A Touch of Notoriety(57)

Beth looked up and saw him standing in the same doorway where their father had been only seconds ago, a tall and imperiously arrogant man, and yet there was that same bright sheen of tears glinting in his dark eyes. ‘You, too, ’Zar,’ she encouraged huskily as she held her hand out

to him.

‘Brela...!’ he choked even as he stepped forward to wrap his arms about all of them, the two Navarro men cradling their women within the protective circle of their arms. ‘Oh, God, Brela!’

* * *

Raphael stood off to one side watching this exchange, more happy than he could ever have expressed at seeing the Navarro family reunited at long last.

‘Thank you so much for all that you’ve done, Raphael.’

Raphael glanced down at Grace Blake as she moved to stand beside him, tears falling hotly down her cheeks as she watched her adopted sister being embraced by the man who was her brother—and also the man who would soon become Grace’s own husband—and Beth’s real mother and father, the couple who would shortly become Grace’s own mother- and father-in-law. It was, Raphael decided, a fitting solution to a situation that could have proved so delicately awkward.

He gave a shake of his head. ‘I did very little.’

‘I don’t believe that for a moment.’ Grace gave a firm shake of her head.

He gave Grace an indulgent smile. ‘Why is it that you Blake women never have a handkerchief when you need one?’ he teased softly as he pulled a neatly folded white silk handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to Grace.

She mopped up the worst of her deluge of tears, a frown now between her blue-green eyes. ‘Beth has been crying?’

‘Naturally so.’ Raphael nodded.

Grace glanced across at her adopted sister. ‘I’m so proud of her for the way she’s now dealing with all this.’

Raphael felt equally proud—unaccountably so, when he was a complete outsider to this emotional reunion—of the way in which Beth had at last embraced who she really was.

At the same time as he knew an inward sadness, at the distance that now stood between the two of them...

‘Yes,’ he agreed huskily as he continued to look at Beth as she talked softly, and laughed and cried, with the three people who were her family.

‘Are you okay, Raphael?’

He arched one dark questioning brow as he turned to look at Grace, a shutter coming down over his emotions as he saw the concern in her expression. ‘Why would I not be okay?’ he broached guardedly.

‘I don’t know...’ She gave a slow shake of her head as she continued to look up at him searchingly. ‘You look...tired. Or maybe a little sad?’

Raphael frowned at the extent of this woman’s intuition. He was very tired, and not just from the lack of sleep the past two days; his army training had ensured that he could endure several days without sleep and still remain alert and ready for anything that was thrown at him.

His present weariness was for quite another reason.

The mature way in which Beth had now embraced her real family—literally—brought into sharp contrast Raphael’s own strained relationship with his father. A strain that Raphael had allowed to continue as much as his father had. And it was past time for that breach to be healed.

It had taken Beth, with her unshakeable candour, for him to see that.

As for the sadness Grace believed she detected in him...

Raphael glanced back at Beth. She still seemed unnaturally pale to him, but at the same time she had never looked more beautiful to him, either. Not just her obvious outer beauty, but that inner strength she carried with her so innately, the ability she had to meet any situation head on and deal with it, at the same time as she was able to inspire laughter and warmth in those around her.

‘Raphael?’

He turned to give Grace a reassuring smile. ‘I believe I am simply in need of a holiday.’

‘Cesar said you’d requested a couple of weeks’ leave. I trust you’ll be back in time for the wedding next month?’ she added teasingly.

‘As Cesar has asked me to stand beside him in the church, I had better be,’ he confirmed dryly.

Grace nodded. ‘Are you going anywhere nice?’

Raphael did not believe his planned visit to his father’s estacia—ranch—would be in the least nice. Necessary, but far from nice! ‘Just visiting family,’ he dismissed easily. ‘Rodney will be here to take care of Beth’s security.’