“No, never,” Tess said loyally.
“You helped us,” Hallie said.
“So now let us help you,” the redhead said. “Do you love him?”
“No, I—” But Lola’s words caught in her throat. Memories flooded through her of Rodrigo tenderly taking care of their baby. Of him caring for her. Of all their days talking, and the hot nights when he’d made love to her again and again. Looking at her friends, she couldn’t lie to them.
With a shuddering breath, she whispered, “I don’t know.”
Hallie and Tess looked at each other.
“You don’t know?” Hallie said gently.
“I can’t love him.” Lola wiped her eyes. “I did once, last year, before I knew I was pregnant. But when I told him my feelings, he found an excuse to break up with me, and practically tossed me out of California. He doesn’t believe in love. He thinks it only brings pain.” She hesitated, then said quietly, “He was engaged three times before he met me.”
Idealistic Tess looked shocked. “Three times?”
“And they all cheated on him before the wedding.”
“All of them?” Hallie said faintly.
“I’m sorry I didn’t invite you to the wedding. But as soon as Rodrigo found out about the baby, he insisted we get married at once. A judge was waiting at his loft to marry us right after the paternity test. With his housekeeper and bodyguard as witnesses.”
“You didn’t even get to plan your own wedding?” Tess said indignantly.
Lola looked down.
“It wasn’t so bad,” she said in a small voice.
“And whoever heard of a man engaged so many times?” Hallie said wonderingly.
“It happens,” Lola said, a hard edge coming into her voice. She felt suddenly protective of him.
Tess’s plump face was bewildered. “And all three women cheated on him before the wedding?”
Lola took a deep breath, wondering if she should tell them the worst, the fear she could barely even admit to herself—that he’d arranged those betrayals himself, either to test their loyalty or have an excuse to end the relationships.
He’s not like that, Lola told herself desperately. He wouldn’t do something so underhanded.
The house phone rang on the kitchen counter. Tess picked it up. “Hello?” Her face lit up. “Yes, of course. Send them all up!” Hanging up, she said happily, “That was the doorman. My cousins are here, and so are the caterers!” Moving to the wide, open doorway, she called, “Boys! The food’s here!”
There was a loud yell of glee, and the trampling of heavy male feet.
“Will you be all right, Lola?”
Hallie’s voice was quiet behind her. Lola turned to see the brunette’s worried eyes.
With a deep breath, she lifted her chin. “Don’t worry about me. I’m just being silly.” Wiping the last of the tears from her eyes, she took Jett back into her arms with a smile. “Rodrigo and I are happy. We have a baby together. We’re married. Friends.” She gave a crooked smile. “And the sex is fantastic.”
Gentle, romantic Tess looked at her. “But without love, how can it last?”
Don’t get comfortable, Ulrika Lund had said. You won’t be with him for long. He’ll see to that.
As Lola looked between the worried faces of her best friends, a trickle of fear went down her spine.
I have to understand what happened, she thought suddenly. Had her husband really been behind all those betrayals and broken engagements? Or was it just a wild coincidence?
She’d spoken to his first two fiancées, but not the third, Elise Patel, a world-famous composer who now lived in Los Angeles. Perhaps her story would turn out to be completely different.