Chapter Fourteen
After two whirlwind parties, one at LVG and another in Barcelona for ProFab, they flew to Marbella in the south of Spain.
Joaquin had been ridiculously proud to have been seen with Siobhan’s fingers laced between his own.
She was beautiful, charming and graceful on the dance floor, making such evenings far more pleasant than they’d been in the past. He had anticipated some side-eye over the fact he was dating his employee, but an HR memo had circulated, explaining they had had a “brief relationship prior to the takeover.” It was enough that any gossip about them had fizzled quickly.
After a lazy morning, they ate lunch on his plane. He was still stoned from their lovemaking, but Siobhan was unexpectedly quiet in a way that struck him as tense, especially on the drive into the hills from the Marbella airport.
“Are you feeling off?” he asked with concern.
“No. The new vitamins seem to be sitting better.” She looked up from fiddling with the bracelet he’d won for her at his company’s silent auction.
It was an artistic blend of mismatched gold and silver links that she had seemed to love, but she looked on the verge of tears. “I’m nervous about bringing you here.”
“You think I’ll betray you or your family?” He captured her hand to still it, but was deeply unsettled. “You don’t trust me?”
“No, I do.” Her smile didn’t stick, though. “I’m being silly.”
He didn’t get a chance to delve deeper. They stopped at a gate that read, Sus Brazos. Their driver greeted the guard who angled to send a smile at Siobhan.
“Welcome home, senora.”
“Thank you, Baron.” She found a smile for him. “Joaquin is my guest. He should be on the list.”
“He is.” The guard glanced between a screen and Joaquin, ensuring his identity, then waved them through.
“Do you mind taking the lower drive?” Siobhan asked the driver, who turned in to a winding lane that took them through olive and orange groves.
They circled a pond and some gardens. She pointed through an orchard and down paths.
“Stables. Staff housing. That’s just a garden shed.
There’s a playhouse for the children. You can’t see the tennis courts, but they’re behind those trees. ”
Joaquin would have thought she was eagerly showing off the place she considered home if her nails hadn’t been digging into the back of his hand. She was putting off their arrival as long as possible.
“Siobhan.” He gently squashed her hand. “It will be okay. Nothing bad will happen.”
Her lip briefly quivered and he read the message in her eyes. You don’t know that.
They arrived in a cobbled courtyard with a fountain. Wide steps led up to a pair of huge doors on a Spanish colonial mansion.
Cinnia trotted out with a handful of staff behind her.
She was even more like Siobhan in person. They had similar figures, both slender yet curvy. They were the same height, had the same profile and sounded the same as they greeted each other with equally effusive hugs.
“You’ve made me so happy!” Cinnia declared, pressing her baby sister back to blink her wet lashes at her. “And you’ve gone back to blond. Much better, but I may be biased.” She flicked at her bobbed hair, then hugged Joaquin. “Thank you for bringing her. You have single-handedly saved Christmas.”
“My work here is done, then,” he drawled, thinking for Cinnia, perhaps, but what about for Siobhan?
They entered an empty foyer with a curved staircase that swept up to a gallery. A huge, unlit crystal chandelier hung in the dome of colored glass that poured stains of red and purple and green onto the marble floor.
“Where is everyone?” Siobhan asked.
“Tennis tourney. I said I’d bring you down once you arrived, but the nannies have the children in the movie room, waiting for you.”
A gasp from the top of the stairs lifted all their eyes.
“You’re here!” The voice of wonder belonged to a girl of ten or so. She gripped the rail and beamed with joy over it. She turned her head and started to yell, “She’s he—”
“Wait!” Siobhan hurried up the stairs. “Hugs first. Come here.”
The girl hurried to meet her on the stairs and they hugged tight. Siobhan kissed her a dozen times all over her face, making the girl giggle, then Siobhan pointed down at Joaquin.
“Look. I brought someone and I don’t want to scare him.
Your special job is to gather all the children and tell them to queue oldest to youngest. Bring them here so I can introduce them and we can all get our hugs.
Can you do that for me?” She kept herself at eye level and tucked the girl’s hair behind her ear.
“I’ll tell Lettie to do it. She’s the bossiest.” The girl spun to race away.
“That’s the real reason Cin begged me to come,” Siobhan said as she came back to the bottom of the stairs. She flicked a teasing look at her sister. “I’m the only one who can literally keep these pelicans in a line.”
“True story,” Cinnia confided to Joaquin. “Bear with us. They’re very excited. Once we get this greeting out of the way, you can take cover in your room. Oh. Here we go.”
