Epilogue
Ten months later
‘Feliz cumpleanos, Ana!’
A cheer went up around the courtyard, which was decked out in a cascade of fairy lights.
The birthday girl beamed at Cerys as she accepted the congratulations of the friends she had made at the local high school in the past six months.
Ever since Cerys had insisted her sister-in-law come home for good from her latest boarding school to live permanently with her and Santiago at the castillo .
Santiago’s arms wrapped around Cerys’s midriff and he pulled her back against his chest to nuzzle her ear. ‘You spoil my sister, Cerys,’ he whispered, but she could hear the amusement in his voice and knew he was joking.
It had been a little awkward at first, having Ana home—especially as Santiago seemed incapable of keeping his hands off her for more than a few hours at a time.
But it had been the right thing to do, she decided as she watched Ana blow out the candles on the huge cake María and her team had been working on for days.
Ana deserved a home too, and it had been nothing short of wonderful watching Santiago finally start to bond with his sister. And watching Ana grow into a much more mature and sensible young woman—give or take the odd outrageous attempt to provoke him.
Plus they still had enough privacy—the castillo had six hundred rooms, and they lived in the villa on the edge of the vineyards.
Not only that, but they also had to do a lot of travelling, to Madrid and Barcelona, for her new job as the castillo ’s hospitality manager, as well as for Santiago’s work.
She knew her husband had created the position to appease her—when she’d started making noises again, a few weeks after their honeymoon was over, about working for a living.
But she also knew she’d pleased him with how much she’d loved doing it.
And how much she had managed to achieve, which had actually surprised her a lot more than it had ended up surprising Santiago, who had turned out to be her biggest cheerleader.
She’d been nervous as hell that first day, not sure her extensive skills as a barista, a barmaid and a waitress really qualified her to manage anything.
The good news was, at first it had only been her running the new programme which she had developed herself.
She’d been able to reassure herself that if her ideas were dumb and she failed, at least no one would be made to pay for her mistakes but her.
She now had a staff of six people, and the new luxury wine-tasting banquets, which finished off the tours the vineyard had been doing for years, had not only boosted that area of the business but had also garnered some fabulous reviews and were now a thriving success.
The fact that she adored her job didn’t hurt either, and the chance to contribute something to the family and the man who had given her so much.
‘She deserves to be spoilt, she’s been invaluable as a hostess this month,’ she shot back.
She’d hired Ana to host some of the new summer banquets they had added to the schedule as soon as she’d finished her final exams at the local high school.
And while Santiago had frowned a little at the thought of his sister working for him, Ana had loved it—and quickly proved herself to be reliable and hard-working.
And her confidence had soared every time Santiago showed her he trusted her and praised her work, which Cerys had encouraged him to do at every available opportunity.
She had adored arranging the surprise party, knowing that Ana would love the chance to celebrate her eighteenth birthday with her schoolfriends and the colleagues she’d made at the bodega.
But as she watched the girl rush through the crowd to hand the first slice of cake to the bodega manager Joaquín—who was brooding silently from his place on the sidelines—she was glad Santiago was too busy nuzzling her neck to notice the bright light of infatuation in his sister’s eyes.
She supposed she’d have to have a sisterly chat with Ana about that.
But she didn’t want to come on too strong.
Because, wow , she knew exactly what that giddy rush of first love felt like when Santiago’s hands settled over her belly, and her heart did a backflip.
After all, she was still totally infatuated with Ana’s brother.
She sighed and covered Santiago’s hands with hers, stupidly happy, but also nervous.
The DJ she’d hired began to play a recent pop track Cerys knew Ana loved, while the disco lights on the temporary dancefloor set up under the trees began to throb in time with the heady tune. The teenagers began to cheer again, pairing off to dance.
‘Is this our chance to slip away?’ Santiago murmured against her ear, his hands still caressing her belly in that slow, seductive way he had that made all her pheromones throb in time with the music’s bass beat.
Cerys grinned, even as the anxious little knots in her belly tweaked.
Once they were alone tonight she would have to tell him about the test she had taken that morning.
The test no one but María knew anything about—and only because she’d had to ask the housekeeper to procure it for her while she’d been busy in the last week organising Ana’s party, as well as developing a new banqueting roster for the autumn.
The test she had been sure, before she took it, she wanted to be negative.
It was too soon, they hadn’t discussed children, she wasn’t even sure how the heck it had happened, given that she had been on the pill.
But there had been that one incident two months ago when she had forgotten to renew her prescription.
She’d only missed a couple of days though, and Dr Mendoza had reassured her she would be very unlikely to conceive, so she hadn’t even mentioned the lapse to Santiago…
But when she’d taken the test that morning—just as a precaution, because she’d been feeling so tired lately and had even been sick one evening, after work—and the extra red cross had appeared, her somersaulting heart had told a very different story.
Apparently, she was overjoyed. But when she glanced over her shoulder now, to press a hand to her husband’s cheek and whisper, ‘Absolutely, María said she’d keep an eye on things…’ all her nerves about her news reappeared…
Santiago grunted. ‘ Gracias a Dios .’
Holding her hand, he headed through the crowd of gyrating teenagers until they reached Ana.
‘ Feliz cumpleanos , Ana. I’m so proud of you,’ he said, pressing a fatherly kiss to his sister’s forehead.
Ana grinned, flushing with pleasure at his praise. Then she threw her arms around them both to thank them for the party.
‘We will leave you now to enjoy yourself. Be good, okay?’ Santiago added.
Cerys had to blink back a sudden rush of emotion. He would make such a wonderful father. He was so protective, so sure and steady, but also so kind and so affectionate in his own gruff way.
Ever since he had begun to let his guard down, he had begun to understand how much he had to give and to gain by letting people in. And she had seen him grow into the man he had always been meant to be. And it made her so happy.
