her fiancé’s credit card was out of this world. If she couldn’t feel confident in that, she needed to pack it in.
And her art career was on the upswing. She might have to get used to rubbing elbows with rich people. She could view this as practice for when she really wanted to tell someone to fuck off and had to smile and eat shit instead.
“He might want to bang me, but he’s giving me a solo show.”
Javi was behind her again in an instant. She dropped her brushes in the sink before he lifted her off her feet.
“That’s amazing. I knew you could do it, but I love hearing that other people realize how remarkable you are.”
He kissed her, and it was endless. He kissed her like that every day. His kisses were drugging, and plumbed the depths of her emotions and desire. He fired her body and calmed her soul all at the same time. Usually, frenzied fucking and several orgasms followed. This time, however, they had a charity event to get to.
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