Chapter 34 #2
Though she tried to ignore him, his very presence changed the air in the room.
She hated that she could smell his cologne and sense his skepticism.
She hated that she remembered the way that beard felt between her legs, and she was glad in that moment the Velasco women didn't have magic.
They couldn't reach into her head and pluck her wild memories.
She turned back to the books on the table, attempting to completely ignore the man who turned her world upside down every time he entered the room.
“It's not mine. I can't give it to you, but I wanted to be sure it was from your ancestor. If you want, I can ask the family who owns it if they're willing to sell it to you, maybe at a better price because you’re the author’s descendants.”
“What?” Rowan asked.
Somehow startled, Annalise sucked in air, fighting the deep sigh and not wanting to explain all of it all over again, not to him. Luckily, Indie jumped in, repeating everything almost verbatim.
“Really?” Rowan asked.
It was all Annalise could do to nod.
“Can we read it?” Indie asked.
“Not until you own it,” Annalise shook her head sadly. She'd read all of it. She could at least claim that she’d done so as necessary for the estimate, though she didn't tell the Velascos staring at her about that. “Of course, if you purchase it, you can read all of it.”
“Have you read it?” Indie asked.
It was a logical question, not the youngest Velasco picking information out of her brain, Annalise told herself. “Enough of it.”
It was both true and untrue, but she wasn’t going to say more.
It was Alder who began pushing the discussion of price.
Though she tried not to be aware of him, Rowan sat on the other side of the table, staying silent but watching the entire proceeding, operating as if he would jump in at any moment if he didn't like the way things were going.
Well, too bad, Annalise thought. Once again, something wasn't about him.
Instead, she answered his brother. She told him the appraisal, watching as his eyebrows went up and his blue eyes went wide, hand shooting into his dark hair, leaving it standing on end.
“That feels high.”
“It's a valuable old piece, and local history.” She wasn't going to act as if she wasn't good at her job.
“I’ll ask the family if they're willing to come down as an offer to you—the family of the woman in this book.” She'd said that before, but didn't remember who was sitting at the table at the time. Rowan wasn't. She knew that much.
“How much will they come down?” Indie asked, her hands squeezed between her knees, as clearly she wasn't going to be the one paying for it.
“I don't know,” Annalise said. “All I can do is ask them. If you're not interested, I don't want to even ask. It's why I brought the book here and wanted to show it to you.”
“We're interested,” Rowan said, the first words out of his mouth since he'd asked what they were doing.
He said it with a clarity that let her know that this was the Rowan Velasco she knew—the one who followed through on the things he declared.
That, even if the price went up, he would make sure that his family, his mother, could have the precious item.
Closing the cover and wrapping it back, Annalise tucked the book into her bag. She didn't like being here with it. It wasn't supposed to be off her property. God forbid something happened, or she was in a car accident while she was traveling with it. She would have to come up with some explanation.
It felt safer in her bag, and she cast a safety on it, but that was all she could do. Peeling her gloves and pushing them down into the bag, she stood up. She was done here. The swirl of feelings pulsing through her veins was more than she was willing to handle right now.
She needed to go back to Charlottesville. She'd told herself she would sleep in the house tonight, find a mattress, but the tension of this meeting had left her on edge for far too long, starting with Vienna's subtly hostile greeting and now Rowan's almost-blank stare.
Holding the bag over her shoulder, she looked around the table as professionally as she could. “I'll let my clients know I have family interested. If they're willing to sell it for a reduced price, I'll negotiate in your favor.”
It seemed the least she could do. Maybe she hadn't done the other things, but she could do this. Then, she could walk away from the Velascos with a clear conscience and a clean heart.
Vienna thanked her. Stepping in close, the older woman offered a small but sincere hug.
That surprised Annalise. For a moment, she wondered if it was a move to reach into the bag and pluck the book back, but Vienna did no such thing. It was simply a hug because she needed it, a truce because they both did.
Alder offered a curt goodbye and disappeared. Rowan stood, hands in his pockets, staring at her as if there were some other message passing between them. She ignored it. It was Indie who followed her out the door and down to her car.
“Thank you so much for doing this. I know my mom's struggling to digest all of this,” she added, a smile on her lips.
Annalise found her own again too, a real one that went all the way to her core. “I get that. I mean, I just opened this book out of a variety of items and saw this name.”
“Well, I'm glad you came,” Indie offered.
Suddenly, this was the exact right moment. Indie was the right person, because she was a descendant of Launa Velasco herself. Vienna had simply married into the family.
As Indie turned away, Annalise reached out for the younger woman's hand and tugged her back. “Look, I've read enough of it—” all of it, she thought to herself, “—to know that history will tell you things you didn’t know.”
“Of course,” Indie said.
Annalise was going to have to spell it out. “You can buy this book, and you can read it cover to cover, but I can't promise you that you'll be okay with everything that you find in it.”