“Either way, pyaari beti, you can’t carry our responsibilities on your own, not with a baby now to consider, as well. We don’t want you to put yourself through hardship for us.”
“We...love you,” her father added. “You must...do...what’s right for...you.”
Shanal watched as her parents left her room, marveling at the way their love for one another was still as rock solid as it had ever been. She wanted that for herself now more than ever—that kind of love that endured through good times and bad, through sickness and in health. She wouldn’t have that with Burton. She knew that. Could she honestly let herself live without it?
Her hand rested against her lower belly. She had responsibilities here—to her unborn babe and to her parents. She had to go ahead with her marriage to Burton. She simply had no other choice. And when he discovered that she hadn’t gone through with the termination, well, she’d just have to cross that bridge when she reached it.
Twelve
Raif paced the tasting room at The Masters vineyard, oblivious to the expression of amusement on his cousin Ethan’s face.
“Of course I love her. Do you think for a second that I’d be this wound up if I didn’t?” Raif raged.
“Well, why don’t you do something about it,” Ethan drawled, as he leaned back in his chair and twirled the stem of a glass of Shiraz between his fingers.
“Like what? She refuses to see me, she won’t answer my calls, I’m banned from Burton International—”
“Seriously?” Ethan choked on a laugh. “Banned from her workplace?”
Raif clenched his teeth together as he struggled to get his frustration under control. “It’s no laughing matter.”
Ethan sobered, all humor gone as he sat up straighter in his chair. “Then you have to find a way. If she’s that important to you, then you have to go get her. You spirited her away once, and I have to say I commend you for that. You can do it again, surely. I still can’t believe it, though. You and Shanal.”
“Why is that so strange?”
“You’ve always been at one another. If she said black, you’d say white. If you said organic, she’d just about write a treatise on why the use of chemicals was vital for strong healthy growth.”
Raif had to admit it, on the surface it had looked as if they couldn’t bear one another. But when they’d been alone together on the boat, the animosity and bickering had vanished. They’d been happy together—the happiest he’d ever been. And he knew, to his soul, that she felt something for him. Love? Well, he could only hope. He just knew that she was marrying Burton for all the wrong reasons, whatever they were. She’d had reasons for running from the wedding last time, too. Reasons that, while she hadn’t shared them with him, had made her desperate to leave the cathedral behind. Reasons that had given her nightmares that first night on the boat. Whatever she felt for Burton, it certainly wasn’t love. If anything, it looked more like fear.
“What if you get her over here for lunch with you and Isobel, and then leave us to it. Would you do that for me?” Raif asked, latching on to the suggestion like a drowning man.
“Are you asking if I’m prepared to damage a friendship of fifteen years by tricking her into seeing you?”
Raif pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes for a minute. It was asking too much of his cousin to do this. It was unfair. But then again, this whole situation was unfair. And beneath it all he still had the feeling that something about the whole thing was twisted. As if Burton was manipulating them all. There was only one answer to Ethan’s question. Raif opened his eyes, let his hand drop back to his side.
“Yes,” he said.
His cousin nodded in acknowledgment and sighed. “Fine, I’ll do it. But don’t blame me if it all blows up in your face.”
“I won’t,” Raif assured him, even though deep down he had no such confidence.
Without saying another word, Ethan reached for his mobile phone and keyed in Shanal’s number. After some idle chatter he got to the point, inviting her to lunch on the coming Sunday—one day shy of a week before her new wedding date.
“It’s done,” Ethan said. “She’ll be here at midday. I suggest you come about an hour after that.”
“I’ll be here,” Raif promised.
* * *