Page 64 of Everything We Left Behind

June 27

Hanalei, Kauai, Hawaii

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” James lunges to his feet. The back of his legs itch from grass and sand, but he ignores it. “What in the world are you talking about?”

Natalya tilts her head. The glow from the house lights outline her silhouette, leaving her face dark. He can’t read her expression.

“The paperwork. What’s it for?” he asks more specifically.

“Guardianship of Julian and Marcus. That’s why you’re here, isn’t it?”

He raises bent arms. “No!”

“But you said on the phone ...” She stalls.

“I said what?” He moves a step closer.

She frowns and takes a deep, shaky breath. “Jeez, this is confusing. I was talking about Carlos, not you. It’s that every time I look at you, I see ... him.”

While today is the first time he’s seen her in person, she’s been around him for years. The reconstructive surgery to his face helped Aimee separate him from Carlos in her mind, but to Natalya, he looks identical to the man she loved.

Her shoulders bow and chin lowers. “This is so weird.”

He slides his hands into his pockets and ducks his head to look up at her. “If it helps any, I’m floating in that same boat.” Seeing her is like seeing a character from a novel come to life. He’s read so much about her. Knows numerous intimate details, such as why she wears scars on her lower belly and that she hurt as much as the women her father left behind when he traversed the globe.

His eyes have slowly adjusted to the night sky and he sees a flash of white appear when she quickly smiles. A light breeze ruffles her skirt and he’s quite taken with how beautiful she is. His body has made love to her. His hands have touched every secret fold. And his mouth has worshipped every feminine curve.

His mind, though, can’t recall a damn second of it, and strangely, James regrets that.

Natalya gathers her hair, gives it a twist, and drops it over her shoulder. “Let me rephrase so this isn’t confusing to either of us. Carlos didn’t want his sons raised around the Donato family. He didn’t trust them, and that includes you. He was also convinced you wouldn’t want to be burdened with two kids you didn’t ask for. He asked me to assume legal guardianship. He told me he was going to give you an ‘out clause’”—she air-quoted—“by writing in his journal that I would take your kids should you not want to raise them. When you called and said you want me to watch your sons—”

“Not indefinitely.” He slices a hand outward in the space between them. “Maybe just a week or two, if that. But let’s get back to Carlos. There’s one thing we can agree upon, and that’s my family. I don’t trust my brothers anywhere nearmysons.”

Natalya releases a long, steady breath. She smiles gloriously. “I’m so relieved to hear that.” He now realizes why she gave him the cold reception at the airport. She thought he was unloading his sons on her.

“My mother, though, is another story.”

“Yeah.” Natalya rolls up on her toes and back. “That was a shocker. I can’t believe Carla is your mother. Should I be worried?”

He itches the back of his neck, then his elbow. “I can handle her. The boys don’t know about her, and I’m not sure how they’ll handle the news.” He takes the empty bottles from Natalya and motions for her to follow him back to the house. Mosquitoes are biting. “They’re already mad at me because I’m not theirrealdad. How do you think they’ll feel when they learn the old lady next door that bought them ice cream and churros isn’t who they thought she was either?”

“I can’t say, but Señora Carla loved your sons, which means your mother loves her grandsons. We take risks and do things we can’t necessarily explain for those we love.”

Natalya’s statement couldn’t be truer. James has been guilty of that on more than one occasion. He feels like a hypocrite when he says, “But she lied to them.”

“That bothers you.”

“Immensely.” Because he lied to Aimee for years about his family, and look where that got him. He yanks a hibiscus flower off the bush they pass and twirls the stem. “You?”

“Yes, but ... I understand why she did what she did. Carlos wouldn’t have let her near them had she told him the truth. I also don’t think she visited just to see them.”

“No?” He spins the flower stem.

“She spent most of her time with you, James. She was there to see you. You’re her son, a son she thought had died. I assume Thomas eventually got around to telling her about you. Can you imagine how she felt?”

“They aren’t talking. Not regularly, not like they used to.”

“No surprise there.”

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