Reyes’s Raina

by Dale Mayer

  Ice turned to look at him.

  He looked down at her and gave a short shake of his head. Then he turned to stare out the window. But he couldn’t let it go. “Not sure what same one you’re talking about. The only woman in my life back then was my fiancée.”

  Again an uncomfortable silence filled the cab.

  Ron, his tone disbelieving, asked, “Seriously?”

  Reyes gave a heavy sigh, leaned forward and looked at him. “I don’t know what she told you, but I certainly wasn’t having an affair. There was not another woman in my life.”

  Ron caught up to the heavier traffic and gave him a hard, fast look. “That’s exactly what she said, that she caught you in bed with another woman and broke it off.”

  Reyes snorted. “Really?”

  Ice leaned over and gently patted his knee. He wasn’t sure if it was encouragement or just being supportive. Then he realized he didn’t give a damn who wanted the truth after all this time. He was tired of lying.

  “Somebody was caught in bed with another woman,” he said quietly, “but it wasn’t me.”

  A strangled sound came from his brother’s throat. He understood instantly. Ron looked over at him. “Are you saying Reana was in bed with another woman?”

  “Yes. And I didn’t recognize the woman. There was no mistaking what they were up to.” He sank back in the seat and stared out the window.

  Under his breath, his brother muttered, “Jesus.”

  “Exactly,” Reyes said. “Somehow I figured nobody would know that part.”

  Ice chuckled. “Everybody says what they need to for self-preservation. Don’t blame her for trying to save her own skin at an uncomfortable moment. Blame her for how she let everybody else think about you in the ensuing years, yes. But, at that moment, it was just about survival.”

  Reyes had to think about that for a moment. Then he realized how true it was. He couldn’t blame Reana for what blurted out of her mouth when she was caught in that situation. But he sure as hell could blame her for what came afterward—or failed to be cleared up later. Some things were just inexcusable.

  *

  Raina Woodcroft walked through the greenhouse. A brand-new shipment of pansies had come in, and they’d wilted. She kept the temperature a little on the cooler side to help them recover and watered them with a gentle rain wand. She wanted water tables for them, but they hadn’t gotten set up in this area.

  As soon as the pansies recovered, they’d be moved to the general sales area. This area was more of a rest-and-recuperate section of the greenhouse. She had the ability to open windows at the top to let out the heated air to regulate the temperature. She kept a close eye on the plants that were under a lot of heat stress.

  She worked away, humming gently to herself. Of all the things she enjoyed, being around the greenery was at the top of her list. These plants meant something to her. Every one mattered. Then again, to her, all of Mother Nature mattered. She wasn’t so big on the men she knew, but the plants, the animals, the birdlife, she was totally okay with those. Including reptiles and insects.

  She was probably the only one in the place who wouldn’t immediately kill a spider. Some of the spiders did great work, and she went to extreme lengths to save them when she could. She usually got called whenever an infestation was found somewhere, so she could move them out. And she did so with joy. Even though they were the least loved of Mother Nature’s critters, they were still worthy of saving, as far as she was concerned. She knew not everybody agreed, but apparently she was an oddity.

  It was partly caused by growing up with a twin—a twin who was a lot more exuberant, a lot more in-your-face, a lot more driven to get what she wanted. They’d been really close when younger, but mostly because Raina had never really fought her sister’s dominant role. Raina suspected that, in every case, one twin was more dominant than the other. In her case, she was the less dominant one. She was much more laid-back about everything; her sister was more aggressive, always needing to be right. She had a lot of really good qualities, but she treated people more as disposable commodities.

  When Raina had heard Reyes would arrive here today, it had brought back a flood of memories.

  It still hurt to realize her sister and Reyes had had the opportunity of a lifetime, and Reana had blown it. Raina didn’t understand what had gone wrong. She’d heard her sister’s version, but it was hard for her to believe that Reyes would have treated Reana like that.

