There Was You

Quietly swirling the last of his drink around in the bottom of his bottle, Iker quirked a faint smile, his gaze not shifting away from Riley who was sat on the other side of the patio with Leo in her arms, smiling at her mother’s fussing. It had been a while, after their talk about the prospect of them making the move back to Spain, a few days had passed, and despite having had a couple more slightly awkward conversations, things between him and Riley seemed to have settled down, something he was more than a little relieved about. It hadn’t lasted long, the slight feeling that there was something off between the two of them, that they were on two different wavelengths, but still it was a relief to Iker had it had passed. He didn’t like the feeling he got when he and Riley weren’t quite on the same page.

Shaking his head to himself, he moved to finish the last of his drink before he settled the bottle down onto the patio.

“You know that you’ve been staring, don’t you?”

Iker smirked a little, not moving his eyes away from his bottle. “My son is adorable” he chirped “I mean, he looks like his papa, after all” he added.

Riley, who’d plopped down onto the patio next to him, scoffed, her elbow playfully nudging his ribs. “Our son” she corrected.

Iker’s smirk softened a little. Even despite Leo having been around for a couple of months, he still wasn’t quite used to those words. “What’ve you done with our son?” he asked, stressing the word ‘our’ playfully.

“He’s having cuddles with nana” Riley replied “And then he’s got an appointment with Auntie Mia and Auntie Eva. Even Uncle Garrett wants to see him at some point” she added warmly.

Iker shook his head, laughing gently to himself. “Do they actually know that me and you are here?” he asked, glancing at Riley out of the corner of his eye.

Riley didn’t hesitate, shaking her head as a warm smile tugged the corners of her lips upwards. “I doubt it” she played along “I mean, I got a ‘hello’ when we got here, but after that...” she trailed off, shrugging nonchalantly.

Iker offered her another soft smile before he turned to stare across the patio, allowing a few moments of quiet to pass between the two of them before he shook his head, his fingers scratching his jaw softly. “I still remember the first time you bought me here” he announced gently.

Riley, who’d followed his stare across the patio towards her mother and Leo, felt her face light up before she turned to look at him, her grey eyes mirroring his dark ones. “I remember you freaking out in the car” she mused gently “You were surprisingly nervous, given that you’d already met all of my family at Marisol and Nuno’s wedding” she added.

“I was very nervous” Iker replied “I mean, meeting them at the wedding was one thing, but being in their home? That was something else entirely. I was trying to become their daughter’s boyfriend, I wanted them to like me. Honestly, a part of me thought if they liked me, then you’d like me more too” he admitted, his voice a little sheepish.

Riley lifted an eyebrow, trying, and failing, to keep the amusement off of her face. “You thought that would work?” she asked.

Iker shrugged, his cheeks flushing a soft shade of pink. “I didn’t quite know what to make of what was happening between us” he mused “I mean, by that time, we’d started kissing, but then you introduced me as ‘Nuno’s friend’ to your relatives at the wedding and you followed that up by showing up at my hotel room, asking to stay the night because Mia had locked you out of yours. We were a little bit all over the place then, flitting somewhere between friends and something else, and I wanted to use our first trip to Madrid to try and make something a little more concrete happen between us. I thought if you saw your parents warming to me, then you’d be a little more...”

“It worked” Riley interrupted.

Iker blinked a couple of times, surprised by her interruption, before he tilted his head, a slightly curious smile on his face. “Yeah?” he asked.

“I was already smitten” Riley admitted “But seeing how you were with them, how you were with Matilda too...it made it pretty clear to me that I was probably going to end up falling for you, which I did, and look where that’s got us” she added, sheepishly twisting her wedding ring around her finger.

Iker smiled as he watched her push the ring around her finger before he caught a hold of her hand, gently pulling it upwards so that he could press a soft kiss against the back of it, something which caused Riley’s cheeks to flush a familiar shade of pink. Grinning, he turned her hand over so that he could press soft kisses against her wrist, palm and wedding ring before the sound of a fork against glass reached them, causing them both to look up, watching as Garrett and Eva stepped towards the centre of the patio, barely hidden grins on their faces.

Offering Riley a slightly amused smirk, Iker carefully helped her up to her feet before he guided her a little closer to her brother, his arms wrapping affectionately around her as they came to a stop. Riley leant against him, squeezing his arms softly.

“I know that this is a day usually about mama and papa” Garrett announced gently “And we don’t want to take away from their fussing, but we just...we have a little piece of news that we’re itching to share with you and we thought it was best to do it when we were all together, mostly so I don’t have to listen to my sisters argue about who we told first” he added, playfully glancing between Mia and Riley.

Riley rolled her eyes. “We’re not that bad” she countered.

“You are” Garrett replied “But that’s not the point. The point is that...that after far too many years of waiting, I asked Eva to marry me and she has, much to my delight, agreed. We’re getting married” he gushed happily.

“No” Mia squeaked.

Garrett just grinned, gently lifting Eva’s hand to show off the engagement ring that sat on her finger. “Yes” he retorted.

Riley grinned. “It’s only taken you forever to ask her” she quipped.

Garrett shrugged sheepishly, something which caused Mia and Riley to share a glance before they both rushed towards him, wrapping him in a tight hug that he playfully fought against for a few seconds before he relented, happily hugging the two of them back.

Iker stepped towards Eva, congratulating her with a quick hug before he moved towards Garrett, embracing him without a second thought, something which made him grin, knowing that it wouldn’t have been that long ago that he would have felt awkward about it.