I know I’ve been terrible with emails lately.
I’m sorry, but when you read this, you’re going to understand. I’ve met someone. Someone special.
Oh boy, I hope you’re both sitting down.
Because I’ve just agreed to marry him.
And that’s not even the shocking part…
Ava’s fingers shook as she scrolled through her contacts and dialled Sophie’s number. It connected almost instantly; the deep voice of Alex greeted her.
“Ava, Merry Christmas. Sophie has left her phone in the kitchen again. She’s forever losing this thing. How are you?”
“Hi, Alex. I’m sorry to interrupt but I wonder … is she free?”
“Of course, just a moment.”
There was the scuffled noise of children’s laughter and footsteps before the receiver was picked up and Sophie spoke into it.
“Hey! Merry Christmas!”
Ava swallowed. At the happiness in Sophie’s voice, Ava wasn’t sure what to say. Was she overreacting? She had always been the worrier in the family. Was she worrying needlessly now?
“Ava? What is it? Is it Milly? Cristiano?” There was silence as Ava mentally tallied all of the information she had kept from her sisters. Not intentionally. But she’d been so wrapped up in her own mess of a life that she hadn’t known what to say about her relationship with Cristiano. How could she explain it to them? To those who had nursed her heartbreak and pain?
“No, no. It’s Liv.”
“Liv?”
Sophie felt a prickle of tension in her spine. She eased herself down at the table and took a deep breath. “What about Liv?”
“Didn’t you see the email?”
“No. I haven’t checked my phone all day. I’m sorry. What is it? What did she say?”
“You and she are as bad as each other,” Ava grumbled angrily. “First you and Alessandro, and now Olivia.”
“What about Olivia?”
“She says she’s getting married to some guy. God, read the email.”
Sophie shook her head. “I don’t know how to while I’m talking to you. What did it say?”
Ava began to read, her voice shaking from shock as she relayed it in its entirety.
Sophie dipped her head forward. “That’s all she said?”
“Yes.”
“But who? She never said anything? What? When? I just … I don’t understand.”
“No. That makes two of us.”
“Alex will be able to help.”
“He can try, but Olivia’s disappeared into thin air. The agency she worked for have no clue. Her home phone’s not ringing. Her mobile’s making a weird blee-blee-bloop noise whenever I call it.”
“No, she wouldn’t do that to us. She’ll be in touch. Soon, too. This is Liv! She’s the glue! Come on, Ava. She’ll be okay.”
“She’s too bloody trusting is what she is. Any guy with a smile and a nice car and she’s sold.”
“She’s not that bad.”
“Yes she is. I’m not saying it to be prickly, but because it’s the truth.”
Sophie pressed her lips together. “I’ll see what Alex can find out.”
“Keep me posted.”
“Sure.”
“Ava?”
“Yeah?”
“Did Milly get the presents I sent?”
Ava turned towards the tree and her heart soared. Wrapping paper was torn and littered the floor, but it spoke of a happy Christmas morning. A joyous event. All the more so because Cristiano had been at the centre of it. “Yeah, she loved them. She’s resting now or I’d put her on to say thanks.”
“I’ll catch her tomorrow.”
“Sure.”
“Try not to worry, Aves. Liv’s got a good head on her shoulders. She’ll be okay.”
Ava didn’t feel any more relaxed than she had been that morning. But what could she do except wait? Wait, and email.
25 December, 11.08pm
From: Ava
To: Sophie, Olivia
Olivia!! You’re killing me!! What is going on!!
“You have been staring at your phone as though it holds the secret to eternal youth,” Cristiano teased, wrapping his arms around her waist and kissing the top of her head.
“I know,” she grimaced. “I just can’t believe both of my sisters have gone and married strangers!”
“Presumably not strangers to either of them.”
Ava rolled her eyes and pouted her lip. “Of course not. But it’s all so fast! So rushed!”
“I would suggest we make it a trifecta, but I know your thoughts on the matter,” he teased, kissing her full lower lip.