  Raina wanted to believe her sister. But sometimes she was a liar when it suited her. Raina remembered when they were both in the same history class. She had been blamed for something her sister had done, and her sister let her take the blame, even though Raina had protested profusely. The teacher and her sister had gone against her. Raina hadn’t failed the course, but she’d had to redo a major project just so she could pass, and she never did get the appropriate marks for it. Her sister thought it was funny as hell. After that Raina made sure she was never in the same class as her sister.

  The counselor had struggled with that because the school offered a limited number of courses. So Raina had gone an entirely different way than her sister. Her sister was all about making sure she was somebody, whereas Raina was all about making sure she was her own person. It was okay to be quiet. It was okay to be one of the less exuberant personalities. But she wanted to be authentic—whoever she was to be. Her sister had said she was foolish, that authenticity was for the birds.

  The problem was, Raina had been half in love with Reyes herself. But, of course, her sister—the brighter light of the two of them—had been the one who had attracted his attention, with Raina always in the background. But she’d refused to let that hold her down. She’d found her own friends, her own relationships, and she’d turned her back on both of them. She’d been happy for them as long as they were happy.

  But they were a combustible couple. They fought a lot—and made up noisily—so the whole world would know. Her sister was incredibly demonstrative and loved public displays of affection. She was also a huge drama queen.

  Reyes didn’t appear to be as comfortable with any of that but was happy to go along with what Reana wanted.

  Raina, on the other hand, was quiet. She would hold hands in public and maybe give a hug, but she wasn’t into passionate displays of kissing or fondling, which her sister was all about. It was more for show, at least Raina thought so, than anything else, but that was being mean to her sister.

  She stopped, turned to look around the greenhouse where she worked and, with quiet satisfaction, saw that the plants were recuperating. This was where Raina belonged, dealing with plants that needed her, dealing with animals that needed her. When younger, she’d wanted to be a vet but had given up that dream when her grades hadn’t been quite good enough. Maybe if she had tried harder. But she’d seen kids with that natural intelligence which she didn’t seem to have.

  She’d been really sad about it for a long time. She’d tried her damnedest and still couldn’t seem to get the marks. She was a solid B student. Getting an A was always an overjoyed moment. Reana, on the other hand, seemed to be an A student. Somehow she got the looks, the brains, and the personality.

  Only after working with plants did Raina realize her true love was nature and that she had a special affinity with plants in particular.

  Raina gently stroked the soft petals of an African violet. The fuzzy tops always intrigued her. Kind of like her and her sister’s relationship. There was that outside view of most people—when you rubbed up against them, you were pretty sure you knew exactly who they were. But, on the inside, they were very different people. While Raina and Reana looked the same physically, Reana went to great pains to act differently than her quiet sister. Raina herself rarely did anything to distinguish herself from her sister, knowing her sister would do it first. Raina was just happy to get up in the morning, run a brush through her hair. She would braid it or put it in a high ponytail. She rarely wore makeup and never gave a damn about l
ooking her best. Why? Anybody who mattered would see her for who she was.

  At least that was what she hoped.

  It hadn’t worked out that way with Reyes. But now she was too entrenched in the idea of being herself, not dressing up or presenting herself to be anything other than who she really was. Maybe if she had an office job or worked in sales or in any media-related position, she would have taken more care with her appearance. But the truth was, she was wrist deep in dirt half the time, bending over plants, digging and transplanting them on a regular basis. Nobody gave a damn whether she had on mascara and lipstick or not.

  Her sister used to laugh at her and tell her that she was just a garden grub. And maybe that was the truth, but Raina was happy with her lot in life. She and her boyfriend had broken up a few months ago, and that was okay too. Maybe it was sad, but what had been sadder was the relationship itself. They’d just been chugging along, as if waiting for somebody more exciting to come into their lives. It had hardly been gemstones and roses, and definitely passion was not there. After one of those Hey, where are we going with this? conversations, they had broken up.

  “Raina?”

  She turned to see Annemarie—her boss and Reyes’s mother—standing in the doorway, a phone in her hand. “What’s up?”

