“Well, technically, it was just my youngest sister, Johanna. They sent back the college money, can you believe it? They didn’t even want it!” Picking up the check from the floor, she showed him. “They just want us to come for Christmas!”
“Christmas?” he said slowly. “In New York?”
She nodded happily. “Think of it, Rodrigo. Christmas with my sisters, then New Year’s Eve with our friends. Cristiano’s hosting a party at his new property in Times Square... What do you say?” she rushed out.
Rodrigo stared down at her, his handsome face expressionless. “It’s our first Christmas as a family. I thought we’d spend it here. I’ve made plans...”
“Please.” Her voice caught. “You don’t know what it means to me that they want to see me.”
He looked down at her in the dark, shadowed beach house. “It means so much, querida?”
“So much,” she whispered.
Rodrigo took a deep breath.
“Then of course we must go.”
Joy filled her. With a cry, Lola threw her arms around him, standing on her tiptoes to cover his face with kisses. “You won’t regret it!”
Smiling, he murmured, his voice muffled by her kisses, “I’m glad already.”
Drawing back, Lola looked up at her husband. The moon’s silver light grazed the hard edges of one side, with the lamplight’s golden glow on the other. Her heart felt bigger than the world.
And that was when she knew, she really knew, that she loved him.
CHAPTER NINE
IT WAS THE day before Christmas Eve, and the weather had grown cooler, even in Los Angeles. Lola had to wear a soft cotton sweater and jeans instead of a sundress and sandals. But amid the palm trees and California sunshine, as she listened to Christmas songs on the radio about snow and family, all she could think about was their upcoming trip to New York.
Everything was planned. Tomorrow, they’d leave for New York on Rodrigo’s private jet, and not return until New Year’s Day.
Lola tapped her feet excitedly. Just one more day until she’d finally see her sisters after all these years. She’d done a video chat with them last week, and she could hardly believe how shockingly grown up they looked now. She’d even spoken briefly with their parents. Lola remembered the older couple as guarded, but they seemed warmer now and friendlier.
Perhaps because they weren’t scared o
f her anymore, either. They knew she wasn’t a threat to them. She’d never try to fight them for custody or add stress to their lives. How could she? She was grateful to them, for taking the girls into their home as foster kids, then adopting them and giving them such happy lives. When Lola had first seen Johanna and Kelsey’s parents seven years ago, she’d been so jealous, she’d hated them, picturing them as entitled and rich.
She knew now that they were just regular people. The father was an engineer. The mother was a school secretary.
Lola had loved seeing pictures of the girls’ tidy little house in their picturesque little town, an hour outside New York. Lola had introduced them to Jett in the video chat and shown them pictures of Rodrigo and their beach house in California. Since that time, Johanna kept sending Lola funny pictures of their dog, Peaches, telling her firmly that she “had” to get a dog for Jett, too.
He’s not even six months old, Lola had texted back, amused to see her own bossiness manifest in her baby sister.
Jett’s my nephew and he needs a dog, Johanna had replied firmly.
Jett had aunts now. More family to love him. And Lola was so grateful.
She’d already wrapped their Christmas presents. The gifts weren’t flashy like the college money, expensive and designed to impress, but simple and from the heart. A crystal unicorn for Johanna, who loved anything that was pink and pretty, and an original-press, rare vinyl ABBA album for Kelsey, who was way too young to be a fan, but there you had it. For their parents, she’d bought a pizza stone and accessories, after hearing about their Thursday pizza nights. Even the family dog, Harley, would receive a basket of top-of-the-line homemade dog treats and chew toys.
Lola smiled, just thinking about it.
Jett’s Christmas gifts had already been sorted at Thanksgiving, from her and Rodrigo’s spree in New York. But she’d spent time writing heartfelt thank-you cards to the housekeepers and bodyguards, to go with their holiday bonuses.
Leaving only one person to shop for. One impossibly difficult person. She’d racked her brain, all the way until today, when it was almost too late.
Until finally, while shopping with the baby today, Lola had had an idea.
Now, as Tobias drove her and Jett back to the beach house in the luxury SUV, Lola leaned back against the soft leather, peeking down at the glossy blue bag in satisfaction. Inside it, she saw a small blue box that held an engraved gold ring.