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‘It’s a good thing you’re doing something different for a change,’ Julie said with a bright smile. ‘I know you really love the workshop but teaching art and design was never where your heart was, was it? You always wanted to just devote your time to photography. You only took that job because you needed something steady to bail me out after… You know, honey? That mess with my savings…’

‘But we got past that, Mum, so let’s not talk about it again now.’

There were times when Hope had felt as though she was the parent. Looking out for her mother. Making sure she was emotionally okay. Financially okay.

‘Maybe you’ll meet someone out there,’ Julie said vaguely and Hope laughed.

‘I’m not on the lookout.’

She thought of Javier and shivered. The only man she would be meeting would be one who was as dangerous for her as a wild cougar prowling in a jungle.

‘You should be. You can’t be put off men for good because Jimmy didn’t work out. Relationships fail all the time. Well, just look at me.’

Just look at her, indeed. Hope looked down, sipped her coffee and stifled the retort she would have liked to have made but never would. Because, if she did, her mother would be hurt.

Hope changed the subject. She was adept when it came to protecting Julie from worrying about her. Her mother might have been rubbish when it came to choosing men but when it had come to loving her only child, she’d been right up there with the best of them.

She might not have been a role model when it came to how to choose the right guy but she’d been instrumental in teaching Hope how to avoid the wrong ones. Which pretty much amounted to the same thing in her book.

By the time Gerry rang the doorbell, her mother was excitedly planning what she would do for the next week and who she would see while she was in London. She’d kept in touch with a couple of girlfriends from the bad old days, when she was young with a child in tow.

Hope could leave with a clear conscience.

‘Bring back some Christmas souvenirs from Mexico!’ Julie said as she waved her off from the front door.

Hope didn’t think it worth saying that her chances of going anywhere in Mexico that sold Christmas decorations were nil because search and rescue missions, with a guy who was as fuzzy about the festive season as a block of granite, and souvenir shopping didn’t exactly go hand in hand.

She had hours of travel ahead of her and way too much going on in her head to think about Christmas.

All of that would have to wait until she was safely back in the UK. Until she was, as she did every year, heading down to Suffolk to spend the holiday with her mother.

* * *

Being obliged to conclude business in New York before going to Mexico had been something of a relief for Javier. A little bit of a reprieve.

He hadn’t quite got his head round the possibility that Carlos had taken off somewhere to think about his life, which didn’t need thinking about because it was already sorted, and had somehow thought that it was acceptable to just disappear into complete silence.

Javier had refrained from telling Hope what he privately thought, which was that his brother was, as usual, behaving with selfish disregard for everything Javier had ever done for him.

He had privately hoped that he would hear from Carlos before he had to do what was necessary. Before he hunted him down and yet again rescued him from whatever hole he’d dug for himself.

He’d spent his life looking after his brother and it got on his nerves that at no point had Carlos ever shown the slightest iota of appreciation for all the effort he had put in.

He could feel impatience rising again as he sat in the air-conditioned comfort of the black SUV. He sat there waiting at the airfield close to the international airport where he would be meeting Hope so that they could travel together for the final leg of the trip to his villa.

As soon as he saw the car bringing her pulling towards them, he exited the SUV. He was restless and suddenly keen to get this whole sorry mess over and done with.

It was baking hot. Even in his short-sleeved white shirt and dark grey linen trousers, he could feel the heat trying to burn a path through his clothes.

Just something else to put him in an even more foul mood.

He was unsmiling as he watched her hop out of the car, brushing past the uniformed driver who had opened the door for her.

For a split second, he stared.

Had he managed to forget what she looked like or had he underestimated her appeal?

Either way, despite spending most of the past twenty-four hours on the move, she looked fresh and younger than her age.