Blocked (44 page)

“It’s not your fault Nina’s unstable.”

A scoffing sound erupted from his throat.

“Did you know she actually apologized to me?”

His chin dipped. “No way.”

“Not only that, but she said we’re kind of cute together.”

“
Nina
said that?”

“I know.” I grinned. “I couldn’t believe it either.”

“Cute, huh?” He glanced at the open bedroom door—a rule my father had established, and Frank had enforced. Then he leaned forward, and I inhaled a little puff of air when his hand brushed my hair behind my ear. “You
are
damn cute, that’s for sure.”

My heart jumped a beat at his warm touch. “One thing Nina said was kind of strange. You, ah, you told her I was praying for her?”

He stole his hand back. “Does that bother you?”

“No.” I shrugged. “It’s true—I was. I am. It’s just…I guess I’m kind of surprised you told her that. Were you guys…?” I bit my lower lip as my cheeks warmed. “Were you making fun of me?”

“No!” His eyes opened wide, and he lunged for my hands. “I may not understand your beliefs, your faith, but I won’t mock them anymore, I promise.” He swallowed as he stroked my fingers. “I told Nina you were praying for us because I thought it was such a sweet, forgiving thing to do—so like you. I guess I wanted to show Nina all that you are, and all that she’s not.”

I nodded, though it was difficult to believe I was better than Nina at anything.

“I’m
grateful
you pray for us, Luz. Your faith is so strong…it’s, it’s kind of beautiful, really. I wish I could feel that way about something.”

Wow
. I just fell for him a little bit more.

He lured me forward, and he kept holding my hands while his thumb swirled circles on the inside of my knee. Sparks of delight traveled up my thigh. “I’m not the only one keeping secrets, Luz.”

“¿Qué?”
My mind didn’t function well at the moment.

“I’ve been trying to work out why you didn’t tell me this, but I got nothing. You asked Phil to keep me on the team?”

“Oh.” I came back to earth. “He told you about that.” I hoped Dane didn’t think I’d interfered with his life.

“Yes. Why’d you do it?”

“I wanted to thank you for helping me, you know, after the photo in the paper.” His eyes clouded over with apparent anger, probably remembering my she-beast photo. “And because…” I waited until his gaze cleared. “Because you’re such a talented setter—I didn’t want that to go to waste. I’ve never hit better than the night we played. You brought out the best in me.”

His eyes glittered as he rolled his chair to the edge of the bed and tugged me forward, away from the wall. He drew our hands together, close to his heart, and his face came inches from mine. “That’s the kindest thing anyone’s ever done for me. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I thought you’d be mad.” When his eyebrows lowered, I added, “It seemed like no matter what I did, you got mad at me.”

He groaned. “Asshole, party of one.”

“Stop beating yourself up. You eventually saw the light.”

The corner of his mouth perked up. “Yes, I did,
Luz
.”

And I did, too
.

His face nudged in, and I closed the distance by touching my lips to his. His hard mouth molded over mine, and he let go of my hands to cradle my head. With my chest folded over my legs and the excitement pulsing through my bloodstream, I felt breathless. Our position must not have been to his liking, either, because he launched himself from his chair to the bed with one swift push off his feet.

We found our way into each other’s arms so easily that it felt like we’d been together for years. But I didn’t feel good about the possibility of Frank walking in on us. “This open-door policy’s stupid.” I scooted down the bed and extended my foot to shove the door shut.

“
Very
naughty, Luz.” His grin stretched wide. “GD approves.”

But Governor Ramirez doesn’t
. I pushed down my concern as I slid my way back up the bed. We lay on our sides, facing each other. His hand lowered to my thigh and rubbed from my hip to my knee in long strokes. He watched me shiver, and his eyes darkened. His face had lost some of its tan since August, making him look even more like the All-American boy he was. He was my gringo. I felt so warm and loved in his arms.

I traced the raised ridge of skin above his right eye. “How’d you get this scar?”

“Guatemala.” He shook his head. “I never told you that story?”

“When were
you
in Guatemala?”

“One summer in high school. My family went there on a cross-cultural trip—a humanitarian mission. We helped build a well, some houses, that kind of thing.”

I smiled. “That’s where you learned to speak
español
.”

“
Sí, cariña
.” He smiled back.

“So…” The bumpy scar fascinated my fingers. “You were building a house, and got hit by a
dos-por-quatro?”

He chuckled as he grazed his fingertips up the inside of my arm. I closed my eyes to savor his touch. “No two-by-fours were involved. But a piece of pipe, yeah.”

My eyes flew open. “What
happened?”

“I was being a hothead, as usual.” He grimaced. “Jess was only twelve, maybe thirteen, and the creepy locals kept staring at her.”

“The first
rubia
they’d seen?”

He pointed to his short blond hair. “Yeah. They stared at me, too, but not in the same lecherous way. I confronted one villager about it—we’d only been there a few days and my Spanish sucked—and I inadvertently insulted his mother or something. He came at me with a busted pipe.”

I gasped.

“Do you know how much a cut on your face bleeds?”

I shuddered as I pictured blood dripping down his face. “One time, a club teammate broke her nose when the ball smashed her face.” I cringed. “Blood everywhere.”

“Exactly. My dad was off painting in the mountains, and my mom freaked when she saw all that blood. At first she was screaming for the guy to be arrested, but then our translator got involved and explained I’d insulted the villager in the worst way possible—basically, I was lucky to be alive. Upside of the story: I became motivated to learn Spanish like never before.”

His eyes smiled at me, and I kissed the jagged skin on his forehead.

