One Night, Two Secrets

“That was surprisingly easy,” Billie said.

“It was. Let’s go home and get changed. I bet Siobahn will want to join us,” Scarlet said.

“I don’t know about that. She’s sort of in a funk this morning.”

Scarlet stopped walking and turned to her assistant. Billie had been picking up the slack the last few days, looking after Siobahn for her while Scarlet had been trying to figure out this pregnancy thing. She hadn’t mentioned the test results to anyone, even Billie. Only she and Dr. Patel knew.

“I should have stopped in to see her. I’m sorry I’ve been so focused on finding Mauricio.”

“It’s okay. I’m just saying I don’t know if you’re going to be able to persuade her to come with you to the polo match.”

“Fair enough,” Scarlet said.

They went back to the house. While Billie tracked down contact info for Bartolome Figueras’s assistant and texted her to put their names on the VIP list, Scarlet talked with Siobahn. She wasn’t in the mood to leave the house, so Scarlet left Lulu with her.

The polo grounds were busy when they arrived. Billie went to see if she could find out where the stables were. Scarlet moved through the crowds, searching the men who were dressed in traditional polo shirts and jodhpurs, scanning for the one she’d spent the night with.

She saw Bart first, and heard his sister Zaria’s laughter. Scarlet smiled at the sound of it. The Argentinean heiress had a big, bold laugh that matched her personality. Scarlet headed toward them, then noticed Mauricio Velasquez was standing in the same group. He had his arm around a very pretty woman with thick dark curly hair that hung to the middle of her back. She watched them for a minute. Maybe she was his sister. But then he bent to kiss the woman, and not in a sisterly way.

Scarlet had never in her life been a timid person, and seeing the father of her unborn child kiss another woman made her angry. For a split second she realized she’d had a little fantasy of some sort of perfect rendezvous where they’d instantly agree to spend the rest of their lives together.

It was as if she’d forgotten she was an O’Malley and that kind of thing wasn’t in the cards for her. She didn’t do commitment. She wasn’t programmed for long term. She’d seen what that had done to her mother, who couldn’t handle being left by Scarlet’s father as he’d moved on to someone younger, hotter and a little bit wilder.

Tara had been the same as their father, living fast and hard and burning bright for such a short time. But Scarlet had been confused, caught between two opposites. On the one hand, she had the dream of having the perfect family that at times she saw in old pictures of the O’Malleys taken when she was a child. And then there was the reality that she had never been responsible for anyone but herself.

O’Malleys were better when they only had to look out for themselves. It was what they were the best at...that and doing something outrageous and creating scandal.

Plastering a smile on her face, she strode determinedly toward the group, forcing herself not to look at the woman or Mauricio again. Instead she’d just play it cool and pretend she was here to see Bart. But as she got closer, she couldn’t prevent her gaze from straying to Mauricio.

He was still handsome—damn him. For a brief second she wondered if there was a world where the Velasquez good would balance out her O’Malley bad. She’d heard nothing but good things about the Velasquez family and how close knit they were.

And it had created a longing inside her for the family that she’d never had and had always been a little curious about. Even though she wasn’t built for commitment, it might be nice to be a part of this kind of thing for real.

“Scarlet,” Bart said in his wonderfully accented English. “What a surprise! I’m glad you’re here. Please meet my friends Mauricio Velasquez and his fiancée, Hadley Everton.”

Fiancée?

What the hell?

She turned toward the man she thought she knew and noticed the set of his shoulders and the scar on his eyebrow. The man she’d slept with didn’t have that. What the hell was going on?

“Hello, Mauricio,” she said. “I believe we’ve met. At that gala in Houston.”

“Well, actually—” Mauricio began.

“I’m the one you’re looking for,” a male voice said from behind her.

