CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

 

Rose

 

Lorenzo had been right. Giving her a shot had been a cinch for him. She felt kind of rotten about lying to Ben. She’d told him one of her co-workers was studying to be a nurse and would give the shot from now on. He knew the truth about Vincent now also. She’d told him the night after she’d written the marathon letter to Vincent. But after all he’d done for her and all the times he’d been there through it all even taking the time to come to her work to give her the injections, she hated having to admit that he was being dismissed so easily. But she didn’t have much choice. Lorenzo was threatening to tell Vincent, and after everything they’d been through already, she didn’t want to add this. Not yet anyway. She’d explain it to him eventually. She’d continue to text Ben and talk to him on the phone, but the visits would have to stop. He was juggling several girls at the moment anyway. He’d be fine without her company.

Feeling much better now that the injections were really kicking in, Rose no longer had shaky hands or tingling feet and fingers. It seemed now that the weight of the world had come off her, both from knowing that something was being done about her vitamin deficiency and knowing the truth about Vincent. Everything was going perfectly.

Even her college soccer team was one game away from winning their division for the season and moving on to state finals. Everyone had gone to her game even her mother. It couldn’t have gone down in more dramatic fashion with Rose’s team scoring at the last minute to take the lead and avoid having to wait until her next game to clinch the division.

With Grace being so pregnant and wobbling around, swollen ankles and all, Alex suggested they all go back to his place after the game to celebrate. Lorenzo had been at the game, but an hour into the gathering he still wasn’t there. She was anxious to ask him if he’d heard anything from Vincent yet. She still hadn’t received a response from him herself and was beginning to worry maybe he was angry or too hurt to respond.

“I don’t know; maybe it’s just me,” Romero said as Rose walked out into the patio where they were all gathered.

“It is just you,” Eric laughed.

“I’m sorry,” Romero threw his hands in the air, “I don’t like other men touching my wife.”

“He was rubbing her pregnant belly.” Sal laughed.

“Yeah, but you didn’t see how he was doing it,” Romero protested.

“And didn’t you say he was an older man?” Grace asked holding her hand to her back as Sal helped her sit down.

Romero shook his head making a face. “Izzy said that. He wasn’t that much older…in his forties probably. And what does rubbing her belly have to do with him talking about her pretty hair?”

Isabel laughed now. “I swear you turn everything around. He said the baby would probably have thick pretty hair because mine was so thick.”

“You see!” Romero said picking up his beer bottle. “There you go.”

“There you go, what?” Sal laughed again. “So you kicked his ass for that?”

They all laughed now, even Rose. All the men in this family had short fuses; she even saw it in Lorenzo, but she’d heard stories about Romero. His temper was legendary.

“I didn’t kick anybody’s ass.” He turned and leaned into Isabel for a kiss. “I don’t do that anymore, right babe?”

She kissed him but rolled her eyes. “Um, yeah, only because the guy practically ran when you grabbed his wrist and threatened to break it.”

Everyone except Romero laughed. “Yeah, but I was bluffing.” He smirked. “I wasn’t really gonna break his wrist.”

Sal answered his phone, and then stood up suddenly walking inside to take the rest of the call in there. Rose saw Alex and Angel exchange glances but didn’t think anything of it. She flinched when her mother very uncharacteristically came up next to her and rubbed her back. “Where is your boyfriend?”

“My boyfriend, if he’ll have me back, is in Iraq.” She smiled shrugging. “I was never really with Ben, Mom. I just told Grace that so she wouldn’t worry so much about me being depressed. But now that I know what really happened with Vincent, I don’t wanna be with anybody else but him. I’m gonna wait for him to get home.”

To her surprise her mother smiled. “Grace told me a little bit about that. I’ve been waiting for you to tell me.”

Her mother told her she’d explain why she’d always been the way she was, but up until now she still hadn’t. Like the last time, now wasn’t the time. “I’ve had a lot on my mind lately, but I was going to,” Rose lied, not even sure why she was trying to save her mother’s feelings when her mother had never bothered doing the same for her.