“Then I love this scar,” I said. “It represents your love for your sister. You were just trying to protect her. You were helping people.”

“Sure botched that one. I bet the villagers were happy to see us go.”

I gazed into his eyes. “I would
never
be happy to see you go.”
And I’m praying I don’t have to.
“You said you wished you felt deep faith in something. Don’t you see? You have deep convictions. You help people. You love your family.”

His head dipped. “My family’s not…close like yours.”

He looked so sad! “Maybe that’s a good thing? Your mom isn’t trying to break us up like my dad is.”

“Your dad’s a good man, though.”

I pulled back with shock. “Dane Monroe.” I pressed the back of my hand to his forehead. “Are you feeling okay?” When he didn’t smile, I dropped my attempt to joke with him. “Hey.” I skimmed my fingertips over his collarbone. “
Are
you okay?”

“You asked me what I talk about with Dr. Valentine.” He closed his eyes as he let out a long breath. Then he rolled onto his back and covered his face with his palms. “My parents don’t love each other. My dad’s having an affair.”

¡Dios mio!
That would destroy me. I didn’t know what to say, but when Dane’s big hands slid down his face so he could see my reaction, I knew I had to come up with something. “That’s awful. I’m so sorry.” I inched closer, and when he nodded, I climbed onto him and snuggled in so that my ear rested on his chest. “When did you find out?”

“Right before Beergate.”

Ah
. That made a lot more sense.

“I couldn’t tell anyone, ’cause of the election.”

I lifted my head. “I won’t tell, I promise. I won’t tell my dad.”

Dane stroked my hair. “He already knows.”

“What?”

“He found out from Secret Service or something. He said he would keep it private because he didn’t want to run a dirty campaign.”

Pride swelled in my heart. But Dane’s expression seemed more like one of shame than pride.

“Your dad said I’m not good for you—I haven’t had proper role models.”

“Well,
that
was mean.”

“He’s right.” Dane grimaced. “Dr. Valentine said I have a fear of intimacy because of my parents’ relationship. It’s probably why I pushed you away so much.”

“You’re not pushing me away now.” I kissed his cheek. “And my parents’ marriage might be fine, but Alex drives me and Matty nuts with his bossiness. No family’s perfect.”

He blinked up at me, seeming to weigh my words. “My dad has really hurt my mom with all of this. I just worry about her, you know?”

“I don’t. She’s a badass.” He arched his eyebrows, and I laughed. “It’s true! Running for president as a woman? That’s amazing. And she’s so beautiful, I’m sure she’ll find another guy who’s even better—”

A knock on the door interrupted me. I pushed back from Dane but he clutched me to his body. “It’s okay.” He nodded. “Come in!”

Please, don’t be Frank
. I exhaled when I saw Allison in the doorway.

“Guess who’s on his way from the airport?” she asked.

“Adolf,” Dane moaned.

This time he let me scramble off of him. I scooped my hair up as I hunted for my shoes on the floor. “When’s he getting here?”

“Two minutes.”

Where was my other darn shoe? As my eyes scanned the floor, I dug in the pocket of my hoodie for a hair band while my other held my hair aloft. Was my room clean? Would Dad make me move out tonight? “I can’t find my shoe!” My heart pounded, and I felt close to tears.

“Hey.” Dane extracted my hand from my pocket and nudged me to let my hair fall before he clasped my hands in his. “Breathe.”

I nodded and tried to calm down.

“It’s going to be okay.”

“What if he makes us break up?” My voice was shrill.

“We talked about this. We won’t let that happen right?”

I gazed into his deep, blue eyes. “Right.”

“He told me he needed some time to think. So I guess he’s done with that now. Whatever he tells you, it’ll be good to know what he’s thinking.”

I took a deep breath. Dane was right. And truthfully, I wanted to see my dad. It was pretty awesome he was visiting me right before the biggest night of his life.

“Now, first step.” He grinned as he kneeled down to slide on my wayward shoe, then stood and spun my body to face the door. “Get the hell out of my bedroom.”

I laughed as I jogged out the door and headed for the foyer. It felt so good to laugh. His sense of humor was one thing of many I loved about Dane. As I passed by the TV room, I noticed Brad tidying up the oversize pillows on the sofa. Allison and China waited for me by the video monitors.

“Do you think we should set out drinks for the governor?” asked Allison.

“Yeah, get him some booze,” Dane said as he swooped in. “He’ll love that.” He’d exchanged his sweatpants for khakis and had pulled a royal blue sweater over his long-sleeve T-shirt. I loved how that sweater matched his eyes.

I glanced down at my typical post-practice uniform of T-shirt, hoodie, and yoga pants and wondered if I should have changed clothes too. I was about to bolt back to my room when Dane clasped my wrist.

“You look fine. Your dad will like you wearing the shirt he got you.”

I unzipped my hoodie another inch so the T-shirt saying was visible:

I spiked your dink

China scrunched her nose. “What’s a dink?”

“It’s a tiny tap of the ball over the net,” Dane explained. “The defense expects a big hit, but you trick ’em with a dink. Unless they spike it straight back at you.”

“Volleyball humor,” China scoffed.

I tensed as Frank and Brad swept into the hallway. “They’re almost here,” Frank said. He glanced at me, but I kept up my silent treatment, so he disarmed the alarm and stepped outside to wait for my dad’s convoy.

Dane’s elbow tapped mine. “Frank was only doing what your dad asked.”

“So you think Frank was right to tell him about us?”

“No. I think he should’ve butted out.” He gestured to the five of us standing there with expectant, nervous energy. “But then we wouldn’t have fun times like this.”