Fate (10 page)

***

The good news of getting the go
-
ahead from his uncle about summer in La Jolla was quickly paled when he found out Rose would be out of state for the first week. Her family was taking a last
-
minute vacation to Laughlin
,
so he’d been in La Jolla over a week now
,
and he may as well have been in La Puente. The only contact he’d had so far with her was their damn texting still.
She was home now, and h
e was dying to see her
.
H
e still hadn’t even asked if he could use the restaurant
’s
car
,
which
Sal had let him use to get to and from work
,
to drive out to see her.

The last few days she’d been busy packing because she was moving
:
n
owhere far
,
just out of that scum
my
building she lived in now
.
Rose had asked Vince to share as little as possible with Sal about anything her sister was up to. He’d already blown it by letting Sal know they were in Laughlin
,
but fortunately Sal hadn’t asked much about it.

Finally
,
Rose said she might be able to see him tonight
,
only she had to convince her sister. Apparently
,
thanks to Sal
,
even though he wasn’t with her sister anymore
,
she was still holding on to the advice that Sal had given her before they broke up that Vince shouldn’t be trusted.

He walked into the dining room of the restaurant where Sal was chatting with his friend Romero. Vince had been around Romero before. He liked him. He wasn’t wound nearly as tight as Sal was. And from what he’d heard
,
he was a bit of a hothead himself so Vince could relate.

Vince hadn’t even finished tying his apron when Sal was already asking if Rose was still in Laughlin.

“Nah, they got back a few days ago
,
but she’s been busy packing for uh…”
S
hit
!
Vince finished tying his apron and tried to recover from the slip and changed the subject. “You think maybe it’
d
be
okay for me to drive out tonight and see her for a couple hours after my shift?”

“You mean
un
packing right?” Sal asked and Vince could feel his cousin eyeing him as he pretended to concentrate on tying his apron.

He gave a few vague answers to relieve Sal’s further curiosity with the whole packing/unpacking thing. Vince thought they’d gotten past it. He was even relieved when Romero started in on him about Rose.

“You and Grace’s sister,
h
uh?” Romero asked tossing his napkin on his plate with a smirk then burped.

Vince was about to respond when Romero added another irritating comment. “She’s straight jailbait, man.” He shook his head. “I couldn’t believe it when Grace said she was
only
fifteen.”

The smirk on Romero’s face was so annoying Vince couldn’t help
but
give in to his obvious riling. “Jailbait?”
He was t
rying not to glare but knew he’
d
failed miserably. “What the hell does that mean?”

Oh, he knew what he meant al
l
right
,
but that would only be true if Rose
were
promiscuous and tried to pass herself as older than she was.

Obviously this amused Sal’s stupid friend because he smirked even bigger now. “Means you’re gonna have your hands full, fighting off older guys who might mistake her for an eighteen-year-old.”

To his own surprise
,
this
really
pissed him off. Rose was his friend and one of the sweetest girls he’d ever met. “No I won’t,” he said raising his voice
,
“
’c
ause she’s not like that.”

Practically laughing now, Romero lifted his hands in the air. “You wanted to know what I meant. I was just explaining.”

What an
asshole
!
Maybe Vince didn’t like this guy so much after all. Of course Vince knew what he’d meant about jailbait
, but
what he really wanted to know was what Romero was insinuating about Rose. Before he could recover
,
Sal added his own two cents.

“Romero is right. She did already get asked to
that
prom
by
an older boy.” Now even Sal smirked. “I dunno
;
you really think she was busy for
days
of unpacking?
That’s kind of odd. Isn’t it? You sure maybe her prom date wasn’t keeping her busy?”

Completely ignited now by these
two
assholes
,
the words flew out before he could think it through. “She was packing, okay? I wasn’t supposed to say anything
,
but they’re moving.”

Seeing Sal’s smirk fall flat gave Vince some satisfaction. Who was irritating who
m
now?

“Moving where?”

“They’re not sure yet. That’s another thing that’s kept her busy,
Sal
. They’ve been
busy looking for a new place, too. But all we do is text, so she can’t write it all down.
” Since it was already out
,
he may as just tell him. Vince didn’t know a whole lot anyway then it hit him
,
and he grinned. “If I see her tonight, I’ll finally get to talk to her. I can get the whole scoop for you.” Vince felt kind of
crummy
about giving Sal any info
rmation
on Grace when Rose had specifically asked him not to
,
but he really wanted to see her. At this point he’d say anything.

“Sure you can
go
see Rose, Vin.” Sal suddenly smiled.

Yes!
Vince had never felt so smug in his life. The smug feeling didn’t last very long because Sal quickly turned it around on him.