Rose noticed Alex who had walked into the kitchen earlier walk back and whisper something to Angel. Then Angel followed him into the kitchen where Sal was. Grace was in there with him now also and looked her way several times, but shook her head adamantly. Rose suddenly sensed something was wrong.

Try as she might to stay with the conversation with her mom, she couldn’t help but continue to look in Grace’s direction. Sofia joined them now, and her hand was immediately at her mouth.

Rose finally excused herself for a moment and walked over to them. They all hushed as she approached.

“Is something wrong?”

No one said anything at first, and then Sal cleared his throat. “No, uh, the alarm went off at one of the restaurants, but it was nothing.”

Rose’s eyebrows pinched as her eyes went from Sal to Grace. Why were they all looking at her so weird? “So everything is okay?”

“Yep, just fine,” Sal said.”

There was something about the way Alex looked at his wife, Valerie, as she approached him. The look was as if he were warning her of something. Valerie barely made eye contact with her. Why were they being so cryptic?

“Maybe you should get your friend, Alison, and her boyfriend something to drink.” Grace suggested, looking behind Rose in Alison and Ezekiel’s direction. Romero was now standing with them, and it appeared he was talking to Alison about her soccer moves, demonstrations and all.

Alex attempted to sound amused. “Yeah, you might want to save your friend from Romero’s bullshit.”

Rose turned to look at Alison who if she wasn’t mistaken was looking at Romero a little dreamy-eyed. If anyone looked a little annoyed by Romero’s bullshit, it was Ezekiel. She turned back to Grace and the rest of the group in front of her. It still felt like she was missing something.

She went and joined Alison’s little circle. Romero’s tips on how to elbow a player good without getting called on it by the refs had her mind immediately off the weirdness of the crowd inside.

Sal left the room several more times to take calls, and then he’d come back and huddle up with his brothers and even his father one time. Though no one said anything, there’d been an obvious change in mood ever since Rose picked up on it earlier. Sal’s parents had even left while she was busy with Alison without saying goodbye, which wasn’t such a big deal, but so unlike them.

After walking Alison and Ezekiel out, she walked back to the kitchen where Grace was now starting to put things away. Rose didn’t miss the worried expression Grace tried to hide as she glanced away quickly.

Sal walked in just then. “Zeke seems like a nice guy,” he said referring to Ezekiel.

“Political science major, huh? Alison says he’s really interested in running for president someday. Wow.” Grace added with a soft smile.

Rose turned back to Grace after smiling at Sal. “Yeah, well it runs in his family. His dad works for the mayor, and his uncle is a mayor of some town up north.” She leaned against the counter still unable to shake the feeling that everyone knew something she didn’t. She addressed Grace first. “Listen is something going on? You guys all seem…I don’t know…tense.” She turned back to Sal. “And your parents, they left so suddenly. What happened?” She caught Grace shaking her head at Sal. Grace stopped as soon as Rose turned to her. “No, what?”

A familiar knot began to form in Rose’s stomach. Something was wrong and for whatever reason, Grace didn’t want her to know about it.

“My mom was just feeling a little under the weather, that’s all.” Sal assured her. “She didn’t want to interrupt you while you were with your friends.”

“Under the weather?” Rose remembered Sofia’s hand going to her mouth earlier as if she’d just been given some bad news. She turned to look at Grace’s eyes that were so telling of how much more serious this really was. In the time she’d lived with Sal, his parents had become somewhat of surrogate grandparents to her. His mother was the sweetest woman she knew. “Is she gonna be okay? Did she go to the hospital?”

“No nothing like that,” Sal said again in as reassuring voice as he could. “It’s just a little cold. She’ll be fine.”

“Rose,” Sofia walked into the kitchen holding Rose’s phone out. “The caller ID says Ben, so I thought maybe you’d want to take it.” She smiled.

Rose took it but eyed Grace as she walked out of the kitchen to answer. “Hey, I heard you won. Congrats, baby! So this is it, right? You go to state finals?”