She turned to face the man and was struck speechless. He was a mirror image of Mauricio. He had a twin? In that moment, Scarlet realized that in true O’Malley fashion this situation had gone from bad to worse. A baby scare from a one-night stand? Sure, it happened. But learning that her baby daddy was an impostor, a virtual stranger whom she knew nothing about... Well, that was the old O’Malley bad luck.

Two (#u1e48e6fc-5813-53e6-8dd1-82b42f607bd4)

Alec really wished he’d figured out a way to send that email. The look on Scarlet’s face as she turned to face him was one of shock, followed quickly by disdain and anger. He’d actually never had a woman look at him like that before and he didn’t like it.

He prided himself on being a good guy.

He had always treated women with respect—he had a sister after all. He never wanted to be the kind of man who did anything to incur this kind of look.

In his head words swirled around like computer code when he was trying to figure out a new algorithm. He sorted through them with lightning speed.

But this wasn’t the time to really talk. Bart, Mo, Hadley and the others were all staring at him. Mo and Hadley at least knew what was going on, but to everyone else... It had to seem crazy.

He reached for Scarlet’s arm, to draw her away and speak privately, trying to ignore the fact that her honey-blond hair, falling in waves to her shoulders, seemed even thicker and more tempting than he remembered. Her gray-green eyes sparkled with temper as she shrugged away from his arm and turned, the full skirt of her flowy dress swinging around her legs. Her shoulders were straight as she headed toward a copse of trees on the edge of the polo grounds. Alec had no choice but to follow her.

She stumbled on the grass and he reached out to steady her.

“Thanks.”

He nodded. He couldn’t believe she was here. Or that his lie had been found out in such a public way. He knew he’d screwed up.

When they finally reached the shade of the trees, he immediately launched into an apology. “I’m sorry. I should have told you everything that night. Mauricio was sick with food poisoning and he asked me to step in and accept the award for him. For some reason, I thought it would just be easier to let everyone think I was Mauricio, instead of having to explain his absence. I didn’t want the organizers to think that Mo had blown them off. It goes back to how we handled things like this when we were young. I should have told you, too, but by the time I realized my mistake, it was too late,” he said.

She tipped her head back, lifting the hat that he hadn’t realized she was carrying in one of her hands and settling it over her hair. Then she drew out a pair of large dark sunglasses and put them on.

“I don’t accept your apology,” she said. “Who are you? I don’t even know your name.”

Shame made him shake his head. How could he ever make this up to her? “I’m Alejandro. Mauricio and I are twins. My friends call me Alec.”

“That’s good to know, Alejandro. I think you should have told me when we got back to my hotel room.”

“We were too busy with...other things to talk at that point,” he said in his defense. “But you’re right. I definitely should have stopped and told you who I was. I meant to do it in the morning but by then our photo was going viral and I knew my brother was going to be in hot water with Hadley. And I rushed out to try to warn him. Not that you should take that as an excuse.”

She crossed her arms under her breasts and his gaze drifted down for a moment. He enjoyed the deep V of the bodice of her wrap dress before he realized what he was doing and brought his eyes back up to meet hers.

“Fair enough. I get why you left,” she said.

“I’m sorry,” he said. Was it actually that easy? He’d been afraid to let her know and now it seemed his worry had been for nothing. He might actually be able to ask her out and maybe get something started.

She nodded. “Actually, I need to talk to you about that night.”

Talking was good. Right? He was a practical man. A rational man. But he’d been raised by parents who believed in fate and destiny, and a part of him thought Scarlet’s presence in Cole’s Hill had to be more than just coincidence. But what was it?

He easily attributed his longing for her to the fact that one night hadn’t been enough for him. It never was. One weekend...maybe. But one night—no way! Now he was standing in front of her and that ache he’d felt when he’d been trying not to think about her for the last six weeks was stronger than ever. So he wasn’t going to walk away from it.

He’d learned early on that the more he denied he wanted something, the more he craved it. But Scarlet hardly seemed like she was going to give him a second chance.

And really, did he blame her?

No, of course not.