Billionaire Triplets Matchmakers

by Mia Caldwell

  Joan’s stomach twisted at the memory. She’d never heard this news. It had to have been him, he was the only one that knew about her sister in New York. She knew he was the one that found her overdosed on his bedroom floor. She knew he’d saved her life. But, she didn’t know he’d taken the trouble to track down her sister. What did that mean?

  Nothing. It meant nothing. He was just passing the buck. Nothing more.

  “What is it?” Lissa asked.

  “Oh, I was just thinking.”

  “About?”

  “How scared I was back then,” Joan admitted.

  “You and me both. I’d thought I’d lost you back then. You took mom’s death hard, little sis.”

  “I know, I did,” Joan agreed, wiping away fresh tears. “Which was odd, because I thought I hated her, but apparently not.” It was Joan’s turn to cry. But, she wasn’t just thinking about her mother. She was thinking about Antonio. Had he been the one to call Lissa? She thought he’d just dumped her at the hospital because he didn’t want her overdosing in his house. She thought he was disgusted by her and wanted nothing more to do with her. But, if he’d made an effort to call Lissa, didn’t that show at least some concern for her well-being? Maybe those attempts to call her after she’d come out of rehab, weren’t just to reactivate booty calls. Maybe he meant it when he claimed to be concerned about her. Maybe, he still cared for her?

  “Joan, what is it?” Lissa said, trying to read her sister’s face.

  “I was just thinking how amazing it was that you were there for me sis, in my hour of need. I’ll never forget what you did for me. I love you, Lissa.”

  They slipped into another long silence.

  “Do you think she’s still alive?”

  “I doubt it,” Joan admitted, but then she caught the look of sadness returning to her sister’s face, and she quickly amended her comment. “I mean, I used to think that she was alive – you know, it was all some elaborate drama queen maneuver to garner extra attention when she did come back to life, but after you got engaged to Julio, I knew she had to be dead.”

  “What?” Lissa asked.

  “Seriously, if our mother was alive, do you think she wouldn’t walk on water to get a seat at your wedding? I mean, Annabel Edwards wouldn’t miss your shindig for the world, unless she was too dead to show up.” They laughed, wiped more tears away, then sat in silence again, two close sisters, who’d been through a lot together.

  Joan stretched. “We should probably call the driver and think about heading back. Mamacita and Aunt Sophia are probably pulling their hair out by now, looking after Ryland and Marco by themselves for so long.”

  “No, wait,” Lissa said, “Wasn’t there something you wanted to talk to me about? I’m sorry I wasn’t listening before during out walk. Tell me what was on your mind, and then we’ll go.”

  Lissa sat back in her seat, expectantly, all ears.

  Joan felt her chest tighten her throat go dry. She’d changed her mind about quitting now, or even shortly after the honeymoon. She needed to come up with something else, but her brain was frozen, and no believable idea was coming to her.

  “I wanted to tell you something? Funny, I can’t remember what it was, must not have been important.” Joan lied.

  Lissa gave her a look which said, I don’t believe you. But, Joan stuck to her guns. Now wasn’t the time to abandon her sister. Lissa was just coming to terms with her mother’s death. Joan had no idea that she’d never accepted it before. It would be the height of cruelty after the meltdown she’d just witnessed to spring a big change like she planned to quit now. She could wait. What were a few more months, in the scheme of things?

  “Joan, what aren’t you telling me?”

  “Oh, yeah, I remember. It was no big deal.”

  “Then tell me.”

  “Uh, I’ll tell you on the way back. I need to go to the ladies’ room, call the driver, okay?”

  “Sure, fine, but I’m not letting you out of the limo until you tell me what’s going on.”

  Just then, Hunter woke up, and immediately let out a series of loud, grunting noises.

  “Uh, oh,” Lissa and Joan both said at the same time.

  As they focused their attentions on Hunter, his eyes squeezed shut and his face reddened. Both sisters wrinkled their noses at the same moment, then started to laugh.

