Fate (13 page)

“You ever have a boyfriend?”

There she went again
;
her body language was so telling no matter how hard she tried to hide her nerves.

“No.”

“Really?” Vince smiled. “Almost sixteen and never had a boyfriend. Interesting. That’s unheard of in my neighborhood.”

Rose finally eased up and laughed. “You speak of your neighborhood as if it were on another planet. It’s just two hours away
,
and in case you hadn’t noticed we
are
living in the same day and age. Lots of girls my age in my school have had boyfriends already.
I
just haven’t.” Her eyes teased him. “It’s not because of where I live, Vincent. I’ve just been busy doing other things.”

Vince liked her easing up and speaking more freely. “Oh yeah, your sports keep you too busy for
love
?
”

She rolled her eyes. “Seriously
,
what do kids our age know about love?
Too
many of the
kids
at my school switch partners like I do my gym shoes. That’s not love. Call me old fashioned.” She stood up and stretched side to side like he’d seen so many athletes do at his school. Painfully
,
he had to keep his eyes on hers and nowhere else since she was looking right at him.
“Or a realist
,
b
ut I don’t believe in love at first sight. I believe love is something that grows gradually. You have to really know someone to fall in
love
with them. It’s so ridiculous when I hear girls at school
saying
,
‘O
h my God
,
I’m so in love with him.
’
And they’ve barely even spoken to the guy.”

Vince had to laugh. He’d heard it enough to agree. Girls said it to him all the time or left notes in his locker saying so
:
g
irls he’d never even talked to in some cases
.
S
ome he’d messed around with a few times
,
but talking wasn’t what he’d done with them.

She lifted her leg on to the bench and stretched it. She wore shorts
,
and he tried the entire time to keep his eyes off what he already knew would be his biggest temptation—those legs. They were amazing
,
and he did his best not to gawk
,
but it felt impossible.

“What? Are you going for a run?” He smiled, his eyes nearly burning a hole through her evenly tanned, perfectly toned legs.

“No it’s
a
habit. I stretch so much for practices and games that when I don’t stretch for too long
,
I feel like I need to.” She brought her leg down and pointed at the swings in the playground. “Let’s go sit on them. It’s rare that we have them all to ourselves.”

As they walked to the swings
,
he thought about what she said.
Love is something that grows gradually
. He’d never given much thought to love. That’s not even how he meant it when he teased her about it. The way he and his friends used the word love was a whole lot different than what she’d thought he was implying. He was actually relieved now that she’d misinterpreted what he meant. When his friends asked if he’d gotten some love after a party for example, they weren’t talking about the warm fuzzy feelings he knew Rose was talking about.

“Well, it’s good to know you’re gonna give me a chance to be your friend even after all you know about me now.”

She eyed him playfully as they sat on the swings next to each other. “You did say all that is in the past
,
right?” Her expression went a little more serious. “Your cousin’s warnings weighed pretty heavily on Grace
,
you know? I practically begged her to trust my judgment in choosing friends so that she’d let me hang out with you this summer.”

The irritation of hearing about Sal’s warnings again was snuffed when he heard what followed. “You begged?” Vince stopped swinging and looked at her feeling the big goofy grin plaster his face. “For me?”

To his surprise
,
she didn’t appear embarrassed by this. “Sure,” she said continuing to swing lifting her long legs in the air to pick up speed. “I’ve enjoyed your texts and emails so much
.
I figure it’d be even more fun hanging with you. As long as your bad-boy days are over, Grace
has
to be reasonable about letting my new friend come around
,
and she is.”

Vince couldn’t remember ever feeling so satisfied. He began swinging again. That’s all he needed to know. He could almost see the glow of the halo forming over his head. He’d be on his best behavior if it meant
his
being able to be around Rose more. The whole way there
,
he’d contemplated whether or not he’d try anything with Rose today. Now that he knew how she felt about love and friendship and that she not only wanted him around she’d
begged
her sister to give him a chance
,
he wasn’t blowing this. There
was
no way he would try anything now—not this soon anyway.

But there was something he had to know
:
t
hat damn prom date. When she’d mentioned
it
a few weeks
ago
, he hadn’t asked much
,
except only what mattered at the time and that was if she was seeing the guy. She said she wasn’t
,
and he hadn’t asked more
,
but now he was curious. It irritated the hell out of him that she had to beg just to hang out with Vince
,
and yet her sister was okay with her going to the prom with a senior.

“So you never told me. How did prom go?”

“It was nice. The guy I went with was actually nominated for prom king
,
but he didn’t win. He and his best friend are like
the
most popular guys in school. Everybody knew it would be one of them
,
and his best friend won. I don’t know what the vote count was
,
but I’m sure it was really close.”

“
The
most popular guy in school, huh?” Vince stared straight ahead not wanting her to notice how much that bothered him. “And you’re not seeing him?”

