Chapter 3 - The Sunrise

Yolanda wasn't expecting to see Katey as she entered the small courtyard. The smile she had put on to see the others slipped a bit when she noticed the pain in her friend's blue eyes.

The older woman reached out a comforting hand only to have Katey brush her off with a shake of her head and slip out of the gate. In her rush to leave, Katey didn't notice Javier still standing in the shadow of the outer wall next to the gate. Yolanda started to follow Katey, but when she spotted Javier's blank expression, she cuffed him around the ears, "What are you doing just standing there?"

Confused by the abuse and emotion, he hadn't noticed Katey had passed him, "Estupido, go after her! She's an American alone in Havana at night." As if being accosted by an elder wasn't enough, he had been on the verge of tears and didn't see the streak of blonde fly past as he should have.

Nodding, he took off in the direction of clicking heels as they rounded a corner. Katey hadn't lived in Havana long before she was forced to leave so there were only a few places she thought she would go - places they had spent time in secret together.

It was almost dawn when Javier found Katey on the abandoned beach in a tattered tent near Hotel Oceana. He fully expected anger when he confronted her, but after all of this time Javier should have known she would defy his expectations.

(Katey POV)

I wasn't sure how I ended up on the beach in that tent, our tent. I guess subconsciously it seemed like a fitting place to end up. It all began here on this beach. I sat there, watched the first colors of the sunrise crest over the horizon, and could feel myself being watched. I knew it was him, there was always something about him. We had promised to keep a piece of each other with ourselves.

Javier crawled into the tent beside me, a small space left between us. He was leaving the rest up to me. I didn't want to touch him, especially after I had heard the words "love" and "Javier" in the same heated conversation between him and Yolanda, who I thought was my friend.

The silence stretched between us until Javier worked up the courage to speak first, "Katey, what's wrong?"

I could feel he had jumped when I started to laugh, tears still in my eyes. I twisted myself and sat up on my knees in hopes of being taller than him, gaining some higher ground. I must've looked like an insane woman, still laughing as I threw my hands in the air and repeated his ridiculous question, "What's wrong? What's wrong?" I knew my voice was steadily rising, but he had such a guilty look on his face, I don't think I could have ever stayed mad at him. I loved him too much.

Slouching back onto the sand, I could feel the tears welling up again and this time I let him pull me into his warm embrace effectively closing the gap that was originally between us.

When I could speak again, I repeated, "What's wrong?" I looked up at his chocolate eyes, searching for the truth, for him to take the lead. "What were you and Yolanda arguing about?"

I could tell that wasn't what he was expecting to hear based on how wide his eyes became. Taking that as confirmation of what I thought was the truth, I tried to pull myself away and escape his arms, but they only seemed to tighten as he said, "No no no" over and over.

Still fighting his arms, I spat out, "No what, Javier?" Oh God, those pregnancy hormones were going to be the death of me.

He gave me that guilty face again, the same one he used that day in the garage when he said he wasn't trying to win a contest by dancing with me. He was trying to placate me, "You still haven't picked up Spanish." A well placed slap to the chest changed his course of explanation. "Look, I know how that probably sounded-"

"Yolanda loves you and you love her?" Isn't that what the argument was about?

He sputtered as his mind started processing my words, "Why does no one let me finish my sentences?"

I blushed and looked back at the water then down into my lap where my hands fidgeted, "Sorry."

His hands started to road upwards from my shoulder and into my hair. It felt too divine to shake off so I let him continue as he spoke, "What I was saying is that you didn't understand what we were saying, translation out of context." Javier's right hand reached into my lap for my own hands resting there, rubbing his thumb along the knuckles.

Still looking down at our intertwined hands, "Then translate for me."

He chuckled and I could feel him press a kiss to my hair. Laying his head against mine, he began to explain in detail his conversation with Yolanda just outside of the gate. He kissed my head again, "I'm sorry, we would have used English if we had known you were listening, out of respect."

"So you don't love Yolanda?" I took a minute to revel in the sound of his laughter and he smiled when he spoke, "That's all you took from that?"

I swatted his chest again for good measure as the silence resettled around us, this time comfortably.

As we watched the waves roll in and out, and the sun rise fully, I kissed the underside of his jaw, "Javier?" I got a simple 'hmm' in response. "I have one more question."

His jaw tightened slightly, "Anything."

I hesitated at first, I wasn't sure how he would take the question because it involved his brother. I took his hand again, holding it between mine, admiring the differences in size and color. With a deep breath, I asked what had been weighing on my mind, "Javier, last night at La Rosa Negra when we were on the dance floor, what was it that Carlo whispered to you that made you leave so quickly?"

With his body still wrapped securely around me, I could feel the tension in every muscle, the pace of his heartbeat speed up in time with his breathing. He spoke slowly at first, "You know Carlo has a son." I nodded, "Yes, Rafael."

A small smile made an appearance before disappearing just as quickly, "No one was sure he was Carlo's, except now he looks just like abuelo, because all we had was the word of this girl who dropped off her baby and ran."

I remembered when Javier first told me that story, but I could feel there was more he needed to get out so I stayed quiet. "Last night when I saw you out there dancing, so free, so… so…"

"Cuban?" I whispered, our little joke.

There was that hint of smile again, "Si, Cuban. Then you turned and for a brief second I was so happy when I was your belly so full of life. Carlo said you were too small for the child to be mine. That you had been gone too long and would try to pin another man's baby on me like what happened to him." His voice sounded like he was beating himself up about it, "And I, of course, listened to him."

As angry as I was at Carlo now, I understood why Javier would believe him first. Carlo was his older brother and their father was dead.

Gently, I removed Javier's arms from around me and turned so we were sitting face to face like that night in this very tent not so long ago. I cupped his jaw to make sure he was looking at me, "Oh Javier, you know I'm only slightly shorter than you." He nodded. "I'm not small."

I took his hands in mine and placed them on either side of my belly as I spoke with determination, "Though it may not seem like much, this womb is carrying your child. Doctor Aaron estimated six months before I left Miami."

With his eyes still locked onto the placement of our hands, he repeated, "Six months." Brown eyes met my blue, "Mine?" I couldn't help but copy his goofy smile of joy, "Yours."

We lay back in the sand, with our hands protectively over my still growing belly, Javier whispered in my ear something I actually understood, "La Rosa de La Habana." The Rose of Havana.