Page 45 of Spanish Marriage Solution

He did. And the past two weeks with her hadn’t been a grind. They’d been the happiest he’d ever had and she had been happy too. Turning towards him, her face shining, smiling at him, her dark eyes full of light.

You made her happy.

Yes, he did. That was all him. And she made him happy too. Diego also made him happy. Was it as simple as that?

‘It’s not love that’s vindictive and cruel and demanding. That was all your father...’

That was what she’d told him and...maybe she was right. Alice loved him and she’d never been cruel or petty. No, all she’d given him was happiness. So...was love happiness? Was it...acceptance?

She accepts you. She always has. She got to know you and she’s still here, fighting for you. Wanting you. How can you give her nothing in return?

He couldn’t give her nothing. That was it, wasn’t it? That would be repeating his marriage to Emily, and he knew abruptly that the answer wasn’t to walk away. Alice wasn’t walking away, she was standing and fighting, and he couldn’t let her be the only one. He had to fight for her too, because she deserved it. She deserved everything he could give her and that meant giving her everything.

His mind. His body. His heart and his soul. They were all hers.

Sebastián pushed himself away from the edge of the terrace and turned, striding down the stairs and into the living area. She wasn’t there.

He went through the sliding doors and out into the front garden that sloped down to the sea and there she was, standing staring at the horizon, the last rays of the sun outlining her in gold.

‘Alice,’ he said quietly. ‘Mi cielo.’

Slowly she turned and their eyes met the way they had all those years ago, and he could feel it then. He let it in, fully and completely.

It was what it had always been. Love at first sight.

‘What did you choose?’ Her chin was still lifted and he could see that she was still prepared for a fight.

But she didn’t have to fight now, not any more.

‘You were right,’ he said. ‘When you said it was my father who was the problem, not love, you were right. These past two weeks with you have shown me what love truly is and it’s...happiness, Alice. And it was you who showed me that.’

Her eyes were liquid with tears and the expression on her face put the setting sun to shame, but he went on, because nothing was going to stop him from saying the rest now. ‘So, Alice Castellano, my beautiful wife. I have made my choice, and my choice is love. My choice is you. It was you five years ago and five years from now it will still be you. Those years we spent waiting were too long and I want more. I want everything. I want for ever.’

‘Really?’ She took a shaky breath, staring at him as if she didn’t quite believe it. ‘As simple as that?’

‘Yes,’ he said. ‘As simple as that.’ And then he opened his arms and she ran into them, and she was finally there, where she should have been right from the start.

In his arms.

Close to his heart.

EPILOGUE

THE HACIENDA LOOKED beautiful tonight. There were strings of lights wound all through the courtyard and the bougainvillea was magnificent. Guests filled the space, and the air was full of the buzz of conversation and the sound of classical guitar.

Alice saw him then, across the courtyard talking with Diego’s new father-in-law. He was dressed in a dark suit, with a gold silk tie the colour of his eyes and, even after all these years, he was still the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen.

Apart from Diego, of course. And his new bride. And his sister, Giselle, whom they’d adopted not long after Diego and who at eighteen was growing up into the most gorgeous young woman. And of course the twins, Emily and César, whom they’d had via a surrogate, and at ten were still terrorising their poor parents. César in particular was a carbon copy of his father and he was going to break hearts one day, while Emily had decided that boys were ridiculous and she was going to be Prime Minister instead. Alice had no doubt she would be.

Their children were in the crowd somewhere, along with Diego’s bride’s family and a few of Alice’s colleagues and Sebastián’s. But mainly it was full of the children, both past and present, who’d come to the hacienda to heal.

A year after they’d got back from the island, Sebastián and Alice had decided to open their home and the stables to children from traumatic backgrounds, who could find acceptance with the horses, just as he had.

Alice considered every one of those kids her children too.

They were all here on this night to celebrate Diego’s wedding, but right in this moment, Alice only had eyes for her husband.

He looked up from his conversation and their eyes met, as they’d once done long ago, and she felt it now as she’d felt it then, the thunderbolt. The lightning strike.

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