Unprecedented Page 5

  The photographer sidled up with his notepad out. “Who are your companions, Mister Mora?”

  “Ronaldo Cevere, former midfielder of Brazil’s men’s national futbol team and now vice president of Brazil’s Federal Futbol Committee. And Xander Reinerman, university futbol coach.”

  The word “former” stuck in his throat as the journalist backed away with thanks. It wouldn’t take him long to google Xander’s name and get the scoop on a good story.

  “Ronaldo, I’m not sure I should be in the public eye with you guys. It might tarnish your reputations,” Xander said into Ronaldo’s ear.

  “Your past is no threat to our present. Our careers speak for themselves, Xander. A newspaper’s opinion in America does not change our expertise and what our platforms stand for. But your career is still in the making. When people go digging for dirt on you, they’ll find some from the past. What you need now is to make sure they find enough gold to ignore the dirt of the past. If you’ve moved on, eventually they’ll look bad for holding on to the past,” Ronaldo said.

  How often did the media let past failures disappear in favor of present-day good? From this side of the scandal, it seemed redemption would always be just out of reach. Ronaldo had a point though. If he held his head high, perhaps others would start believing in his innocence.

  Chapter 5

  Gia’s stomach lurched as she opened the file Joey had sent over to her and three dozen documents appeared.

  Her pounding pulse and tension headache were normal, right? She always had new project jitters.

  Except this one felt very different.

  She was psyching herself out. Abbott would tell her to come back to her place of control before teeing up the drive.

  But golf was her comfort zone.

  Luxury resorts were not.

  In fact, this was the first time she could ever recall being scared to take on a project. Even in college, she’d designed from a place of security and confidence, knowing she’d have a job after school whether she graduated with honors or not. Her portfolio was her showpiece, not a way to prove herself. She’d taken that for granted.

  She wouldn’t have called herself spoiled, because she worked hard and her parents made sure of that. Nevertheless, Uncle Angelo coached her and mentored her. His unwavering support freed her to learn, take risks, and try new things. When she chose to join the non-profit side of his architecture firm, he’d celebrated it.

  “Choose where you believe you can design with your whole heart and soul,” he’d said.

  The choice was easy.

  Now, years removed from that choice, she found herself cannonballing into the shark-infested waters of a luxury resort. Nothing about this felt safe. If she failed, she’d disappoint her family once again.

  Small steps.

  By lunch, she’d immersed herself so far into the requirements that she couldn’t break away and lose her momentum, so she plunged on. She’d eat later. Joey had only a portion of the design done. The magnitude of what was left to finish bowled into her. Why had he done this to her?

  No, she wasn’t going to think like that. He always put his family as priority and that made him a superhero in her book.

  She pulled out her phone and texted him. They’d heard he arrived in Portugal safely, but not much else. Hopefully, he was grieving, resting, studying the ancient architecture how he’d always wanted to, and being very safe. If she lost him too, her heart might never recover.

  A picture of him, Uncle Angelo, Tia Carolena, and Cara sat in a frame on his desk. Rio de Janeiro made the perfect backdrop for their smiling family hug on Copacabana Beach. They rarely went to Copacabana when they visited since their grandmother had a place on the water further south, but Cara had wanted to silence a few of the jealous haters at school who didn’t believe she had traveled to Brazil, much less spent her summers there.

  They’d taken a full album of pictures with recognizable landmarks in the background that trip. Uncle Angelo didn’t put any stock in the naysayers, but he’d do anything to help Cara feel comfortable in her own skin. If she remembered right, the album silenced the haters and elevated Cara’s social status for the rest of high school.

  Gia had no idea those were some of the happiest times they would ever have together.

  She sighed. One of Joey’s other architects would probably love to have this resort. They did these huge projects regularly. But when she looked at the consulting list of engineers, interior designers, and landscape architects, they were all Brazilian and required a Portuguese-speaking correspondent.

  Trading was out of the question.

  She typed out a quick email introducing herself and letting the contractors know she was taking over the project and why. The rest of the afternoon fell into an easy flow of doing the preliminary work so tomorrow she could get down to the design.

  At six-thirty, her phone chimed. Ma was asking when she thought she’d be home for dinner. She closed out her files and locked her computer. How was this her life again?

  It was incredibly easy to fit back into the routine of having someone else provide dinner and worry about the groceries and food in the house. Her swan-dive into adulthood had been a bit of a shock after someone had cleaned the house, repaired the cars, tended the yards, and did the cooking for her since birth.

  She packed up her bags and make a quick visit to the bathroom. The office was quiet and empty. Everyone else had been smart enough to get home at a decent hour. When she got back, she leaned over to pick up her things and snagged her arm on the edge of a drawer that was cracked open.

  How long had that been like that? She pushed it shut. Had she used that drawer today?

  An eerie feeling crawled over her skin. What if someone had been in her space? She swallowed and checked the drawer. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but she didn’t have the contents memorized. She’d used Joey’s office today, since he had paper files in there she’d need to reference.

  It had to be nothing.