Giggles and stifled squeals accompanied the shuffle of footsteps as children appeared on the landing, dutifully walking in a line.
They wore a range of outfits from jeans and pullovers to frilly dresses to a superhero costume and a pair of pajamas.
They broke into big smiles and waved energetically through the rail when they saw her, but the girl at the front sent a stern look that kept them from breaking rank.
“Look at you all so well behaved. Thank you,” Siobhan said. “Lead them down here, Lettie.”
The girl who had hugged Siobhan on the stairs came to the bottom step, so she was standing right in front of Siobhan.
No. That wasn’t the same girl. Twins, Joaquin recalled as he looked between her and the girl behind her. Identical blue eyes blinked at him with curiosity. In fact, as he looked up the stairs, he saw more twins.
“Senor Joaquin Valezquez is my guest. You may call him Tío Joaquin. And he prefers Spanish?” she asked.
“French and English work, too.”
“Good. Okay. Pay attention,” she warned him over her shoulder. “There will be a quiz later.” Siobhan set her hands on the first girl’s shoulders. “This is Colette, Cinnia and Henri’s daughter and Rosie’s twin.”
Rosie leaned out to wave at him. “You can tell us apart because I like to wear pink and Lettie only sometimes does.”
Lettie did not introduce herself as the bossy one, but she did stick out her hand in a way that reminded him of her father and uncle. Very sure of herself. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“The pleasure is mine,” Joaquin said sincerely as he shook her hand.
“Very nice.” Siobhan hugged Colette and kissed her cheek, earning a wrinkled nose and a happy smile before Colette moved to the other side of the stairs and sat down.
Rosie led everyone down a step. “Are you Auntie Dorry’s boyfriend?” she asked.
“I am,” Joaquin said.
“Hmm.” Her little brows went up in speculation as she moved to sit behind her sister.
A boy came next, tall with dirty blond hair and ice-blue eyes.
“Prince Tyrol of Elazar,” Siobhan said. “King Xavier and Queen Trella’s eldest.”
Right. They were spending Christmas with royalty. Two pair of monarchs, in fact.
Siobhan hugged Tyrol with all the enthusiasm and familiarity she had shown her sister’s children, kissing his cheeks until he chuckled and pushed her away.
“Please call me Tyrol,” the boy said when Siobhan released him to shake Joaquin’s hand. “We don’t use titles when we’re with family.”
“Tyrol is only a few weeks younger than the girls,” Siobhan said. “This is Malik, Prince of Zhamair. His parents are King Kasim and Queen Angelique.” Siobhan warmly embraced the boy who came next. “Play chess against him if you like to lose.”
He flashed a grin. He was perhaps a year younger than the other children with light brown skin and black hair. His intense brown eyes were surrounded by the sort of thick eyelashes women coveted.
The next boy led the group down another step.
“This reminds me of that old movie where the children sing on the stairs at their parents’ party,” Joaquin said with a smirk.
Rosie gasped. “We should do that.”
Siobhan touched her lips, urging her to silence as she introduced, “Miguel, Ramon and Izzy’s eldest.”
Did her voice shake a tiny bit? Did she hug this boy a little longer and harder and look a little more distressed as she did it?
Her love for all of these children was very obvious in how well she knew each of them and how much affection they were showing her.
It drove home for Joaquin how truly devastated she must have been to have caused any sort of peril for them.
He instantly wanted to find this man who had broken her faith in herself and find a way to make him sorry.
She released Miguel and greeted the next boy with an affectionate smooth of his sandy blond hair. “Remy is Henri and Cinnia’s son. He’s turning seven on my birthday.”
“We’re birthday twins,” he said and moved to sit with the others.
“Do us together. Please, Auntie Dorry?” A girl of about five stepped down so she was on the same step as the one ahead of her. The pair of girls had strikingly similar features, but distinctly different hair and skin colors.
“This is Genevieve, Princess of Zhamair.” Siobhan bent to squash the girls together, making them giggle before she released them to cup the other girl’s beaming face. “And Vivien, Princess of Elazar. Our cousin-twins.”
“Oh? Same birthday?”
“Uh-uh. My mama couldn’t hold me in her womb so Tía Gili did it,” Vivien explained. “We have different mommies and daddies so we’re cousins, but we’re still twins because we grew together and were born together.”
Joaquin was impressed by the science, the startlingly selfless act by one sister for another, and the fact these girls had a grasp on what made them unique.