Page 75 of One Year Ago in Spain
As the sky grew brighter, they slipped into El Retiro, a vast green park in the middle of the city that used to be the private playground of the royal family but now belonged to all of Madrid. It was huge, one of the classic-style European parks on which New York’s Central Park was modeled. Claire would spend forever here with Matías if she could keep him. There was a lake for rowing boats, a building made entirely of glass called the Crystal Palace, and innumerable paths and gardens galore.
“If it were later and the boathouse were open, I’d take you out on the water,” Matías said.
“Can’t. I get seasick,” Claire said. Besides the fact that she couldn’t let him row a boat, because he couldn’t hold the oars. “Do you think we could find a place to sit down for a bit? My feet could use a break. I don’t think I’ve walked that much since…ever.”
In truth, she probably could have fallen asleep standing. Claire sometimes pulled all-nighters at the firm, but even then, she was in a chair or she could curl up on the sleeping bag she kept under her desk for a minute or two. But it was worth it to walk all night if it meant keeping Matías close.
“Let’s go to los Jardines de Cecilio Rodríguez,” he said. “It’s like a fairy tale garden. And there are peacocks there.”
Claire arched a brow. “Really?”
“Yes, really. But you don’t have to believe me. You can see for yourself.”
The entrance to the Cecilio Rodríguez gardens portion of Retiro Park was like a vast, tiled checkerboard, and Claire smiled, recalling the time Matías took her to the art collective in the forests outside of New York. There she’d felt like Alice crossing into Wonderland, and the sensation was magically similar here, too. Straight ahead of them was a path flanked by ornate iron lamps and tall cylindrical hedges. On either side of that were pergolas with rows and rows of white columns swirled with deep green vines of ivy.
As soon as Claire stepped onto one of the checkerboard tiles, a sapphire blue peacock crossed the path right in front of her. It stopped to look at Claire, its jeweled plume like a cascading bouquet; then it tilted its head and looked straight at Matías.
“Buenos días,” Matías said, grinning.
Claire didn’t laugh. Could the peacock see him?
It strutted off before she could scrutinize its gaze further.
“Bench or grass?” Matías asked.
“Definitely grass,” she said. The benches were made of stone, and after having stone and tile and concrete beneath her feet all night, she wanted something squishy to dig her toes into.
They found a spot and Claire sighed happily as she pulled off her shoes. The grass was still cool from the night and a little damp from morning dew, but she didn’t mind at all.
“Ohh, that feelssogood.” She lay flat and stretched her arms over her head, elongating her spine and moaning at the satisfying little pops and cracks of releasing the tension from her back.
Matías, on the other hand, stared at the exposed strip of skin between the hem of her blouse and the top of her jeans and made a small noise of his own.
“Dios mío. Las cosas que te haría si pudiera…”
She laughed and pulled her top down to cover her stomach.
His eyes went wide. “Did you understand what I just said?”
“I know a little bit of Spanish.” She didn’t tell him that he said those very words to her every time before they made love.My god. The things I would do to you if I could…
And she would always answer,Puedes.You can…
They held each other’s gaze, and the unseen ribbon that connected them tightened just a little.
Matías flushed. “I’m sorry. That was not very gentlemanly ofme.”
Claire sighed, still lost in the memory. But then she gathered herself and turned toward him, smiling. “It’s okay. It wasprobably what Mr. Darcy was thinking all those times when he looked at Elizabeth Bennet.”
Matías chuckled. “So I am forgiven?”
“Just this once.”
“I will be on my best behavior from now on,” he said, putting his hand over his heart.
That’s too bad,she thought. But it was also necessary.
They lay side by side on the grass for a while then, almost but not quite touching and watching the sun rise. People often thought of a sunrise as the launch of the day and the sunset as the end of one, but for Claire, last night’s sunset had been a start, and this morning’s felt like another, different start. Time with Matías was full of continuous beginnings.