  She pushed the drawer closed and locked it. Then she swung her bags over her shoulders and clicked the lock into place on Joey’s office door behind her. The office space required an access badge to get in. No one would be able to fake that. It was leftover paranoia from her bad patch with Bronc and Grant earlier in the year.

  Nodding goodnight to the building’s security guard, she strode to her car, checked the backseat was clear, and shut herself in.

  A drawer. She was panicking because of a drawer that wasn’t completely closed. The stress was getting to her more than she thought.

  When she drove up to the house, a body lay on the other side of the driveway. She popped out of her car and jogged over, fumbling with her phone to get the flashlight on.

  A beam flickered across Xander’s face a second before he yanked her into his arms. She yelped as she fell on top of him.

  “You’ve lost your ever-loving mind, Alexander Reinerman.” She slapped his coat-clad shoulder half-heartedly. The heat from his skin warmed her as she snuggled next to him in her work clothes on the concrete, looking up at the sky. This was the kind of thing none of her other boyfriends had done with her.

  The lights from the front of the house didn’t quite reach out this far so their view of the stars was stunning. They stayed in silence for a few moments, two tiny specks in a vast universe.

  “I considered astronomy as a major when I was in high school,” Xander said, his voice a low rumble. “But I lost faith in the astronomy community when they downgraded Pluto in ‘06.”

  Gia laughed. “As good a reason as any to become a soccer coach.”

  “That and high school physics absolutely sucked the joy right out of it for me.” He pushed to his feet and extended a hand to Gia. “Your family went ahead with dinner. The ‘grown-ups’ have a Christmas event to attend tonight.”

  She gasped and walked faster toward the house. “They had better not be going to see Nutcracker or the Vienna Boys’ Choir without me. I told them I want
ed to go.”

  They were Christmas traditions she’d missed out on the past few years, but not this year.

  Xander laughed. “Whoa there.” He pulled back on her hand to slow her down. “They said it was a work party they needed to make an appearance at to shake hands and kiss babies before they went out on the town.”

  “Oh.” She slowed her gait. “Then that means my cousins are planning something, too.”

  And they were.

  The ChristmasFest—complete with ice skating, rides, lights, and Santa.

  They laughed their way through the majority of the festival, taking pictures with Santa like the mature new adults they were, stopping to dance under the lights of the giant tree in the center, and sampling the overpriced snacks from the vendors as if they hadn’t already eaten dinner.

  Happily, they saved ice skating for last. She was functional on ice skates, because her parents made sure she was well-rounded.

  But Xander…

  Xander skated like he had always lived with blades attached to his shoes. He laughed when he saw her standing with her hands on her hips watching him.

  He twirled in circles around her. “You can’t possibly be surprised. I lived in Colorado my whole life and Linc is a professional hockey player. How do you think he got so good?”

  She scrunched up her face. “Lessons, practice, games—like everyone else.”

  Xander nodded. “Practice and games with me when he wasn’t on a team. I played hockey, too, for a while. I just loved soccer more.”

  “It’s futbol,” Breno shouted as he skated by.

  Xander sprinted over to him and semi-checked him into the wall. Breno wobbled frantically, laughing his fool head off. Boys never did grow up, did they?

  Gia laughed at the way girls turned to watch when Xander skated by, his thousand-kilowatt smile on full beam. A surge of pride swelled in her chest. He was hers. Tall—or medium height in her cousins’ cases—dark hair and tan skin drew lots of attention. It certainly did for her with Xander.

  She was so lucky. Her cousins were the siblings she never had. And watching Xander play and laugh with them gave her joy she had not expected. He served them, listened to them, and teased them as if he’d known them for years instead of days.

  Antia and Sara shuffled on the ice, clinging to the wall and insisting everyone skate on without them. Silva, ever the gentleman, skated next to them to help them. Truth be told, he couldn’t afford to injure his dentist hands in an ice-skating accident, so he had volunteered to stick close to the wall holders. Cara had opted to stay home. Ze stayed to keep her company since he needed to log on to the video games system and get some work done.

  A part of her worried that Cara would be upset that they weren’t staying home to grieve. As if they’d moved on already because they were going out. If Cara hadn’t thought that, going out still felt a little wrong, yet Tia Carolena would have pushed them out the door to celebrate life because she always had. She made a mental note to talk to Cara about it some night and tell her that they wouldn’t move on.

  As she skated slowly around the rink dodging the kids, she found herself looking for Joey to make a comment about his recklessness on skates as a kid. Joey was the hurricane force that was missing. Her heart ached. She missed him so much. He’d always been the life of the party.

  Xander swung back around and grabbed her hand in his. He glanced over his shoulder and then flipped so he skated backwards in front of her. “Don’t look now, but Breno’s looking for payback. He bumped a kid into the sideboard, because he was going for me and I got out of the way but he couldn’t stop.”

  Gia gasped and craned her neck. Sure enough, Breno was holding on to the wall, helping a kid stand to his feet while the mom stood on the other side with a scary look on her face.

  “Should we go help him smooth things over?”

  Xander shook his head with a grin. “Breno’s a big boy and responsible for himself on the ice. You are the daughter of a very well-known couple and do not need someone recognizing you and concocting a lawsuit because they know who your family is.”

