“Yeah. After you returned hers. That’s low, even for you, Cam.”
She met his gaze, and something in her face changed. Her normal razor sharp stare softened, and lines formed between her brows. She slumped into the chair next to his desk. “I’ll be honest—”
“That’ll be a first,” he muttered.
She ignored his comment and continued. “I purposely kept the fee because I thought you’d come after me for it. It was the only way to get you to contact me. You stopped taking my calls and ignored my texts.”
“I needed out. I told you that many times, but you somehow reeled me back every single time. I had to make a clean break and cut ties.”
“The client never contacted me for the refund.”
“She got her money back.”
The tough exterior was back complete with an evil grin. “Ryan Zeigler to the rescue. You take it upon yourself to save the world. You bail your brother-in-law out every time he gets in over his head, you helped little Janie whatever her name is, you even tried to reform me once, but that didn’t last long. You gave up on me.”
Ryan recalled suggesting Camille purchase one of the restaurant spaces that had opened on the River Walk. His idea was for a toned down and cleaned up version of the male revue club in town. The River Walk was a magnet for bachelorette parties and ladies’ weekends. A restaurant catering to women would’ve done well in the area, and Camille had the resources and manpower to pull it off. “I didn’t give up on you. I simply made a suggestion, and you chose not to take it.”
“That’s not what I’m talking about. You gave up on us.”
“Damn it, Cam. There was no us, and you know it. I was one of your possessions that you tried to control with money.”
“That’s not true, Ryan. It was more than that. We had something special.”
He’d thought so at the time until she’d ripped his heart out of his chest. He choked out a sarcastic laugh. “You have a warped sense of reality. It’s always been about you and only you. It’s the Camille LeVan show all the way.”
“You make me sound like some kind of an ice queen.”
“Don’t get me wrong, Cam. You can be real warm when you want something. Like when you recruited me into The Cowboys. Then you gave the same treatment to young Zackary on your office couch. You certainly know the meaning of a warm welcome. Is he your newest second in command?”
“Get serious, Ryan. Zack could hardly find his way out the front door. He can’t replace you.” Her gaze trailed down his body. “He doesn’t hold a candle to you.” She stepped closer.
“What do you want?” he bit out.
Camille stopped a few inches from him and shot him a cocky grin. “The question is: what do you want, Ryan?”
“Nothing from you.”
“Your mouth is telling me one thing, but your body is screaming something else entirely.” She cupped his cheek and the pad of her finger traced his jaw and slid down his neck.
He turned his head. “You couldn’t be more wrong.”
Her finger touched his lips as the door flew open.
“Reyo, I’m—” Maya stood frozen in her tracks, her gaze ping-ponging between Camille and Ryan. “When Gretchen said you were busy, I never imagined you were doing this.”
“It’s not what it looks like.” He shrugged away from Camille’s grasp.
Maya glared at Camille before turning her attention back to Ryan. “Then what exactly is it?”
“It’s a business matter.”
“Maybe in your world, but not in mine. You better get your priorities straight, Reyo. You’re about to become a father. Jane deserves better than this.” Her hand waved at Camille like she was shooing a fly before she stormed out of the office and slammed the door.
“Shit,” he muttered. Ryan strode to his desk and slumped into the chair and rubbed his eyes. “Just leave, please.”
Camille ignored his request and took a seat on the other side of his desk. “Do you want to know why I came here?”
Ryan shrugged.
“I sold everything and bought a club in Las Vegas. I hoped there was a chance you were ready for a change and wanted to go into partnership with me. But I see that’s not going to happen. You’ve changed. Getting out of the business was a good thing for you.” She paused. “You’re going to be a father?”
He smiled. “Yeah.”
Camille nodded slowly. “I’ll send you what I owe you, including the client’s fee you refunded her. I know you don’t believe me, but it wasn’t about the money.” She stood and folded her arms across her chest, hugging herself as if the room had grown too cold for comfort. “Good-bye, Ryan.” She headed for the door.