  “You better take him with you,” Lissa said.

  Joan hurried to get Hunter out of his stroller, while Lissa helped sling the heavy diaper bag over her free shoulder. Holding Hunter out in front of her as far as she could, Joan hurried to the find a bathroom at the rear of the café.

  When she came out of the restroom with a fresh and powdered Hunter she noticed that there was a commotion in the center of the café and excitement in the air as people seemed to crowd around a man. Joan got a busboy’s attention, “What’s going on?”

  “It’s Antonio Ferraro, the soccer player,” he said, excitedly.

  Joan gasped and as her world tilted.

  Then her eyes fell on him, and even though all she could see was the profile of his Adonis face, it was enough to make her stop breathing.

  This couldn’t be happening—not, Antonio—not, here—not, now.

  Joan fled back to the restroom, holding Hunter tight to her chest like a life preserver.

  IN THE BATHROOM, JOAN leaned against the wall and tried to catch her breath. Of all the places in the world, he had to walk into that café, now. She checked her face for signs of baby poop, fixed her hair as best she could and then went back into the café, hoping that she could walk past him and he wouldn’t see her.

  Antonio had drawn a crowd, and it wasn’t easy to walk past in the narrow space. She tried not to look at him, as she turned her body sideways and held Hunter up in front of her face like a shield, but her eyes betrayed her. They roamed up and down his body, causing a jolt in her stomach, a tingle she hadn’t felt in a long, long time. Damn him. Damn his sexy body. Damn the way he always made her beyond hot for him. She tore her eyes away and, focusing on the exit, safety, escape, she held her breath and tried to keep going. She’d gotten all of two feet past him, breathing in his scent as a consolation prize, when one of the fans jostling to get an autograph stepped in front of her, knocking her off balance.

  She tried to right herself, so she wouldn’t drop the baby, but ended up overcompensating, and slammed against Antonio.

  Before she could back away, Hunter reached out and grabbed onto Antonio’s hair.

  “Hey!” Antonio cried, his eyes flashing with anger, until he saw that the attacker was just a baby.

  He put on that devastating smile that he was so famous for, and Joan’s heart skidded across her chest, as he spoke directly to the child in her arms. “No worries, little bambino.” But, then his eyes focused on Joan, and she saw the flash of recognition pass over his dark brown, and then lock onto hers, then travel back to the baby in her arms. She saw a shadow of disappointment move across his face, but then the smile returned. “Joan Edwards?”

  Joan wanted to keep moving away from him, but she couldn’t breathe let alone move. Butterflies exploded in her stomach. Being so close to him, to the man who’d stolen her heart, and then tore it to shreds...The walls were closing in on her. She had to get away before she was lost again. As if he could read her mind, his charming smile transformed into a smirk. It was as if, he knew how her body was reacting to seeing him again. It was as if he knew that he could have her if he still wanted her.

  Christ. She had to go. Now! But, her feet had turned into bricks, and she remained in her spot. Her throat closed, her mind unable to form words.

  “Well?” he asked.

  Joan snapped her mouth shut, as she realized it had been hanging open.

  Shit.

  She needed to get control of herself. She shook her head to dissipate the confusion in her mind and plastered a surprised smile on her face. “Antonio? What a surprise.” She leaned forward as best she could with a
baby in her arms and offered her cheeks for an air kiss. Then nerves kicked in and she started to prattle. “What are you doing in Barcelona? I thought you lived in Milan; I thought you were playing for AC Milan?”

  Antonio’s face lit up; then his smirk got cockier. Joan wanted to slap that look off his face, and then she wanted to kiss it better. “So, you have been following my career,” Antonio said, his voice dropping, the huskiness making her swallow, as she watched his eyes rake slowly over her body. “I thought, you’d lost interest in me.”

