Love Rekindled (Candle Light Book 2) (12 page)

She nodded, giving the Relics of the Passion window one more look of admiration before she let him lead her out through the eastern apse.
Les Invalides
was basically a large Army museum and a church with Napoleon’s tomb. The church was beautiful and Napoleon somehow grew in his death because the tomb was huge—and that was all the interest it held for Melody. Ruiz however loved all the rooms filled with armor, weapons and military clothing. Room after room after room of the same stuff and yet he went ‘that’s so cool’, ‘no way, that’s epic’ several times in each room. Instead of getting bored and ruining it for him, she got her kicks off taking pictures of him doing the silliest things. The pictures would make for great memories, and one day when they were old and grey or telling their kids the story of how they fell in love, they would re-live them all over again as they traveled down memory lane together.

Kids, old and grey…yeah she was thinking of the future; had been dreaming about it since she met the man. And truth be told, she couldn’t wait to start on it. All she had to do now was get him to propose and what better place than the city of love, Paris.

“What are you smiling about?” he asked, the corner of his eyes crinkling as he narrowed them at her. There was something so dangerously sexy about him when he did that.

She smiled at him. “Nothing. How about a late lunch at the hotel then we get dressed up for dinner at
Les Fines Gueules
?”

He took her hand and as always led her out—sometimes he reminded her of her bodyguards. A bodyguard who also loved her—not like psycho Jeb!

* * * *

Melody walked the aisles of the boutique store completely in the dumps. Whoever said retail therapy was the best therapy had no idea what they were talking about. Everything looked so bland and unappealing to her after the uneventful night she’d had. Things hadn’t gone as she thought they would at lunch or at dinner the day before. At lunch she’d laid out the groundwork, made all sorts of hints including dragging him to the hotel boutique after where they had a jewelry selection that included engagement and wedding rings. Of course she didn’t want a ring from a hotel boutique and she much preferred to wear her mother’s. Allan had given Riana both their mother’s wedding and engagement rings but she decided they should both have a blessing, a good omen of their parents’ great love so she gave Melody the engagement ring. It was nothing fashionable but priceless in sentiment. The ring now sat lonely and cold in her jewelry box giving up hope of ever been wore like Melody was giving up hope of ever wearing it. But she did wear it the night before and was ecstatic when Ruiz noticed it. She told him one of her favorite fairytale stories in the world, the story of her parents’ love, and how they wouldn’t let anything, even death separate them. Ruiz told her he thought it was heartwarming, then changed the subject to how great Les Fines Gueules, the wine bar they ate at was. She knew it was great; she’d picked it!

Melody walked out of the boutique empty handed. The street of Les Champs Elysées held no allure for her anymore. But it might again if Ruiz proposed already! She wandered the street not interested much in the sites because she’d seen them already, she just wanted to clear her head and decide what her next move would be. She wasn’t giving up that easy!

“A penny for your thoughts.”

She jumped, her hands pressed to her chest as if she was blocking her heart from leaping out. “Ruiz! You scared me!”

His lips spread in a large grin. “Yeah, I can see I took a few years off you. Your hair is already turning white.”

She stuck her tongue out at him as she brushed off the snow from her head before she picked up her cap that fell off when Ruiz frightened her. “Very funny. Do you know that childish prank has caused a number of deaths by heart attack?”

A skeptical brow went up. “Let me guess, doctor internet told you that? What exactly were you researching that you landed on that?”

She nibbled on her lower lip wondering if Ruiz would think her silly if she told him.

Ruiz pulled on her chin, effectively pulling her lip out of her mouth. “You keep doing that I’ll have nothing left to kiss. Come on tell me.”

“I hope you don’t think I’m dumb. Allan thought it was just a childish fantasy when I tried to explain it to him.”

He drew her into his arms until they touched from hip to knee. “I won’t.”

Melody played with the buttons on his jacket and kept her eyes averted to avoid seeing the ‘you’re so cute to think that’ look people gave to pathetic romantics. “I believe…that people can die from…a broken heart,” she said hesitantly.

“Why?”

