Chapter Eleven
Six weeks later
Time seemed to move slower for Josephine. Her only joys were Zoie and her art. Work was a chore. Her bed felt larger and lonesome. Her heart was shattered.
But she pressed on.
She smiled when she needed to. Made conversation when it called for it. Pretended that everything was okay. She knew she was an artist, but it seemed acting was added to her repertoire.
Her biggest role?Being around Lorenzo and pretending she hadn’t poured out her heart to him and got rejected. That she didn’t miss him. Want him. Love and adore him.
For this, she believed she deserved an Academy Award.
She rang the doorbell as she stood on the front porch of his townhouse. She crossed her arms over her chest as she waited, looking up and down the street at the other stately homes that spoke of wealth and privilege–and that she didn’t belong.
“Hola, Josie,” Camilia greeted her.
Josephine turned and gave her a soft smile. “Hola, Camilia,” she said, stepping inside the foyer when the woman moved back to allow it.
The beautiful foyer dwarfed the size of the one in her home.
“Is Zoie ready?” Josephine asked as Camilia closed the front door.
“Sí. Sí. She’s ready.”
Josephine ran her fingers through her hair as she found herself under Camilia’s watchful gaze.
“Are you still doing your art?” she asked.
“Yes. Yes,” Josephine enthused. “I am.”
“But your light seems dimmer and dimmer each time I see you,” the wise woman assessed.
Josephine forced a smile. “Uhm, I don’t know,” she lied, knowing that unrequited love had turned down her inner spark.
Camilia nodded slowly. “I see the same in my hijo,” she said.
“He’s fine,” Josephine said dryly.
“I disagree,” Camilia countered with softness. “My son is not fine at all.”
Josephine closed her eyes, praying the tears that rose did not fall. She knew she’d once broken his heart, and that hurt lingered in him. She regretted that deeply.
“El verdadero amor nunca se puede negar,” Camilia said.
Josephine had been looking down at the foyer’s wood herringbone pattern but jerked her head up at the phrase she remembered so very well. “What does that mean?” she asked. “What did you say? You said it to Lorenzo the night we all had dinner at the condo.”
Camilia turned.
“Please,” she begged in a whisper.
The woman paused. Several moments passed. Josephine waited.
“True love can never be denied,” Camilia said as she turned to face Josephine again.
She shook her head. “But he doesn’t love me,” she said softly as a teardrop fell, opening the door for more to join it until her shoulders shook.
Camilia crossed the small divide to pull her into a warm embrace. “Yes, he does,” she assured her soothingly, rubbing circles onto her back. “My son loves you very much.”
Josephine raised her head from the woman’s shoulder, her eyes wide with surprise. Her heart began to pick up the pace. “Even after everything I did that hurt him?” she asked.
Camilia just watched her silently.
“But if he loved me, why wouldn’t he tell me?” she asked, struggling to understand as she wavered between hope that his mother’s words were valid and believing in what he said–or rather, what he didn’t say that day in her art studio.
“That I don’t know,” Camilia told her. “I’ve said all I’m willing to say. This is you and Lorenzo’s journey. Not mine. I leave you both to it. What is meant to be will be. Now, are you okay?”
“Yes,” Josephine replied.
But she wasn’t. Not at all. Not without Lorenzo’s love.
“Come in. Zoie was finishing her homework. Let me make sure she is done.”
“I-I-I can wait in the car,” Josephine stated, pointing her thumb toward the closed front door.
“Isn’t it odd how fear leads one to make irrational decisions?” she asked before extending her hand for Josephine to enter the townhouse.
Feeling it was more of a silent command than a request, she walked inside directly into the open living room and kitchen. Both masterfully designed. The air was rich with the scent of cooked food. Something heavy in garlic and onions. Her stomach rumbled.
Lorenzo stepped into the kitchen from what she knew to be the pantry.
Her heart raced.
He paused at the sight of her, looking ever so attractive in all-black casual clothes under a matching apron. His glorious hair was pulled back from his face, exposing his handsomeness. “Hola,” he greeted her.
His words melted against her skin like cocoa butter. Supple and sweet.
“Hola, Zo,” she said, giving him a friendly smile as her heart continued to shatter at the loss of him.
“I’ll go check on Zoie,” Camilia said, taking the grand wrought iron stairs off the living room to reach the second floor where her and Zoie’s suite of rooms were located.