“Cris,” her heart turned over in her chest. “We’re different. We’ve known each other for years.”
His dark eyes were smouldering. “Does that mean you would accept my proposal?”
She laughed, but her heart was sending her strange messages. The certainty she’d had that she wanted to wait, to take things slowly, was being replaced by a desperate ache to grab Cristiano with two hands and make their love official and legally binding. She had sworn after Angus that she’d never marry; she on her own had to be enough. But now? What did she want? “Ever the opportunist,” she demurred softly, unable to resist nuzzling into his neck. He smelled so good; of sunshine and sand.
He shrugged. “Of course.”
Ava kissed him back, her hands moving up to his hair. What did she want? If only she could put words to her feelings. “It means that I want to marry you – one day. But maybe we should just let the dust settle on Olivia and Sophie’s hasty nuptials first, huh?”
He groaned and pulled her to him, wrapping his arms tightly around her and lifting her clear off the floor. “Do you remember that game we played once?”
She nodded, incapable of speech.
“Perhaps I can torture an acceptance out of you?”
She nodded again, her eyes bright. “Or have fun trying,” she agreed.
“Forever and ever,” he carried her into their bedroom and kicked the door shut. Forever and ever, his love, his life.
* * *
Three weeks later, the questions that had been building up were finally answered.
A convoy of black four wheel drives arrived first, carrying a glowing Olivia and a clearly devoted Sheikh Zamir Fayez, exalted leader of Dashan.
“Call me Zami,” he said disarmingly in his foreign tone, extending a hand to Cristiano. “You must be Ava?” He kissed her on both cheeks. “Liv has told me so much of her sisters; it is a pleasure to finally meet you.” He gestured to the following vehicle. “This is my brother Ra’if.”
If Ava was a little over-awed by the royal presence, Cristiano was not at all.
“Cris!” Olivia broke into a run and threw herself at Cristiano, her arms around his neck, her face just an enormous smile. “Thank God you too finally came to your senses. I can’t believe it. Ava never said that things worked out for you.”
“Didn’t she now?” He teased over her head. “And here she’s been complaining about her non-communicative sisters.”
“Ah, yes, well,” Liv grinned, “I thought this news was better explained face to face.”
“Definitely,” Ava giggled. “Cris, why don’t you show Zami and Ra’if around. Liv and I have some catching up to do.”
The sisters linked arms and began to walk towards the house. It had changed so little over the years that Olivia was struck with certainty that she was stepping back into a piece of her history. Not her present, nor her future, but her past. And a cherished piece of it, too.
“Where’s Soph?”
“Not here yet.”
“Sophie! Sophie!” It was Milly, at the door, pointing towards the drive. Sure enough, another vehicle was approaching. No convoy this time, just a sleek silver sports car that had dust plumes in its wake.
“Our catch up will have to wait,” Ava said, dropping Olivia’s arm so that she could move quickly back into the driveway.
&n
bsp; The man who stepped out of the car gave the sisters a bemused smile before sweeping around to open Sophie’s door. She stood with her usual grace, and then broke into a run, towards Ava and Olivia.
“Oh, girls, I have missed you so much.”
They embraced for several moments, each unwilling to break the contact.
“Ava,” Alessandro interrupted, finally. “It is lovely to meet you finally.” He kissed her cheek and then turned to Olivia. “And to see you again, Olivia. Or must we now address you as Her Royal Highness?”
Her laugh was like bells in the breeze. “I’ll always be Livvie to my family, I promise.”
“Good, excellent.”
He looked past the sisters towards the house.
“Oh, you won’t find anyone in there. Zami and Ra’if are getting a tour from Cristiano. They went that way.”
“I shall catch up to them,” he said with a wink, and moved off with easy athleticism.
They watched him go, and then Olivia spoke. “I think it’s time to crack out one of mum’s special bottles and have a proper talk, don’t you?”
“Damn straight,” Ava began to move towards the house.
