Slightly Imperfect Read Online Free PDF

snifter of brandy Andrea held out to her. They clinked glasses as they faced one another in the center of the magnificently appointed space. "We found each other. We were both alone in the piazza this afternoon."
    "That's impossible. I have never seen an empty Italian piazza. And Monique assured me you had the children in tow. You , darling, were not alone."
    Victoria smiled. "Zac was alone. I invited him to join us."
    "Well, he is beautiful, but still..." She seemed to consider. "His resemblance to Tomas played a part, I suppose."
    "I couldn't take my eyes off him."
    "And now he can't take his off you. Victoria, darling, is that fair?"
    "You misunderstood. We've become instant friends."
    Andrea's worldly laugh alluded to having shared a shady joke. "Darling, no man who lays eyes on you wants to be your friend. Regardless of what this one tells you, he has other motives."
    "Life isn't a soap opera. I was attracted because of the resemblance, as you said—but then, the coincidence of Puerto San Miguel and Ramona—" She fell pensive.
    Andrea sipped brandy, her eyes expectant. "Yes?"
    "Zac's had a tragedy in the last year. He lost a son—six years old. He loved meeting Marcus."
    "Maybe he only told you that."
    "Why would he do that?"
    Andrea smiled, drolly.
    "No," Victoria insisted. "It's true. He cried."
    "Well, angel, you have a way of making men do that."
    "No more," Victoria whispered into the delicate glass. "I don't want anyone else to cry, ever, because of me." She grasped an insight. "Is it his hair that bothers you? He had a full beard when we met this afternoon. Even that wasn't intimidating, because he's so gentle. He's been on a freighter for a year. That presents a complex image, but he's very perceptive. Kind."
    "It isn't the hair, God knows." Auburn brows knitted her exquisite forehead, her amber eyes clouding. "It's the resemblance."
    "It's only that he's Mexican," Victoria argued. "He doesn't really look like Tommy at all."
    "He isn't Tomas."
    "No," Victoria said softly. She twirled the glass and peered into it. In the single soft light from a lamp across the room, the brandy turned translucent. "Marcus is Tommy."
    "No, darling. He isn't." Her dissatisfaction unguarded, Andrea waited for Victoria's acknowledgement. "Tell me you aren't trying to make Marcus into his father."

    Their eyes locked. Victoria didn't allow hers to issue a promise.
    "Tomas is dead, Victoria. People will always remind you of him, but you'll never have him again. You are supposed to have realized that, accepted it over the last five years— particularly the last three, since returning to Christian." She paced then whirled and cocked a spike heel, folding her arms. "You were doing so well. A freak meeting with this freighter person has thrown everything off kilter."
    Snippets of the last five years, the little progress she'd actually made, filed across Victoria's mind. "Tommy lives on through Marcus. Meeting Zac reminded me of my original intent to give Marcus everything Tommy didn't live to attain. A heritage. It isn't complicated, but I was swayed from my intent once the twins arrived."
    Andrea grimaced. "What about the twins, for God's sake? I don't hear you scheming for A and A. They deserve equally as much thought and perseverance."
    Victoria crossed the room and stood in the open doorway, gazing upon the strand of moored ships. Her eyes and her mind recalled where Zac had pointed out the freighter, at the far end. There, luxury transformed to commerce, one world blending into another. Zac Abriendo seemed ill suited to the kind of world his sailor stories had portrayed for her. She tried to imagine him in Ramona, but he had told her scarcely anything involving his life there. Still, she pictured him. No, not him, but fantasy. She had nothing else to go on.
    "Victoria?"
    "The twins have a double heritage. Mine and Christian's," she concluded, turning, crossing to a richly paneled wall that had once been lined with framed images of