“Cam?”
She stopped but didn’t turn around.
“You have great business sense, but there’s one thing you don’t understand—people can’t be bought.”
Her shoulders slumped slightly as she reached for the door and walked out of his life forever.
Ryan watched her leave, reflecting on their conversation. When he was wrapped up in the world of Camille LeVan, he’d been convinced that he’d fallen in love with her. After seeing her again he realized he hadn’t had a clue what love really was, until he’d met the woman who nestled herself so deep in his heart.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
The click of the lock followed by the squeak of the front door woke Jane from her nap. “Ryan?” she called sleepily.
“It’s Maya. May I come in?”
Maya? “Um … sure.” Jane leaned forward and propped her pillows against the headboard as Maya appeared in the doorway.
“Here, let me.” She shuffled to Jane’s side and fluffed a pillow. “Sit up a little.”
Jane leaned forward and Maya slid the pillow behind her back. “Thank you.”
“May I sit?” Maya nodded to the edge of the bed.
Jane tilted her head. “Sure. Is there anything wrong?”
Maya took a deep breath. “Nothing’s wrong. I’ve been thinking about our conversation earlier.”
Jane raised her eyebrows. “You mean our argument?”
Maya nodded. “I jumped to conclusions about you, and it was unfair. I think it’s time to clear this thing up between the two of us. It’s gone on long enough. I apologize for the way I’ve treated you, Jane.”
“Okay, who are you and what did you do with my future sister-in-law?” Jane smirked.
“I’m serious.”
“Just like that? I don’t understand.”
“Before Ryan walked in on us earlier you’d said your husband cheated on you. It made me realize I was wrong about you. I’d assumed you were the cause of breaking up your marriage,” Maya explained.
Jane shot her a tight grin. “God, Maya. I wanted my marriage to last forever. When I married Nick, I swore it was going to be forever. I was totally in love with him. We had our son, Tyler, and I stayed home and raised him while my husband worked. Those years at home with Tyler were some of the happiest times of my life.” Jane smiled as she remembered Tyler as a little boy. “To this day, my son and I have a bond like no other. He’s such a good kid, and he’s growing up to be a fine adult.”
Maya met Jane’s gaze. “Reyo told me about Tyler. I look forward to meeting him.”
“I didn’t go back to work until Tyler was in high school. Nick didn’t care whether I worked or not, but I did. I was bored, and Tyler didn’t need me as much, so I started working again. I’m glad I did, because it gave me something to fall back on when my world came crashing down.” She took a steadying breath and rubbed her belly. “My husband had an affair. A long affair. He didn’t tell me about it until it was over. I was oblivious, and the only reason he came clean was because he thought the woman was going to tell me, and he wanted me to hear it from him.”
“You don’t have to tell me all this,” Maya said quietly.
“It’s okay. I want you to know.” Jane continued. “He apologized up and down. Swore it wouldn’t happen again. He sai
d he wanted to stay married to me … and I agreed. I tried to pretend the affair had never happened. I went through all the motions of what had been my idyllic life, thinking I could get past it.” She sighed. “That worked, more or less, for a while, but then I realized what I was sacrificing—my self-respect. Divorcing my husband wasn’t a decision I made lightly, and it was the hardest choice I ever made, but I’m glad now that I did it. I’m also glad I had a good job, so that I was able to support myself. I wasn’t looking for a replacement husband when I met your brother. In fact, I’d pretty much resigned myself to spending the rest of my life without a partner. But Ryan and I just … happened. And the baby just happened, too. And I wouldn’t trade either one of them for anything. I won’t apologize for being divorced, or for having a career, or for my heritage, but I will swear to you that I love Ryan with all my heart, and that I want to be his wife for the rest of my life.”
Maya shook her head. “I had no idea what you went through.”
“There’s no way you could have known. It was a horrible time in my life, and I’ve never gone into that much detail about it with anyone, before—not even with Ryan.”
