CHAPTER 2

The next morning, Valerie woke up with a raging fever. She’d been that way as long as she could remember. It went as far back as when she was a little girl. The most memorable time being when a dog had killed her cat and she cried all night. Her dad rushed her to urgent care the next morning because her fever was so high. The doctors attributed it to dehydration. Valerie knew that this time, the tequila added to it. She had more than a few more shots after Alex left the party last night.

Luke had already come by and picked up the keys to the property he was showing that day. She called early to let him know she wasn’t feeling well.

Valerie sat on the sofa sipping her Gatorade. She put up a front at the party last night after Alex left. Originally she planned on not admitting to Isabel just what a mess she’d actually been. But Isabel knew all about her crying herself sick from her past heartaches. There was no way to hide the embarrassing fact that she’d cried herself to sleep last night. So, she fessed up and let Isabel in on how pitiful she was.

There was very little she kept from Isabel anyway. Isabel wasn’t just her roommate, she was her best friend. They met in college their freshman year and were forced to share a dorm. At first they hated each other. They were polar opposites. Valerie a tiny, messy, blonde, party girl and Isabel was tall, brunette, as anal as they came, and all about hitting the books.

It wasn’t until one of the first times Alex broke Valerie’s heart that they bonded. That night Isabel had been the only one around to console her. After talking almost all night Valerie decided to help Isabel come out of her shell and live a little. Isabel wasn’t unattractive, just a little too simple in her taste in clothes and make up. Valerie always told her she had the sexiest eyes. Once done up, she was actually pretty hot. Unfortunately, most of the time Isabel chose to go with simple.

In return Isabel helped Valerie bring her grades up and stick with school. There were a few times she’d come close to giving up and just taking the state exam, but Isabel convinced her to at least get her associates degree before getting her real estate license. In Isabel’s family degrees were everything.

They kept in touch even after Valerie got her AA and ran with it, moving back in with her dad. By the time Isabel graduated with her bachelors in teaching, they were best friends, and now shared an apartment. After living in the same dorm room with Isabel for two years, Valerie knew there was no getting around her meticulous ways. She learned long ago to just go with the flow rather than fight it.

“Let’s check again.” Isabel handed her the thermometer.

Valerie took it and smiled. Isabel was going to be such a great mom someday. She sure knew how to baby you and boy did she know how to nag.

She’d been so busy last night playing the strong woman part and secretly wishing Alex would come back to the party. Valerie hadn’t really paid attention to Isabel. Not that Isabel had been neglected. She got plenty attention from Romero. For someone that seemed as put off by his first impression of Isabel, Romero sure stuck by her the whole night.

“So, how’d it go with Romero last night?”

“Don’t talk with that thing in your mouth. It won’t register correctly.” Isabel plopped down on the sofa across from her. “He’s…different. And good Lord, he loves to debate.”

Valerie smiled but followed her orders and didn’t speak. Isabel went on. “I mean he even admits he loves it. You know what he told me?”

Valerie’s lifted both eyebrows.

“He said when he goes to sports bar and his team is not playing, he figures out who the majority of the crowd is going for and he goes for the opposing team. Just so he can cheer when the other team scores.”

Although, this wasn’t the first time she’d woken up feverish because of Alex, it was by far the worst. It ranked right up there with the morning after she’d caught him that awful night. And here she thought because it’d been so long she was going to breeze through this like nothing. She actually expected to leave the party feeling like a brand new woman, one who’d finally conquered her demons. She frowned, putting the cold Gatorade bottle to her forehead. “I think you and Romero are cute together.”

“No way, Valerie. Don’t even start.”

“Why not?”

Romero wasn’t a bad looking guy at all. Like Alex and his brothers, he’d always worked real hard to stay in great shape. He had to. During his years as a bouncer, he needed to be strong and fit.

He wasn’t nearly as big as Alex but his build was impressive. He’d just always been the clown. Back in high school she’d been attracted enough to flirt with him and even let him kiss her once.

“Because he’s annoying and I find his lack of decorum appalling.”

“Decorum?” Valerie sat back down on the sofa. “Isabel, you are too much. You always said you have trouble finding taller men than you. Did you notice he’s much taller than you?”

*

It was almost impossible to concentrate on the payroll with Valerie on his mind again. The whole damn week Alex thought of Valerie constantly and how different it felt to kiss her now. He was still trying to figure out what bothered him more, that she moved on or the fact that he’d been so blown away by seeing her again. He’d figured as much about her moving on. What didn’t make sense was why the hell it troubled him so much.

When he first met her, his freshman year of college, it was supposed to be just for fun. She was still a senior in high school and Angel had just started seeing Sarah. When she mentioned her cousin having a crush on him he was curious. After meeting her it had been just that, fun. Then his grades started plummeting and it almost cost him his scholarship.