And here goes my performance…
“Cooking dinner?” she asked, sounding polite.
“Sí. I’m trying out a new recipe for my cookbook,” he told, removing a glass lid from a copper stewing pot to stir the contents with a silicone spoon. “Come taste.”
The last thing she wanted was to be close to him. Every day, she fought not to love him anymore. Every night, she dreamt of him. Every moment she encountered him, she had to fight not to slam him back against a wall and climb him to plant kisses on his mouth before working her way down his body!
Clearing her throat, she slid her hand into the pockets of the bright yellow slacks and matching short-sleeved silk shirt she wore to work with a thin gold belt and gold pointy-toe flats. She passed the island and came to stand beside him at the stove. The food couldn’t top his warm scent nor the heat she felt radiating from his body. He pulled a tablespoon from one of the black metal canisters on his counter to scoop from inside the pot.
“It’s my take on oxtail stew with a Mexican infusion of flavors,” he explained, holding the utensil near her mouth as he looked down at her.
Josephine’s eyes locked with his.
“My son loves you very much.”
She gasped at Camilia’s words, wanting that to be true. Yearning for it. Feeling a bit lost without it.
Lorenzo’s eyes dropped to her mouth and then shot back up as if denying himself what was natural. His gaze lit with an intensity that made her shiver. She knew he desired her. Still. But just his sex wasn’t enough for her anymore. She wanted his heart. Every bit of it. So, she broke their gaze and opened her mouth for him to feed her.
“It’s hot. Be careful,” he said low in his throat.
Her eyes opened at his warning.
“Isn’t it odd how fear leads one to make irrational decisions?” Camilia had said.
Was that a subtle hint to her question of why Lorenzo wouldn’t confess to loving her?
‘Is he afraid to love me?’ Josephine wondered.
“El verdadero amor nunca se puede negar.”
She opened her eyes to lock with his again as she tasted the tender meat in a succulent tomato-based stew with hints of some chili she was too much of a novice to identify. “It’s delicious, Zo,” she complimented him.
He nodded and smiled. “Gracias, Josie,” he said, placing the spoon in the sink before returning to gently stir the stew.
She stood there, closely watching his profile as she pondered the possibility that what she thought she felt and saw in Lorenzo’s eyes these last few months matched what Camilia assumed was true.
“El verdadero amor nunca se puede negar.”
She thought of his unexplainable annoyance with Brent.
The first kiss they shared on the stairs of her house.
He had that photo of her in his wallet after all those years.
The belief in her art.
The day at the museum.
The studio.
The passion.
All the care and concern.
All…
Love.
She took a deep and rather dramatic inhale of breath. “You do love me!” she exclaimed, almost accusing him as she pointed a finger at him. “Lorenzo. Léon. Cortez. You love me.”
Lorenzo stiffened before he quickened the pace of his stirring. He furrowed his brows. “I thought you were an artist, not a psychic,” he said, placing the lid on the pot and removing it from the heat before walking over to the double-door black fridge with bronze handles.
She followed him. “You will say anything, but won’t flat-out deny it,” she said, squeezing in between him and the door that she closed with a bump of her buttocks against it.
Lorenzo looked down at her in surprise.
She arched a brow as she placed a hand against his chest. “You love me. Always have. Always will,” she declared, no longer needing his confirmation.
“And look what it got me last time!” he snapped with angry eyes before turning to stride away from her.
“Oh! Oooh. Wow. Awwww, Lorenzo,” she said, going through a range of emotions and landing on empathy. She watched his retreat and leaned back against the fridge.
He left the kitchen and strode into the living room. Suddenly, he stopped as he looked up the staircase. “Mama?” he exclaimed before releasing a string of Spanish that left Josephine entirely in the dark.
Soon, Camilia’s softly spoken words followed his.
Josephine pushed off the fridge and hurried across the kitchen and into the living room to stand beside Lorenzo. Camilia was descending the stairs, her lengthy hair gently flowing back and forth as she moved.
“El verdadero amor nunca se puede negar,” she said, holding up both hands like it was, in fact, out of her hands.
“That’s right! El versad alpo ninko de punco negro,” Josephine said with way too much confidence.
Lorenzo’s face twisted in pure confusion as he looked down at her.
“El verdadero amor nunca se puede negar,” Camilia corrected her.