“Nope
,
we
just had a lot of
the same
classes. Since I took a lot of
dual-
credit classes that mostly seniors were taking, we became good friends.”

Vince gripped the chains on his swing even tighter remembering what she’d just said about love happening gradually. If this guy was a good friend, that’s how it started right? He turned just as she swung those jaw
-
dropping legs in the air and remembered what Romero had said earlier at the restaurant—jailbait.

She’d already said she wasn’t seeing the guy. They were just friends
,
and why would she have begged to hang out with him if she was interested in Mr. Popular
?
But obviously Mr. Popular was interested in her. Why else would he have asked her to the prom? The words from the guys ribbing him back at the restaurant echoed in his head.
You’re gonna have your hands full
,
fighting off older guys.

Fighting—even that could get his ass hauled back to La Puente prematurely. But damn it if his adrenaline hadn’t already started pumping and he was already mentally preparing to kick this guy
’
s ass.

He jumped off his swing and stood in front of her pushing her shoes as she held them out in front of her to get her swinging higher. She giggled when he pushed a little too hard
,
and it made her swing fly way back and up high.

“So if this guy was so popular
,
why would he ask you? I mean he’s a senior and you’re what, a sophomore?”

“Junior,” she grinned.

“But you’re a year younger than me.”

“I skipped the first grade. I was a smarty
-
pants.”

Vince thought about that for a moment. Somehow that didn’t surprise him. Pushing her feet again
,
he wished he could also push away the thoughts that this older guy took Rose
,
a fifteen-year-old clearly innocent girl
,
to the prom. Vince had heard all about the things that happen prom night.

“But still
,
he could’ve taken someone older.” He rolled his eyes. “Obviously the guy isn’t blind
,
but you said you’re just friends
,
so why wouldn’t he ask someone he might get lucky with that night?”

“Oh, he got lucky.”

Vince grabbed her two feet with one hand stopping her midflight using every muscle in his arms and back to keep her there. “What?”

Her eyes grew open as understanding sunk in. “Not with me.”

Vince still held her in place
,
not understanding. “What do you mean not with you? You were his date.”

She wiggled her feet trying to
get
loose
,
but Vince held them tight.

“Grace wasn’t about to let me go to the after parties, Vincent. He dropped me off after prom then partied until the early morning like all the other seniors. I never got the gory details or anything
,
but it was all over Facebook the very next day who ended up with who
m
by the end of the night.”

Vince let go of her
,
and at that very moment
,
he knew. This staying out of trouble thing was going to be a lot harder than he thought. His fuse had never been very long to begin with
,
but he’d never
felt his temper flare
that
fast in his life
,
n
ot even when someone messed with Lorenzo
.
H
e knew his brother could hold his own in a fight pretty well. But the thought of some senior taking advantage of sweet Rosie had him instantly on fire. This was
bad
.

***

A few things happened in the coming days. Grace and Sal got back together
,
and Vince couldn’t have been happier. He was beginning to feel like a real crumb about passing info
rmation
on to Sal that he got about Grace from Rose
,
but he had no choice. Sal was taking a real chance letting his sixteen-year-old
,
barely licensed cousin drive to and from Chula Vista
,
but he’d made the conditions very clear.

At first Vince had been a little worried that his wheels would be taken away because Sal had mentioned the car he was driving had originally been bought for Grace. But they didn’t just get back together, Grace was pregnant now
,
and they were getting married. Sal’s engagement gift to Grace
,
other than the huge rock he got her
,
was a brand new SUV.

For weeks Vince remained on his best behavior
,
and it paid off. He and Rose spent more and more time together as the summer went on. Sal even got them both passes to Sea World, The San Diego Zoo
,
and Disneyland the week of their birthdays. It was an awesome week. Vince had begun to feel a bond with Rose like he’d only ever felt with his brother. The need to protect her and be there for her was ever present now.

After hearing her mention more than once about her fondness for teddy bears and the collection her father had started for her before passing away when she was very young, Vince wanted to add to the collection. He’d asked her what her favorite bear of all time was
,
and she’d immediately said Baloo from Disney’s Jungle Book
,
but she only had a small one of him. So when they got the chance to go to Disneyland
,
he was determined to get her a bigger one. Only he wasn’t just going to buy her one
;
he was going to show his shooting skills in the game area
and
win her a giant Baloo.

Disneyland was the first of the theme parks they hit that week. Up until then
,
though he made it clear by his actions that he cared about her, he’d yet to openly express
his feelings
or do anything more to move things further along in their just friends
’
status. They hadn’t even held hands. Walking through the crowded theme park changed that. At first he made it seem
like
a simple act of protectiveness. He didn’t want to lose her in the crowd
,
so he’d reached his hand out to her
,
and she took it.