She signed and with a lot more hesitation she answered. “I believe…that my dad died from a broken heart because…because my mom died and left him behind.”

“Is that what you went onto med.com to find out?”

She nodded.

“Well, I believe that people can die from a broken heart,” he said, so sweetly that for a moment she thought he was actually sincere.

She punched his chest. “Don’t make fun of me!”

“I’m not!” He placed his hand under her chin and boosted her head up so that she could look at him. “If people can die because they will themselves too, because they think there is nothing left to live for, why not death caused by a broken heart from a lost love? The will to quit living without the person you love, the will to die so you can join your soul mate in the hereafter…I believe it’s a possibility.”

“My dad chose not to get treatment when he was diagnosed with cancer. He said he was only holding on long enough to make sure Allan could take care of himself, the company, the family investments and me. When Allan called him selfish for dying without a fight, dad said he wanted to be with the woman he loved. And until Allan had loved—and God forbid—lost, he would never understand the true meaning of living half a life.” She smiled, feeling a little less ridiculous telling Ruiz that story. “When you get back, make sure you tell Allan that.”

With a raised brow he asked, “The same Allan who literally stopped living his life and became a zombie because he thought Riana and his daughter had died?”

She chuckled. “I guess now he knows out of experience, huh?”

He nodded. “One that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy.”

A cold chill rushed through Melody and she burrowed herself into Ruiz’s chest. As if he understood her deepest fear, he hugged her tight to him. She prayed to God she never got to experience the torture she watched her brother and father go through.

“Just so you know,” he began kissing the top of her head, “I would never let you go in life or in death.”

“I would say the same but,” she pulled away and looked up at him, “Allan was right about one thing. If there are children in the picture, they come first. He made Riana promise him that she would always put their children first no matter what happened to him.”

Ruiz nodded. “Agreed. I do love you Mel and I hope our love story isn’t as eventful as my siblings.” He chuckled. “I’d rather not face any mad men just to keep you.”

Melody pouted. “Yeah well, I kind of liked their love stories. They were right out of my favorite romance novels.”

He shook his head as he chuckled. “Yeah epic love stories with too many close calls for my liking. I like Matthew and Amy’s love story better—drama free. Come on let’s go to the Lovelock Bridge.”

She tucked herself in his side as they walked to Pont de l'Archevêché. “You see, this is why I don’t like watching romantic movies with you. You have no flair for dangerous love. I find the whole ‘it’s me and you against the world’ so incredibly sexy!”

“Aha, right now it’s me and you against snow and human traffic. Walk a little faster.”

Melody huffed. “Not a single romantic bone in your body!”

“Really?” He pulled her to a jog to the bridge blanketed with padlocks. She watched laughingly as he searched for an empty spot, running up and down the bridge until he came to a sudden stop and called her over. “Found one, come here!”

She jogged to him still laughing. “Okay, I was wrong. You do have a romantic bone—might be the smallest one in your body, but it’s still there.”

He fake glared at her then handed her a brand new lock. “Would you Melody Sinclair take this epic romantic step with me?”

“Yes, I will.” Together they secured the lock on the bridge but Melody noticed something was missing. “Ruiz, where is the key to the lock? We need to throw it over?”

“Why?” he asked with a hint of a smile on his face.

Melody rolled her eyes. “That bone is getting smaller. The lock signifies our unbreakable love and throwing the key so that neither of us have it says we won’t voluntarily break our love by opening the lock.” She held out her open hand, palm up to him. “Now, the key?”

“Instead of throwing it, why don’t you keep it? Think of it as me giving you the key to my heart.”

Melody blushed. “That bone just grew longer. Ruiz Albury, I would be honored to keep your heart and its key close to mine. And I promise to treasure both with all that’s within me.”

Ruiz pulled his hand out of his jacket pocket and placed the key in Melody’s hand. But there was something strange about the key. She waited for him to draw his hand away and her heart stopped for what felt like a whole minute.

“Ruiz!” she breathed, tears shimmering in her eyes.

“You just made me a promise, and I’m going to hold you to it.”

