Chapter Thirty-Seven Lorenzo
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Lorenzo
G ood thing I have endless time to earn Mrs. Munoz’s forgiveness because she might be polite and accept the panna cotta I made early this morning as an apology for last night, but she has officially thrown her walls back up.
If I thought she was jumpy when I first met her, she’s a whole new level of skittish, with her quickly escaping any room I walk into.
Not wanting to cause her any more stress, I ask her to have a word in private.
Mrs. Munoz surprises me by going outside, and I follow her down an overgrown path that leads straight to Lily’s favorite place.
She hasn’t told me why she adores the fountain so much, nor has she shared why her secret garden has been neglected, but I’ll be sure to ask her about it now that the fountain is operational again.
Rosa takes a seat on the weathered bench. I keep a small but respectful amount of space between us, but we might as well be seated a mile apart from one another.
I decide to lead the conversation so she doesn’t feel any pressure to. “So, about last night…”
She tenses beside me, her lips pressed together tightly.
With a deep breath, I continue, “I want to start off by saying I’m sorry. First for putting you in any position that would affect your health, and second for not taking you or your feelings into consideration like I should’ve.”
She stares at the fountain instead of my face, not giving me much to go off besides my intuition.
“Asking Lily to marry me without talking to you about it first was a huge mistake, and I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me. Honestly, I didn’t think much about it, but I wish I had because you’re one of the most important people in Lily’s life…”
It’s impossible to carry on with my apology once I notice the tears falling down Rosa’s face.
“Rosa?” Panic bleeds into my voice because not once did I consider what to do should Rosa start crying .
I’m not sure if it’s a good idea to hug her or if she’d prefer for me to leave, but then I think about her heart issue and if she should even be alone when she’s distressed—
Rosa’s hand reaches for mine, and she gives it a pat. “Thank you for fixing the fountain.”
My eyes widen. “What?”
Did she hear a single word I said?
She wipes underneath her eyes. “When Julian told me it was repaired, I thanked him, but he said I should reach out to you since you’re the one who paid for it.” Her gaze falls to her lap. “I wanted to thank you in person, and I planned on it yesterday…”
“But then I screwed up.”
Her nose scrunches in the same way Lily’s does. “I was definitely surprised , but what happened after wasn’t your fault. My doctor warned me about what could happen if I got too excited—”
I cock a brow. “Excited?”
Her laugh is soft like her daughter’s yet so completely different at the same time. “A little nervous too, but that’s to be expected.”
Her gaze returns to the fountain. “If my husband were there, he would’ve had something funny to say. He always had that way of making everything better and easing my worries.” Her voice catches toward the end.
“I’m sorry for your loss,” I say because I don’t know what else sounds good in this situation, although I regret it as soon as the words leave my mouth.
“You know, people always say that, including myself, but I didn’t truly understand what it meant until I had to go through it personally.” I feel my throat getting scratchy as she continues, “Every time I’m reminded of my husband, it feels like I’ve lost him all over again.”
She motions toward the garden. “This place…it was his. I should feel happy here, like Lily does, but it reminds me too much of him.”
I felt the same way about Lake Wisteria at first. I couldn’t look past my own grief because everywhere I turned, I was reminded of who and what I lost.
“But Lily…” She smiles to herself. “It’s her special place.”
“What happened to it?” It’s a far cry from the mythical-sounding secret garden she described to me late one evening, and there is no way her mother hasn’t noticed.
Rosa looks over at me with raised brows. “She didn’t tell you?”
Shit . “Uh…” Uh?! I’m not the type to hesitate or flounder, and she is staring like I should definitely know the answer to that question.
Rosa’s head tilts, and I know I’ve gone and screwed up.
But like an angel coming to save me, Lily magically appears from around the corner. I could kiss her for her impeccable timing, but I’m already pushing my luck around Rosa, so I hold off.
Lily’s smile falls when she glances at the fountain, and both Rosa and I share a look. Neither of us says anything, but I can read Mrs. Munoz’s thoughts like they’re my own.
What’s going on in that pretty little head of yours, amore mio ?
