Page 69 of Midnight Surrender to the Spaniard

‘Carmen...’ He spoke gravely to his sister. ‘You can talk to me. I do know—’

‘You don’t, though,’ Carmen snapped. ‘She didn’t leaveyouwhenyouwere a baby.’

No, Maria had left for the final time when he was ten, and fifty times or more prior to that.

And hedidknow. Because when Maria de Luca smiled, she was dazzling. When she told you she was yourmamá, and would always be there for you, it raised you high.

Then she discarded you, and you fell back down to earth.

Then she left his father crying, her babies fretful and bemused—especially if she’d fired the latest nanny before she left...

He knew well the poison on the tip of all her arrows.

And it terrified him to think he was like her—cold, career-focussed, unable to commit...

‘Talk to me...’ he said to his sister, but Carmen shook her head.

‘I have to go and check in with Anna.’

‘Why?’

‘Alejandro asked me to take her out again.’

‘Oh?’

‘I think they feel guilty about how her holiday has turned out.’

‘They have just had a premature baby.’

‘Yes, but she doesn’t get out much.’ Carmen shrugged and accepted a drink from Dante, who knew her order well. ‘She’s barely been out since she had Willow.’

‘What?’ Sebastián tried to make light of it. ‘She’s a hermit?’

‘No!’ Carmen gave a half-laugh. ‘But I don’t think she has the time or money for a social life.’ She took a sip of her drink. ‘She hasn’t been on a date since she had her daughter’

‘Come off it!’

‘No, she told me.’

‘Maybe she meant she hasn’t had a serious relationship,’ Sebastián countered, but then he paused with his drink on its way to his mouth, because he knew Anna better than that.

Anna had told him herself that the wedding had been her first time away from her daughter, but he’d taken that as meaning her first trip overseas.

Had she meant her firstnightaway?

Was he her first lover since Willow’s father?

Surely not...

‘Anyway, she’s getting back out there,’ Carmen said. ‘Getting her confidence back...’

Sebastián said nothing.

‘And I’m going to do the same... Not that I’m looking to settle down,’ Carmen added.

‘Is Anna?’ He knew he should feign uninterest, but he couldn’t not ask.

‘I think she wants a family—brothers and sisters for Willow.’

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