Chapter Fourteen
Gabriela let the laughter wash over her.
It felt like a healing balm, being poured over the wounds of her losses, so many of them recently.
The loss of her fiancé felt as if it hardly rated compared with the loss of eight years from her home, the uncertainty around her father and the recent news that Geraldo was probably coming to the end of his nine lives.
And then there was her impossible love for the man beside her.
Still, for all that, she had been given this incredible, totally unexpected moment, a pure gift from the universe, and she planned to enjoy it.
They entered Benito. It was Hermosa Mariposa’s largest village, and Gabriela felt a sigh of homecoming.
The village dated back to medieval times, and clusters of white homes, their vine-covered stone exterior walls touching, marched up and down the cobblestoned streets of the steep hills that surrounded the village center.
The square—the heart of all of Benito with its shops and theaters and cafés—consisted of narrow, cobblestone pathways that beckoned intriguingly away from the central park with its fountain and gardens.
The pathways were shaded by bougainvillea dripping off archways above them.
The doorways of the stores welcomed with hanging baskets and clay pots spilling over with fragrant, colorful flowers.
The roads in this old part of the village were so narrow cars could not pass, and so the core was, charmingly, vehicle free. They found parking and got out of the car, releasing Marcello from the bonds of his seat.
“I’m sweaty,” Enrique said, appalled.
She laughed at the look on his face. “All the better for your disguise! You look like a normal person on a hot day.”
As they moved away from the car and toward the heart of the village, she glanced back at the security team, who had had to park some distance from them and were hurrying to catch up.
Both men looked as if the stress of this unscheduled excursion to such a difficult-to-protect area was going to cause them heart failure.
And that was even though they both—but particularly William—looked as if they were in optimal condition.
She saw that, even with the rather handsome William trailing them, and even with the Prince disguised, it was Enrique that women sent looks to.
Her hand slipped into his on one side and Marcello’s on the other as they moved into the narrow crowded street that would lead to Lido’s.
“To look like a family,” she whispered to Enrique. “No one’s expecting you to be part of a family.”
But was that really it? Or was it to send a message to all those women who slid him interested looks?
He’s mine. Of course, he was not, but on this splendid day, what would it hurt to pretend, just for a little while?
“I think being sweaty is a pretty good disguise,” he whispered back. “Not to mention an inside-out shirt.”
“Both are barely noticeable,” she assured him. Now that she had taken his hand, she saw the looks they attracted were indulgent, people enjoying seeing the little family out for a Saturday excursion.
Indulgent except for the grim-faced men who followed them, radiating tension. Gabriela led the small troop to their destination, Lido’s Toy Store.
“Sir,” William said, “would you let me go in first?”
There was something faintly beseeching in the man’s voice.
Please let me do my job.
Enrique nodded. This, Gabriela realized, not without sympathy, was his life. Simple freedoms that most people, including her, took completely for granted were not his to enjoy.
William went in the shop, while they took in the display in the front window. Marcello could not contain his excitement as he looked over the treasure trove of toys behind the glass.
“Clear,” William said tersely, when he came back out, and then he and his partner took up stations on the street, watching it warily.
Enrique held open the door for Gabriela and Marcello, but she turned, wanting to see both their faces when they walked into the store.
Both he and Marcello looked as if they had entered a magic kingdom. She realized that neither prince had ever actually been in this store before.
And perhaps not any store in Benito or anywhere else on the island where they would be so hugely recognizable.
It felt as if it was an unexpected gift she was giving them. She would have liked to spend hours exploring this space with them. The shelves were crammed with wooden trucks and toy trains, teddy bears and board games, puzzles and craft kits.
Poor Marcello, mouth open, hardly knew where to look first.
The clerk, a young woman, with a huge name tag that said Darla, acknowledged them with a nod but her attention was outside the window. She hovered, frowning out at the security team.
“Did you see that man come in here?” she asked them, not looking away from the window. “Comes in and looks around and leaves again. What do you suppose he was looking for?”
Enrique and Gabriela exchanged amused looks.
“Men like that don’t come in places like this,” Darla decided. “He doesn’t look like a child snatcher, but who can tell these days? He’s with another man, now, both just standing out there eying up the store. I don’t like it one bit.”
