Broken Soldier: A Novel (13 page)

“Oh, it’s gorgeous.” Emily stared at the tile fountain and the marble statues.

Rafa had seen them so many times he took them for granted, but seeing the graceful fauns and the bold satyrs through Emily’s eyes took him back to his childhood. He couldn’t count the summers he’d spent playing in the shade of lime trees. The winters he’d spent reading in the warm sunlight beside the statues.

Emily strolled down the path, pulling him along. “I love it.”

“I used to play out here as a kid.”

“Good memories?”

“Yes. You should see it by moonlight. It is even more beautiful.” The only downside would be the cold, but it was nothing he couldn’t bear if it meant a few minutes alone with her. And perhaps they could find a way to stay warm.

Emily’s feet scuffed on the cobblestones. “Does it snow here?”

“Sometimes. There is usually more snow north of us.”

“I can’t imagine seeing these statues in snow.”

“Perhaps we will get lucky then. Another moonlit snowfall. Come, I will show you the rest of the house.”

He took her through the other door and into the library. Ponderous shelves, weighed down with more than a century’s worth of books lined the walls. Scattered oak furniture offered oases for reading.

Emily inspected a row of books, smiling when she found a shelf of Spanish language mysteries. “Whose are these?”

“My grandmother’s. She loves to read, though seldom in English.” He crossed the room, to a shelf full of books with more colorful spines. “These are the books of my childhood.”

Emily joined him. She ran a finger along the spines. Suess, Dixon, Lowry, Feist. “Most of these are English.”

“My father’s influence. My grandmother didn’t care what language I read in, as long I was reading. We would sit in here for hours, her with her mysteries, me with whatever I could find.”

“Where were your parents?”

“Germany. Korea. Texas. Wherever the Army sent them. My dad would come stay for a few days or a week when he had leave, and sometimes mother would stay longer, but usually they sent me alone.”

He swallowed hard, remembering the lonely nights in the giant house. “Do you want to stay here a while, or continue the tour?”

“The tour, but I think I’ll be back here later, if that’s alright.”

“You should be safe from my mother in here, if that’s what you’re wondering. She’s never been much of a reader.”

They continued out into a wide hall. Rafa showed her the formal dining room and the kitchen. All along the way, family portraits lined the halls. Men in silver armor or khaki uniforms. Women in wide, ornate dresses. Enough pictures of the Virgin Mary and Jesus to fill half a dozen Colorado churches.

One of the two sitting rooms held a simple Christmas tree flanked by an elaborate Nativity setting with Mary and Joseph, the three wise men and the infant Jesus in a manger.

After a couple of hours of walking and chatting, Rafa found himself at the foot of the grand staircase. Footsteps clicked on the tile, and Yaya emerged from around the corner.

“There you are,
nietos.
Dinner will be ready soon.”

“Will it just be us?” Rafa asked.

“We are having guests. Your cousin Salome, your mother’s friend Antonella, and Antonella’s daughter.”

Rafa’s back stiffened, his heart beating faster.

“Yes,
nieto
, she is coming, too.” Yaya frowned and glanced at Emily. “I wanted you both to know before she got here.”

It sounded entirely too ominous. Yaya continued on her way, leaving Rafa alone with Emily.

“Who did she mean?” Emily asked.

“Lorena.”

“Your ex?”

“Yes. Her mother is best friends with my mother, but I didn’t expect to see her until the actual wedding.”

“Well, if we’re going to have guests,” Emily said, “I’d like to take a shower and put on fresh clothes.”

Rafa breathed easier. Emily wasn’t going to get upset about Lorena. “Sounds good. There’s a bathroom just down the hall from my room…”

“Then let me get a change of clothes and you can show me how to work the faucets.”

Emily led the way upstairs, Rafa following and enjoying the view.

#

The plan was that he’d ambush Emily when she got out of the shower and he’d have his way with her before dinner. Then his mother had poked her head into his bedroom while Em was still drying her hair.

“Rafael, you have company.” His mother had changed into an evening gown that wouldn’t have been out of place at the US embassy.

“Antonella is here?” Rafa set his laptop aside.

“Not yet. Bernardo is, though. Come down and see him.”

“I was waiting on Emily to get out of the shower first.”

“If you don’t come down, he’ll be coming up.”