Maya slid off the bed and began to pace the floor. “I admire you,” Maya said at last.
Jane smiled wryly. “In the space of a day, you’ve gone from hating me to admiring me? Why?”
“Because you had the strength and courage to leave. It’s something I didn’t have.” A single tear escaped onto her cheek, and she wiped it away with her sleeve.
“Maya?” Jane said softly, searching her face for answers.
“Soon after Isabel was born, I found out Joe was being unfaithful,” Maya confessed in a voice that barely rose above a whisper.
“I’m so sorry,” Jane said, stunned.
“I confronted him, and he didn’t deny it. I thought about leaving him. I was so angry.” She pushed out a frustrated breath. “But what was I going to do? I had a baby. I could have moved in with family, but then I would always be that girl. The one who failed. The one who couldn’t keep her husband happy. So I stayed with him, to avoid the shame.”
Jane nodded, as tears gathered and fell from her own eyes. “I know how you felt. Other women know how you felt. It may have seemed to you that you were all alone, at the time, but there are women going through that same pain, every single day.”
Maya’s shoulders slumped. “Ryan told me he’d been lending Joe money. I had no idea. Joe doesn’t tell me anything. Sometimes, I wonder if he’s still running around behind my back. Every time he’s late, or smells really good, or even when he acts really nice to me, I wonder if it’s because he’s having another affair. I’ll always have doubts. If he did it once, what’s to stop him from doing it again? The drinking, too. He said he stopped and I hope he did, but I just don’t trust him. Will I ever be able to trust him again?” Lack of trust was the reason Jane had finally left Nick. “I can’t answer that. But I know one thing—you did what you believed was right for you and little Isabel.” She thought about stopping there, but conscience drove her to add, “Still, situations change, Maya. What was right for you then may not be right for you in the future.”
“You say that, but if I left him now, what would I do? I don’t have any skills.”
“Something tells me you can do whatever you put your mind to. Don’t let a fear of the unknown make you settle for a life of unhappiness. I’ve done it both ways. Your happiness is worth fighting for,” Jane said, and wiped each eye with her finger.
Maya nodded. “And so is yours. Oh gosh, you’re crying, too. I didn’t mean to upset you like this.” Maya darted into the bathroom and returned with a wad of tissues. She handed some to Jane, keeping the rest for herself.
Jane waved the tissues casually. “Pregnancy hormones. Everything makes me cry.”
Maya sat on the edge of the bed next to Jane. “While we’re being honest here, I guess I have something else to confess. I’m a little jealous of you.”
“Jealous? Of me?”
“Un poco. Just a little,” Maya said, holding her index finger and thumb close together. “You’re an independent woman. You’re not afraid to go out there and get what you want.”
Jane laughed out loud. “I’m glad that’s how I appear because, more times than not, I’m scared. So I’ll let you in on a secret.” She pointed at Maya. “I’m jealous of you, too.”
Maya scoffed. “Why?”
“Because you command such respect in this family. You may be pint-sized, but you have everyone running around, trying to please you, especially the Rosales men. Ryan says, ‘She may be tiny, but she carries a big stick.’ You are the family matriarch. And what an incredible family you have! All of you are there for each other, through thick and thin. You can count on each other. I never had a big family. Other than my mother, I didn’t have anyone but my husband and son. But I don’t worry about that with this baby, because he or she will have such a safety net of love and support within the family. This baby will never feel alone.”
Maya smiled. “She, mi amiga. The baby is a little girl.”
Jane gasped and shook her head. “How could you possibly know that?”
“I just do. And she will be loved and cherished by this family. Your family. I don’t want you to feel like an outsider anymore, Jane. You’re as much a Rosales as I am.” Leaning forward, she drew Jane into an embrace. “I’m sorry I treated you badly.”
Jane hugged her back. “You were just trying to protect what’s yours.”
“Yes. But Reyo is yours, now. I don’t have to worry about him anymore.”
“Are you two talking about me in here?”