“Yup! That!” Josephine said as she pointed at Camilia and then placed her hands on her hips.
“What part of observing but not interfering is this?” Lorenzo roared to his mother, his Spanish accent heavier with his emotions.
“Tone, hijo,” was all Camilia said with a calmness that scared Josephine.
“Perdóname, madre,” he said in Spanish–with way less base.
Josephine assumed it was an apology because Camilia gave him a nod of acceptance.
“Ummmm. Adults?”
Everyone looked up the stairs to see Zoie standing on the landing, looking down at them in a mint sundress with her headphones hanging around her neck and tangled in her new box braids,
Camilia took the lead and motioned for Zoie to join her downstairs. “Let’s walk around the block, mi nieta,” she said.
Zoie’s bright eyes went from the face of each adult before settling back on her grandmother as she descended the stairs.
“We’ll be back,” Camilia said, taking the preteen’s hand.
Josephine and Lorenzo each gave their daughter a smile as she paused to look back at them over her shoulder.
“Everything okay?” Zoie asked.
They both nodded.
Camilia and Zoie left the townhouse.
Lorenzo stepped as if to climb the stairs, and Josephine moved in front of him. He released a heavy breath and ran his hands through his hair.
“When I discovered I was pregnant, instead of facing that with you, I ran from you,” she said. “And it was the biggest mistake of my life because we lost all that time together. I won’t let you make the same mistake I did, Zo.”
He walked over to sit on one of the matching suede sofas facing each other in front of the massive fireplace.
She watched him fling his hair over one broad shoulder. “Say something,” she implored, slowly walking over to stand beside where he sat.
He glanced up at her. “I have nothing to say, Josie.”
She got down on her knees in between his open legs and set each of her hands on his knees. “Well, I do. Forgive me,” she said, pleading with him to do so with her eyes. “I will never leave you again. Never. Forgive me.”
He squinted a bit as he looked over her face.
She gave him a soft smile. “Here’s the thing. Between us there is both chemistry and history. We share a deep and profound love that I believe was forged in the heavens before we were even created. Destined. Aligned. That”s us. Zo and Jo,” she said, reaching into her shirt to remove the heart-shaped locket from her memory box. “I started wearing it every day after I told you I love you. I figured this one would have to do if I couldn’t have your heart.”
His eyes dropped down to the locket before he reached to open it and look at the photo inside it. “You broke me, Josie,” he admitted, his voice soft as he rubbed the locket with his thumb. “Going to your apartment and finding out you moved broke me. You left me wondering what I did wrong to you.”
“Forgive me,” she begged.
“I have forgiven you,” he replied.
She studied his eyes. The pain she saw struck her deeply. She pressed both hands to the sides of his face. “But you haven’t forgotten,” she stated.
“I did. Until you brought up love,” Lorenzo said.
Josephine took a breath and shifted to sit cross-legged as she held the locket in both hands. “It was always there between us whether we say the words or not,” she said, feeling tears of frustration and failure rise. “You love me. You love me. You. Love. Me.”
He raised his hand and caught her tears with his thumb to wipe them away. “Sí. I do love you,” he acknowledged. “Always have. Always will.”
She smiled, but it faded slowly as she saw the reluctance in his eyes. “But?” she asked between rapid breaths she feared was the start of panic.
Lorenzo eased his thumb down to stroke her lips. “How can I ever trust you with my heart, Josie?” he asked.
She squeezed her eyes shut, fearing she had lost him forever. But she wasn’t willing to give him up that easily, not when she did so in the past and lived to regret it. She opened her eyes and looked up to him, hoping he could see nothing but love.
“Zo, please give me the chance to make it up to you for the rest of our lives,” she pleaded without a bit of shame. She felt she owed him that and so much more.“Marry me.”
∞
Lorenzo looked down at her as her words gripped his heart and made him breathless. He bent at the waist to kiss her mouth, enjoying the taste of her and the way she trembled in response. Giving in to the urge, he traced her mouth with his tongue before kissing her deeply as he wrapped his arms around her waist. He pulled her up from the floor to press her upper body to his, and she clung to him as she released moans from the back of her throat.
He was hard and ready to please her, but sex was not the answer. It never was.
With a shake of his head, Lorenzo broke the kiss and rose to his feet before stepping over her to take a few steps to distance them. He hoped the draw of her would lessen. The attraction and the chemistry.
