Free Fierce Pride by Phoebe Conn Page B

younger than forty-five. “We have so much to plan. Will your family be helping us?”
    “I have no family, but Maggie and I want only a small wedding. We could plan it at breakfast Saturday morning and have it in the afternoon.”
    Linda sighed. “Let’s hope for something more memorable, shall we? Just because a wedding is small, it needn’t be without charm. Didn’t Libby come with you?”
    Maggie squeezed Rafael’s hand. “My brother, Santos, is home with a knee injury, and Libby is keeping him company.”
    “Playing nurse sounds like fun,” Patricia responded with a sparkling giggle, and her mother turned to see what she’d found so amusing. Patricia produced the innocent wide-eyed smile she relied upon to stay out of trouble. With a mass of fair curls and big blue eyes, she’d always had more fun than her two older sisters combined. Or at least she had until Maggie met Rafael.
    The family had brought only carry-on luggage, and Rafael took Linda’s as they walked to the exit for arriving passengers. They had only a few minutes to wait before Manuel drove up in the Hispano-Suiza. Linda and Patricia were as fascinated by the beautiful long, low sedan as Peter.
    “Do you rent the car out for movies?” Patricia asked.
    Uncertain, Maggie turned to ask Manuel in Spanish, and he gave a long, thoughtful reply as he loaded the luggage in the trunk. She omitted her father’s name in her translation. “The family allows only still photos. We can take pictures when we get home. Rafael and I will follow you to the beach house in his car. The view of the coast is spectacular, and the house is right on the water.”
    “The beach house,” Peter murmured under his breath.
    Maggie hadn’t meant to brag when there was such little comparison between the comfortable home Peter provided and Miguel Aragon’s. “There’s a cattle ranch that’s thought of as home,” she explained and feared she’d only made things worse.
    Linda kissed her good-bye, then climbed into the beautiful vintage car with Patricia and her husband following. Manuel waited for Rafael to drive up behind them in his Mercedes before he exited the parking lot. Patricia turned to wave through the back window, and Maggie waved back.
    “Peter raised me, so he’s my father. I’m grateful he made this trip, but staying in Miguel’s house won’t be easy for him.”
    “Nor your mother,” Rafael added. “Had she stayed with Miguel, you’d have grown up here.”
    “My mother isn’t the type to tolerate a philandering husband.”
    “Philandering? Is that word still used?”
    “I don’t know. It’s a step beyond unfaithful, and that certainly applies where Miguel was concerned. He told me he’d cheated on all his wives.”
    Rafael checked the rearview mirror before changing lanes to stay with Manuel. “He admitted that?”
    “Yes, and it’s not something a man ought to confide in his daughter.”
    Traffic slowed, but they kept the Hispano-Suiza in sight. “No, it isn’t. We’ll have to make a point not to mention him. Your parents are here for the wedding, and we can keep Miguel out of it.”
    Maggie reached over to squeeze his thigh. It wouldn’t matter whether they spoke Miguel’s name or not. He’d still be there in every breath and sigh.
     
     
    Santos pulled another pillow behind his back and settled down into the sofa. He was clean-shaven and dressed in a white polo shirt and khaki shorts. A fabric brace had replaced the bulky bandage on his knee. “This might be our last chance to talk. Rafael’s been so damn helpful, I hate to plot against him, but I still don’t want him for a brother-in-law. I don’t trust a man with a past we can’t trace.”
    Libby sat on the sturdy oak coffee table to face him. He’d come home from the hospital after a single night, and Rafael had seldom left his side. The house had an elevator for the servants in the back hall near the kitchen, and he’d used it to get upstairs and down without too