Although Jamie felt some wariness about what would happen when it all came to light, the situation was an oddly welcome distraction from his own family woes. Even so, he kept an eye on his mobile lest he miss any more texts or calls from Aoife. He tried not to text at the table in deference to Nerea’s rules, but she gave Jamie an encouraging smile when she caught him flicking on the screen to be absolutely sure he hadn’t missed anything. Clearly, whatever he had to do to be in touch with his family would be fine. Jamie was grateful, but he still didn’t know what to do about his parents.
After dinner Thom mumbled something about being tired from the flight and made a hasty retreat upstairs. Jamie watched as Piper made a similar excuse and escaped to her own room, or so Jamie assumed. Whether she and Thom were going to find some way to spend the night together, he did not want to know. He already felt strange keeping the secret from the people he was seeing.
Jamie found Callum in the living room, flicking through movies on the TV.
“Nerea kicked me out of my office, apparently I was getting in the way of her decorations,” Callum said with a rueful smile. “Want to watch something with me?”
“Depends on what you’re watching.”
“I haven’t decided yet. Do you have a preference?”
Jamie suspected he was being indulged, but he decided he didn’t mind as he curled up under Callum’s arm on the love seat. Doing nothing but sitting and watching a movie — and not having to speak to anyone — seemed like absolute heaven. The solid warmth of Callum’s body pressed against his didn’t hurt either.
ONE MORNING BEFORE the rest of the guests were due to arrive, Jamie sat on the end of Callum and Nerea’s bed wrapped up in a blanket and watched Nerea brush out her long hair. The room was dim in the grey light of early morning. Callum was in the bathroom shaving. The door was open a crack, and Jamie could see a sliver of his face in the fogged-over mirror as he worked. The sight made Jamie wish he could paint, to capture the soft lines and moody atmosphere of the room.
“I have a question,” Jamie asked. His own voice sounded soft in the pre-dawn stillness.
“What’s that, love?” Nerea met his eyes in the mirror over her vanity.
“What are you going to tell your families about me? Both of you,” he added, raising his voice so Callum could hear as well.
“What do you want us to tell them?” Nerea asked.
“That wasn’t what I asked.” After the gallery debacle he wanted to hear their plans and assumptions. But more than that, they knew their own families best. He hadn’t succeeded in telling his own parents without making a mess, which meant Jamie had no idea how to tell anyone else’s.
“But it matters,” she said.
“I don’t know,” he confessed. “In an ideal world, I do want you to tell them about me. But I don’t want to cause more drama with your family. I already screwed up well enough with mine.”
“If it makes you feel any better,” Callum said, coming to stand in the doorway while he patted his face dry. “My parents will ignore whatever makes them uncomfortable.”
“Have they met many of your lovers?”
“Besides Nerea? No. That is, no one they’ve known I was sleeping with.”
“What about yours?” Jamie asked Nerea.
“Yes. Tonio, mostly. There’s been one or two others. There was a lot of yelling from my mother at the beginning, but they’ve more or less given it up now. I think the grandchildren helped. My sister, though, knows everything.”
“You were open and honest with your parents about us.” Callum sat next to Jamie on the bed. “We owe it to you to do the same with our own families. The girls, obviously, already know. And if you want to avoid more drama and for us to not tell our parents, that’s fair, too. But even with our best efforts this isn’t the sort of relationship that can be hidden forever. And sooner may be better than later.”
“Then, yes. I guess you should tell them.” Getting it over with seemed best. At least they were all together. Jamie felt reassured by Callum and Nerea’s calm, even if he was still nervous about meeting their families. “I never expected this to get so complicated,” he confessed. “I just really liked spending time with Callum. And with you,” he said to Nerea.
“Jamie, darling,” Callum said, pressing a kiss to Jamie’s temple. “I’m afraid complicated is what life and love is.”
THE REST OF FAMILY and guests arrived three days before Christmas.
