In my eyes?
He did right by them.
As much as I love Elijah—and trust me, I so fucking do—I need to step aside and let this beautiful family find their way back to each other again. I refuse to stand in the way of their happiness. I refuse to break their bond.
My lips touch Elijah’s mouth for one final kiss. I need to give myself that one last moment of being in his light, of inhaling his breath, of feeling those foreign words fall gently across my lips; I need the memory ofusbecause that is what we have become—us.
“Elijah?”
“Mm-hmm…”
“Will you speak to me in Spanish?” It’s an odd request, but he doesn’t hesitate.
“Eres tan hermoso, mi amor. Estoy tan enamorado de ti.”
He breathes those beautiful Spanish sentiments across my lips, and then translates softly into English… “You are so beautiful, my love. I am so in love with you.”
I inhale every foreign word, English too. Swallow every passionate breath he breathes into my mouth.
He hums between sentences, deep and throaty, and my heart swells to twice its size, falling in sync with his.
I drag his plump lower lip into my mouth, sucking the plush feeling of it into memory as I wait—wait for those beautiful words to filter through my heart and land in my soul for keepsake.
And then, I do the impossible… I step back, out of his arms.
He stares at me, attempting to swim through my tears, to read the thoughts racing through my mind.
But, he can’t.
I won’t let him.
“I’m going to pick up the girls,” I say—calm. Stoic. “I’ll bring Ana back here before I leave.”
“Leave?” Where are you going?”
“Away. With Emilee.” I pause. “We’ll be gone… for a while.”
Probably forever.
“But she just got back from Spain,” he argues. “Why would you do this?” Panic quivers through his voice and coils around those heavily accented words, making them more difficult to understand. “Por qué?”
I bring my hands up to his handsome face, fingers tracing that always-present five o’clock shadow that looks so goddamn sexy on him. “Because I’m giving Ana her parents back. I’m letting Gabriel have his husband back.”
“And what about me?” he asks, voice thick with desperation.
“I’m giving you your family back, Elijah.”
“But I don’t understand…” His chest rises and falls as he fights for the air that I just stole from him.
I place my hand over his heart. “This right here, Elijah…” His heart thumps wildly against my palm. It’s the strongest heartbeat I’ve ever felt. “It belongs to your husband.”
“Then marry me, Alex.”
“You already have a husband.”
“I have anex-husband,” he fires back.
But it doesn’t matter; with or without the “ex,”loveoverrides that hyphenated word… and there’s a lot of love within the Garcia family.