There, lying in her hand in the same key ring as the key was her mother’s engagement ring and now her engagement ring. It was beautiful—well it always has been beautiful, but at that moment it was magnificent.

He took the ring from her palm and removed it from the key ring. He handed her the key. “Keep this safe until we can find a chain for it.” Then he went down on one knee, took her left hand and slid the ring home. “Just to be clear and avoid all confusions. Melody Sinclair, would you take my heart, for it is all of worth that I have to give, my soul to mate with yours in this life, the hereafter and the next life. And my body to support you as yours does mine, to hold you because having you in my arms completes my existence and to give you life because there is nothing I would love more than to see your body grow with my child inside you. Melody Sinclair, will you marry me?”

With all the laughing and crying all she could do was nod yes. She was finally getting her own happily ever after.

Chapter Two

Thirteen months later…

Ruiz slouched in the lawn chair, a bottle of beer in one hand and his cell phone in the other, watching and listening to the sounds of a happy family as the knife of jealousy repeatedly stabbed him in the chest.

He watched as his sister Riana blew her husband a kiss where he stood at the grill with his best friend Matthew and with a broad smile Allan caught it and pressed it to his chest over his heart. She smiled lovingly at him as she strolled, rocking the new addition to her family, Allan Patrick Sinclair III, to sleep. Ruiz knew his nine month old nephew would wake almost immediately once the laughter and other happy noises grew louder, penetrating his haze of sleep. He didn’t like to be left out. Ruiz could relate.

And just a few feet away from him, Reno and Loraine were having one of their famous arguments that usually ended with them sneaking off together and emerging an hour later with the biggest grins on their faces. Loraine was now four months pregnant so there was no sneaking away this time. Reno had put an end to that. They all had their fingers crossed—Reno especially—that she would carry this baby to term with no complications. After the attack over a year ago that resulted in Loraine losing their first baby together they had their fingers and toes crossed. Sure they were all worried, treating her like a fragile egg, but Reno was a little extreme. From Loraine’s complaints they barely had sex, which apparently was like torture to a horny hormonal pregnant woman—who knew? Ruiz was sure one day his brother would lose it and wrap his wife in bubble wrap. The attention was driving Loraine nuts considering she was barely showing. At the beginning of her pregnancy she had been very understanding of his antics, but now she really looked ready to punch Reno when she stood up mere seconds after he settled her down on the cushioned chair. Amy, Matthew’s wife, watched, quietly laughing as she cradled her second son, seven month old Ethan in her arms.

Amy, Riana, and Loraine had become very close the past two years, which led to their three houses being built next to each other on a hill that over looked New York City. It was a compound that shared the same huge access gate and yards full of trees and flowers. Their gardens were their boundaries and there was one rock path that led to each of their front doors. The backyard was both a playground and an outdoor living area with a gazebo, a section for the barbeque pit with tables and chairs, a swimming pool with pool chairs, umbrella tables and chairs, and a marquee for formal parties which happened twice a month which Loraine’s new company catered. With Matthew’s law firm, Allan’s company, and Red Roses hotels that Reno ran, and of course his sister’s new pride and joy, the art school and gallery that Amy helped her run—as she used to be an art connoisseur in her home country Brazil before she married Matthew—it was great business for Loraine and the best excuse for the state of the art kitchen in her home.

The three kids who ran past him laughing loudly drew Ruiz’s attention. He smiled as he watched them dash for the jungle gym, climbing up the steps into the pirate ship and disappearing into the tube with Aurora tailing behind. Since Tyler and Mark met and forged a friendship, Aurora was left behind quite a few times. She was jealous of the bromance and had to resort to pouting and whining as she followed them around until they would relent and include her. The hold she had on Mark that had amused them all before had been broken by Tyler’s arrival. Riana had tried to arrange play dates with girls Aurora’s age but she would ditch them to run after Tyler and Mark.

There were three happy families in Allan’s side of the compound and Ruiz was the odd one out. Once, he thought he’d achieved it—the beginning to his happily ever after. The proof of that belief sat in the center of his chest, held there by the chain around his neck. It burned his flesh, constantly reminding him of what he’d lost a year ago, just a flimsy moment after he had attained it. It was a cruel joke played on his heart. Worse of all, it had caused tension in his family. If it wasn’t for Riana, Allan would have disowned him already.

