“What are you smiling about?” Lena asked.
I lifted my head from the paperwork I was doing. “What?”
“You’re smiling. You rarely smile and certainly not when doing paperwork. What’s up?”
I forced my lips to relax, though I still felt like smiling. “It’s nothing.”
She harrumphed, and after a I-know-you’re-lying glare, she walked out of the room.
I exhaled loudly and checked my phone. There were no texts from Gabi. She never texted me before, outside of important stuff, why would she start now? Besides, I would be the one texting her soon to arrange for our lunch date.
A lunch date.
I was going on a freaking lunch date with my wife, and for some reason that made me incredibly pleased.
If only all things in my life were this easy and felt this good.
In the middle of the week, I went to check on Branca. I had texted Gabi, letting her know I was coming, in case she could too, but she had gone to a practice with her brother and cousins, and Kelsey, the girl she hoped to play with in the future.
I really hoped things worked out for Gabi. I hoped she found two other girls and they found a sponsor, and they won tournaments. Seeing her happy would make me happy too.
Happier.
I hadn’t felt this content and satisfied in a long time. The only thing that could make this all better was if my father suddenly healed and his cancer was gone. But I knew that even a miracle couldn’t save him now. All I wanted was for him to hang on for as long as he could.
At the ranch, Hannah was getting a group ready for a trail ride, as usual. She waved at me from a distance and I waved back. She was cool, just like the rest of Gabi’s family. I had resisted in the beginning, but there was no denying. They were all good people and cared about each other. It was great seeing them all together, and even if I wasn’t too sure of what was really happening yet, Gabi and I were a real couple now. I was part of this family too.
With a small grin on my lips, I walked into the stables and went directly to Branca’s stall. She saw me coming and came to the door.
I stopped in front of her and caressed under her chin. “Hey, girl. Ready to exercise a little?”
She nodded her head up and down and I laughed, as if she had really answered at me. I grabbed reins from the tack room and placed them over her head. I opened the stall door and pulled her out. “Let’s go have some fun.”
50
Gabi
The first week of being a real couple had been awkward, and great, and it had flown by too fast. Before I had cooked because I needed to. I mean, we had to eat, right? But now I cooked because I wanted to please him. Like this evening. Tyler had already left the clinic and had gone to visit his father at the hospital, but when he got home, dinner would be ready.
I smiled at the sauce as I stirred the pot with a wooden spoon.
My phone rang. I grabbed from the counter and, without looking at the caller ID, answered it.
“Hello.”
“Gabi, hey, it’s Melissa. How are you?”
I frowned. Melissa? It took me three seconds to remember her. The girl from Florida who was being scouted by a club in England. How did she get my number? “Oh, hey. I’m … doing fine. Surprise by your call, though. How are you?”
“I’m great and I have great news.”
I stopped stirring the sauce pot and focused on the call. “Hm, what do you mean?”
“Kelsey told you I don’t want to move to England, right? There are a couple of clubs that have a women’s team here in Florida, but they don’t want any other teams, but well, I’ve been practically harassing a few clubs that don’t have teams and I might have found one to sponsor a new team!”
I leaned on the counter. “What? That’s great!” That meant she wouldn’t have to go to England.
“Yeah, it is. The only thing that is bothering me right now is that they don’t want just four girls. They want six to eight, so they can rotate between them. But my idea is to accept their offer, and with time, convince them to separate the eight girls into two teams.”
“That sounds like a great idea. I’m glad for you.” I barely knew her and she was calling me to let me know she had found a club? Good for her. But I was a little jealous.
She chuckled. “Girl, I’m calling you because I told them about you. They want you on their team.”
My knees wobbled. “W-what?”
“Yes!” She chuckled some more. “The director said he still wants to see you play but by the sound of it, only if you mess up really bad would they withdraw the offer.”
My chest felt like it would burst with excitement. “Meu Deus, that’s … incredible!”
“Right? I’m gonna give him your number, okay? He’s going to call you with all the details and the offer and such.”
“Sim, yes, please do.”
“Awesome. Expect a call from him tomorrow, then. I told him about Kelsey too and I think he’s going to call her too.” She let out something that sounded like a squeal. “Can you imagine, girl? Our own polo team? What a dream come true!”
“It is.”
“Well, I have to go now. Call me tomorrow after the director, John Cross, calls you. I want to know all the details.”
“Will do.”
“I can’t wait for you to move down here and for our team to start winning all the tournaments. Talk to you tomorrow.”
“Tchau,” I whispered on the phone as reality set in.
Meu Deus. Move to Florida?
I couldn’t. For many reasons. One, I had moved to the U.S. not only to play polo but also to be near my family who lived in California. Two, what about Tyler? With his father here, sick and tied to the hospital, he would never move down there with me, and because of the green card, I had to stay close to him. Our interview with the immigration office was scheduled for next week. As far as we knew, they would keep monitoring us during the next two years. If they found out I was living away from my husband, chances were they would pick up it was a fake marriage and deport me.