  Gia rolled her eyes and yanked him closer. “Let’s go get a warm drink and you can tell me about your day.”

  Xander’s expression softened into a smile with a glint in his eye. Digging his skates in, he swung Gia around so she glided directly at the exit. He skated next to her as they went. He hopped off the ice and extended his hand to her to help her out. She barely stopped before hitting the wall.

  She pinned him with a look she’d seen Ma give Daddy ten thousand times that she didn’t appreciate his actions. His sheepish smile said the message was received. In line, he hugged her back to his front and kissed her neck. She smiled, tightening her grip on his fingers laced between hers. The settled feeling of belonging washed over her.

  She ordered a mulled drink and Xander got a hot chocolate, because it was absolutely unthinkable to ice skate without hot chocolate.

  He, the ice-skating aficionado, would know.

  As they laughed and joked together, she could feel her body relaxing. She should have gone to the driving range tonight to work off some of her stress for lunch, but this was better. Her family needed her with them.

  Xander brought her drink and sat next to her where they could see the whole rink.

  “You should have seen these blind soccer players. They were graceful and stunningly accurate in their passes. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. I thought it was going to be a lot of ball chasing like how little kids play soccer, but it was precise and measured. Infinitely more challenging than actually using your eyes. They click so their teammates know where they are and shout when they are going for the ball.”

  She could watch his animated expressions all day, and soccer was one of the only things he got animated about. “Uncle Ronaldo probably loved seeing your surprise.”

  Xander laughed. “He and Cruz Mora spent more time laughing at my shock than actually watching the game. They introduced me to every person they spoke to. Said I was a university coach that had been short-listed for the national team coaching staff. The New Orleans Jesters’ coach said he’d call to set up an interview soon, based solely on Cruz’s recommendation.” Xander crossed his ankle over his knee and took her hand.

  “Jesters’ are major league?” When she had time, she needed to study soccer.

  “Semi-pro. Minor.”

  She raised her drink. “Cheers. You deserve it, babe. To chasing that dream job again.”

  “Cheers.” He grinned, tapping his hot chocolate against her cup. “Speaking of dream job, how’s the resort looking?”

  She opened her mouth to say everything was fine, but the words didn’t come. “Joey got a decent bit done on it—all things considered.” She shook her head. It wasn’t his fault. “But it’s going to take a miracle for me to finish this before the end of the year.” She sighed and rubbed her neck.

  Xander brushed his thumb across the back of her hand. “Can’t you ask your parents for an extension?”

  The knot sank further into her stomach. “The opening of the resort is supposed to coincide with the international beach volleyball championship that Invicto and Invicta sponsor. Really big names will be there. Any delay on my end wouldn’t give enough leeway for the construction teams. Brazil isn’t known for their punctuality.”

  “Not exactly the way you wanted to end a tough year.”

  He stared off at the rink, his mood pensive. This man was gorgeous smiling or not.

  It wasn’t remotely how she’d envisioned winding down the year. “My family rarely comes here and we haven’t had this much time off together ever. I want to be with them and show my cousins around, but I’m going to either have to disappoint them or Joey and my parents if this project is going to get done.”

  Four days since she promised Tia Carolena that she’d be what her family needed and already she was failing, stuck between two impossibilities. She needed to accept that she wasn’t going to be abl
e to keep her promise. She couldn’t magically change who she was overnight.

  Xander stood and offered her his hand. “Let’s make the most of your last night of freedom then.”

  If she wasn’t mistaken, a shadow of sadness passed over his features before he sent his charming smile her way. He’d heard what she said without her saying it. She shoved the guilt aside. Xander was the most supportive person she knew. If they could get through this, she’d make it up to him.

  Chapter 6

  The next morning, sunlight streamed into his room when he awoke. The sinking feeling in his chest said that he’d missed Gia entirely. He pinched the bridge of his nose and checked the clock.

  Nine.

  He’d slept through his alarm to wake up early, make her breakfast, and chat with her before the stress of the day hit.

  They stayed up too late last night for cousin bonding time and Gia endured it all with a smile and her usual grace. If he was tired this morning, she had to be exhausted.

  His work day might start later, but it’d end later tonight. His to-do list dragged on in a way that made him think he probably shouldn’t have gone out to the opening with Ronaldo yesterday. He called a car from GetThere and stopped at the store for her favorite flavored, caffeinated sparkling water.

  While he was on his way to Gia’s office, his phone rang. “Hey, Maddox! Got some good news for me?”

  His lawyer chuckled on the other end of the line. “Some of the best news I could give you in the current scenario. All that press from yesterday has renewed the media’s interest in your situation. University of Colorado is talking about potentially settling to get this out of the public eye.”

  Shaking hands with internationally known Brazilian soccer players might have spurred the university into action. He laughed out loud. After Coach Randall’s confession, he’d found a lawyer to go after Coach Randall (and thus the University of Colorado from whom he got his pension) for wrongful conviction. His lawyer said if it went to court, the case could draw out for up to ten years.