“I don’t know.” But even as I said it, a dark thought settled in my gut. “Home?”
“You think she went to see her father?”
“I think she was overwhelmed and scared, and when Isabel gets scared, she runs to what’s familiar. Even if familiar is the last place where she should be.”
“Then, let’s go find out.” Snapper dug his keys out of his pocket. “I’ll drive.”
“Good, because she took my truck.”
As we ateup the miles between Los Caballeros and Baron’s property, I stared out the window, my phone clutched in my hand, willing it to ring. The silence from Isabel was its own kind of torture.
“You want to talk about it?” Snapper asked after several minutes.
“Talk about what?”
“Whatever’s going on in your head right now. You look like you’re about to crack a tooth from clenching your jaw.”
I forced my muscles to relax. “I’m fine.”
“You’re not fine. And that’s okay.” He glanced at me, then back at the road. “This is Isabel we’re talking about. The woman carrying your child. If you really were fine, I’d be worried about you.”
He was right. I was terrified in a way I’d never experienced before—not during any rodeo, not during any of the stupid risks I’d taken in my twenties, not even when Dad died and the world fell apart.
“I love her,” I said. “I know that sounds crazy, given everything that’s happened. But I do, Snap. I loved her before I even knew about the baby.”
Snapper nodded. “I know.”
“You know?”
“I’ve got eyes, little brother. The way you looked at her at the Stonehouse this morning—that wasn’t from obligation. That wasn’t a man doing the right thing because he knocked someone up.” He kept his gaze on the road, his hands steady on the wheel. “Thatwas a man in love.”
I swallowed hard. “She loves me too. She told me so last night. She whispered it like she was afraid to say it out loud.”
“Then, hold onto that.”
“She’s spent her whole life being told she’s not worth loving. Her own father made her feel like a burden, a disappointment, and a scandal waiting to happen. Twenty-seven years of that, Snap. How do I compete with that kind of damage?” I turned to look at my brother, needing him to understand.
“You don’t compete with it. You outlast it.” Snapper sounded so certain. “You show up every day. You stay when she pushes you away. You keep proving that you’re not going anywhere until she finally believes it.”
“And if she never does?”
“She will.” He glanced at me again. “Because you’re an Avila. We don’t give up on the people we love. Ever. Dad taught us that. Ma reinforced it every single day after he was gone. It’s in our blood.”
The Van Orr estate sprawled across the hills east of Paso Robles, all manicured vineyards and Spanish colonial architecture. I’d been here a few times before. The place had felt unwelcoming then. It felt sterile now.
The gatesof the estate stood open when we arrived, as though Baron had anticipated our arrival. Snapper drove the truck through, and after he parked, a member of the household staff met us at the front entrance.
“I need to see Baron,” I said.
“Mr. Van Orr is in his study. He said to show you in when you arrived.”
Baron had been expecting me? That didn’t bode well.
Snapper caught my arm before I went in. “You want me to come with you?”
“Wait here. This is something I need to handle myself.”
He nodded, though I could see he didn’t like it. “I’ll be right here if you need me.”