It didn’t.
He glanced back to find her still sitting on the floor, looking down at her hands as she wrung her fingers. He crossed his arms over his chest to defeat his desire to go to her and pull her up into his arms to have and to hold. To kiss. To…love.
Of course, I love her. Always have and always will.
Lorenzo dropped his tall and broad frame down onto the steps as he twisted the silver eagle-shaped ring he wore on his index finger.
But can I trust her?
He glanced at her to see she was still forlorn. He looked away, feeling choked up with his own emotions. He closed his eyes and squeezed the corners with his fingers. Everyone but him believed he and Josephine were meant to be.
“El verdadero amor nunca se puede negar.”
His mother.
“You don’t have to speak your truth to me, but at the very least, be honest with your damn self.”
His best friend.
“I know I hurt you, and I have no right to want more of what we shared this weekend. But I do. I love you. I always have and always will, Zo.”
The woman he could not deny loving.
But this had to be his choice, not an idea forced upon him. It was his heart, after all.
He looked on as Josephine opened her locket and watched the photo of them all those years ago before she looked over at him. She was so different from when he first encountered her nearly a year ago. This version, with her curls and brightly colored clothing, was a mature form of the young Josie who had broken his heart. A wiser version. A blend of the carefree nature of Josie and the maturity of Josephine. A mix of the old and the new.
Josie broke his heart. Josephine was trying to heal it.
“Let me prove how much I love you,”she said. “Marry me, Zo?”
“No. Absolutely not,” he said firmly.
Josephine closed her eyes and tilted back a bit as if shot.
Lorenzo rose to his feet. “There’s something I need you to see,” he said before climbing the stairs two at a time.
Although there was an elevator at the rear of the house, he preferred the physical exertion of ascending the three flights of stairs. He reached the top landing and crossed the space he had set up as his reading area with all his precious books on custom shelving. Opening the double doors, he strode across the stylishly appointed sitting area to enter his bedroom through the secret door. Twelve-foot ceilings gave the room a stately feel, and its many windows let in brilliant rays of sunshine. He strode over to his walk-in closet to pick up the ring case atop the island with the rest of his jewelry.
He opened it.
The diamonds sparkled.
It was time for the whole truth.
Retracing his steps, Lorenzo went down to the living room to find Josephine slowly pacing back and forth at the foot of the stairs. She stopped and looked up at him, her eyes filled with curiosity. He studied her and found her just as beautiful as ever. Love for her swelled in his chest just as strong as ever.
“There was a time I planned to propose to you, mariposa,” he began, opening the box to show her the ring.
She gasped in surprise. “It”s beautiful,” she sighed.
“Before I knew you were leaving me, my plan was to propose the next week at the same spot in the park where we met,” he told her, moving to sit down on one of the forward-facing bottom steps as he avoided her eyes. “See, I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you, Josie. I wanted you as my happily-ever-after.”
“And now?” she asked with trepidation.
Lorenzo released a heavy breath as he looked down at the ring for a long time, remembering the hurt and the destruction–and needing to both forgive and forget. He freed the ring from the box. “And for the second time, you have ruined my proposal, mariposa,” he said with a bit of amusement, shifting his eyes up to look at her standing there before him.
Josephine covered her mouth with her hands.
“El verdadero amor nunca se puede negar,” he said smoothly as he looked up into her eyes from where he sat.
She nodded eagerly with tears as she lowered her hands. “That,” she said.
He chuckled.
She smiled.
Lorenzo allowed himself to assess what he felt as he prepared to propose. There was only love and joy. Whatever fear remained was no longer in control. “I do believe we were made for each other in the heavens, mariposa,” he said, surrendering to their love and destiny. “And everything we went through was meant to happen so we could get from there to here. Now that I know the ending, I can view it from a new perspective. What is meant to be will be, and we are meant to be.”
She nodded in agreement as she bit down on her bottom lip.
“I never forgot you all those years, and once the pain subsided, I used to hope to see you again,” he confessed.
She stroked his chin as he pulled her onto his lap and settled his arm around her waist. The sweet scent of her enticed him and it felt like home. He felt lighter. Freer. Unburdened.
“To know that we made a baby–a child that I love so very much–makes our love all the more special,” he continued as she pressed soft kisses to his face. “We went through hell and back, Josie.”