Milly jumped into Sophie’s arms and dear Sophie, who had always been such a soft touch with children, had tears in her eyes. “We have so much to talk about,” she said in a voice that was slightly tinged with sadness.
One of Meredith Henderson’s first vintages of wine later and the girls were tripping over themselves to share the details of their lives. How much had happened between their last encounter! Some good, some great, some bad. Poor Sophie, despite the time that had passed, was still mourning the loss of her baby. It had brought her and Alex together, but these things could not easily be forgotten, nor recovered from.
“I’ve been thinking about mum so much lately,” Sophie confided finally. “There was a time when I would have said she had all the answers. Remember how she used to speak about love? That it was something to be feared and wary of?”
“Yes,” Olivia nodded jerkily. “I’ve been thinking this too. All my life I felt like men were looking only to break our hearts. That loving someone would weaken me somehow.”
“Well, her heart was certainly broken,” Ava said, jumping unnecessarily to Meredith’s defence.
“Yes, and our father – whoever he might be – was a bastard. But Cristiano isn’t. And Alex isn’t. And Zami isn’t,” Olivia stressed urgently. “Mum wanted to protect us, but I think she was wrong in this.”
“Me too,” Sophie said, but her smile was forgiving. “But she did the best she could. She truly believed that we would become prey to just the same kind of man our father had been. She meant to warn us against that. How could she know she’d go so far that we almost missed our opportunities for true love?”
“Missed your opportunities?” Ava prompted, an odd sense of nervousness tingling through her.
“Yes. I mean, I wanted every reassurance under the book when Alex proposed. I was so wary. And part of that was me, but a lot of it came from mum.”
“Look at you and Cristiano,” Olivia picked up the thread of conversation. “You are so obviously meant to be together. And yet you let him go three years ago because he was just the kind of man mum had described.”
Sophie laughed and imitated Meredith’s voice, “Tall, dark, handsome with far too much charm and money.”
“And look at how it’s ended up… all of us have gone for just that kind of man. And they’re the best men in the world.”
“Yes,” Ava said, angling her head to the window that overlooked the vines. She couldn’t see the men anywhere. “You have an excellent point.”
Impatience gnawed at her gut. She waited and she waited, and she listened to her sisters without properly contributing anything sensible. Only when the four men appeared at the door, and her eyes locked with Cristiano’s, did she let out a sigh of relief.
She stood, not noticing her brothers-in-law, and walked towards him. “May I speak to you privately?”
He nodded, his expression quizzical.
“What’s going on there?” Alex whispered loudly as they approached Olivia and Sophie.
Sophie smiled serenely up at him. “You’ll see.”
Outside, with the sun setting over the vineyards that Meredith had loved so much, Ava turned to face Cristiano.
“I love you,” she said simply, her eyes wide and her cheeks flushed.
“And I love you.”
She linked hands with him. “I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”
“I know this,” he smiled at her contentedly. She always made him feel that – contented.
“I’ve been carrying around this last vestige of worry that my mum taught all of us girls to feel. That when things are too perfect, they’re often about to unravel.”
He frowned. “That’s very pessimistic.”
“I don’t blame her for that. She had a rough life. She made the best of it but that worry was there. She was terrorised by her experiences. But I don’t want to feel it anymore. I trust you completely. I know that married or not, living with you, and being with you, is all I want in life.”
He pulled her to his chest, his heart racing. “Then marry me. Marry me now, while your sisters are here. Let me promise the women who love you so much that I deserve you; and that I will always honour and cherish you.”
She nodded against his chest, and when she spoke, there was not a tear in sight. Just giddy, irrepressible joy. “Yes, please!”
EPILOGUE
“I can do that you know,” Marie called out from the top of the stairs, her hair coiled into two buns that beautifully emulated Princess Leia’s style.
“Why does everyone assume that I’m incapable of working because I’m getting married in a couple of days?”
