Romero (25 page)

Isabel laughed, then felt her face warm when she thought of Romero’s sexual appetite. She was glad Valerie was too busy eating to notice her flushed face.

“So how are things with you and Romero? I think that was so sweet of him to take the whole week off to take care of you.”

Isabel nodded in agreement and smiled. “Things are good. We’ve had a few intense moments here and there. And my sister hasn’t exactly helped. But otherwise we’re… good.”

Valerie stopped and stared at her. “But…”

Usually it was Isabel who read Valerie well enough to know something was bothering her. In the last couple of years Valerie had become pretty good at reading Isabel, too. Isabel chewed the corner of her lip. “I dunno. It’s nothing. I’m probably just being silly.”

Isabel picked at her slice of pizza, thinking about it. “Thing is, when I called him on it, saying I guess it’s okay for me to do things with my guy friends he said it wasn’t but Cici was …
different
. I don’t know what that means.”

Valerie’s eyebrows pinched. “Did you ask him?”

“No, he took it back real quick, saying it wasn’t what I was thinking and at that point I was so pissed and feeling so sick I told him to just leave my room. Then after that, I was so deliriously sick for the next whole week, we never brought it up again.” She continued to pick at her food, her appetite deteriorating by the minute. “That’s not even the worst part about it.” Valerie had stopped eating, giving Isabel her full attention. “He reeked of perfume that night. He said he just hugged her goodbye, but it made me sick to my stomach.”

Valerie touched her hand. “Ask him what he meant. I never heard of him having any serious relationships and I’ve never heard of a Cici. I’ll definitely be asking Alex about it though. Still I wouldn’t let this go and not that I think you shouldn’t trust him, but if it were me, I’d raise an eyebrow the next time he mentions going to the mall.”

After her lunch with Valerie, Isabel ran a few errands. Romero knew she was off and said he’d be home early. She thought of what Valerie said. She wouldn’t even know how to bring up the subject of Cici without making things weird. But she knew one thing, if she didn’t, it would eat away at her.

That evening after they’d eaten, Romero sat in the front room tinkering with the new laptop he’d purchased that day. Isabel finished cleaning up the kitchen then walked into the front room, noticing the bag he’d pulled the laptop out of. MicroTech—the electronic store—at the
mall
. “So you were at the mall again?”

Romero didn’t even look up. “Yeah, I’ve been there almost every day this week. I finally had Sal meet me there today. I just couldn’t decide what laptop to go with.” He looked up and smiled. “Sal’s too much. He actually brought papers he printed out from the research he’d done, comparing specs between the laptops I told him I was interested in. But he did help me decide.” He turned back to the laptop on the coffee table. “Now I just gotta get all the software uploaded and transfer all my files.”

Flags had immediately gone up at the mention that he’d been there every day this week. This was the first she’d heard him mention it. “So did you see Cici this week?”

Romero looked up at her again and she searched his face for any signs of guilt or alarm. She saw something, but not guilt.

“No, I didn’t.” He held his hand out for her and she took it. He pulled her to him, making her sit and then kissed her. “I hope you’re not still mad about that. I know we never got a chance to talk about it, but honest to God if I had known you’d be that upset about it, I would’ve
never
gone to lunch with her. And that whole Frisco’s thing.” He winced. “I swear I’m an idiot. I fucked up. I wasn’t even thinking about that. I’m sorry. I really am.”

Isabel noted how up until the very end he’d been doing pretty good about cleaning up his language. She tried to smile but something still gnawed at her. “What did you mean when you said she’s different?”

Romero sat back and she brought her leg up under her. “I was just curious what her story was. For a long time I blamed myself for not having anticipated that fuc—” He pressed his lips together then cleared his throat. “Her boyfriend slapping her like that. He did it right in front of me.”

That’s when she saw it. It was so slight if she hadn’t been staring in his eyes she might’ve missed it—guilt. She knew it. This wasn’t just someone that worked for his uncles. There was more to it.

Romero opened his mouth then closed it as if he’d changed his mind.

“What? Just tell me.” Isabel’s heart rate had already picked up. She didn’t want to have another outburst but this was stupid. “It’s in the past. What difference does it make now? Unless you’re hiding something from me.”

“No. I’m not hiding anything.” He squeezed her hand. “She was on her break. I was working the door outside. Her boyfriend showed up and saw her flirting with me. He was drunk and belligerent so he started going off on her. I actually had to pin his ass up against a car. I thought he’d calmed down and I let him go. That’s when he slapped her.”

Isabel saw his jaw clenched and how much that still upset him. She felt almost ashamed that instead of being warmed by Romero being so affected about a woman being abused, she was jealous. After all this time, something that happened to Cici brought out so much emotion in him. Remembering Cici’s perfume all over Romero, she stared at him, wanting to tell him she didn’t want to hear of him around her ever again, instead she asked, “So she’s okay now? Did she marry the guy?”

Isabel glanced up at his face and smiled. She wasn’t that kind of girlfriend, insecure and suspicious. That’s the last impression she wanted to give him, but something about this Cici girl rubbed her the wrong way. She’d let it go for now, but like Valerie said, she’d raise an eyebrow every time he mentioned being at the mall.

It was early and the party in La Jolla Shores celebrating some real estate tycoon’s eightieth birthday was winding down. Romero had a feeling when he saw the guests arrive. This bunch of geriatrics wouldn’t be partying into the night. He’d already texted Isabel to tell her he would make it to Charles’s party after all. Not that he was looking forward to spending time around Pat, but at least Alex would be there and he could probably stop and have a few drinks downstairs at the restaurant to help loosen him up before heading up to party with all the stiffs.