He proceeded to tell him under what conditions he could use the car. First off
,
he reminded
Vince that Rose was only fifteen and
warned
him that if he did
anything
disrespectful or got her in any kind of trouble
,
his ass was gone.
There were n
o second chances.

Romero got up in the middle of Sal’s warning speech and said he was out but not before adding one more jab. “Listen to your cousin, Vin. A girl like that can be trouble.”

That did it. “A girl like what?” Vince took a step away from Sal and one toward Romero. “You don’t know shit—”

“Al
l
right, al
l
right!” Sal put his hand on Vince’s shoulder with a chuckle.

Sal assured him that Romero was just messing with him as Romero continued
to walk
away laughing.

“
She’s a
very
nice girl.
” Sal continued to smirk.

Maybe they
were
just messing with him. He’d had his balls busted plenty of times by his friends
,
but already things felt different when it came to Rose.

Strangely
,
this only made him want to see her even more now. He’d give in to any and all of Sal’s conditions. By the end of his conversation with Sal
,
Vince
felt like he’d made a deal with the devil himself because behaving and keeping Rose out of trouble weren’t Sal’s only conditions. Sal wanted him to get him as much information on Grace as he could.

Vince finally agreed and it was on. If Grace said yes, Vinc
e would be seeing Rose tonight.

Rose

Her phone beeped and she read the text
.

I’m here.

Those two little words had her insides spinning. This was the first time she’d be seeing Vincent since the shower. Rose had finally convinced Grace
,
who’d been seriously warned by Sal
,
that Vincent shouldn’t be trusted to let her hang out with him. Of course these were warnings that had come when her sister and Sal were still together
,
but her sister had taken them very seriously.

Since Grace was so leery about allowing it and thought Rose was still too young to have a boyfriend
,
Grace made her promise this was nothing more than a friendship. Up until now
that was all she and Vincent called it,
so she had no problem agreeing to that.

Rose understood why Grace was so apprehensive about Vincent. Some of the things he’d done or gotten in trouble for in the past were pretty bad
,
but Rose could feel it in her heart
that
he was a good guy. He’d made some mistakes
:
m
istakes he’d learned from and
that
he was really trying to make up for. Her heart fluttered remembering how he’d said he was doing everything he could to stay out of trouble
.
H
is incentive
was that
i
f he did stay out of trouble
,
he’d get to spend the summer in La Jolla
.
T
he possibility of hanging out with her was all he needed.

She texted back that she’d be right down then kissed Grace
’
s forehead
.
She
was now sound asleep in the bed they shared. Grace wasn’t feeling well lately. She said she was under the weather
,
but Rose knew better. Her break up with Sal had affected Grace in such a way
that
she’d made herself ill. Their trip to Laughlin had been
,
in part
,
to try and get her mind off him. Grace was trying to play it off that she was better
,
but Rose didn’t buy it. For that reason alone
,
she
made
sure not to do anything with Vincent that might upset her sister. Her sister had enough on her mind
;
Rose didn’t need to add more.

Stopping to check herself in the mirror before walking out of her room, Rose took a very deep breath. She never imagined
that
seeing Vincent again would be this nerve
-
wracking.

“Where you going?”

Her mother sat on the sofa watching her novella as Rose made her way to the front door. The question was almost rhetorical. Rose knew her mother didn’t actually care
,
but she answered anyway.

“Outside, my friend is downstairs.”

Her mother lifted an eyebrow then asked. “How’s your sister doing? She feeling any better?”

“I think
so
,” Rose turned to face her. “She’s sleeping right now.”

As expected
,
her mom upped the volume on the television when the commercial was over and her novella came back on. She didn’t bother to ask Rose any more about Grace or the friend waiting for Rose
,
n
ot even how long she’d be gone. Rose stood there for a moment waiting to see if she might ask anything else. When she didn’t
,
Rose didn’t say another word
; she
just walked out. She was long over the sting that her mother simply had no interest in being a mother to her. Rose had Grace. That
was
all she needed.

Shaking away thoughts of her mother and Grace
,
her belly began doing flip
-
flops as she walked down the stairs toward the picnic area where she’d told Vince she’d meet him.

Her heart danced in her chest as she turned the corner and saw him. He stood there by the picnic tables near the playground wearing faded jeans and a white tank top holding his keys in one hand and
smiling
big the instant he saw her. Rose remembered that butterfly
-
inducing smile
,
but somehow it was even more amazing now. Maybe it was because seeing him in a tank top that showed off his toned arms and shoulders instead of that out of place polo added to the overall picture. The girls at her school would die for him.