Olivia strode into the foyer munching on a crisp apple. “Because you’re the bride, and brides are supposed to be slave drivers, not slaves.”
“Not this bride,” Ava assured her sister with a laugh. “Believe me, so far as I’m concerned, my wedding day is just another day.” She finished folding the tablecloths and lifted the pile. “Besides, we have guests due any minute and I’m going to have a very busy day ahead of me checking everyone in.”
“I reiterate my offer,” Marie said, moving quickly down the stairs. “You should be off getting pampered or something.”
Ava rolled her eyes. “Sure. That sounds like my kind of thing.”
Olivia nudged her sister playfully. “A bit of time in a beauty spa is fun; you should try it some time.”
“You can be pampered for me, Princess,” she teased back. “Where’s Soph?”
“Playing with Milly, of course. Want to place bets on how quickly they’ll try for a baby.”
Ava wrinkled her nose. “I’d be surprised if that’s not already on their agenda.”
“I hope it happens for them. They’ll be great parents.” Olivia murmured distractedly, her eyes scanning Ava’s face. “But if you’re not going to go to a salon, we should at least do some facials here. What do you say? Some face masks and gossip to pass the afternoon?”
Ava couldn’t think of much worse. “Ummm,” she prevaricated, and let out a sigh of relief when the door pressed open.
“Miss Sanderson,” Ava cast Olivia an expression that perfectly expressed her pleasure at the interruption and moved towards the front desk. “How lovely to have you back again.” The woman was just as Ava remembered, though now she clutched a young baby to her chest. “And congratulations, too!” She said, smiling down at the infant.
“Thank you,” Elizabeth nodded, her manner reserved, but in a way that Ava found refreshingly honest.
“How old is she?”
“Only four months.”
“Four months? So young to have made such a long flight,” Ava cooed. “And you must be exhausted.”
“Oh,” she waved her hand in the air. “I’m fine. I had the family to help.” That, and the incomparable luxury of t
he elegant private jet had made the long-haul flight relatively simple.
“Yes,” Ava scanned the book in front of her. “I have a note here that you’ve reserved all of the cabins?”
“Yes, though there are only three families, I thought privacy would suit us best given our reason for coming to the area.”
“Of course,” Ava said, far too professional to pry despite her curiosity. “Well, don’t worry about filling in any paperwork now. It’s far more important that you get settled with a cup of tea and let this little one have a sleep.”
“Oh,” Elizabeth’s eyes were enormous at the unexpected kindness. “That’s lovely of you, but actually …” She cast a furtive glance at the two women nearby, and lowered her voice. “You’re Ava Henderson, aren’t you?”
Ava furrowed her brow. “Yes. We’ve been emailing.”
“Yes, yes.” She swallowed, and the baby let out a little gurgling noise. Elizabeth instinctively lifted her higher onto her shoulder and patted the little back gently. “It’s just … the rest of the family are only an hour or two behind me, and there’s something particular I wanted to discuss with you first.”
“With me?” Ava said, her surprise drawing Olivia’s attention.
Elizabeth nodded. “Do you … I don’t mean to seem untoward, of course, however, do you have time now? Could we speak privately?”
Ava couldn’t have imagined what this woman wanted with her, and Elizabeth, anxious after months of planning and fretting, mistook Ava’s silence for refusal. “It’s about your mother,” she said, shifting the baby to her other shoulder.
“My mother?” Ava’s shock was genuine. She turned to Olivia instinctively, but Olivia was already striding towards the counter.
“You knew our mother?” Olivia took over, and despite the fact she had only been Princess of Dashan for a matter of months, she had a natural air of authority.
“No, not personally.” Her nerves were apparent. “Your mother was Meredith Henderson? An American?”
Ava and Olivia exchanged a look.
“Marie,” Ava spoke without looking at her friend and helper. “Any chance you’d make a pot of tea?”
The Brazilian's Forgotten Lover: Years have passed, but old habits die hard... (The Henderson Sisters Book 3) Page 13