Rafa sighed. So much for a quick tryst. “Alright. I’ll be down momentarily.”

He and Bernardo went way back. They met in the summer before fifth grade when Yaya had introduced Rafa to football. And it wasn’t the American football he’d grown up watching on the Armed Forces Network. It was real football. Spanish football. Bernardo was the biggest kid on the team, and he’d tried to bully the new American midfielder. A few judicious swings of Rafa’s elbow sent a message to Bernardo and the rest of the team that Rafa wasn’t going to let himself be bullied. The coaches looked the other way, and by the end of the summer Rafa and Bernardo were best friends.

The fact that Rafa was the fastest kid on the team and scored two goals against the Real Madrid development team didn’t hurt, either.

Rafa waited on his mother to leave, then knocked on the locked bathroom door. It was warm to the touch. He waited for the hair dryer to go silent, then spoke, “Company is here early. I’m going on downstairs.”

“Alright,” Emily called.

Bernardo waited for him in the sitting room off the main foyer. He turned as Rafa entered.

“Rafael!” Bernardo still had the same gap toothed smile and soft brown eyes that had made him a first class ladies’ man. “How have you been?”

“I’m good,
Jefe
.” He met Bernardo’s hug with a quick pat on the back. “How about you?”

“I’m well.” Bernardo took a step back, surveying Rafa’s arms and legs. “Mano, if I hadn’t heard from Lorena that you were in an accident, I wouldn’t even be able to tell.”

“It wasn’t an accident, but thank you.” Rafa held up his right arm, displaying the empty cuff. “Besides, you never were very observant.”

Bernardo laughed. “Well, you look good, Rafa. I mean, all things considered.”

“Thanks,
Jefe
. Can I get you something to drink? I’m not sure what Yaya keeps around these days, but I can probably find something.”

“Whatever you have as long as it’s brandy.” Bernardo laughed again.

It took a few minutes to check through the liquor cabinet in the kitchen, but Rafa came up with three snifters and half a bottle of Gran Duque d’Alba. Bernardo was sprawled on an overstuffed easy chair when Rafa returned.

“Gran Duque alright?” Rafa asked.

“Perfect.”

Rafa set one glass aside on the end table for Emily and poured a healthy three fingers into the other glasses. He lifted a glass in toast. “To friends.”

“To family,” Bernardo said, clinking his glass. He downed half the brandy in a single swallow, then grinned. “I heard you’ve found a new woman.”

“You could say that. She should be downstairs in a little bit.”

“Well, if you’re up for a little fun, you should come down to the club. I can give you the VIP treatment.”

“You finish that engineering degree?” The last time Rafa had talked to him, Bernardo had been at university studying civil engineering. Rafa wasn’t sure what he meant by club and VIP treatment.

“Not so much. My father, he invested in a night club, so now I work as the manager more often than not. It is not so bad, though. Plenty of drunk girls that can’t quite pay their tabs. I help them as best I can.” His smile took on a wolfish gleam.

“That sounds exciting.”

“It is nothing. Just a job.”

Rafa didn’t believe it for a second, but what were a few boasts between friends. Perhaps working at a night club was a better fit. Bernardo was never the brightest chemlight in the box.

Footsteps pattered down the stairs. Rafa turned, looking over the back of the couch, and found Emily gliding past the sitting room. She wore a simple green dress, but it showed off every curve of that magnificent body.

“In here,” Rafa said.

She angled toward him, smiling.

Rafa glanced over at Bernardo and caught him staring at Emily. The way he looked at her stirred something in Rafa. Jealousy. Distrust. What had Bernardo said a few minutes before about girls at the club? A look like that made Rafa’s protective instincts trigger at five-alarm levels. Rafa rose and met Emily before she reached them.

He caught her in his arms, and gave her a firm kiss on the lips. Emily hesitated a moment, surprised, then kissed him back. Rafa made a production of it, holding it for longer than normal.

“Em, this is an old friend, Bernardo,” Rafa said when he finally pulled away. He pointed toward the armchair. “
Jefe
, this is the light of my life, Emily.”

Emily’s eyes were full of questions, but she turned to Bernardo and smiled. “A pleasure to meet you.”

“The pleasure is mine.”

“Why do you call him ‘
Jefe
?’” Emily asked as she sat with Rafa on the sofa.

“It means ‘boss.’” Rafa rested his hand on her thigh. “He was captain of the football team I played on every summer when I was a child.”

