Millionaire's Woman

“Ican’t, I have other plans. ”She stepped into the aisle.

His smile vanished. Going after her, he caught her arm. “You have a date with someone else?”

“No…not exactly.” She stared at the back of the man in front of her. “It’s my cousin Alyssa’s birthday. My aunt and uncle are having a party for her.”

“I see.”

Ellie shifted uneasily at the cool note in his voice. She’d thought about inviting him, but quickly decided against it. She couldn’t imagine him with her family. They weren’t rich. They were hardworking, respectable people, but she didn’t know how he would react to them. A month ago, she would have thought he would look down his nose at them. Now, she wasn’t quite so sure.

He’d surprised her these last few weeks. Now that the blinders were off, and she knew who and what he really was, she’d expected that spending time with Garek would banish any lingering feelings she had for him.

Instead, she’d noticed a change in him. He wasn’t as flip, as glib as he’d been before. He no longer seemed to be trying to charm her—but instead of liking him less, she actually liked him more. He no longer seemed as guarded, the remoteness she sometimes sensed in him seemed almost to have vanished. It only returned occasionally, like now. But this time, unlike before, she recognized what it meant—he was hurt.

The expression in his eyes bothered her more than she liked to admit, even to herself. 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.