“But we found our way back to love,” she said.
He reached for her hand and settled the band around the tip of her ring finger. She began to tremble. He bit back a smile. “I want to see what else this journey has for us. Say you will spend the rest of your life loving me as much as I love you?” he proposed. “Say you will marry me.”
“Sí, mi amor,” she promised.
Lorenzo slid the ring onto her finger the way he hoped all those years ago. Once it was settled, he kissed the back of her ring finger and then turned his head to capture her mouth with his own. “Forever,” he whispered against her lips.
“And ever. I swear,” she swore.
Their kisses began as gentle ones. Savoring each moment. Lingering with love.
The front door opened, but they stayed locked in their little world for as long as they could before…
“Ah,” Zoie said.
Lorenzo and Josephine shared one last sweet kiss before she rose from his lap. He came down the steps to stand beside her as they faced their daughter.
Camilia bit back a smile. “I’ll go check on dinner,” she said, walking past them all to enter the kitchen.
Zoie pressed a finger to her mouth as she eyed her parents and then looked down at their clasped hands with a raised brow. “Interesting development,” she said.
When Josephine started to pull away, he held her grasp tighter. Now that he had made the leap to have and to hold, to love and to trust her, he wasn’t letting her go, not even for their daughter. “Zoie, your mother and I have some news,” he said.
“So do I,” Zoie countered, now clasping her hands behind her thin back as she continued to eye them.
Lorenzo and Josephine shared a brief look. He frowned.
Where is this headed?
Zoie began to pace. “I’m already very aware that you two are more couple than co-parents,” she began. “Please confirm this, abuela.”
“Sí, she knows,” Camilia called over to them.
The couple shared another look.
Zoie continued to pace, giving off the vibe of an attorney pleading her case. “One thirsty late night at my mom’s, I awakened to go down to the kitchen and happened upon said mother sneaking my father out of the back door,” she revealed.
Yet another look was shared.
“I–unlike my parents–did a fabulous job of hiding my presence and thus succeeding in keeping my secret for months,” she said with a pointed look as she stopped in front of them.
“We’re engaged,” Lorenzo told her, holding Josephine’s hand to reveal the ring.
Zoie’s mouth dropped open in shock before she lunged at her mother and then her father to hug them excitedly.
Camilia released a squeal of surprise and delight as she hurried over to them.
Lorenzo loved the look on his mother’s face as she took in the ring and released praise in their native tongue that he knew Josephine did not understand.
“Ok. This secret tops mine. Big-time!” Zoie exclaimed as she jumped up and down before she began dancing.
Josephine eyed her daughter as she eased past Camilia to reach for their daughter’s wrist. “So, this is all okay with you?” she asked.
Lorenzo loved that even amid her own happiness, Josephine wanted to ensure their daughter was good.
“Well,” Zoie began, touching her mother’s hand. “That’s the horse after the cart and all that, but yes, I”m fine. When I told abuela about catching you two, she explained some things to me–above all, my dad would never abandon me. No matter what.”
“Very true,” Lorenzo joined in. “But now I make the same promise to your mother. We are familia. And in the spirit of one big happy family…”
Lorenzo turned to scoop Josephine up into his arms. “Mom and dad are going up to our suite,” he said.
Camilia stepped out of the way of her future daughter-in-law’s dangling feet with a smile.
Zoie frowned. “Our?” she asked.
“You both live here full-time now,” Lorenzo said over his shoulder as he began carrying his fiancé up the stairs. “We’ll pack up your house and figure out what to do with it later.”
Josephine was nuzzling his neck. “I agree,” she said in between kisses. “We’re home.”
“See you two in the morning,” Lorenzo called over his shoulder as he enjoyed having Josie back in his arms, where she was born to be.
“The morning!” Camilia and Zoie exclaimed in unison.
Lorenzo and Josephine both laughed.
“Can I call and tell Uncle Gabe you’re getting married?” Zoie called up to them.
Lorenzo paused. “Sí. And tell him I made sure no one drove off in my car,” he said.
“Huh?” Zoie said.
“Just do it, nieta,” he told her.
“O-kay!” Zoie exclaimed before the sound of her running feet echoed.
“Am I the car?” Josephine asked.
He chuckled. “Si, mi amor. A classic,” he assured her.
As Lorenzo carried her into their suite, Josephine made noises like revving an engine.