Normally, Valentina would have tried not to feel hurt by her mother’s disbelief. She would have told herself that it was better to just let it roll off. But she knew why Smith had asked her mother to come to the set today. It wasn’t just so that Ava could cheer Tatiana on the last day of filming, but because family meant the world to him.

And he loved her so much he wanted her family to be whole again.

“Why?” Valentina’s voice was quiet, but her question was still firm. And riddled with the hurt she could no longer hide. “Why can’t you believe it?”

Her mother blinked up at her with the big blue eyes that had captivated young actors throughout Hollywood for the past decade...and her husband for two decades before that.

“Not because you aren’t beautiful, Val.” Her mother put her hand on her arm. “Your looks have always been far more exotic than mine or your sister’s. I’m not surprised he can’t take his eyes off you. It’s just that I know how much you disliked actors, and the fact that I’ve always dated them.”

“You knew that?”

“You have a very expressive face, honey,” her mother told her.

“I don’t get it.” If there was something to be said, it had to be said now. After all, once upon a time, she and her mother had been so close. Not just mother and daughter, but friends. “After Daddy died, why—” She pushed aside the image of her father to get through her question. “Why have you always dated actors since him?”

“I could never replace your father, and I never even wanted to try.” Her mother’s voice was full of the sadness that Valentina herself felt whenever she talked about him. “Early on I realized the nice thing about dating an actor is that even if they don’t really think I’m young and beautiful and desirable, they know how to fake it. Well enough that I can believe them for a while.”

This time Valentina was the one reaching for her mother. “You don’t need anyone to pretend that you’re beautiful, Mom. You are.”

Her mother’s eyes glimmered with tears. “I know I haven’t told you often enough, but I’m so proud of you, honey.”

Valentina knew it would be easiest just to take her mother’s compliment at face value, and to smooth over years of hurt, but even though Smith had taught her just how easy love could be once you had it...she’d also learned just how much hard work had to go into getting it sometimes.

Smith hadn’t given up on her. He hadn’t underestimated her strength, her convictions...or the love she had to give. Maybe, Valentina found herself thinking, it was time for her to stop giving up on her mother. Which meant no more dancing around each other, no more talking without saying anything.

“We used to be so close. Before Daddy died.” She’d started her relationship with Smith with a “Why?” when she’d needed to understand his reasons for pursuing her. Now she would try to restart her relationship with her mother with one. And after all these years, Valentina couldn’t stand not knowing anymore.

“Why did you leave us, too?” She felt a tear slide down her cheek and wiped at it with the back of her hand. “We needed you.” Another tear fell, too fast for her to catch before it plopped onto the cement. “I needed you.”

Her mother’s slim arms were surprisingly strong as they were abruptly thrown around her. “Oh honey, I’m sorry.”

But instead of falling apart, for once her mother was the strong one, another role-reversal Valentina hadn’t seen coming.

“You and your sister were always so close. I loved that you were such a tight unit, loved knowing that you would always be there to look after her, if anything ever happened to me and your father. And then, when he died so unexpectedly—” Ava Landon shook her head. “Honestly, I don’t remember much about those early months. But when I finally came back to the world, the two of you were closer than ever. Just like you are now. So close that it sometimes seemed like you didn’t need me at all. Only each other.” Her mother wiped away her own tears now. “Will you forgive me?”

Valentina had never thought about how the bond with her sister might have affected her mother. “Of course I do.” She was the one hugging her mother this time, the familiar scent of her perfume, and her softness as comforting to her now as they had been when she was a little girl.

They had a lot to catch up on, far more than they could possibly cover in the next five minutes before filming started for the day. But she did have one more question before they headed over to the set.

“Are things serious with you and Dave?”

Her mother answered her question with one of her own. “Would it be okay with you if they were? I know how much your father meant to you, how much he still does.”

Valentina instinctively put her hand over her heart. She paused to think, and to feel, before she said, “It would.”

Smiling, their arms still around each other, they walked across the lot and onto the set. And when Smith looked up at her, she could see not only the love for her in his eyes, but also his joy at the obvious ground she and her mother had made up with each other.

And then the lights were dimming and Smith and Tatiana were taking their places on set on the bed beside each other as the cameras started to roll. Valentina’s mother squeezed her hand and she pressed an impromptu kiss to her soft cheek before turning her attention to the scene just starting to play out before them all.

Jo and Graham had made love many, many times over the past few weeks. And they had both fallen helplessly in love with each other from that first clash on the street all the way through shared nights caring for her baby.

But despite both of those facts, Jo knew they hadn’t truly shared love with each other.

From the first moment she’d collided with him, Graham had been full of purpose, determination, intensity. And still, after they’d made love that first time, and after she’d watched him give his love to her daughter without any barriers or borders, she’d believed that no one could sustain himself on endless intensity without eventually running out of steam. When she watched him sleep, instead of the lines in his beautiful face softening, they still held the heartbreaking edge to them that tore her apart a little more every day.

When, she wondered as she reached to stroke back a lock of hair that had fallen across his forehead, would he ever let the demons that drove him go?

He murmured her name and pulled her into him, her back to his front. She loved the feel of his strong arms around her, loved lying together with him like this when they were both barely awake.