‘So you’re going to sell this place to the highest bidder? Is that why you asked for this valuation?’ Benjamin asked, holding up a piece of paper. ‘You’re going to walk away from your family’s history, from everything that was created here?’ He shook his head. ‘I thought this was the start of something special, but you’re just going to…’ Benjamin didn’t finish his sentence. He didn’t have to.
She knew what else he wasn’t saying—the unsaid words hung between them.Walk away from me. She would be walking away from him, too, not just the property. Rose felt tears welling up but refused to acknowledge them.
‘You have valuations for all the horses on the property, on the land in Mendoza…’
‘You really made sure to read all the paperwork in a short time,’ Rose said, only half joking.
‘So, it’s true? You asked for all of this? These are the documents you’ve been waiting for?’
She felt as if she was going to explode, but she forced herself to at least try to sound calm. ‘Benjamin, I don’t know what I’m going to do. A few months ago, I couldn’t have even shown you Argentina on a map, and I’d never even dreamed of coming here. And now, here I am with a property in my name and ancestors who I never knew existed. So please excuse me if I don’t have a plan for what I’m going to do next, but what you’re accusing me of is unfair.’
Rose glanced at his bare chest, his golden skin that only moments earlier she’d been running her fingertips across as he’d held her close, his mouth trailing across her body and making her question if she wasn’t exactly where she was supposed to be. He’d emerged from her bathroom after his shower, following their afternoon outside, and she’d taken one look at his damp hair curling around his neck, water still glistening on his skin, and she’d known exactly what their evening was going to entail. They hadn’t left her quarters since, until he’d come down to the kitchen under the guise of getting supplies.
‘This property, the legacy of what has been created here, it needs a Santiago at the helm,’ he said, and Rose could see the pain in his eyes. She’d unintentionally hurt him, but what he didn’t realise was that he was hurting her, too. ‘You can’t just leave, Rose.’
‘But I’m not a Santiago,’ she whispered. ‘I know you think I am, but I’m not, and I won’t ever be.’
‘It’s not just a name, Rose,’ he said, stepping forward and brushing his hand gently across her chest. ‘It’s in here. We are who our ancestors are, whether we want to be or not.’
‘You’re acting as if I’ve deceived you, as if I’ve done something terrible when all I did was accept the information that the lawyer had prepared for me,’ she said. ‘I want to believethat this could be my home, but it doesn’t feel real. I’d always be a visitor here, Benjamin.’
He was shaking his head, as if he didn’t believe her. Or maybe he didn’t want to. ‘You made me believe that you were falling in love with this place, with what you could have here, for what…’
She stared up at him, waiting for him to say the missing words, but instead his jaw hardened, his eyes cold as he looked at her.For what we could have had. Rose wished he’d said them, to tell her that what they’d had was real, that she hadn’t imagined what had grown between them. That he hadn’t been romancing her just to make her stay. But it seemed that he was intent on punishing her for something she hadn’t done.
‘I did fall in love, I have,’ she whispered. ‘But that doesn’t change?—’
‘I think I should go,’ he said, still standing there in front of her as if he was waiting for her to say something. But what could she say? He was right in the fact that she’d never truly seen herself staying there. In her dreams, if she’d dreamed of a life with him, then sure. But she had been dealt enough real life recently to know that lives weren’t made of dreams. They were made up of reality, hard decisions and punches in the gut like cancer, and for her to think that she could have some magical, perfect new life here with Benjamin was nothing short of a fantasy.
‘I don’t know what to say to you,’ Rose eventually said. ‘I’ve enjoyed every moment of my time here with you, truly I have, and you’ve shown me the beauty of this place, of what it means to you and your family.’ She paused, searching his eyes. ‘For what it meant tomyfamily.’
‘But?’
Rose felt a catch in her throat. ‘But I don’t know if that’s enough for me to uproot my entire life, everything I know, to move here and start over. Surely you can understand that? Putyourself in my position and truly ask yourself the question.’ She took a breath. ‘We barely know each other.’ Her words stung, she could see that, and she immediately regretted them.
‘I thought that was what we were doing, getting to know each other.’
Rose stepped towards him and reached up a hand, touching his face, gently pressing her palm to his skin, needing to touch him and know that what they had was real. But Benjamin pulled away, and her hand fell back to her side, leaving her cold.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said, not knowing what else she could say. ‘The time I’ve had here with you, it’s been nothing short of magical, but…’ Rose swallowed. ‘I really am sorry.’
He turned his gaze back to her, those eyes that had been so soft earlier now as cold as stone. ‘So am I.’
‘You can have the property,’ Rose said. ‘I don’t need it, Benjamin. It was meant for you, not me. I’ll book the next flight home and leave the keys on the table for you when I go.’
Benjamin gave her the saddest expression she’d ever seen. ‘Rose, don’t you see? If I was supposed to have this property, Valentina would have left it to me. But she didn’t.’ He seemed to search her face, as if waiting for her to understand. ‘She left it to you. This property is supposed to be owned by a Santiago. By a Santiagodaughter. That’s not something you can just give away.’
His words hung over them, because she knew he was right. Her great-grandmother had fought to retain ownership of this property, and she couldn’t be the one to give it away, not when she’d gone to such efforts to leave it to her biological family. It had meant something to her, and Rose couldn’t ignore that.
‘Then be the caretaker for now,’ she said. ‘For as long as you want to live here, it’s yours. Whatever you say about her intentions, you can’t deny that you belong here more than I do.’
‘That’s not what she wanted.’
Rose shook her head, her resolve hardening as she saw the way Benjamin was looking at her, trying to tell her how she should feel or what she should do. ‘No, but it’s whatIwant, and I need you to respect my decision.’
Benjamin paused a moment longer, as if expecting her to say something else, but she just waited for him to drop the paper he was holding, standing still as he finally walked past her and went upstairs to retrieve his things. And she hadn’t moved when he came back down, fully clothed, coming up behind her and pressing a slow kiss to the back of her head, his lips lingering for one long, painful moment.
‘For what it’s worth, it might have only been a couple of months, but it was long enough for me to know how I felt about you,’ he murmured. ‘I’m only sorry you don’t feel the same way.’
