Page 30 of Unravel You

From behind me, Wesley took the towel and ice from me. “Okay. I’m going to exit right. Valentina, it was great to meet you. If you need anything, let me know.”

“Thank you.”

“I’ll see you around?” His tone was an invitation to not give up on Derek just yet.

“Yeah.”

“What really happened?” Derek asked when Wesley was out of sight.

“I freaked out, okay? The wine didn’t help either.” I touched my palm to my head. The bleeding had stopped, and the throbbing had subsided to a manageable level. “Sweet Ana didn’t help.”

“Ana? What did she do?”

“What?” I blurted out. My non-concussion was turning into the mother of all headaches. “She was literally all over you.”

“You have it all wrong.” He let out a laugh, then pursed his lips when I glared at him. “Ana’s my friend’s little sister. She’s practically my sister. We grew up together. Seriously, up until today, I hadn’t talked to her much. She was always Charlie’s pesky little sister.”

“She doesn’t look that young.”

“Well, come to think of it, she’s your age. Is she? No, she’s twenty-one. Maybe?” He glanced up toward the sky, as if doing math in his head. “I promise you there’s nothing there. She was happy for us. I wanted you to meet her. Why did you leave?”

For such a brilliant man, Derek was being so dense right now. I raised an eyebrow at him, fighting the urge to slap him to get him to wake up.

“I felt out of place.” I opted for the truth.

He reached for me and held me to his chest. “I’m so sorry. I thought all of this was going to be insta-love. I mean you seem to like Wesley okay.”

“He was so nice to me.”

“Don’t let the sad puppy look fool you. It’s an act.” Derek trying to be funny disarmed me. Really, whenever he tried, I couldn’t resist him. “Ana wants to throw us an engagement party. She’s happy for us. Mom has her own crazy ideas, but we’re adults.”

“Why didn’t you tell me your mom had already picked out a wife for you?”

He coughed as if he’d swallowed and it’d gone the wrong way. “Was she that obvious?”

“I left before because I wanted to go home to Tucson.”

He slow-blinked and braced his hands on his hips. “Valentina, please don’t leave me. Tell me what you need. I’ll do anything.”

If I asked him to go home right now, no doubt he’d say yes. But then what kind of a wife would that make me? He’d been away for years trying to find his own way. This quality time with his family was the last piece of the puzzle. Making amends with his mom meant everything to him. I had to make good on the promise I made to him.

“I’m not going anywhere. But your mom...”

“I will talk with her. She took me by surprise before. I hadn’t expected her to push that hard.”

“Oh, so you did see that?” I rubbed my temple. “You didn’t show it.”

“Can we start over?”

The sincerity in his voice and the pain in his eyes made me nod and not point out that we were technically starting over a few hours into this ordeal.

“I really think that meeting Ana will put you at ease.”

“Okay. But can I go upstairs and change?”

He hooked his arm behind my knees and picked me up. “We can do that. You still haven’t seen our bedroom.”

I wrapped my arm around his neck. My Derek was back. He carried me all the way back to the house, which turned out to be just past the pool house to the left. Wesley sat on the grand porch with a big grin on his face as we went by.

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