  Joan’s knees were rubber as he continued to eye her. When his gaze froze on her slightly parted lips, she involuntarily bit her lip. His eyes flashed, and she feared he could hear her heart as it jack-hammered in her chest. There was a mischievous twinkle in his eye as his gaze bore into hers. For a moment she returned the look of desire and, for a moment, they made an unspoken pact, but then Joan remembered why she’d refused to take his call.

  She stepped back. Antonio’s smirk faded as he noticed her reticence, then his eyes fell on Hunter and a brief look of sadness crossed his face.

  “Well, nice seeing you,” Joan said as she turned and started to walk away.

  “Wait, Joan, don’t go. How can I get in touch with you? Where are you staying?”

  Her legs didn’t want to cooperate, but she forced them to keep moving. She didn’t look back. She didn’t reply.

  At that moment, she wanted nothing more than to meet with him as soon as she could get Hunter back to her sister. She wanted to go to wherever he was staying and never get out of his bed until he had to leave town, whenever that would be.

  But, Joan knew better. This was Antonio - he was her weakness.

  There was no 12-Step program for her addiction to that man, the best and only option would be never to get started with him again.

  She was almost to the exit when she heard Antonio calling out her name, again, pleading for her to wait. But, she didn’t wait. She walked right out of the café, right past her sister, and into the plaza.

  “Where are you going with my child?” Lissa said as she moved past her, separated by the waist-high iron gate that enclosed the patio.

  “Pay the bill and meet me around the corner, on the other side of the market,” Joan hissed as she rushed past.

  Then she took off at a run, with Hunter bouncing on her left hip.

  Afraid that Antonio might be chasing after her, Joan snuck into the La Boqueria market, which was crowded with vendors and shoppers, and filled with the smells and colors of one of the largest markets in the world.

  She ducked behind a pole between to fish vendors, waving away a merchant’s eager attempt to sell her some of his wares. Hunter was curious though, and he reached out and tried to grab a massive cod, laying on a bed of ice. “No, Hunter,” she said, as she switched him to her other hip. She peered around the pole, out into the La Rambla, scanning the passersby.

  After a few minutes, she was all but certain that Antonio hadn’t followed her. Something like disappointment settled in her gut, but she shook it off. Lissa would have paid the bill by now. She needed to get back to the alley. Joan held Hunter close to her chest as she hurried to the meeting spot. She was out of breath when she got there and was still breathing hard when he sister arrived pushing the empty stroller.

  “Joan, what is going on? Why did you bolt like that? And who was that gorgeous man you were running away from?” Lissa asked.

  Darn it.

  Joan had hoped Lissa hadn’t noticed Antonio. “I don’t want to talk about him,” Joan said, stubbornly. Lissa pressed, so Joan gave her just the basics. “Look, I knew the guy, and I didn’t want to talk to him, which is why I left in such a hurry. Can we talk about something else?”

  “Sure, whatever. I have more calls to make so let’s take the metro home again. I don’t feel like waiting around for the driver.”

  That was fine with Joan. She didn’t want to go back out into the main walkway and risk running into Antonio. Joan put Hunter into the stroller, then after he was all settled she shook out her sore arms.

  She gave Lissa a look, hoping she’d take the hint and push the stroller for once, but Lissa was already on the phone, catching up with Abby on that latest status regarding the Milan apartment fiasco – so, Joan blew out a breath and did her job.

  As they walked Hunter fell back to sleep as he often did when moving in his stroller, and Joan thought about all the things that had happened since leaving the Torres house that morning. She thought about Lissa and her intense reaction after seeing a lookalike of their mother. She thought about how close she’d come to taking a drink, and how shocked she was to run into Antonio after all this time. She wished she’d cursed him out on the spot. She wished she’d slapped his face and called him out for that cad he was, but, it was as if her body had betrayed her, how it had let her desire for him overtake her good sense. As if what’s he’d done to her, how he’d refused to hear her side of the story – how he’d rejected her, and threw away the magic they’d known together without giving her a second chance, these were the memories that came back to her as she walked.

  She should have slapped him. Instead, all she could do was shiver under his gaze and think about being in his bed again.