  “Reyes is about ten minutes away,” she said, her words causing a big smile to break out on her face. “Are you okay to handle the front desk, so I can spend some time with him?”

  Chapter 2

  “Of course I am,” Raina said calmly. Inside her heart leaped. It wasn’t an emotion she would let everyone know about.

  Annemarie had been delighted when Reana and Reyes had gotten engaged. Thinking it was a perfect pairing. Raina never understood. She herself had been worried but figured that ultimately they would handle their problems. Unfortunately they had.

  Raina walked into the store and realized that everybody must be away on lunch break because normally at least half a dozen people could be seen working. She glanced at Annemarie. “Where is everyone?”

  Annemarie raised both hands and shook her head. “A birthday party or something. A bunch of the employees wanted to lunch together. I said yes because, at the time, it was dead in here. But now look at it.”

  Raina surveyed the chaotic line and stepped up to one of the registers to ring customers through. She didn’t care what she did when she was at work. Whether it was handling customers or dealing with plants, she was willing to do whatever was needed. Her preference was to stay in the background, but the business had grown exponentially in the last few years, and it was hard to keep full-time staff.

  She lost herself in the heavy traffic of the noon rush. When no more customers were in front of her, she finally took a break and stepped back with a big sigh of relief.

  “What are you doing working the register?”

  The male voice was one she readily recognized. She lifted her gaze to Reyes. A grin slid out. “Wow. You finally came back to the slumlands, did you?”

  Reyes’s lips quirked, and that endearing smile he had peeked out. It used to make her heart ache. “It’s all good. I’m back with my boss to pick up a very hefty order of plants for Texas.”

  “Surely there are plants closer than this,” she said.

  He shrugged. “Possibly. But she’s pretty interested in getting some of the plants here and trying to get them to grow there.”

  “Still, would be easier to get them closer to home,” Raina warned. “You know how hard it’ll be to transplant some of them.” One of the most stunning women she’d ever seen stepped up beside Reyes. She was tall and slim, with an almost foreign air to her. She looked to be such a capable can-do woman that it was hard not to admire her right from the get-go. Raina realized this had to be Reyes’s boss.

  She reached out a hand. “Hi, I’m Raina, an old friend of the family.”

  The woman smiled and shook her hand in a firm grip. “I’m Ice. Reyes’s boss.”

  Raina chuckled. “Good for him. I always enjoy seeing guys like him under a woman.” She said it in such a teasing voice that no one would take her words seriously.

  Ice’s grin was infectious, and her laugh was charming. “That’s all right. He fits in with all the rest of the guys and women back home. Back to the plants. Do you really think I’ll have that much trouble transplanting some of these?” she asked as she crossed her arms and stared out the window at the many greenhouses. “We were planning on taking a truckful back. Of course we do have a lot of heat in Texas, so I was thinking our weather would be similar to California weather. Although Texas is drier.”

  “There’ll be a lot of similarities,” Raina said, “but you’ll have to watch the humidity and moisture. It is a long trip. Did you consider that?”

  “That’s why we have a reefer truck standing by. Still, I’m torn between flying home or riding back with Reyes in the refrigerated transport,” she said.

  Raina tilted her head at that. “If you can keep the temperature cool enough without chilling the plants, they’d probably be okay.” She tapped her chin as she thought about it. “It’s an interesting conundrum. All plants will have a certain amount of stress with the move. You’re completely changing their climate, and some of these are tropical. But then, like you know, Texas has a lot of heat. I’ve never really worked in that climate before, so I don’t know the full ins and outs of it.”

  Reyes looked at her. “How have you been, Raina?”

  She shrugged, mustering up a bright smile. “I’m doing good. Still working here.”

  “Good. This is where you belong,” he said firmly. “More than anybody else I know of, this is your type of environment.”

  She shrugged again and chuckled. “I do prefer plants over people.” She glanced at Ice to see the older woman studying her intently. She smiled. “Are you keeping Reyes in line?”

  Ice gave a definitive nod. “Hard not to in my world. We all follow orders, whether we like them or not. It’s what keeps us safe.”