Melody…

He stared at his phone’s screensaver like he had a million times before since he last saw her. A year and he still hadn’t changed it. It was a picture of Melody taken in the Bahamas just before the relocation to the States. She was in her bikini, with her wet hair swept over her shoulder and the most beautiful smile he had ever seen that made her brown eyes twinkle like honey gold. The two of them were left behind to handle the change over in the Bahamas as Matthew handled everything else in the United States, giving Reno and Loraine the time they needed to get past the disaster their wedding night had been. And of course the space they needed to mourn the child they lost while reassuring Tyler of his place in their lives. It had taken a few months, but right after Reno moved his family to the States, Melody and Ruiz began their tour of the Red Roses branches worldwide. Paris had been their last stop and the place that changed both their lives.

The woman had bewitched him, left him love sick and disillusioned. She had also turned him into the man he used to be—lonely, bitter, resentful and full of rage. All he had worked hard to rid himself of, flooded back with a vengeance, drowning him in renewed pain.

Why couldn’t the one thing he wanted in his life to go right, go right?

“Hey, what are you thinking about that’s making that face?”

Ruiz’s lips pulled in a faint smile as he looked up at his sister. She looked so good with a baby cuddled to her chest. Ruiz placed his beer down and tucked his phone into his cargo pants pocket then he reached his arms out. “Why don’t you let me hold him for a few so you can enjoy the barbecue?”

“What about you? Don’t you want to enjoy the barbecue?”

He shrugged. “I’ll enjoy myself more if you hand over my nephew.”

She stared at him for a long while, her face not betraying the worry he knew she felt before she placed her son into Ruiz’s waiting arms.

Ruiz cradled little Allan to his chest. For some reason he always felt whole when he held his niece and nephews, like they could temporarily save him from his own misery.

“Allan doesn’t hate you, you know.”

Ruiz scoffed keeping his eyes on his nephew. He smiled at how little Allan smacked his pink lips repeatedly as he settled to sleep. It was cute and funny.

“He really doesn’t,” she insisted.

“He hasn’t seen his little sister in over a year. She didn’t even come home for Christmas because she’s avoiding me. Yeah, totally not a reason to hate me, nor the reason he’s so cold towards me,” he finished sarcastically.

Riana sighed heavily. “You need to understand his position—”

Ruiz cut her off with a look that said he was done with the conversation. He couldn’t stand another day past the year of her pestering. He knew her concern was out of love but god, he wasn’t interested in hearing this again.

“Riana stop. Things are the way they are because they just are. Now, go enjoy your day, I’ll stay here with the kid.”

Her face creased in annoyance as she turned around and stomped away muttering, “You are so damn stubborn.”

Ruiz sighed with relief. He’d earned himself a reprieve for a few minutes before Loraine came along and tried to talk him into finding Melody, though she orders more than suggests, in a sweet and serene voice. Ever since she became a wife and mom, she was always so concerned with everyone else’s happiness. She wasn’t so crass and up-in-your-face anymore. She was softer, more patient and according to her parents she smiled a lot more than they could ever remember. Her hippie mother described it as the little sun in her heart shining bright with joy and love touching everyone around her, infecting them with happiness. Compared to some of the other things she’d said before, that was easy to comprehend.

Ruiz turned his head slightly and watched from his peripheral view as Reno settled himself in the lawn chair next to him with a grunt. His brother, though the go-to-guy to solve a problem, wasn’t exactly the open-heart conversationalist, so he wasn’t surprised when Reno didn’t speak immediately. But Ruiz already knew what he was thinking what he didn’t want to utter and hadn’t done so since the day it happened and it annoyed the hell out of him.

“One of these days you are just going to have to come out and say it.”

After two beats of silence, Reno said, “Say what?”

Ruiz bit down on his teeth. “I told you so.”

“Why would I say that?”