Even though it wasn’t a fake marriage anymore.
The sound of keys jingling broke my daze, and I turned to the door in time to see Tyler opening and entering the apartment.
“Hey, you,” he said, locking the door again. He walked up to me and only stopped when he was glued to me. He pressed his lips on mine in a soft kiss. “How was your day?”
“It was okay,” I said, trying to think this thought. Should I tell him about Florida? I probably should. But then what? It wouldn’t matter now, would it? My mind was a knot of thoughts.
“Mine was okay too,” he said. “Though my father wasn’t doing too well this evening.”
“Oh no.”
And just like that, I pushed all thoughts of Florida out of my mind. Right now, Tyler and his father were more important. Telling him about it could wait.
I served dinner and we ate while we talked, then after we cleaned the kitchen, we snuggled on the couch to watch a movie, me with a glass of wine and him with a beer.
But we didn’t make it halfway through the movie. I think we got to twenty minutes before our clothes were all spread around the living room and we turned the TV off.
51
Tyler
“I didn’t see any pictures of you two together before your wedding,” officer Brody said. He was seated across the table from Gabi and me, with our thick file folder open in front of him. He didn’t look all that impressed with us.
“It’s because we didn’t take many pictures before,” Gabi said, her voice even and calm. We had talked about this many times already. Even if we started faking this marriage, it wasn’t fake anymore. We had nothing to hide, nothing to fear. “We were hiding our relationship from my family because I didn’t think they would understand. That’s the only reason we haven’t taken many pictures and why we didn’t post any online either.”
He leveled a look at her. “And why were you hiding your relationship fro
m your family?”
“Because … we didn’t think it was serious. Not in the beginning. I didn’t want them asking me about that guy from the pictures when, in truth, I didn’t know if I would ever see him again.” She glanced at me. “But I saw him again. Several times. And things got serious pretty fast.”
I reached across our chairs with my open hand. With a smile, Gabi entwined her fingers on mine. I squeezed tight.
From there, the interview was easy. Officer Brody asked her only a handful of questions we had studied before. Where we lived, for how long, who cooked, who cleaned, who liked what kind of movies, what was our favorite color, and other silly stuff.
He hadn’t given us an answer, but we didn’t get bad vibes from the man, so we thought Gabi had passed the interview. We decided to go out for lunch at our favorite local diner to celebrate before I had to go back to work.
After ordering our food, we talked.
“I’m going to stop at the hospital before going home,” I reminded her. My father wasn’t doing well and I wanted to spend every spare second I had with him.
“I know. Text me when you’re leaving the hospital. I’ll get dinner ready.”
I lifted our entwined hands and kissed her palm. “You’re too good to me.”
Her cheeks gained a rosy tint. “You’re biased.”
The waitress brought out our huge burgers and fries.
After a few bites, I noticed Gabi could barely chew because she was smiling.
“Happy?” I asked.
“Very.” She looked at me from under her eyelashes. “And you?”
“Me too.” I narrowed my eyes at her. “You aren’t planning on divorcing me after the two years, right?”
“Maybe.” She smiled. “I’ll see if how you treat me.”
“I plan on treating you right. Actually, better than right.”
“I like that plan.”
As we were leaving the restaurant, my phone rang. Absentmindedly, I picked it up and glanced at the screen. And halted.
“It’s from the hospital,” I told Gabi. She squeezed my other hand. “Hello?” I answered.
“Tyler, it’s nurse Annie.” Her voice was cold. Tired. “You should come over.”
I swallowed hard and kept the worries locked in my chest. There was only one reason for her to be calling me. “I’ll be right there.”
52
Gabi
“How is he doing?” Gui asked.
I glanced to the armchair Tyler had been seated in since we came back from the funeral. He hadn’t moved an inch since. In fact, he had barely moved at all since getting the call from nurse Annie two days ago.
We had immediately left for the hospital—I drove because Tyler was nervous. We got there and the doctor was waiting for us.
“He only has a few hours left,” he said, his tone solemn, dejected.
Thankfully, Charlie woke up long enough to say goodbye to his son. But Tyler’s world blew up after that. The doctor assured us he wasn’t in any pain, but the sixteen hours we spent at the hospital were painful to Tyler. And to me. I hated seeing him suffering like that. I hated not being able to do something to help.
His father died in the middle of the night, while Tyler watched over him like a hawk. Tyler went into a stasis mode and I took over everything—I talked to the doctors and nurses, I called the funeral place and arranged everything, I called my family and let them know about the funeral details.
There were only a few people at the funeral. My guess was that either word hadn’t spread that Charlie had died, or he didn’t have many friends later in his life.
After, my family and a few friends of Charlie and Tyler came back to the apartment with us. And since then, Tyler looked like a statue dressed in all black and seated in the armchair.
“Not good,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper. “He hasn’t said much since we went to the hospital. I know he hasn’t slept yet and he barely ate.”
Bia wrapped her arm around my shoulders. “And how are you?”