Lily clears her throat. “I was wondering where you two went off to.”
Rosa’s gaze swings between us. “Lorenzo and I were finishing up.” She stands and walks over to her daughter to give her a hug. “I’ll give you two some privacy.”
We both watch her disappear around the corner, and from my angle, it looks like the overgrown hedge swallowed her whole.
I stand and head over to Lily, who went back to checking out the fountain. “What do you think?”
“It works.” Her voice is strained.
“Now we have to fix up the rest of it.”
A bone in her neck cracks from how quickly she turns to look at me. “What do you mean?”
“Your garden needs some love.” I rub a speck of dirt off the side of the fountain, which could use a good pressure wash.
She stays quiet.
I speak up. “Your mom told me how much you love it here.”
Her shoulders slump. “I did—I mean, I do.” She shakes her head. “It’s…complicated.”
“For the record, the vaguer your responses, the more interested I become.”
I pull her into an embrace so she has no chance of escaping this conversation.
“I don’t know how to talk about it,” she says, exasperated.
“There is a first for everything.”
She swats my chest with a laugh, and the tightness in it lessens.
“Honestly?” She looks around the garden. “I couldn’t deal with it…or myself, for that matter.”
“What do you mean?”
She eyes the bench. “Can we sit down for this conversation?”
“Of course.”
Once she takes a seat, I wrap my arm around her. “Comfortable?”
She seems to be with how she melts into me, but her quiet “Yeah” confirms it.
“So, you were saying?”
“My dad was big on two things.”
“What were they?”
“A motto that was his catchphrase: Un Munoz nunca se rinde. A Munoz never quits.”
I nod. “And the other?”
“Wishes.”
I shoot her a look. “How so?”
She flushes under my gaze. “You know. Like close your eyes, make a wish, and toss the coin into the fountain.”
“That explains the coins. I was wondering about them when I dropped off your keys.”
“It was something special I had with him. He and Dahlia had their own thing together, but this was mine. Anyway,” she says, drawing in a gulp of air. “When I was little, he gave me this small bag of gold coins. There weren’t a ton, but he told me to use them wisely.”
She pauses, takes another breath, and says, “Nearly a year ago, I was down to one.”
I’m not entirely sure where this story is going, but the way Lily hesitates to speak makes me even more curious.
“What happened with it?”
“I wasted it on the wrong guy.” She doesn’t break my stare, and I instantly know I fucked up in more ways than I imagined.
She used her wish on me , and I took that dream—that hope—and I destroyed it with my selfishness.
The thought… My stomach is in knots, winding tighter with every pained breath.
“Lily…”
She holds her hand up. “Wait. Let me get this out.”
We sit there for a few minutes, the soothing sound of water cascading filling the quiet until she speaks again.
“After I ran out, I just…I didn’t see a point.
I didn’t have any coins left, and visiting this place made me…
so unbearably sad, to the point where I stopped making the effort.
Running out of coins felt like I lost him all over again, and I couldn’t deal.
So, I let his special place rot, along with that final wish. ”
I’m the one struggling to keep eye contact now because how am I supposed to accept that I’m the reason for the pain in her eyes?
“I’m so sorry.” My voice rasps. “I’m so fucking sorry. For everything.”
She stabs another hole through my heart with her next sentence. “You say that, and I do believe you’re sorry, but it doesn’t take back the hurt you caused.”
She stands up, and my arm falls to my side.
“We can’t go back and change what happened. What’s done is done, and I’d rather focus on my future.”
My future. Not ours .
An important distinction meant to separate us, but I see it as a motivating one. Because that future she wants?
It doesn’t seem so far-fetched anymore.
Her smile is sweet, and far warmer than I deserve, further adding to the acid burning in my chest.
She turns and walks away, leaving me alone. Instead of following her, I stand and walk up to the fountain, where I find twenty-plus gold coins sitting at the bottom of the basin, representing all of Lily’s hopes and dreams.
I want her to tell me about every single wish, and I want to make sure she never has another reason to stop.
And I think I have an idea of where to start.