But Gabriela saw the clerk’s focus being outside of the store as an unexpected bonus since it kept her attention completely away from their little “family.”
She asked Darla where to find the Ryder-themed toys, and the clerk flapped her hand toward the back of the store.
When they found the huge section, Marcello let out a screech of pure delight.
She had to remind him the mission was to find a birthday present for Henri.
Surprisingly, he focused immediately on finding the perfect gift for his new friend.
Gabriela helped him narrow it down to three, and finally, he settled on an action figure set for Henri.
“And I will have these light sabers for myself,” he announced. “And this and this and this.”
She glanced at Enrique. Clearly he had been totally intimidated by this morning’s tantrum and was prepared to buy the whole store if it would prevent another outburst.
Firmly, she put each of the items Marcello had chosen for himself back on the shelves.
“Let’s add all those things to your birthday list, when we get home,” she suggested.
“Will I be having a party?”
“Of course you will!” Gabriela assured him. She raised her eyebrows at Enrique. He lifted a shoulder, indicating he knew nothing about the party status of his son.
They made their way to the front register, selecting a gift bag on the way. The cash register looked like possibly the first such device that had ever found its way to the island, but Darla was not behind it.
Though not difficult to locate. She was leaning out the open front door, yelling at the two security men, who looked on, resolute and immovable.
She came back in, slamming the door behind her, her cheeks flaming with color.
“I told them to clear off,” she said. “I told them they can’t stand in front of a children’s store as if they’re looking for a child to grab. Look at them! Haven’t moved an inch. You’d think I hadn’t even spoken to them. I’m calling the police.”
Enrique moved forward, cleared his throat.
But he didn’t have to say anything, because the clerk was frowning out at the men. “But come to that, they kind of look like police, don’t they?”
As if the pieces of a puzzle suddenly fell into place, she swiveled all her attention to Marcello.
The baseball cap did not hide his dark curls.
He blinked those unmistakably Falcon eyes at her charmingly.
She completely froze and then recognition blazed across her face.
She looked swiftly to Enrique. Her mouth fell open.
“Your Royal Highness?” she whispered. “Your Royal Highnesses.”
She dropped into a curtsey and nearly took out the cash register with her forehead.
“You have a lovely store, Darla,” Enrique said, taking adulation and awe completely in stride. “Have you worked here long?”
Gabriela could see the inbred graciousness in him, the effortless way he turned the focus away from himself, and made the clerk feel as if only she existed for him in that moment.
“It’s my mum and dad’s,” she stammered. “It belonged to my grandparents, on my dad’s side, before us. I help out whenever I can.”
“Do you enjoy it?”
“I adore it,” she said, shyly. “It’s what first gave me my love of children. I’ve just graduated with a degree in early childhood education.”
“I appreciate you being so protective of its clients,” he told her with utter sincerity. “Miss Lido, I think you are going to be a great teacher.”
Gabriela noticed how carefully he listened, how he respectfully didn’t use her first name, even though it was emblazoned on the huge name tag, but the last name she had revealed by saying it was her father’s parents who had owned the store.
“Oh! Why, thank you, Your Royal Highness.”
He cast a look at Gabriela and then leaned into her. “I don’t have any money,” he confessed in an undertone.
Of course he didn’t have any money. Of course he would not even have a credit card. He did not shop for himself!
“Go,” she said, matching his hushed tone. “I’ll catch up with you. Go before this poor girl has a heart attack.” The hospital was soon going to be filled with all the people they were causing heart problems for today.
When Enrique left, holding open the door for Marcello, Gabriela slipped her own credit card out of her purse. And then she saw a bookcase behind Darla.
“Oh!” she said, “and a copy of Snuggle-Uffle-Gus. And I Am Loved Best of All? And we’d better have The Illustrated Hermosa Mariposa Alphabet book, as well. Oh, and there’s Roald Dahl, The Witches. We were just talking about that book.”
“Those are my favorites,” Darla said, though still in a daze. She plucked the books from the shelf and put them in a separate bag, and rang in the purchases, which Gabriela paid for.