In the very beginning, Valerie was all for a physical relationship, no strings attached. And though he didn’t like the idea of her with anyone else, he pretended to go along. He needed to find the time to get some school work done, and still try to get his fill of her on his down time. But he never seemed to be able to. The more he was with her the more he wanted her.

Though their relationship had never been classified as a bona fide exclusive one, the time he’d spent with her was the closest he’d ever come to being in one. For a while she seemed content with their off and on rendezvous, some of which began to last longer and longer. But then he’d have to leave for road games and cram for tests and it was off again. Sometimes he disappeared on her for days without answering her calls. He never told her why. He couldn’t, even though he knew she was thinking the worst.

Then after showing up and catching him with his tutor, it was over. The only time she’d bothered to answer her phone in the entire time since then was a few days after that night. That was only to warn him not to show up unannounced at her place in case she had company. She said she didn’t want things getting ugly. Things sure as hell would’ve gotten ugly, and he was furious. But after calming down he knew it was his own fault.

At first he thought it was just like one of the many other times she’d cut him off. But he soon found out she meant it. After the one maddening call she answered, she never once picked up any of his calls or returned any of his texts again. He thought if he gave it some time she’d come around. But after months of not hearing from her he figured she’d moved on. Strangely, all this time he thought he was okay with it.

With everything going on in his life, he had little time to dwell, on his love life. After breaking his ankle pretty bad during one of his college football games, several surgeries later the doctors confirmed the worst. His playing days were over and just like that his scholarship was gone. Alex had fallen into a major self pity, damn-it-all-to-hell, funk.

His parents insisted on paying the rest of the way until he was done. Alex knew how expensive that would be, and as hard a time as he’d been having keeping his grades up, he wasn’t going to waste their money. He dropped most of his classes, promising he’d finish up eventually. He was now down to one online class a semester, and had taken the restaurant on full-time.

With the restaurant doing so well, the family decided it was time to expand. His father had talked about it for years. Since his dad had been smart enough to purchase the property years ago rather than continue leasing, the place was theirs to do what they pleased. So, in the last year, on top of everything else that was going on in his life, Alex took on the major task of overseeing the renovations.

They weren’t just any renovations either. In the past couple of years it had become harder and harder to accommodate large parties without having to reserve a big part if not the entire restaurant. Alex suggested adding some kind of banquet room so they could reserve that for private events without having to shut down the restaurant. He meant a small room off to the side that maybe held forty to fifty people.

He should’ve known better. Like the wedding, his father thought big. A second floor was added with a lavish banquet room that could accommodate up to five hundred people but could also be broken down into smaller rooms for smaller parties. The restaurant was under construction for months.

With everything going on, he hadn’t put much effort into reconnecting with Valerie. Though he had to admit he’d never stopped thinking about her and every now and again still called in vain.

Ironically, as bitter as it was losing his scholarship and having to go to therapy to get his ankle back to at least feeling normal, it served as a distraction.

Then his parents started leaving for weeks at a time to visit his ailing grandfather in Mexico. They left him with the full responsibility of running the restaurant while they were gone. When his grandfather passed, his father took it very hard. He decided it was time to retire and spend more time with the family back in Mexico.

The reigns were passed on to Alex, who was the only one of his brothers not in school full time. He took his responsibility of keeping the family business running as well as it always had very seriously. His older brother Sal was working on his masters, and his younger brother Angel just graduated from college… before him. This was his way of making it up to his parents about school, and he’d be damned if he screw it up.

But now he couldn’t get Valerie out of his head. It didn’t make sense. He’d always known she drove him crazy but he always told himself it was more physical than anything. What he felt at the party was different. Very different. He couldn’t even hang around after she told him about her boyfriend.

Normally, his reaction to any thoughts of her with another man was instinctive carnal rage. This time it was different from the rage he’d felt before, something he never had in the past. Suddenly, he hadn’t been able to bear even looking at her, knowing she belonged to someone else. This time his rage had been accompanied by an unexplained ache. An ache that settled in his heart and hadn’t left since.

He hadn’t gotten much sleep and had been in a hell of mood all week. Today he’d worked a full day at the restaurant, staying as busy as he could. It wasn’t hard. It was non stop all day. Sundays were always that way.

They were closed now. As usual he was working late, avoiding going back to his empty home at all costs. He glanced at his cell phone that sat on the desk and picked it up. Knowing the shower was just around the corner, Alex hadn’t tried calling her in a while. He wondered if maybe after seeing him at the shower she’d pick up.

He stared at it thinking about what he’d say to her. All the other times he’d called her since their falling out he hadn’t given it much thought. Now he was a mess. He dialed and held his breath. As usual the call went to voicemail and Alex sat frozen at the sound of her voice. It was the damnedest thing. Her voicemail hadn’t changed since the last time he called, yet just hearing her voice now made his heart speed up. He hung up without leaving a voicemail acutely aware of the thud in his chest. What the hell?