Jane looked over Maya’s shoulder and spotted Ryan standing in the doorway.
“We have. I was just telling Jane how lucky you are to have her and how you’d do nothing to sacrifice the bond you both share.” Maya held Ryan’s gaze. “Am I right, brother?”
“You’ve never been more right,” Ryan said in almost a whisper.
“I feel like I’m missing something here,” Jane said staring at Ryan.
“Maya and I had a misunderstanding, but everything’s okay. Actually, it’s better than okay because the family feud is finally over.”
Maya stood and wiped her eyes. “Family feud? Really, Reyo, must you be so dramatic? There was no feud. My future sister-in-law and I just needed some time to get to know each other better.” She squeezed Jane’s shoulder and kissed her lightly on the cheek. “Thank you,” she whispered, then strode to the doorway and pointed at Ryan. “You make sure she feeds my niece,” Maya said, and left.
Ryan looked over his shoulder as he moved to the bedside. “Niece?”
“Maya thinks the baby’s a girl.”
“Then it’s a girl. Maya’s never wrong. She has a sixth sense about these things.”
“Then you and I had better start working on girl names.”
“I hope our daughter looks just like you,” he said, and kissed her.
“Now that Maya likes me do you think she’ll give me the recipe for her tortilla soup?” Jane asked hopefully.
“Don’t press your luck.”
“I didn’t think you’d be home until late. What made you come home?”
“Te eché de menos, Querida. I missed you.”
“Mmm, you know how hot I get when you speak Spanish to me,” she said as he came to her side and brushed his lips over hers. “But I thought you had a big party coming in tonight.”
“I do, but I wanted to talk to you about something that happened today because we agreed we’d always be honest with one another.”
Jane blinked. “Anything wrong?”
“Camille came to Vine today.”
Jane paused, trying to place the name. “Camille from The Cowboys? Did she want you to return as one of her studs?”
“Something like that. She came on to me, and for a brief moment the past came flooding back and I remembered what I once felt for her. But it made me realize what we have and how despera
tely I love you.” He tucked a lock of hair behind her ear and trailed a row of lazy kisses up her neck, his hot breath on her skin lighting a fire deep in her heart. There was something downright magical about the two of them.
“After she left, there was nothing more important to me than having a romantic dinner with the soon-to-be mother of my baby, on our lovely patio, in front of a crackling fire. So I left the party in Gretchen’s capable hands, had Chef George whip us up a couple of the salmon specials, and here I am.” He kissed her again. “Give me a few minutes to get everything ready, and I’ll come in to get you,” he promised, and headed for the kitchen.
“Ry?” Jane called after him.
He turned in the bedroom doorway, and the way he caressed her with his eyes melted her insides.
“I love you.”
“Te amo,” he said.
She threw her hands in the air. “There you go, making me all hot and bothered again!”
Ryan grinned. “I’ll be right back. Don’t go anywhere.”
“Like that’s an option,” she joked.
He returned after a few minutes. “You ready?”
She sat up and swung her legs over the edge of the bed. “Oh!”
“What’s wrong?” He hurried to her side.
Jane gasped and rubbed her belly. “I’m fine,” she panted, then said more firmly, “Just a weird pain. It’s gone now. I think the baby was stretching. Dr. Murcia said I’d start feeling more aggressive movements as the baby grows bigger.”
“I’m calling her.”
Jane grabbed his arm. “No, no. Don’t. Really. I feel fine. In fact, I’m really hungry, and I need a change of scenery.”
“You sure?” He searched her eyes.
“Absolutely.”
Supporting much of her weight, Ryan guided Jane to the patio, then propped pillows around her body the way she liked before setting a plate next to her on the daybed. He pointed to the dish. “No salt added. Just a few spices.” Breaking off a small piece with his fork, he pierced it with the tines and lifted the morsel to her lips.
Jane lifted her index finger after she swallowed. “El salmon es delicioso,” she said slowly, and lifted her eyebrows, as if awaiting his critique.
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