Chapter 14
I slipped into the stadium, having gotten permission from the security team in advance. I wasn’t sure if it was my name that got me in or the fact that I told them I was going to surprise Ernesto, but they’d handed over a temporary key card with no fuss.
Neto was sitting in the stands, playing the guitar.
I locked eyes with him and my ribs seemed to constrict, but I walked slowly to the penalty box and sat down on the bench.
He played a few more chords and made a note in a small, leather notebook.
Then he stood, and my heart sprinted as he slowly walked toward me.
He stopped just inside the box, leaning casually against the glass, arms folded across his broad chest. But he couldn’t fool me; I could see his pulse race at the hollow of his throat.
“Hey,” he said, his voice deep and low.
“Hey.” I fought to keep my voice from shaking.
“You seem to be in the penalty box.”
“I am. I’ve earned myself five minutes.”
He smiled at that. My recent hyper-fixation on hockey had taught me that five minutes was the amount of time a player would be in the box for a major penalty.
He sat next to me, his thigh touching mine. “What did you do, hit somebody with your gloves off?”
“Yeah, I think I did. And I’m really sorry about it. But I’m getting ahead of myself. I have two things to show you first.”
I reached into my bag and pulled out a paper with a seal on the front and passed it to him.
His eyes widened as he read the words. “You changed your name?”
I nodded, blinking back tears. “I’m not going to abandon my mother’s name, or run from its legacy, but I am more than just a de Bourgh. I’m also a Santos. And it’s about time I acknowledged it fully.”
He reached out a hand. “Hi, Anne de Bourgh-Santos. I’m Ernesto Garcia.”
I shook his hand firmly. “I’m pleased to meet you, Ernesto.”
“How’s your mother going to react when you show her this?”
“I already did.” My thoughts drifted back to earlier that day.
After my walk, I’d stopped by my house to grab the documents I’d need and headed straight to the courthouse.
I’d finger-combed my windswept hair, cringing at the sand that had settled there as I waited in line, and filled out all the documents I needed.
That was the easy part. The hard part was standing in front of my mother, knees shaking as I showed her the paper.
Her face had turned white with shock, a sight I’d never seen before.
“Why did you feel the need to do this?” she asked, her words sharp.
“Because I am more than just a de Bourgh, Mamá. And I have more than one legacy to uphold.”
Her jaw had clenched as she took a moment to compose herself before she said, “Now, be reasonable. I’m proud of you for honoring your father, but that doesn’t change your duty to the crown or to me.
” That familiar weight of obligation and duty fell to my shoulders, but as it did, so did a realization.
I’d spent a long time considering how to fulfill that duty while being true to myself and what I wanted, and that heavy feeling hadn’t once come over me.
I thought back to the last talk I’d had with Mamá and how willing I had been to give up Neto. How compliant I’d been.
“You’ve been manipulating my emotions,” I said.
Mamá stiffened. “You were being unreasonable. I simply helped you to calm down.”
“No. You made me feel what you wanted me to feel. So you could control me.”
“I—”
“No.” Never in my life had I dared to cut my mother off, but one look at my expression had her backing down.
“Don’t ever use that ability on me again,” I said.
“I am not a child and I will make my own choices. I’ve scheduled a meeting with Darcy to go over my duties and how I can best support him.
I do not need you to help me manage that anymore. ”
I don’t know how I’d expected her to react, but it certainly wasn’t a look of respect coming over her face.
I’d never seen that look before, and certainly not directed at me.
“You look just like your father when you set your jaw like that,” she said quietly.
The soft look only lasted a few seconds before it faded.
“It’s about time you asserted yourself,” she said, giving me a sharp nod.
“I will refrain from interfering in matters between you and Darcy. As for the man—”
I cut her off again, breaking my own record.
“I’m not willing to give him up. I know it’s early and it’s possible that things won’t work out between us, but that will be for Neto and I to determine.
” I swallowed, my bravery almost extinguished.
“I’d like for you to meet him. I’ll make dinner this week and invite him. ”
And my mother shocked me for the second time that day as she said, “Fine. There’s someone I’d like you to meet as well. I’ve been seeing someone.”
Neto squeezed my hand, pulling me back to the present moment.
I squeezed his, too. “All this time I’ve been trying to please my mom with my compliance, but it wasn’t until I defied her that I earned a measure of her respect.
It’s going to take a while for us to work through this.
She won’t handle my independence well. But I asserted myself and she respected it. ”
“That was not a small thing, standing up to your mother. You should be proud of yourself.”
I was tempted to hurry to the end of my speech but I wanted to do this right, so I carefully placed the certificate in my bag and pulled the collar of my shirt down over my very tender shoulder. “Here’s the second thing I wanted to show you.”
“?No manches! You got a tattoo!” He very gently ran his thumb across my skin next to the wispy feather outlined in black, sending a happy shiver down my spine. “I love it.”
“It’s to remind me that I belong to myself. That my choices are mine to make. They always were, even if I convinced myself otherwise. And I made a very bad choice recently.”
“Oh?” He continued to stroke my shoulder with his guitar-callused thumb, but he raised his gaze from my tattoo to my eyes.
“I let my fear of my mother’s disapproval get in the way of what I really want, which is to be with you. And I’m terrified that I ruined everything.” A tear slipped down my cheek and onto my bare shoulder.
“No, mi amor.” He brought his lips to my shoulder and kissed away the tear, then wiped the wetness from my cheek. “You didn’t ruin anything.”
“I’m so sorry, Neto. Please forgive me.”
He scooped me up and pulled me onto his lap where he wrapped me in a huge bear hug. I buried my face in the crook of his shoulder and let him hold me. “Anne, there’s nothing to forgive. I know this was hard for you.”
“You were right to call me out. I was scared by how much I wanted you, scared of my mother’s disapproval, scared that if I told you how I felt about you that you’d get spooked and leave me for one of the hundreds of girls that are obsessed with you.”
He shook his head. “You’re the only one I want.”
I may have earned a five-minute penalty, but I spent much longer than that in the box with Neto, my fingers buried in his curls and his lips on mine.
“I think I’m falling in love with you, Neto,” I murmured onto his lips.
He smiled. “I wish I could take you to the recording studio so I could hear you say that to me again and again, mi amor. Because I’ve already fallen.”
I sat up straight, his words bringing the other thing I needed to tell him back to the forefront of my mind. “I found a cassette tape that was left at the concert hall, and if I’m not mistaken, it will lead us to Paolo’s killer.”