The Playboy's Touch (Book 2)

Chapter 5

Rachel

I was a bit shocked when I saw Enrique waiting for us near the border of France. Well, to be completely honest, I saw his carriage.

It was painted and decorated in his family colors which were a mix of red, orange and a bit of gold. Over the years I began to pay attention to these little details, and realized that our colors were green, silver and a bit of brown, and the Harris family, who Celeste was a member of now, held colors of blue, silver and white. The many years of distancing myself and hiding in the shadows had kept me from seeing very simple things.

I was eager to get up and stretch my legs, it had been a tremendously long journey to arrive. I felt the brace beginning to pierce into my skin. I loosened it a bit allowing there to be more space between my skin and the brace itself. I relaxed a bit when I felt the blood flow through my leg again. My body felt a bit better but was still exhausted .

Being on a ship for so long with my family caused us to go a bit insane, and then traveling on land just made it worse. At one point Oliver and I got into an actual fight where I almost slapped him and mother had to intervene and pull us away like we were kids again.

When our carriage came to stop I reached for the door but Oliver beat me to it. I knew he was just doing this to rile me up again. And then afterwords, mother went after him, mumbling about how her old age was wearing her down. Finally, after a minute or so, I steadied myself and followed after. I took slow steps to make sure that I didn’t trip myself. When I had finally stepped off the carriage the sun blinded me for a bit but after blinking a couple of times I saw that Enrique was looking at me. He was a bit taller than I remembered, it had been over a year since I had seen him. Yet, even though I had been a long time since I was next to him, his face was so familiar, as if I had seen him every day.

He still had thick dark black hair and neatly trimmed and shiny black mustache and beard. His black eyes were full of humor and mischief , just like his sister. And he was still the tall, strong, and broad shouldered man that I saw a year ago. Nothing had changed. He had reached out to take my hand and kiss it, like the gentleman I knew he was raised to be, but I didn’t see any reason for him to do so. We knew each other, there was no need for such things. So I shook his hand instead.

“Sister, come, let’s walk a bit before we sit in a carriage again.” Oliver said. He gave me a knowing smile telling me that we would walk for a minute or two, take a break and then continue for another minute or so before we stopped.

I nodded and began to make way over when my brace caught with a long stick and I began to fall forward.

“Oh no!” I screeched. Trying to protect my fall with my arms.

“RACHEL!!” My mother and brother screamed.

But before I hit the ground I felt a strong pair of arms catch me. Enrique had caught me mere seconds before I hit the ground and he was holding me tightly to his chest. I realized that I felt particularly small yet safe in his large arms. I glanced up a bit and I saw Enrique looking at me with wide eyes. His jaw was tight and nostrils flaring.

“Why are you so angry?” I asked him.

He blinked in confusion. “Angry?”

Before I could say anything more Oliver was there pulling me away while Mother expertly unhooked my brace from the sick by pretending she was fixing and dusting off my skirts.

“Rachel please be careful!” Oliver said. He was a bit shaken. I could understand why. For a year Mother and him had helped me practice walking on almost any type of surface. On grass, dirt, gravel, cobblestones and polished dance floors. This all started because when I began using the brace I was constantly tripping and getting it caught on something. One time I fell over and hit my head on a nearby table, they were both so scared that I had cracked my head open. Luckily, the doctor told them that I was fine when I woke up and just needed time to rest.

“Thank you for catching her Enrique!” Mother said trying to act casual but I heard the fear in her voice. “You’ll find that Rachel is quite prone to accidents.”

At first I wanted to ask her why she felt the need to tell him something like that, but when I looked at Enrique, I could see that he was trying to put the pieces together. He was looking at my brother with confusion for his frantic reaction, mothers quickness in focusing on my skirts and all of us acting as if this was a routine-which it basically was.

I nodded and shrugged. “It’s true.”

He nodded and his jaw relaxed. He smiled at me and my mother. “Well, let’s hope there are no more accidents anytime soon.”

His words stung a bit. Mostly because I knew there would be many more trips and slips. “I make no promises.” I said snapping at him. My voice had come out cold and harsh, and Mother and Oliver let out a deep breath. They had seen me get defensive and rude before and they’d have to come up with a quick excuse or apology.

However, Enrique laughed. “Well then, let’s just hope someone is always around to catch you.”