He was trying really hard to establish a relationship with his sister and niece, but it was an uphill struggle. He seemed so…alone sometimes. As if he had no family at all.
But he probably liked it that way, she told herself. He would probably despise attending a fourteen-year-old’s birthday party. It would only be a lot of silly games. And yet…she supposed it wouldn’t hurt to ask him. He would probably say no. But at least she would have asked…
“Would you like to come with me?” she asked when they reached the entrance hall of the building and the crowd thinned out a little.
He stopped and stared at her, an expression that was hard to read in his eyes.
“You don’t have to,” she added hastily. “It would probably be embarrassing. Robbie will be there, and even though I made him promise not to tell anyone about what happened, he might let something slip—”
He pressed a finger to her lips. “I would be delighted to go.”
He removed his finger immediately, but she was aware of a lingering tickle. Her lips felt dry, she wanted to lick them, but seeing how he was looking at her mouth, she didn’t.
She wished she could stop remembering what it had felt like when he kissed her. She wished she could control the silly lurching of her stomach when he looked at her just so. She wished her heart didn’t flutter happily to see the remoteness gone from his eyes.
She wished she’d kept her mouth shut.
And that feeling only intensified when they arrived at her aunt and uncle’s and found Robbie out on the front porch, a beer in his hand.
He stood up, his eyes narrowing when he saw Garek. But then he smiled and slapped the other man on the back. “How’s it going, primo?”
“He’s not your cousin,” Ellie said. “Remember what you promised me.”
“Yeah, sure, Ellie. Come on inside, everyone else is already here.”
Ellie relaxed a little. Everyone was going to be curious enough about Garek. The last thing she wanted was for them to find out about her silly “marriage”—
“Hey, everyone, look who’s here,” Robbie announced as they entered the crowded living room. “Ellie and her new husband!”
Several hours later, Ellie was exhausted. All evening she’d had to explain over and over that she and Garek weren’t married, that it was just a joke on Robbie’s part.
But in spite of her explanations, everyone still seemed to think Garek was her husband.
“I like your husband,” Great-Grandma Pilar said at one point late in the evening. “He’s a very nice young man. But you should have invited me to the wedding.”
An image of Grandma Pilar—all four-foot-ten wizened inches of her—standing next to Caspar’s tall, lanky frame as he intoned the ceremony popped into Ellie’s head. Shuddering a little, she wondered how Grandma Pilar had formed any opinion at all of Garek since she spoke only Spanish. But she didn’t ask. Instead, in the same language, she replied, “Abuela,he is not my husband.”
But Grandma Pilar didn’t seem to hear her. “A fine young man. He’ll make fine babies. Are you pregnant yet?”
“No, Grandma,” Ellie said resignedly.
“Better not wait,” the old lady advised. “You’re not getting any younger, you know.”
Ellie muttered she was going to get something to eat.
Robbie was by the table, piling carnitas onto his plate. “I knew he was the one for you, Ellie. As soon as he punched me, I knew.”
She might punch her cousin too if he didn’t shut up. In desperation, she looked around for Garek.
He was dancing with Alyssa. Alyssa, all knees and elbows and braces, looked as though she was in seventh heaven—or maybe even eighth or ninth. Garek laughed at something the girl said, then, as if he felt her gaze on him, looked across the room straight at Ellie.
Their eyes met. He flashed a smile at her, then returned his attention to Alyssa, whirling her away in the dance.
Ellie inhaled sharply. She felt dizzy. She felt sick. In that split second, she knew the truth, the truth she’d been trying to deny.
She loved him.
In spite of everything, she loved Garek Wisnewski.
“Ilike your family,” he said as he drove her home later that evening. “You’re lucky to have a family like that.”
“Yes, I know,” she said. She did know it. But why did he have to recognize it, too? A ruthless businessman like him shouldn’t have been able to see beyond the cramped house and poor clothes to the love and joy her family had. But obviously he