But even as the joy burst in her chest, the knots in her stomach remained…
She was worried about how he was really going to feel about this new responsibility, when he’d already had so many other responsibilities thrust upon him in his life.
She knew he would accept it instinctively, and if he knew how excited she was about the pregnancy he would keep any misgivings he had about the baby to himself.
But ever since that scary, beautiful day on Isla de la Luna, when they had made a commitment to each other to let go of the past so they could build on their future together, trust had been the key. And admitting what you needed, as well as what you wanted, however terrifying it was.
But if she was going to discover what he really thought about becoming a dad, she would have to bend that promise a little and keep her own reaction to the news neutral, so he wouldn’t feel the need to hide his true feelings again.
‘Don’t worry, Santiago. I won’t do anything you two wouldn’t,’ Ana replied cheekily, breaking Cerys out of her thoughts, and making Santiago curse softly under his breath.
‘ Dios ,’ Santiago said as Ana skipped off to join her friends. The mix of concern and compassion and pride in his eyes as he watched his sister disappear into the crowd made Cerys’s heart melt even more. ‘That does not reassure me in the least,’ he grumbled.
Cerys laughed.
But as he grasped hold of her hand to lead her through the orchard to their private villa, away from the raucous party, the throbbing pop music and teenage exuberance was soon drowned out by her erratic pulse… And she had to swallow to contain the prickle of anxiety once more.
* * *
‘I love you so much, Senora De Montoya,’ Santiago murmured as he pressed his wife back against the closed door of the villa, unable to keep his hands off her. ‘I hope you know that…’ he added, cupping her face as he kissed her lips.
She kissed him back, with hunger, with love, but when he eased back and she smiled at him, he could see the flicker of uncertainty, even panic, in her eyes, too.
And his heart got trapped in his throat, right behind the words which he had been so desperate to say to her all day long… Ever since he had returned home from the fields to take a shower before Ana’s party and spotted the corner of the box half buried in the bathroom trash.
And of course, once he’d realised what it was, he’d had to dig out the test itself, then avidly read the instructions…
The burst of joy in his heart and the rush of pure masculine pride and pleasure had been so immense, once he’d realised exactly what he was seeing, he’d been lightheaded.
In fact, he’d had to sit down on the bed and spend several moments forcing himself to breathe…
He’d never fainted before in his life, but he’d been so giddy it had been touch and go there for a while.
All he’d wanted to do in that moment was find Cerys, throw his arms around her, lift her up, spin her round and then probably never let her go again in this lifetime.
But that had been three hours ago now. Three hours as he had watched her preparing the last of the arrangements for Ana’s party. Dealing with the guests, coordinating the surprise, greeting everyone… And he’d waited for her to drag him to one side to tell him the news. And she hadn’t.
Not only that, but once he’d calmed down enough to think straight, he’d realised that she must have known about the pregnancy when she’d come to the bodega to meet him for lunch eight hours ago now… And again, she’d said nothing.
He’d been watching her so closely in the past hour, unable to stop himself from touching her, running his hands over the space where their child was already growing, while willing all his fears to subside.
But now as he watched her glance down and tug her bottom lip beneath her teeth, the panic which had been building like a summer storm threatened to consume him.
And forced him to ask himself the question he had been trying not to ask for three hours.
What if she wasn’t as overjoyed about this news as he was?
Their life had been wonderful, exciting, so full of fun and love in the past ten months.
But it had also been chaotic, insanely busy and overwhelming.
She had built a career for herself at the bodega, built a home for his family in the castillo , become his wife and his duquesa , forced into the public eye, while deftly handling the media attention which he had always hated with charm and grace.
He knew she loved him. He would never doubt that. But maybe she was not ready for this development. Maybe she was exhausted by all the changes. And what right did he have to push this on her, when she had already taken on so much for him?
But what the hell would he do if she didn’t want to keep his child? When he wanted so much to see her body grow round with his baby, to see her nurture it, to see her become an amazing mother…
They had changed the narrative of their family’s history, from tragedy to triumph, with their love. But it had been exhausting as well as exhilarating at times. He understood that.
But as he watched her struggle, he felt the rush of love consume him all over again.
They had built this marriage on honesty. On trust as well as love. And they would get through this moment like so many others. He had to believe that.
Tucking a knuckle under her chin, he lifted her face until that translucent blue-green gaze connected with his.
‘Cerys…’ he said, skimming his thumb over her bottom lip, chewed raw now. ‘Is there something you wish to tell me?’
She blinked slowly, the pink flush galloping up her neck, but the naked hope in her eyes had every one of his fears dissolving as the giddy rush of joy forced him to lock his knees again.
‘You… You know?’ she whispered. ‘How do you know?’
He grinned. Dios , this woman… How could he adore her any more?
‘Five minutes spent digging through the bathroom trash…’ He huffed, trying to sound indignant but getting overjoyed instead. ‘Why exactly do you use so many tissues, by the way?’
Her gaze lit up with the innocent joy he loved.
‘You’re not upset?’ she asked, even though she had to be able to see his answer, because it felt as if his whole body was lit up too.
‘About the fact that you are having my baby?’ His gaze dipped and he pressed his hand to her belly, to caress the spot where their son or daughter was probably already the size of a pea. ‘No… I am ecstatic.’
He dipped his head to capture her sob of relief on his lips in a reverent kiss. But then he reached around her waist to pull her tightly against him, the heat surging as it always did, alongside the joy, and whispered in her ear, ‘Your tissue addiction, though, is a problem we may need to remedy.’
She was still laughing as he carried her up to their bedroom to show her exactly how much he worshipped and adored her… And how much he would love all the children he hoped to give her one day.