  She was a sick person.

  When the got back to the metro and headed towards home, Lissa had started another line of calls. It was as if the trauma of seeing the ghost of their mother was already forgotten. Joan tried to put Antonio out of her mind and reconsidered her hasty decision to postpone quitting due to Lissa’s earlier upset. Clearly, Lissa was going to be fine. But, could she cope with living in the same city as Antonio? Joan rubbed her temple – her head was starting to ache.

  A glass of wine would fix that, she thought. “No!” she blurted loudly into the car. Several passengers, including Lissa, glanced at her. Joan muttered an apology, then kept her mouth shut until they got home.

  She greeted Mamacita and Aunt Sophia, then put Hunter in his crib, and kissed the other two boys who were sleeping in their cribs. Lissa had joined the others in the kitchen, who were sitting around sipping homemade limonada and munching on caramelized walnuts.

  Joan declined to join them and said that she intended to take her lunch break. No one argued with her, and Joan went to her room. She tried to nap, but her mind wouldn’t stop racing. Then she thought of what she could do. The famous bar at the Grand Hotel. She’d never been there.

  What the hell?

  Joan realized that the thought of drinking was coming up way too much. This was bad. Real, bad. She got out of bed, spent a few minutes fixing her face and making sure she wasn’t wearing her most crumpled and unattractive clothes, then she left the house without saying goodbye to anyone and hurried back to the metro. If she was quick, she could make the twelve o’clock AA meeting at the Catholic Cathedral in the Goth District.

  Chapter Three

  HUNTER, RYLAND, AND Marco

  Back at the house, Hunter was changed and fed and went to sleep fast. When he woke up from his nap, Ryland and Marco were standing in their cribs, fussing to get Hunter’s attention. As usual, since they hadn’t managed to master speaking yet with words using their mouths, Ryland and Marco spoke to their sleepy brother telepathically.

  “Wake up, you slacker,” Marco said.

  “Yeah Hunter, come on, spill. What happened out there? Anything we should know?”

  Hunter yawned, flexed his growing fingers and toes and crawled over to the edge of his crib, lifting himself up. Being the fattest child in the group he wasn’t pressing to start all this moving and walking business like his eager brothers. He’d much rather hang out, lounging around in his crib and on the floor or in the playpen, but sometimes you just had to stand up and be a little man.

  “I saw something very interesting,” Hunter began, then distracted by the mobile he tried to stretch his arms and body so he could reach it.

  “What was so interesting, Hunter?” Ryland said, bringing Hunter back to th
e conversation. He sucked his thumb for a minute as he tried to remember.

  “Don’t hold back,” Marco said, “We need to know!”

  Hunter remembered. “Oh, right. Well... there was this guy at a café, and Auntie Joan got all excited when she saw him. They talked and then she ran away, but he came after her like he didn’t want her to leave.”

  “Wow! Really? Who was he?” Ryland asked.

  “I don’t know, but this guy had all these other people hanging around him, trying to take his picture and stuff and making him write on papers they kept putting in his face.”

  “Ooh, sounds like he’s important,” Ryland said.

  “Sounds like he’s an athlete,” Marco said.

  “Marco, not all important people are sports stars,” Ryland said.

  “No, most of the important people in the world are sports stars. Get used to it, Ryland.”

  “Will you two shut up and let me finish?” Hunter said.

  “Oh, yeah, sorry big guy,” Marco said with a smirk.

  “Well, like I said, this guy had all these people trying to get his attention, but when he saw Auntie Joan he looked at her the way Papa sometimes looks at Mama... you know what I’m talking about – when he thinks we’re not watching him...”

  “You mean when they get all kissy?” Marco said, his face screwing up with obvious distaste.

  “Exactly,” Hunter replied.

  All three of the triplets went silent for a while as they contemplated that bit of news.

  Finally, Marco spoke, as he gnawed on his fist. “I don’t think Auntie Joan is happy. I saw her crying the other day.”