Fate (30 page)

Grace was pregnant again and had her hands full with the baby as it was. The last thing Rose wanted was to add to her burden by continuing to be a depressed and now ill hermit. But she was in no way ready to put herself out there yet. This would have to do to convince Grace she was actually doing so.

With a deep breath she walked out of her room and out into the kitchen where she could see through the window
that
some of the guests had already arrived. Sofia was the first to greet her as she reached the patio door.

“Congrats! Oh my God, I’m so proud of you. That was
fast
. It took me two full years to get my AA.”

Rose smiled as she took in all the decorations and flowers then frowned. “Yeah, but it’s just my AA. I’m almost afraid to
think of
what they’ll do when I get my bachelors.”

Sofia laughed. “Oh, don’t worry. Whatever
they do
, it’ll be huge and there will be tons of food.”

They walked out together
to
where Sal stood talking to his brother Alex, Sofia’s husband Eric
,
and Romero. They all turned as
the girls
walked out and smiled. “It’s the sweetheart of the hour
,
” Sal said opening his arm
s
out for her.

Rose felt herself blush as she leaned into a big hug from him and then was hugged and congratulated one by one by the other men, each smelling better than the next. She had to agree with Candace. Even though they were all older, well older than the guys
she
and her friends would ever date, they
were
a handsome bunch. She only admitted it once to Grace but wouldn’t dare say it out loud since they were all married
,
and she loved all their wives
as well
,
but
since Angel was closest to her in age,
she always got a little tongue
-
tied around
him
. The thing about this family was that they were all as sweet as they were good looking—even their wives.

She felt guilty now that she’d been so angry and resentful with Sal in the beginning when Vincent first left. He’d done so much for her since she’d come to live with them
,
and he really didn’t have to. Just because she was Grace’s younger sister
,
he’d completely taken on the older
-
brother
role,
but many times
it felt
more like
a
fatherly
role
with her. His brothers now acted like uncles to her
, too.
S
he’d never felt
so much
sincere warmth from
anyone as she had from
th
is
entire family.

Rose glanced around the patio quickly taking in all the guests. Her eyes came to a stop on her mom. For the past several months she’d been in limbo staying here with them until Grace found her a suitable apartment. There was plenty of room for her to just stay here
,
but Rose could tell that Sal didn’t care for her mother
,
and who could blame him? She hadn’t changed a bit.

When she and her ex-husband Ruben separated almost a year ago
,
she’d begun hounding Grace about letting her move out here and work for her and Sal at the restaurant. Grace only agreed because her mother said she wanted her own place. She claimed she didn’t want to crash Grace
’
s marriage that was still in the honeymoon stage for the most part. But ever since she’d moved out here
,
she’d found one thing after another to object
to
with every apartment Grace and Rose had found for her.

As usual
Sal was the epitome of patience. He’d even gone so far as to suggest they wait until after their second baby was born to look for a place for her mother. The last thing he wanted was for Grace to stress about this while she was pregnant. While Sal had his priorities straight—his
pregnant
wi
f
e
’
s health came first—her mother as usual thought only of one thing
:
herself.

Even this brought on thoughts of Vincent. Grace and now Sal and his family showered her with all the love and affection Rose needed
,
b
ut Vincent’s intense and unconditional love had all but smothered any lingering hurt she felt about her mother’s blatant indifference for her
:
a
n indifference that carried into even today. Not once had she mentioned
or
even asked Rose if she’d be interested in moving in with her if she ever got her own place. Rose knew she shouldn’t care. She was perfectly content living with Grace and Sal
.
I
t just seemed
that
an invitation to have her single daughter live with her and take the burden off her nearly newly wedded daughter
,
who was just now starting her own family, would be the courteous thing to do
:
a
t least for appearance
’
s
sake.
Rose certainly wouldn’t take her up on it. It’d just be nice to know
that
being part of Rose’s life even though she was all grown up now was something that had actually crossed her mother’s mind.

Laughter and a rise in voices coming from the inside brought their attention to the kitchen window. Rose’s heart did a little nervous jump. Ben was there. She hated having to do this
,
but Grace was right smack in the middle of it all already
,
smiling big and introducing him to Sal’s parents. Taking a deep breath
,
she turned to Sal who smiled playfully at her. “Bring him out here. He’s gonna have to meet them all eventually.”

Alex chuckled
,
sipping his beer as he glanced toward Ben still mingling with his parents. “Yeah, let’s meet this guy already.”

Sofia raised an eyebrow. “You guys better behave. Poor guy.”

“Nah,” Eric laughed. “Let him pay his dues. Lord knows I had to with this family.”

They all laughed
,
and Rose braced herself as she walked into the kitchen. Ben smiled as soon as he saw her and reached his hand out. She slipped her hand in his and smiled big at Grace.
Let the performance commence.