Nerea’s sister Delores was first. She flew in from Madrid and drove herself from the airport, getting to the house just before lunch. Jamie set down the silver he, Thom and Callum had been polishing and went to say hello.
If Jamie had thought the resemblance between Piper and Nerea was uncanny, the resemblance between Nerea and Delores was downright spooky. Same height, same build, same dark hair.
“It’s odd, isn’t it,” Callum murmured to Jamie as he stared at Nerea hugging her sister hello.
Jamie nodded, but before he could say anything else Delores turned to Jamie and put a hand on her hip.
“So this is the Irish boy,” she said with an amused smile.
Jamie had picked up enough Spanish to understand her and reply in the affirmative. But whatever she said next Jamie didn’t catch.
She pursed her lips and switched to English. “You’re cute, but that’s probably not going to make up for all the trouble you’re going to cause.”
Callum’s parents arrived after lunch, followed shortly afterward by Callum’s sister, brother-in-law, and nephew. A very pregnant Leigh and her wife Sam rolled in not long after that, and for a brief while everything was chaos. Cars cluttered the driveway, and the front hall was so clogged with luggage it became difficult to navigate without tripping.
Sam, Jamie decided, was awesome. He won points with her and with Leigh immediately upon arrival by helping them haul their luggage up to their guest room and then fussing over Leigh.
“You’re eager,” Leigh said, amused.
“Nah. Just, I have two nieces and when my sister was pregnant she trained me well.”
Both Leigh and Sam laughed.
“I don’t need anything,” Leigh said. “But you’d win points with my father and my wife if you keep them apart from each other.”
Jamie must have looked as wary as he felt, because Leigh hastened to add, “They get along perfectly fine.”
“But I find his charm annoying and he finds I threaten his masculinity,” Sam put in cheerfully.
“Now, both of you, go and let me sleep,” Leigh said, already crawling into bed. “That ferry ride was awful and I am very tired of hauling around a miniature human.”
Once Jamie and Sam went back downstairs Nerea put them to work. They spent an easy hour sweeping the patio and raking the short grass in the back garden. Sam, like Jamie, seemed happy for something to do, and Jamie found her good-natured ribbing and her easy manner soothing. Jamie decided — though he kept the thought to himself — that Callum found Sam threatening because they were remarkably similar.
It was especially nice to have another friend, because Jamie wasn’t sure what to do about Callum’s parents. They arrived as Sam and Jamie were coming back inside, laughing at a joke Sam had just told, their cheeks red from the chill outside. The upside of Callum’s parents, Jamie decided quickly, was that they spoke no Spanish and so he had two more people to talk to. The downside was that they had never been confronted with one of Callum’s lovers in close proximity before. They regarded him with a reserved British pleasantry, when they had to regard him at all, and ignored him the rest of the time.
It was funny, in a way. It was also perfectly awful. Although Jamie could mostly ignore their coolness, it was much harder to ignore the distinct disapproval he — and Nerea — received from various friends and neighbors.
Nerea’s parents, along with a group of neighbors Jamie didn’t know, arrived after dinner. With the help of Google Translate and Piper when she was in earshot, he was able to put tog
ether most of what the women were saying about him. The most flattering of which, from the neighbor lady who’d spied on him and Nerea through the shrubbery, was I knew she was carrying on with him but didn’t think she would flaunt it.
Jamie was offended on both Nerea’s behalf and his own. Before he could formulate a reply Piper tugged on his sleeve and whispered in his ear.
“Tell her — ” Piper rattled off a sentence in Spanish Jamie understood part of but not all of. Repeating it was manageable, however.
The women turned as one to stare at him.
“Wait. What did I say?” Jamie asked Piper in English.
“‘She’s not flaunting me, I’m just too cute to get rid of,’” Piper responded, her eyes dancing with mirth.
Jamie was torn between horror and amusement. The group of women seemed to catch on to what had happened and began laughing. After a moment Jamie couldn’t help joining in.