  Raina thought that was an odd statement, but then she didn’t know much about what Reyes was doing now. If it was as dangerous as what he used to do, then she understood.

  Just then a commotion was heard at the front door. She turned, and her heart sank. “Damn,” she whispered under her breath. She looked up, caught Ice’s narrowed gaze, gave a half-ashamed smile and whispered, “Sorry.”

  Reyes reached out, his hand coming down on her shoulder. “Things haven’t improved?”

  “Nope,” Raina said brightly as she watched her sister storm toward her. “And not likely to either.”

  And suddenly her larger-than-life, burning-hotter-than-a-flame sister was here. Reana pulled her arm back to get a full swing at Reyes’s face. When her hand connected with his cheek, the sound of the crack could be heard across the room. Then there was silence.

  *

  If he’d seen her hand coming, he might have stopped her. As it was, it had come out of the blue. He’d forgotten just how volatile Reana was. He placed his palm to his cheek, feeling the burn from her blow. Grimly he glared at her. “I see you’re just as nasty as you always were.”

  His ex-fiancée gasped as her back straightened. “What the hell are you doing here?”

  “That’s enough out of you,” Annemarie said from behind them. “That is my son. This is my place of business. He is always welcome here. You, if you don’t know how to behave yourself, are not.”

  Raina almost smiled at that. Annemarie was many things, but she was no pushover.

  Suddenly she was there between her son and Reana.

  Reana lifted her chin, her nose in the air, and glared at Annemarie.

  But Annemarie was not daunted. She glared right back. “I suggest you go outside and cool off. When you know how to behave again, you may step back into this store. In the meantime, keep your melodramatic actions to yourself.” When Reana still didn’t move, Annemarie lifted her arm, pointed at the front door and, in a hard voice, said, “Go.”


  With a huff and a swing of her long hair, Reana stormed out the front door.

  Instantly the air calmed. Annemarie turned to look at Raina.

  Raina shrugged and said, “Sorry.”

  Annemarie sighed. “I keep telling you how you must stop apologizing for your sister. She is who she is, and you are who you are. You are not responsible for her actions.”

  “I know you keep telling me that,” Raina said, “but some things are just instinctive.”

  Annemarie turned to look up at Ice and then at Reyes. When she saw her son’s cheek, she winced.

  Reyes looked at her and smiled. “It’s not the first time she’s hit me, you know.”

  Annemarie nodded slowly. “At first I thought you two would be great together but did worry she’d be too volatile for you. The fact that you picked a woman who would beat the crap out of you, and you would take it, always worried me,” she muttered.

  “I remember you pushing us together,” Reyes said in surprise. “Not that you were worried about us. You were certainly angry when we broke up.” He shrugged. “Besides, she was always volatile. Ever since she was little.”

  “Yes, but you’re the only one who let her hit you,” his mother said in exasperation. “What the hell is wrong with you that you would do that?”

  Reyes felt the old anger spark through him. How dare she question that when his father had been taking his mother’s shit all their marriage. “What would you like me to do?” he asked coolly. “Hit her back?”

  His mother fisted her hands on her hips and glared at him.

  He sighed and said, “This is why I don’t come home. Within five minutes of being here, you’re telling me off.” He motioned at Ice. “Let’s finish our business and go home. At least there I feel welcome.” He turned and walked out.

  Outside he stopped and took several deep breaths. Since his ex-fiancée had gone out the front door, he’d gone out the back. Some things just never changed. His mother was forever criticizing him, telling him how he should be more of a man, and yet, it wasn’t in him to fight back with somebody as difficult as Reana. The problem was, Reana was like his mother. He’d seen her hit his father more than a time or two. The fact that his father hadn’t hit her back was good, but he was surprised his mother had no respect for either of them. For a long time Reana had held Reyes’s heart in her hands, and she’d squeezed every drop out of it. When he’d found her in bed with another woman, the relief had been overwhelming. He’d had a solid reason for walking away. And he’d taken it.