Once the party was down to a small amount of people and he knew his guys could handle it without him, he left. It was a good thing they’d asked for the security staff to blend in with the party goers. He didn’t have to stop and change. He did, however make one stop.

He’d lied to Isabel earlier that week but only because he didn’t want to ruin the surprise. If he’d admitted to seeing Cici earlier that week, she would’ve for sure have wanted to know why. He’d tell her tonight and hoped that once she saw the surprise, she’d understand why he lied.

His heart sped up as he neared the jewelry store. He’d almost gone with the earrings—diamond studs. Cici was actually the one who talked him into getting the ring. Talk of marriage hadn’t even come up between him and Isabel. Even though they were living together now, he still liked the idea of giving her something that gave their relationship that much more validity. He hated to admit it, but having her family see just how serious he was about Isabel had a lot to do with his decision as well. He’d called ahead to let Cici know he was stopping by to pick up the ring.

Cici had explained giving her a ring didn’t have to mean they were getting engaged. People bought rings for all sorts of reasons: promise rings, anniversary rings or just to say I love you. He still wasn’t sure what his exact reason would be, he just couldn’t wait to see it on her. “Is it ready?”

Cici looked up and smiled, her perfume heavier this time than it’d been all week as if she’d just sprayed herself. “You’re gonna love it.”

He’d picked out what Cici referred to as a princess cut diamond. He’d seen plenty of women wearing round diamonds. He liked that it was square. He had to be sneaky and snag one of Isabel’s rings from her jewelry box to get the right size. If he’d gone with the one carat he could’ve paid in cash, but once he saw what a two carat looked like, he had to have it. Only now, even with Cici hooking him up, he’d still be paying it off for the next year. It didn’t matter. His Izzy was worth it.

Cici had been more than ecstatic. Apparently, this was one of her biggest commission earnings to date.

She brought out the small box from the back and came all the way around the counter to hand it to him. He’d already paid the down payment and the paperwork was all done. Only reason he hadn’t taken it home yet was because it had to be sized and Cici had them give it an extra polish. She opened the box. The ring sparkled brilliantly. It was perfect. He’d made the right choice. Isabel was going to love it.

After handing it to him, Cici hugged him again, and though he almost didn’t, he felt bad not hugging her back, so he brought his arms around her waist and hugged her. “You have no idea,” she whispered, her arms still around him, holding him tight. “How much this commission is going to come in handy. Thank you for coming back to me. I really,
really
appreciate it.”

He told her she was welcome but still, she didn’t let go. “My sister’s always going on and on about how we all have an angel looking out for us.” She squeezed him even harder. “If you had any idea what this money means at this time in my life. You’d know why I’m calling you my angel right now.” She kissed him on the cheek and finally pulled away slowly.

After hearing and seeing how grateful Cici was about her commission he was glad now that he’d gone back to her to get the ring. Since Isabel had been so upset about the whole Frisco’s thing, he’d actually considered going to another jewelry store and avoiding Cici altogether. But knowing she was a single mom, and since she
had
asked him to, he knew now he hadn’t made a mistake going back to her.

The whole way to Moreno’s, Romero kept sniffing himself to see if he smelled of Cici. Even sick, Isabel had smelled the perfume on him and it wasn’t even as bad that day as today. But the smell had penetrated so badly into his nose he couldn’t tell anymore if he smelled or not.

When he got to the restaurant, he placed the bag with the ring in the trunk of his car. He wanted to give it her later when they were alone. He stopped at the bar before going up. Sal was there micro-managing some of the newer bartenders. “Will you stop and have a drink with me, ass?”

Sal frowned but walked over to where Romero sat. “I don’t usually drink while on duty but you’ve always been such a bad influence.” He grabbed two beers and handed one to Romero then popped one open for himself.

“Good,” Romero said, dropping a twenty in front of him. “And I’m gonna need something stronger than a beer before heading up there.”

“Your money’s no good here, Romero.” Sal shoved the twenty back at him and pulled out a bottle of tequila. Romero frowned. Ever since he started his security business and now that the restaurant was so busy, they’d asked for his services quite a few times. Romero always complied but when it came time to pay him he took but a fraction of what he normally charged his clients. These guys were like family to him—no way were they paying him his regular rate. So now, he was never allowed to pay for his damn drinks.

“I heard you played doctor all last week?” Sal placed the shot of tequila in front of Romero.

Romero downed the shot, remembering the sheer terror he’d felt when he realized how bad Isabel was. “Yeah, Izzy got pretty damn sick there for a minute—scared the shit outta me.”

“I ain’t looking to get a buzz, I just wanna relax the muscles a little before I have to be around her fucking sister. I can’t stand the bitch.”

Sal frowned and glanced at the lady sitting next to Romero. “Will you tone it down? I thought you said you were working on that?”

He had a few more shots and a couple of beers when his phone buzzed in his pocket—a text—from Alex.

Where are you? This is boring as shit.

Alex had texted him earlier asking if he was going to be there. Seems he wasn’t exactly a willing participant either but since Valerie wanted to go to this thing, he said he was taking one for the team.

Romero laughed, feeling a lot more relaxed than when he got there. “Get me one more for the road.” He tapped the shot glass on the bar.