“Well,” he said. “It’s not like that’s not true.”
Jamie and Piper fled the group only to run into Margarita. Piper peeled off, leaving Jamie and Margarita together. When he apologized, cautiously, for all the gossip and judgment flying around the house she waved him off. To his relief and no small surprise.
“The neighbors blame my mother. I blame my father. You’re just the poor soul who got dragged into all this.”
“It’s not entirely their fault,” Jamie pointed out. “I said yes to being here. I didn’t mean to overshadow your wedding with our drama.”
“Sweet of you,” Margarita said. “But useless. I’ve known my parents a lot longer than you have. If it wasn’t this, it would have been something else.”
BY THE MIDDLE OF THE next morning Jamie was feeling overwhelmed. He was used to big family gatherings, but the house full of complete strangers was a bit much. Callum seemed to sense his mood.
“I have to go pick up the truly ridiculous quantity of wine we ordered for Christmas and the wedding,” Callum said while he cleared the dishes from breakfast and Jamie and Nerea cleaned the kitchen. “Do you want to come with me?”
“Oh God, yes,” Jamie said.
He slumped with relief in the passenger seat as they drove away from the house.
“How are you holding up?” Callum asked with a smile.
“So. Many. People.”
“But no one’s yelling yet.”
Jamie rolled his head to the side and narrowed his eyes. “I’m not sure your standards for positive social interactions are the same as anyone else’s.”
Callum laughed. “You’re just realizing that now?”
Jamie and Callum retrieved the wine, stopped for a cup of coffee at a café in a town nearby, and spent an hour just sitting and talking about nothing in particular. It was fun, lovely, and exactly what Jamie needed. By the time Callum pulled into the long driveway that led up to the house Jamie was feeling much more philosophical about the ordeal ahead. Tomorrow was Christmas Eve. Then there would be Christmas, and the wedding the day after. Everyone had plenty to fuss about that wasn’t him.
When they got out of the car and popped the boot to begin unloading, a number of the men came out to help them carry in the cases. It was jovial, even if Jamie couldn’t understand most of what they were saying. He could lift a case of wine, and that was all anyone cared about.
“Where’s my wife?” Callum asked, as he left the last crate stacked by the back door of the kitchen.
“Upstairs, she said she wasn’t feeling well,” one of the men answered. Another said something in Spanish that Jamie didn’t catch at all, but that made Callum start. A third, disregarding everything going on, pointed at Jamie. “Who is this?”
Callum shot Jamie a look that was an indicator to introduce himself.
So he did. “Hola,” he said as Callum ducked out of the kitchen and upstairs. “Me llamo Jamie and my Spanish is terrible.”
Chapter 29 - Callum definitely didn’t see this coming
Nerea wasn’t in their bedroom, but the door to their bathroom was closed.
“Nerea?” Callum called.
He got a muffled reply and the sound of a toilet flushing in response.
“Are you okay?”
“No. Fool.” That much was distinct. There was the sound of water running, then Nerea pulled the door open. Her face was flushed, and her hair was pulled back in a messy ponytail.
“You look terrible.”
“Love you too, dearest.” Nerea walked past him and crawled up on to the bed, collapsing face-first into the pillows.
Callum immediately curled up beside her, murmuring apologies for having left her alone all day and asking whether he could get her anything. When she shook her head, he started rubbing circles on her back. “Flu?” he asked. “Food poisoning?”
“Maybe.”
“Define maybe,” Callum said cautiously. Was this somehow not one of those despicable sudden onset stomach bugs that circled the world every winter?
Nerea flopped over onto her back with a groan. “Yesterday morning when I woke up I felt terrible. And the morning before that.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?” Callum was appalled.
“Because it was gone by breakfast and there was so much to do it was easy to ignore. Nerves or living on coffee or too many baked goods. Don’t worry, love, I was fine.”
