After Their Vows

Yes, thought Angie. ‘No, but …’

‘I can’t tell you how great all of this is,’ he rushed on excitedly. ‘I’m flying first class—’

‘Wh-where are you?’ Angie asked him.

‘Hell, I don’t know.’ He didn’t sound as if he cared. ‘Some VIP transit lounge somewhere. I didn’t register where. We stopped to refuel. Did you know you can have a shower and a massage while you wait in these places? Just great how the other half live.’

‘But—what about your studies, Alex? You can’t just—’

‘Oh, blow my studies,’ he dismissed with absolute indifference. ‘I can return to them any time. This is just the very best thing that’s ever happened to me, Angie. Roque’s been amazing. Who would’ve thought it of the guy? Did he tell you I’m going to ride with real gauchos and learn to rope cattle and stuff? I feel really guilty now for being such a bastard to him.’

The line crackled, and Angie heard her brother mutter something. ‘I didn’t catch that,’ she said, squeezing the phone closer to her ear.

‘I’ve got to go. We’re being called to board. Listen to me, Angie,’ he went on quickly, ‘I’m sorry I messed everything up for you two.’

‘You didn’t—’

‘Of course I did,’ Alex sighed out. ‘I meant to do it! I was so jealous of him I wanted to split the two of you up. But taking that money was way too low. I’m lucky I’ve still got my head attached to my neck.’

‘Alex—’

‘I just want to say I love you, sis, but it’s time I started taking responsibility for myself.’ The line crackled again, and kept on crackling. ‘I’m fine …’ she thought she heard between the crackles. ‘Do yourself a favour … Roque …’

‘Alex—?’

The crackles stopped and the line was dead. Angie stood there, staring at the phone clutched in her tense fingers. Her brother was enjoying himself. He was excited. And suddenly Roque had gone from being his most hated enemy to his absolute very best friend. He didn’t mind being shipped off to the other end of the world, away from her. In fact he sounded happy to be given the space!

A sob broke from her. She didn’t know where it came from. A set of long fingers arrived to gently prise the phone free from her grasp. And she was trembling, Angie realised, quivering and shaking, with tears rolling down her cheeks.

‘Take a couple of deep breaths,’ Roque advised quietly.

But Angie shook her head. She wanted to cry. Now that she had given in to it, she wanted to sob her silly aching heart out.

‘You’re suddenly his hero,’ she said, on a choke that could not make its mind up whether to be a sob or a laugh.

She’d stood between the two of them like a boxing referee, with arms outstretched to hold them apart while they’d thrown verbal punches at each other. Now, out of nowhere, they’d decided to call a truce. Why couldn’t they have tried to do it when it would have meant something to her?

Now Nadia stood between her and Roque like a smug, smiling spectre. And not just Nadia, she thought as she broke down on another sob.

She heard Roque release a sigh, then his arms came around her. There was a stiff reluctance in the way he drew her close. They were still at loggerheads, she remembered. Allowing her contact with her brother had not been done in the form of an olive branch.

‘I apologise,’ Roque said, and even that left him with distinct unwillingness. ‘I accept I should not have withheld your right to reassure yourself that your brother was okay before he flew off. But he was already in the air and I knew I could not contact him for hours. I am a ruthless bastard when I go after something,’ he ended flatly.

‘I can’t make my mind up if you’ve sent him to Brazil to make a man out of him or because you just want to put him as far away from you as you possibly can.’

‘A bit of both,’ Roque confessed with a dry slice of honesty. ‘Here—use this …’

He handed her a clean napkin off the table. Taking it from him, Angie took the hint that she’d cried enough tears and made an effort to put a stop to them. ‘It’s me who should be saying sorry,’ she mumbled into the napkin. ‘I didn’t mean to fall to pieces.’

‘If you want my opinion it is something you should have done a long time ago.’

He was probably right. For hours, days, months— years—she’d been bottling it all up without knowing she was doing it. From the age of seventeen she had lived her life by walking a narrow path wearing blinkers on her emotions, because it was the only way she had been able to cope. Survival had been everything—her survival, her brother’s survival. Constant fear had dogged her every decision. If she got it wrong and could no longer afford to keep Alex safe in his private boarding school she’d risked him being taken away from her and placed in a state home or fostered out.

Then Roque had come along—a dangerously tempting diversion.

‘You were right,’ she sniffed into the napkin. ‘I should not have let Alex run my life for me. I should’ve listened when you offered me advice.’

‘Was that a concession?’