“I see.”

Rafa chatted with Emily and Bernardo, making small talk for half an hour until they were interrupted by the chime of the doorbell.

“I’ll be right back,” Rafa said. He rose slowly, hoping his mother or Yaya would beat him to the door. There was no hurry to see Antonella. Or Lorena.

His mother strode past the entrance to the sitting room before Rafa made it to the end of the sofa. He paused, leaning against the arm.

“Who is it?” Bernardo asked.

“I don’t know yet.” Greetings echoed from the foyer. His mother informed someone, probably Lorena, that the ‘children’ were in the sitting room.

And there she was.

She was as tall as Rafa remembered, almost his height. Her dark hair hung straight, not a strand out of place. She used just enough make-up to hide any sign of aging, but perfect cheekbones and wide, dark eyes still gave her the look that had landed her on the front pages of Madrid’s fashion magazines when she was seventeen.

Lorena swept forward, eyes locked on Rafa. “Rafael Carpenter, it has been too long.” Her voice was strong, but feminine. Rafa felt as if he should ask Bernardo to stuff his ears with wax and tie him to the mast.

“Lorena.” Rafa tipped his head forward, the barest hint of a bow. “You know Bernardo already, but this is my girlfriend, Emily.”

Lorena didn’t break stride, didn’t hesitate. Her eyes raked over Emily for an instant, then went back to Rafa. “A pleasure, of course.”

Rafa wasn’t sure if the words were for him or Emily.

Lorena stopped just short of him. Her look was smoldering. Rafa felt himself getting aroused, old memories of that look and where it led flitting through his mind unbidden. He swallowed, willing his limbs to work. Lorena was more intimidating than even the Taliban.

She stepped forward, almost pressing her body to his. Rafa’s breath caught in his throat as she pecked him on the cheek, then stepped around him to sit on the couch. His heart was pounding like he’d just run ten kilometers with an eighty pound pack.

“Can I get you a brandy?” As soon as he spoke, he realized that he didn’t have a glass for her.

“That would be wonderful.”

Emily rose. “I’ll help.”

Emily waited until they were in the kitchen before she spoke again, her voice quiet. “So that’s her?”

The question was so loaded that Rafa thought it might explode. Guilt coursed through him. Emily was so wonderful. So kind and so understanding. Why had he let himself get tongue tied with Lorena? And thank sweet baby Jesus that she had only kissed him on the cheek.

“Yes.” Rafa plucked another snifter from the cabinet where he’d found the first three.

“She’s gorgeous. And she’s got a chip on her shoulder.”

Rafa shrugged. He couldn’t argue with either statement, and he didn’t trust himself to respond. There was too much history between them, that was for damn sure. He wished he’d listened to Emily’s dad and stayed in Colorado for Christmas. Nothing good could come of having Lorena back in his life.

And to think that he’d been worried about Bernardo.

Emily gave him a peck on the cheek. “Well, she can’t possibly hate me as much as your mother, so that’s a plus.” She smiled, but there was little mirth to it.

As they walked back to the sitting room, Rafa felt like he was walking into a lion’s den with two hungry lionesses.

E
MILY
 sat with Rafa at one end of a long, dark dining room table. Silver and gold inlay circled the edge. A portrait of a Spanish man wearing goggles and a scarf, leaning against an airplane and gazing into the distance, dominated the wall. Counting him, there were nine people in the dining room, only eight arranged around a table that could have held twice as many. The room smelled of roasted meat and cooked vegetables, steam still rising from the diner’s bowls of stew.

“Pass the salt, please,” Emily said.

Rafa reached for it, pausing as he realized that he couldn’t pick it up with his right hand. His face flushed. “Lorena, would you mind?”

Lorena. Rafa hadn’t said a lot about her, and she’d looked utterly different than what Emily expected. She’d assumed that Rafa’s ex would be pretty. He was gorgeous enough to catch the attention of any woman, that was for sure. But Emily hadn’t expected Lorena to look like a swimsuit model. In America she would have been hanging off the arm of an investment banker or a professional baseball player.

“Sure.” Lorena flashed a set of perfect white teeth and passed the shaker.

Rafa took it with his left hand and sent it on to Emily. “Thank you,” Emily said.

Rafa smiled. Lorena didn’t respond.