“If it’s getting worse, you should go to the doctor, before they close for the holiday.”
“If it were getting worse I wouldn’t keep being this damn ravenous.”
That stopped Callum in his tracks. “Take off your shirt,” he blurted.
Nerea rolled her head to the side so she could look at him. Her eyes were wide. Callum wondered if she hadn’t thought of this possibility herself or just hadn’t wanted to.
“What is wrong with you?” she demanded.
“Take off your shirt,” he repeated, going for the buttons on her blouse.
She batted his hands away, and they settled at her hips, thumbs just brushing her belly.
He watched as she stared at his hands and then returned her gaze to his face. He saw the moment realization overcame any denial she’d been clinging to.
Then she cursed, shoved him out of the way, and ran for the bathroom again.
Callum sat on the edge of the bed and waited, a behavior Nerea had trained into him long ago, when she’d been expecting Leigh, until she reemerged.
“I can’t believe this,” he said.
“Good,” Nerea said, sitting down next to him, “Because it might not be anything at all.”
“When was your last — ?” Callum cut himself off.
“Two months ago.”
“Ah.”
“It’s not like it’s a regular event anymore,” Nerea snapped.
She had a point. Her getting pregnant hadn’t been at the top of their list of worries for some time. They were careful, usually, but they also didn’t lose sleep about it when they weren’t. They were much more disciplined about safer sex in their more casual relationships.
“So,” he said.
“It’s probably nothing.” Nerea studied her hands.
“You think?”
Nerea was silent, which was generally not a good sign.
“Okay, you don’t think so,” Callum said. “What do we do next?”
“Go find Jamie,” she said very quietly.
“What?” Callum was startled, but Nerea was thinking logically and he wasn’t. This was not a situation — no matter how possibly wonderful — he had imagined them confronting. “Aren’t you two careful?”
She looked up at him. “About as careful as I am with you,” she said. “Which you’d know, since you’re often there.”
Callum thought suddenly of Jamie and his ridiculous, infuriating book and his desire to do everything right. Which had included getting tested for STDs — which Callum had appreciated — and then several rounds of totally unprotected sex, which he had also appreciated. The problem with birth control, of course, was that no on
e really enjoyed using it.
“The time we....”
“Possibly. Probably.” Nerea was apparently remembering the same thing he was. “Now. Will you go get our boyfriend?”
Callum pulled his mobile out of his pocket with his other hand. Come upstairs when you can? He texted Jamie. Nerea leaned her head on Callum’s shoulder, and Callum stroked her hair while waiting for the sound of footsteps.
Chapter 30 - Nerea sends Jamie on an errand
Nerea turned her face into Callum’s shoulder and ordered herself to breathe. Bursting into tears would not help the situation. Hyperventilating would only make it worse. Callum wrapped his other arm around her too and buried his face in her hair. She clung to him, grateful for his strong arms and his steady presence.
Jamie burst in a few minutes later. He stopped short when he saw Nerea and Callum sitting on the bed together.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
Nerea sat up straight, smoothing back loose wisps of hair off her face. She was grateful when Callum left an arm wrapped tightly around her shoulders.
“Come sit down, Jamie,” she said and patted the bed on the other side of her.
Jamie’s face went pale under his freckles. “Is everything okay?” he asked, but didn’t sit. “Oh God, did I offend somebody? Is it your parents? I’m so sorry, I can apologize — ”
“That’s not the problem,” Callum said maybe more sharply than was necessary, but Nerea supposed he was having a shock.
“You haven’t caused any new and shiny drama. Come sit.” Nerea patted the bed next to her again.
Jamie finally sat, warily, tucking one knee up under himself so he could face them.
Nerea felt Callum kiss the side of her head. Your show. She took a deep breath.
“You know how I am too old for you but not totally ancient?” She was not sure her attempt at humor would keep the tears at bay.
The Art of Three Page 20