Rebecca Winters: For Better, For Worse

“We were going back to Spain to be married. While we were driving through an intersection on our way to the airport, a Jeep and a van collided in the other lane. The impact dislodged a kayak fastened to the top of the van. It flew through the air and…and by some quirk of fate hit Rafe’s side of the car, striking his head through the open window.” Her voice quavered as she spoke.

The pastor shook his head gravely.

“Rafe didn’t lose consciousness, but I could tell by the difficulty he had in talking that he’d been dazed. The paramedics arrived and started an IV. At the hospital they discovered that a clot had formed where he’d been struck, so he was prepared for surgery. But Rafe insisted we be married first.”

“Your husband sounds like a strong, determined individual.”

“He’s remarkable,” she murmured, wondering how to explain Rafe to this sweet, unassuming Idaho chaplain. Educated in the most prestigious schools in Europe, conversant with several different languages, sophisticated, wealthy, Rafael de Mendez y Lucar appeared larger than life. He was a man whose roots went back to the Spanish aristocracy; his family was one of the most important landowners in Andalusia.

And he loved her , Kit Spring, an insignificant 25-year-old American schoolteacher who was all alone in the world. He loved Kit with a ferocity equal to her own love for him. But it had been a forbidden love that had torn the Mendez family apart, setting brother against brother, mother against son, changing the complicated fabric of their private lives forever.

Knowing that she was the reason Jaime was always at Rafe’s throat, the reason Rafe and his mother were estranged, Kit had seen no other choice but to remove herself from their sphere. If she bowed out of their lives for good, Jaime, who had always walked in Rafe’s shadow and had a propensity for self-destruction, would be spared the humiliation of losing Kit to his elder brother. Then they’d be able to put their family back together and go on as before.

At least Kit had prayed that her disappearance would effect a reconciliation, even if it meant the end of her world. Without telling a soul about her plans, she resigned her teaching job in Spain and flew back to the United States—to Inkom, Idaho, the tiny town of 850 people where she’d been born and lived with her parents who’d worked at the cement plant until they died. She doubted Rafe would be able to trace her there.

But in that assumption she’d been wrong. Yesterday afternoon, when she was on the verge of phoning Rafe to tell him she couldn’t stand to be away from him any longer, he had miraculously appeared in the lobby of the tiny six-unit motel where she worked as a part-time receptionist. The owner, a friend of her parents’, had been kind enough to let her live in one of the units and work for room and board.

When she heard the buzzer signaling that someone had come in the door, she looked up from the desk to discover Rafe walking toward her. The joy of seeing him again, combined with the thrill of alarm that coursed through her body at his furious expression, made her retreat until she’d backed up against the wall. “H-How did you know I was here?”

“You should be terrified of me,” he said in his lightly accented English, ignoring her question. He levered his lean body over the counter with effortless grace. “There’ve been moments in the past eight weeks when I wondered if I’d ever find you or hold you again. How could you have done this to us?” From the raw emotion in his voice, she could tell he’d suffered torment as great as her own.

“You know why I left,” she whispered, noting that he’d lost weight, yet was more darkly attractive than ever. “I didn’t want to make matters worse between you and Jaime.”

He closed the distance separating them and covered her body with his own. She felt alive for the first time in two months as the familiar weight of his hard thighs and chest pressed heavily against her. How had she thought she could live the rest of her life without him, without this?

His black eyes smoldered. “Your sacrifice could make no possible difference to the situation between my brother and me. Our father made certain of that long before he died. A break was inevitable. Jaime has left the estate, amorada , to make a new life for himself. And now I’m taking you back to Spain with me, where you belong.”

He lowered his head and claimed her mouth with an intensity that left her clinging to him, unable to deny him any part of her self.

“What about your mother?” Kit murmured long moments later. “She told me to…to go away and leave her sons alone.”

“That was her pain talking. She’s an intelligent woman, and in time, she, too, will grow to love you. I’ve made her understand how I feel—that my life is not worth living without you. I have a special license so we can be married as soon as we get back to Jerez. Where is the person in charge of this place so I can tell him you’re leaving with me today?”

“Here’s some ice cream.” The chaplain broke in on Kit’s private thoughts. She hadn’t even realized he’d left the table.

“I’m sorry. You must think me extremely rude.”

“Not at all, my dear. When the most important person in our lives is in difficulty, how can we concentrate on anything else? Tell me how you came to know him.”

She took a few spoonfuls of ice cream. “I met him through his brother, Jaime. Until a few months ago I was teaching math and English at the U.S. Naval Military Base in Rota, Spain. The town isn’t far from Jerez where the Mendez estate is located. Jaime helps Rafe run the family business. They have vineyards and export their sherry all over the world.

“Last fall some friends from the base invited me to go to a sherry-tasting party Jaime was hosting. One thing led to another and we began dating.”

“But it was the other brother who captured your heart.”

She took a deep breath. “Yes.”

“That must not have been an easy time for you.”

“It was awful. You see, Jaime asked me to marry him before I met Rafe, but I kept putting him off because I wanted to be sure that what I felt for him was love and that it would last. As soon as I met Rafe, I understood the difference between loving someone like a brother and being in love .”

On a rush of emotion, Kit found herself explaining her impossible position. She described Rafe’s desire to bring everything out in the open and Jaime’s heavy bouts of drinking after she turned down his proposal. Brokenly, she told of the painful exchange with their mother, which had precipitated Kit’s flight from Spain. And finally she talked about Rafe’s unexpected arrival in Idaho, after he’d traced her through one of her friends on the base. It felt so good to discuss all this with someone she could trust.

“I’m afraid Rafe and I have hurt Jaime very badly. It seems he’s left Jerez and is living in Madrid. Who knows what he’s thinking, what’s happening to him right now? He’s apparently cut himself off from everyone.” She shivered.

“But that’s all to the good. Your husband was right, you know. This kind of situation has to be dealt with in an honest, forthright manner. He knew that would force his brother to face his life, which is what this Jaime is doing now. Instead of the end, it could be the beginning for him. One day he’ll meet a woman who will love him in return. It’s not your fault.”

Her eyes misted over. “I know, but because of me the entire family is estranged.”

“Are you saying you wish you had never met your husband?”

“No!”

The chaplain chuckled at her vehement response, and she blushed. “I didn’t think so. And since I’m a great deal older than you, I’ll tell you a secret. Life has a way of working itself out, and right now your husband needs your love and support as never before. After all, over the past few months he’s searched nonstop for you, forsaking his business interests, everything. Don’t you see? He’s refused to let anything or anyone come between you. I would venture to say a love like that doesn’t happen very often.”