the door of her gingerbread-style shop beneath the overhanging awning on the wooden sidewalk. She held out her hand. “Goodbye.”
Slowly he took her hand. But when he felt it in his own, he knew he could not let her go. He shook it, then instead of releasing her, pulled her hand closer, pulling her toward his body.
“Come back to me, Louisa,” he said in a low voice. His eyes searched hers. “Not as my employee…but as my mistress.”
Her jaw dropped. “What?”
“I’ve never tried to be faithful to one woman before,” he said. “But since you left I haven’t been able to forget you. I want to be with you, Louisa. Not as your boss. As your, your…lover.” The word was pulled from him painfully. “I was a fool to let you go. A fool to push you away. You are the one woman who’s never lied to me.” He gave her a crooked smile. “The one woman who defied me when I deserved it, who dared to tell me when I was making an ass of myself. I need you.”
She stared at him. “What are you saying?”
“I can’t offer you marriage. But for as long as we’re together—” he took a deep breath “—I promise I will be faithful to you.”
He heard her intake of breath, felt her tremble in his arms.
Suddenly an explosion of happiness went through him. He knew he had convinced her.
Lowering his mouth to hers, he gave her a long kiss full of passion and tenderness. He held her tightly, kissing her until he felt her surrender, until he felt her sigh in his arms. Until she started to kiss him back.
When he finally pulled away, he was smiling. He’d never been so happy.
“So you’ll come?” he whispered, feeling more sure of himself now. Caressing her face, he smiled down at her. Louisa’s eyelids fluttered open. She blinked in apparent bewilderment as he stroked her cheek and added, “My plane is waiting to take us to Buenos Aires.”
She looked up at him. Then she sucked in her breath.
“No,” she said. “Damn you! No!”
His jaw dropped as he stared at her, unable to believe her answer. He couldn’t even fathom what he was hearing. For his whole adult life, he’d been the legendary elusive playboy. He’d never offered any woman as much as he’d just offered Louisa.
So now to have her actually refuse him!
“Why?” he demanded over the lump in his throat. He thought again of the men they’d passed on the street who’d been so delighted to see her. All those surfer boys looking at her with longing, all those wealthy yacht-owners who’d eyed her with lust. Rafael’s expression hardened. “Is there someone else?”
He heard her intake of breath as her eyes flashed up at him.
“Yes,” she said in a low voice. “There is someone else. I’m sorry.” She pulled her hand out of his grasp, and he had the sudden feeling of the warmth of her slipping away, slipping away forever. “Goodbye,” she whispered.
Turning in a whirl of vibrant color, she pushed open the door into her bakery. He heard the bright tinkle of the bell, and then he was left alone on the wooden boardwalk, beneath a cloudless sky stretching to the brilliant blue sea.
LOUISA’S legs wobbled with emotion as she went back into the bakery.
She felt the sudden blast of warmth and light as she entered the shop, smelled bread baking in the oven, heard the laughter of her six-year-old niece talking to her baby son in his bouncy chair. She was home again, and safe. She’d kept her secret and left Rafael behind forever. She’d put her child first. He was the only one who mattered.
So why didn’t she feel happier? Why did she feel so broken inside? She blinked her eyes fast, barely able to keep from crying, staring down at the floor.
The floor needed to be mopped, she thought dimly. She would do that first. And as her heart turned over in her chest she pushed away the memories of the man she’d tried for over a year to forget, the father of her baby. She tried to focus on her business, her child, the rest of her daily schedule. Anything but the man she’d just pushed away…
I can’t offer you marriage. But for as long as we’re together, I promise I will be faithful to you.
“Did you have a nice visit?” her sister said innocently as the last customer left carrying a box of caramel macadamia brownies. “I didn’t expect you back for hours.”
“Didn’t you?” she said hoarsely.
“To be honest I’m glad to see you,” Katie said with a sigh. “This is the first lull in traffic we’ve had since you left. A minute ago five people were waiting in line wanting cookies and tarts, and then the baby started to cry, and I thought I would lose my mind either laughing or crying…”
Louisa slowly lifted her head. Her eyes glittered at her sister.
“You sent that anonymous letter, didn’t you? You brought him here.”
Her voice was even, revealing nothing of her turmoil inside.
Katie stopped. Then she slowly nodded.
“Why?” Louisa said. She heard her baby give a snuffling cry and walked swiftly behind the counter and lifted him from his bouncy seat, jiggling him on her hip as she continued to glare at her sister. “Why would you try to hurt me? Do you want him to take my son from me? Do you still hate me so much?”
“No!” her sister gasped, her expression horrified. Tears rushed into her eyes, the hazel-colored eyes so similar to Louisa’s own, though her sister was several years younger and her hair was lightened into a luscious light blond color. She swallowed. “I once took away the man you loved. I am trying to make it up to you.”
Louisa blinked at her in shock.
“I’m so sorry for what I did to you,” Katie choked out. “I thought I loved Matthias. I thought you didn’t. But I was wrong. So wrong to sleep with him. And I should have known. A man who would betray one person in his life would betray others…” Her voice trailed off bitterly. She looked up, openly weeping. “You’ve done so much for me. Always. I’ll never forgive myself for taking Matthias away from you.”
Matthias. The truth was that Louisa could barely remember him now. How could she have ever thought she loved the man, when she’d barely known him?
Unlike Rafael, whom she knew so well in so many ways.
The way he played the piano at night when he was lonely, the way he would carelessly eat five of her caramel brownies before dinner. The way he loved the smell of roses in the springtime. The way he ate dinner at three in the morning, then rose for his coffee and newspaper three hours later. The way he ruthlessly cut people out of his life before they could disappoint him.
Louisa shook her head. “You were right all along. I never loved Matthias,” she said in a low