After chitchatting with Grace
’s
and Sal’s parents a bit more
,
she led him outside to where the guys stood wearing mischievous grins.

Sal was the first to greet him. “How goes it, Ben?” He reached out and shook his hand.

As one by one she introduced him to all of them
,
she was relieved that they all did just as Sofia had asked—behaved. That is until Romero started up on him.

“So I heard you’re a player?”

Alex’s eyebrows shot up as did Ben
’s
and Rose
’
s
.

“What?” Ben asked confused.

“You play college ball
,
” Romero turned to Sal
,
“
r
ight?”

Both Rose and Ben exhaled at the same time as Romero smirked. “Yeah, I play basketball at UC San Diego.” Ben smiled.

The guys weren’t as bad as Sofia had made it sound like they might be. There was a little teasing and some light
-
handed warnings about messing with someone in their family. Romero cracked his knuckles a few times
,
but otherwise it went well.

As Rose and Ben made their way through the guests
,
making small talk and answering some of the nosier questions from a few of Sal’s aunts, Rose stomach did that little thing it did when she saw Angel
and
Sarah walk out into the patio. But it was quickly squashed when
she
saw Lorenzo just behind them. Sarah smiled when her eyes met Rose’s then glanced curiously at Ben.

The moment Lorenzo spotted Ben, Rose knew—he remembered. Immediately she regretted not warning Ben that Lorenzo would be there because Lorenzo glared at him then at her, making no attempt to hide his distaste for what he was looking at.

Thankfully Angel and Sarah walked up to Rose, each hugging and congratulating her. Any pitter
-
pattering her heart would’ve normally done because of Angel was drowned out by the feeling of dread
:
d
read that Lorenzo might actually say something to Ben.

“Thank you,” she said quickly. Even though Lorenzo had walked in a different direction and at this point showed no interest in meeting Ben, Rose was very aware that he hadn’t taken his eyes off them. She introduced Angel and Sarah to Ben. “You guys
,
this is my friend Ben.” She turned to Ben. “Ben this is Angel, Sal’s youngest brother and his wife
,
Sarah.”

A little annoyed at herself that she chickened out of referring to Ben as her boyfriend just because Lorenzo
was within hearing distance
,
she continued the small talk pretending not to notice his heavy presence. He moved about the backyard a few times
,
but the entire time made it very clear he was watching them.

Everything had been going so smoothly up until he arrived. She’d finally relaxed enough and
tried to
enjoy herself. Now she couldn’t even think straight.
This was ridiculous
!
And did he
have
to make it so obvious that he was watching her? He may as well
have held
up a sign that said
,
“I’m watching you with this asshole
,
and I’m disgusted.”
I
t was exactly the message his body language and facial expressions conveyed.

Finally unable to take his scrutiny, she decided to leave his sight at least for a few moments
,
so she excused herself to use the bathroom.

She was in there for just a few minutes. Looking at her reflection
,
she practiced her fake smiling a little and tried to shake off the discomfort brought on by Lorenzo being there.

Walking out of the bathroom and turning up the hallway
,
she was startled by Lorenzo’s voice behind her. “So how long did you actually wait after my brother left to start seeing this dick?” Rose spun around to face him. He was leaning his shoulder against the wall, arms crossed in front of him. “Or were you seeing him before Vince left?”

“No, if you recall,
I’m
not the one that messed things up between me and Vince,” she reminded him standing her ground.

He dropped his arms and pushed away from the wall
:
t
he very wall Vince had once kissed her so passionately against. “How long?”

“That’s none of your business,” she said trying to drown out the hurt that came with the memory of Vincent’s kisses.

“Oh
,
I think it is.” Lorenzo and Vince were one and the same when they were angry
,
and she saw it in Lorenzo’s eyes now. He was hot.
“
Because if that fucker was pulling a fast one on my brother
,
messing with his girl even before he left, I’ll go out there right now and kick his ass.”

“No!” She gasped
,
knowing that from everything Vincent had told her about Lorenzo
,
she knew he’d have no qualms about making a scene even here. “It’s only been a few weeks.”

“You told Sofie he was your boyfriend at
U
ncle Sal’s party. It’s been longer than a few weeks
,
and even then she’d said it’d been months.”

His eyes were as piercing as Vincent’s
,
especially right now that he looked so determined to get to the truth. She knew he’d been listening that day
;
she just had no idea he’d been listening this closely. That alone told her one thing—Vincent knew. As adamant as Lorenzo was being now
,
she knew there was no way he hadn’t told his brother. Her heart ached
,
remembering her promise to Vincent that she’d belong to him and only him
forever
. He was now under the impression that she’d broken that promise when her irrational heart still secretly didn’t ever want to.