The Wedding She Always Wanted by Stacy Connelly Read Free Book Online Page A

his failure and the disaster that had almost destroyed them. “It isn’t,” he insisted. “It’s not that bad. I can fix it…” His voice trailed off as for the second time, he lost his audience in the middle of his inspirational speech.
    Maria stared at Emily, but unlike Tommy’s wide-eyed infatuation, disapproval was written clearly on his mother’s face. “ Solo tú , Javier,” she murmured. “Only you.”
    Realizing Maria was speaking Spanish to exclude Emily, he glanced at her, an apology in his eyes, and drew his mother aside. “Only me what, Mama?” he asked in English.
    “Only you would bring a girl to the restaurant now. Bad enough you have a different girl in here every other week, but today? It is a disaster, and you bring a date.”
    His dating, or more specifically, his refusal to settle down, had long been a point of contention between them, one he refused to get into now. “We aren’t on a date,” Javy argued, but Maria would hear none of it.
    “Do you think I do not recognize this girl? The one Connor was seeing all those years ago. The silly girl who did not think he was good enough for someone like her—”
    “You’re right.” Emily stepped closer, covering the distance Javy had tried to put between them, and joined a conversation that she was smart enough to realize was about her. “I was a silly girl back then.” Meeting Javy’s gaze, she added in Spanish, “ Pero ahora mujer .”
    Javy felt his jaw drop, and he ducked his head rather than let his mother see the smile he couldn’t hold back. Muttering beneath her breath, Maria stalked off to the kitchen. As he met Emily’s gaze, he let out a low laugh.
    She winced. “I shouldn’t have done that. I’m sorry—”
    “Don’t apologize.” As much as he loved his mother, she wasa force to be reckoned with, and few people tried. He couldn’t remember the last time anyone had silenced her. He never would have guessed Emily Wilson would be up for the job.
    Once more she was showing him she was nothing like the spoiled rich girl he’d figured her for. She had spirit—buried deep, maybe, but still burning, despite what life had thrown at her. She’d shown it at the reception when she’d stood up to the gossips talking behind her back and just now with his mother.
    But I am a woman now.
    His mother had taught him Spanish straight from the cradle, so he certainly hadn’t needed to think about translating the sentence Emily had spoken in perfect, if unaccented, Spanish. But it was as if his body had interpreted the words before his brain had even had the chance. Emily was a woman, no question about it. A fact both his body and his brain fully appreciated.
    “You’re incredible, you know that?”
    She gave a questioning laugh. “Because I speak Spanish?”
    “No, Emily, not because you speak Spanish.”
    Their gazes locked, and the low vibe of desire picked up speed until Javy half expected the windows to start shaking. Another wash of color lit Emily’s cheeks. As incapable of accepting a compliment as she was at recognizing her own worth, she ducked her head and quickly explained, “Foreign language was a requirement at my school. My mother wanted me to take French, but my father thought Spanish more practical.”
    “I would have bet you spoke French.”
    “Well, I did take French my junior and senior year to make my mother happy. But my father was right about Spanish.”
    “So, you did what your father wanted, and you did what would make your mother happy,” Javy said, seeing a pattern she had likely followed most of her life. “What about you, Emily? What do you want? What would make you happy?”
    Emily glanced around the restaurant rather than focusing on Javy’s questions. What did she want? Last night she’d come to the conclusion she wanted to see Javy again, to see if that quick start of excitement was due only to the emotions of the wedding, but now, with his restaurant in shambles, satisfying her curiosity