“Because you told me this would happen. Right before the move you said my relationship with Melody would be disastrous to the family if it didn’t work out and you were right. Allan can barely stand my presence and Riana is caught in the middle.”

Reno nodded. “I did say that, but that wasn’t what I was thinking just now.”

Ruiz faced his brother. “Then what?”

“He’s thinking what kind of idiot spends over a year mopping around the world instead of chasing after the woman he loves?”

Ruiz turned around at Allan’s booming voice. He wasn’t sure if he was stern or angry because the guy knew how to control his facial expression too damn well; it was probably the reason why he was such a shark in the boardroom.

“Why haven’t you gone after my sister yet?” he demanded.

“She made it very clear she wants nothing to do with me.”

“And why is that?” Reno asked more calmly.

Ruiz shook his head. He was stumped on that one, but seeing her with another guy who looked more suited to her class right after she told him to hit the road was a message he received loud and clear.

“I don’t want to talk about this anymore. Where do you guys want me to go next?”

Reno and Allan just stared at him probably both silently debating who’ll throttle him first.

“Paris,” Matthew added, coming up next to Allan with a bottle of beer in his hand.

Ruiz was grateful for the save, but that was the last place he wanted to go. He had wanted this globetrotting job and he had to do it whether he liked it or not. He’d just have to push the memories back, do his job as fast and as efficiently as he possibly could and move on.

“What do you want me to checkout?”

“The books don’t add up and we’ve received some complaints from some well known clientele. Apparently the Paris Red Roses doesn’t live up to the standards we preach and we’ve had enough bad press to last us a lifetime with the whole Torino business.” Ruiz caught Allan’s clenched jaw and he bet the rest did too, but none commented on it. “You’re going to straighten the place out. Stay there as long as it takes to make sure things don’t fall out of sync again.”

Ruiz nodded. He’d heard the Red Roses in Paris had begun to struggle holding itself up and that was becoming a liability to the entire franchise. He knew exactly what Matthew meant. Ruiz had to fix the issues there and if he failed, Red Roses Paris would have to be shut down immediately. Cutting off a rotting finger before it putrefied the rest of the hand. That would mean the loss of hundreds of jobs, a hold up for the ground breaking of the Rio De Janeiro Red Roses and of course the bad publicity. They had come too far with Red Roses, had sacrificed a lot and suffered much because of it. They couldn’t let it fail.

“When do you want me to leave?”

“Tomorrow would be great.”

Good. Ruiz stood brushing the wisp curls away from his nephew’s little forehead, kissing it before handing him over to his father. He watched as Allan took his namesake in his arms. The look that crossed his face was so powerful it shook Ruiz to the core. Ruiz felt jealous of the love in Allan’s eyes for his son that Ruiz never received from his own father.

“I should go home and pack.”

“Ruiz, if Melody is your true love, you should think about what your brother and I went through before you completely dismiss our concern.”

Ruiz nodded. “I’ll think about it Allan, but you need to understand this is what your sister wanted.”

Reno stood. “We wanted different things and were ready to give up the women we love until they and life told us otherwise. If you don’t want to listen to us, talk to Matthew. He’s the only one who had a drama free relationship.”

Matthew laughed. “Not exactly drama free but the normal kind of drama—disapproving father and an overconfident brother.”

Ruiz chuckled. “Yeah, I think I’ll get my advice from Matthew. My drama is in his category.”

“Smart ass!” Allan smiled at him, a first since he came back to the States without Melody.

“More like damn ass.” Reno clapped him on the back. “Make sure to say goodbye to the ladies before you leave. I don’t want Loraine biting my head off over it.”

“Life with a pregnant wife.” Matthew and Allan spoke in unison and they all laughed except Ruiz who forced a grin. He wished he was part of the group with his own pregnancy comedy—horror stories. But Melody had stolen that chance from him and he couldn’t see himself going through that with anyone else.

His phone rang and he quickly excused himself, glad not to have to pretend any longer. He stepped into the house, answering his phone.

“Ruiz?”

He groaned closing his eyes. He never thought this day could go from bad to worse. Why hadn’t he checked the caller ID?

“Ruiz, are you there?”