He arched a brow. “Which part?”
She gestured to the stack of papers. “I knew you were in charge of Cabrera Shipping. But I didn’t realize you took such an active interest in the company.”
“Thought I just drank and smoked cigars and laid about with models while much lesser paid men took care of the real work?”
Her blush reappeared, but she didn’t blink. “Yes.”
“I do. Did,” he amended. “Not as much the past year.”
“Why?”
“Cabrera Shipping took up more of my time.” He glanced down at the two-dimensional rendering ofLa Reina’s top deck, his fingers tracing the lines with pride. “The company has always been the one thing I felt tied to. But it was still given to me by my father. I didn’t earn it.” Bitterness warred with the discomfort of knowing his increasingly outrageous antics in college had not given Javier any incentive to bestow one of his more lucrative holdings upon his middle son. “At the time I inherited it, I hadn’t done much with my life. The company was not in good shape. My father probably thought it was a safe bet to give me because they were already planning for it to die.”
“And then you did the impossible.”
It was ridiculous how much warmth her words triggered.
“I did. Ruined my father’s expectations again,” he added with a cheerful note that belied the pain of rejection that still stung so many years later, “just in a different way. ButLa Reinais the first thing that’s truly mine. Well, that and...” He nodded toward her stomach. “Two things now. So long as I didn’t make too big of a mistake last night.”
She flinched, and he inwardly cursed.
“I wasn’t trying to make you feel bad, Calandra, just—”
She held up a hand. “Don’t. I said it this morning, but I’ll say it again. I’m so very sorry, Alejandro, for the way I treated you last night. I was embarrassed by my own behavior and I took it out on you.”
He risked a step in her direction. “Why?”
“Because I’ve never acted like that. And I...” Her voice trailed off, grew quiet. “I don’t want to make the same mistakes.”
“The same mistakes as your mother?”
She moved over to a window and looked out over the ocean, the waves capped with the oranges and reds of the setting sun, her back to him. Her hair tumbled uncharacteristically down her back, but her neck was straight as a board, shoulders thrust back proudly.
But now he knew to look for the other signs. The tension tightening her muscles, arms wrapped around her waist. Funny how he’d always thought of those gestures as cold, a lack of interest in people or relationships. He knew better now, the depth of emotion she was capable of, the relationships she could build with people like Suzie in a matter of hours.
“My father...” She paused and inhaled deeply. “My father was very wealthy. Not quite Cabrera level of wealth, but wealthy enough that we had a house on Lake Geneva.”
Alejandro’s eyebrows shot up. “Oh?”
Her gaze stayed trained on the landscape outside, but he noted the slight tightening of her arms, as if she were hugging herself tighter. An ache built in his chest and he almost stepped forward, to pull her back against his chest and cradle her, to make her feel safe as she finally opened up.
That last thought stopped him. Would she lean into his embrace? Or would his touch snap her out of her confession and drive her away? It wasn’t worth the risk to find out. So he fisted his hands at his sides and listened.
“The wealth didn’t last. After he died and Aunt Norine came to collect Johanna and me, we found out that he’d maxed out his credit, held two mortgages on the house and hadn’t paid on loans for his car in months. He used money to control, to manipulate.”
A piece of the puzzle slid into place. Her aversion to money, her insistence on paying for everything. No wonder she had reacted to the teddy bear with such disdain. He’d taken her lack of enjoyment personally, a rejection of him and his attempt to start being a part of their child’s life. And she hadn’t wanted to be manipulated by lavish gifts.
“He sounds like an ass.”
His bald comment startled a small laugh from her. She glanced over her shoulder, the sunlight playing with her dark hair and creating beautiful streaks of orangish gold that brought out the rosiness in her cheeks. She looked as she had last night when she’d smiled up at Suzie—soft. Warm. Alive.
How had he ever thought her cold?
“My early years with him were pleasant.” She started to circle around the room, eyes roving over everything but him. “Picnics on the lakeshore. Train rides around Europe. Summers at beach resorts. He and my mother were happy.” She stopped by a globe in the corner, the map covered with little redCs that marked the location of a Cabrera business, and ran a finger over the blue of an ocean. “Until they weren’t. Until my mother realized she, and I, were nothing more than passing fancies. The more she held on, the more my father tried to escape through spending sprees and other women.” She spun the globe, eyes focused on the earth as it revolved. “He loved new things, the more expensive the better. So he tried to appease her with things he thought would make her happy. Jewelry. Clothes. A new car. And all she wanted was his love.”
Beneath her detached recitation of her parents’ failed marriage, he caught something else.
“What did you want, Calandra?”