Page 60 of His Innocent for One Spanish Night

He was trying not to show that there was anything going on with her to his brother, who knew him better than most. It was for the same reason he was avoiding introducing her to Carmen.

There was an electricity between himself and Emily that was hard to understand, let alone explain.

She lit him up.

There had been comments already about their first night in thetaberna, sharing sherry and doing a tasting. It was something he had done many times; he hadn’t considered it might draw attention. Yet people had noticed.

And they had noticed, too, how he’d intervened when she’d been being chatted up by Fernando.

So now he was attempting to halt them from becoming the talk of Jerez—and not just out of respect to Mariana. He was trying to shield Emily from the drama that would erupt if it was found out that they were seeing each other.

By keeping things secret he was trying to protect their increasingly diminishing days, and yet he knew Emily was getting irritated with being tucked away. She had asked him the other day if he was ashamed to be seen with her, and it had been so far off the mark that Alejandro had actually laughed.

‘Why haven’t you taken her to see Carmen?’ Sebastián asked now.

‘Because I have more on my mind than the new website and dancing ponies.’ Alejandro shrugged and moved the subject back to Sebastián’s stay in the States. ‘How are the talks?’

‘I’m headed to California tomorrow. Then back here to NYC in a couple of weeks. It would be great to have the new website by then... Or at least have them put up the old one.’

‘No.’ Alejandro would not be swayed. ‘They’ve all seen the old one. This will launch by the due date.’

‘Why are you so stubborn on this?’

It was because of the links to Mariana’s family on the old site. The sherries the two companies shared, with more planned in the future. A personal future that had been designed with only the business in mind and one Alejandro didn’t now want.

He buzzed his PA. ‘Can you get Carmen to join us please?’

It took a while, but she came online and Alejandro told his siblings of his decision as far as the label went.

‘I agree with Padre—we keep the original photo for the label.’

Maria de Luca’s image would remain the face of the Romero sherry.

‘I am also prepared to insist that she be included on the new website.’

‘Why?’ Sebastián demanded.

‘Because our mother is a part of the Romero history—her first performance was here at thetaberna.’

He had looked at both versions of Emily’s work on this, and what he had seen had blown him away.

‘You cannot tell our father’s story by erasing our mother from the website. Although, of course, if that is what he wants I would stand by his choice.’

‘Alejandro...’ His older brother’s face was as dark as thunder. ‘The change was agreed months ago.Hewas the one who demanded it.’

‘And then he found out how sick he is and changed his mind,’ Alejandro pointed out. ‘He wants to ensure Maria is taken care of.’

‘I want her gone!’ Carmen, his younger sister, sobbed.

But he would not allow her tears to move him, even if, out of all the siblings, Carmen had reason to hate their mother the most.

‘It’s all right for you—you were always her favourite,’ his sister told him.

‘Please...’ He dismissed the notion. ‘Anyway, it’s not about us. It’s about respecting our father’s wishes. At the end of the day, it’s a photograph on a bottle and a proper mention on the website—why would you let that bother you?’

‘It’s not just that. She’s visiting him...she’s at the hospital all the time, sneaking in after we’ve gone.’

‘So what if she is?’ Alejandro said. ‘He loves her. What do you want to do—put guards on the door?’

---