I offered her a tight-lip smile, showing her I appreciated the concern. “I spent a lot of time at Charlie’s bedside these past few months, but I didn’t really know him.” I sighed. “But I’m hurting for Tyler.” I glanced at him again. Still in the same position, staring at the same blank spot on the wall. “He knew this would happen eventually, but I guess one is never really prepared for it.”
“We’re here if you need us, you know that, right?” Hannah said.
I nodded. “I know. Obrigada.”
Ri leaned closer and whispered, “You haven’t told him about Florida yet, have you?”
Florida.
I hadn’t told Tyler about it, but I had told my family about it, because I wanted some guidance. Who was best to help with polo things than the guys?
As agreed, I had spoken on the phone with John Cross, the polo director of the club in Florida, and his offer was pretty great. We did talk about having two teams in the future, which made me feel better about this whole thing, but in the end, I told him I had to think about it. He sounded a little upset about it, but agreed to it. He said he would call me again in two weeks to find out my answer.
I already knew my answer, but I guess I was still hoping for a miracle.
“No,” I finally answered. “I guess I won’t.”
“Why?” Pedro asked. “I don’t want to sound like a jerk, but you said he wouldn’t move with you because of his father. Well, now he can.”
I knew that but … “That’s asking too much. His father just died. He needs time to process, to adjust. I can’t invite him to move with me to another state.”
“I know, I know,” Pedro said. “It’s just … we know how much you were waiting for an opportunity like that.”
“True, but one of the reasons I moved here was to stay close to you guys. Living in Florida would be like living in Brazil. I would be able to see you guys only a few times per year.”
“But you’ll be living your dream,” Leo said.
I sneaked another peek at Tyler. Was my dream of playing professional polo more important than him? Was my dream more important than being with him and giving him strength during this difficult phase? I didn’t think so.
I gasped, realizing something too important to ignore. My chest hurt with the clarity and certainty of it.
I loved Tyler. I loved Tyler way more than I loved polo and that was big. Huge.
“But the man she loves will stay behind,” Hilary said. I stared at her, my eyes wide. She smiled at me. “It’s written all over your face.”
My cheeks heated and I was sure I was a deep shade of red. “Bom, it’s true and that settles it. I … I love Tyler—” It was a relief to say it and finally meant it. “—and he needs me now more than ever. I won’t be going to Florida.”
“I understand,” Ri said.
And that was the end of that conversation.
The other people left soon after, and then my family left too.
I cleaned up a little of the mess in the kitchen, prepared a sandwich, grabbed a drink, and placed it on the coffee table in the living room. I sat on the arm of Tyler’s chair and gently touched his arm.
“Ty?” I called. He didn’t move. He didn’t blink. “Tyler?” I asked louder.
He snapped his head at me and stared at me as if seeing me for the first time in a long time. “Hey,” he said, his voice rough.
I pointed to the tray on the coffee table. “I’ve brought you something to eat.”
“I’m not hungry.”
I sighed. “Then let’s go to bed.”
He didn’t say anything. I stood and took his hands in mine. Thankfully, he didn’t fight me, and when I tugged, he rose. Hand in hand, I guided him to our bedroom. I pulled off his jacket, then he helped me with his shirt and pants. I handed him his pajamas and he put them on while I changed from my dress to my pajamas.
Together, we crawled into bed. I lay on my back and he wrapped his arms around me, his head
resting on my chest, as if he needed to hear my heartbeat. My eyes filled with tears again as I wound my arms around him and pulled him tight against me.
We didn’t say anything else and soon, I felt his breathing slow down. Only then, I let the tears I had been holding in the entire day fall.
53
Tyler
I didn’t want to go, but Gabi insisted. As usual.
It had been only one week since my father had died, and I still felt like a zombie walking around. I was scheduled to go back to work in a couple more days, but I was thinking about coming up with some other excuse to miss another week. I didn’t feel ready for anything.
“It’s just dinner,” Gabi said. “Like they always do. We haven’t gone to one in ages. Besides, it would be good to get out of the apartment a little.”
I groaned, knowing this battle was lost.
So, I showered and got dressed and let her drive us to her brother’s apartment.
In the car, I glanced at her.
Damn, she had been the epitome of kindness and patience this past week. Even when I was acting like a jerk and didn’t deserve it. She stayed with me, she calmed me down, she cooked for me, she massaged my back out of nowhere, she hugged me tight many, many times per day, she forced to go on a short walk with her every day so I wouldn’t be stuck in the apartment, rotting away. She always had nice words and small smiles and gentle hands.
I had no idea what I had done to deserve all of that, but I was glad she was here with me. I couldn’t imagine not having her in my life anymore. She was now everything to me. Everything.
Holy shit, I was really falling for her.
I knew this could happen. I knew this would happen. I just thought it would take more time. But really, with the way she was, the way she looked, how she acted, how she took care of me, how she had taken care of my father, her plans and ideas and principles … I was surprised it took this long. Actually, it took me this long to realize I was falling for her. Deep down, I had known for quite some time.
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