Smiling, but feeling a little uneasy about his calling her baby now that everything had changed, she responded. “Yeah, finals start next week.”

“Cool! I’ll try to make at least one of the games. I think you guys got this.” He went on to tell her about looking up ranks online and where exactly they stood next to all the other teams that had made it that far. By the time she hung up, her head was spinning with all the stats and numbers he’d thrown at her.

Starving, since she’d hardly eaten during the barbeque because she was so busy mingling, she headed straight to the kitchen where a very somber bunch was gathered. That was it. She was getting to the bottom of this once and for all.

“Will somebody please tell me what is going on?”

She could see it in Grace’s face; it was the same look she had when she’d been so worried about Rose being depressed. She bit her lip, looking at Grace then Sal and waited.

Angel spoke first. “Lorenzo got a call today on his way here from your game about Vince.”

Rose felt the air sucked out of her lungs as Grace’s words from the moment she first found out a few weeks ago screamed in her head. Vince’s been deployed to Iraq. She couldn’t move—breathe. Getting the words out was incredible struggle. “What about him?”

“He’s been MIA for days.”

It took a moment for her brain to wrap around that—make sense of what she’d just heard. MIA? Then it came to her from a paper she had to write in high school on the war: missing in action. Her Vincent was missing in action in Iraq, very possibly already dead.

 

~*~

 

An entire week later they still knew nothing. Lorenzo had told her everything right down to the expressions on the faces of the first sergeant, the chaplain, and the base commander that had been sent to his parents’ apartment to deliver the news.

On his mother’s request they waited for Lorenzo to get there and explained everything they knew. Vincent’s entire squad had perished during a battle. Everybody but Vincent had been accounted for. It’d been nearly a week since he’d gone missing, and they’d waited that long to notify them because there’d been an investigation, first to rule out the possibility that Vincent had deserted.

Unlike Rose Lorenzo was convinced Vincent was alive. She didn’t want to tell him about the report she’d written in high school, but from her research, more than ninety-eight percent of soldiers missing in action were either never found or found dead.

As if this past year hadn’t taken a big enough toll on her emotionally and physically, this had done it. The first few days after getting the news, Rose lay in bed refusing to get up for any reason. She’d never tell Grace, but she had moments she wished she were dead. Anything was better than having to endure the pain she was going through now. At least when he’d first left, she had hopes of seeing him again someday. It wasn’t until the day Lorenzo showed up teary-eyed, begging her to have faith, that she finally snapped out of it.

“Why am I the only one that believes he’s still alive? Why doesn’t anyone else have faith like I do? I know my brother. He’s a fighter, and more than anything Rose he’d come back for you. If nothing else, he’d do it for you.”

Rose wanted nothing more than to believe that, but one thing nagged at her. “That’s the thing, Lorenzo. What if he never got my letter? What if he really thinks I’ve moved on?”

Lorenzo shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. He’d never give up so easily. You shouldn’t either, Rose. He’ll come home to us; I know he will.”

As much as she knew the odds were stacked against Vincent, that day she forced herself out of bed. Between all of them, Sal, Grace and Lorenzo they convinced her to go to her practices. The finals started that weekend, and her team needed her.

“It’s the distraction you need, Rose.” Grace insisted. “What good does it do you to be home thinking about this?”

Grace was just weeks away from delivering. Rose wasn’t even dreading having to tell her about her anemia anymore. Somehow after getting the news about Vincent, her having to get injections for the rest of her life didn’t seem nearly as dreadful as when she’d first found out. At least she’d live.

Lorenzo had already given her the first shot this week. Being around him at first she thought would be detrimental to her mental state, but it actually helped. Only he was hurting as much as she was.

Rose was putting in a few hours that morning at the restaurant, and then she’d go home and get ready for her game later that evening.

Sal rushed into the back office just as she was walking into the dining room with a tray full of food. Looking up as she placed the dishes on the table, she tried to concentrate on getting everyone’s dish right.

“No I had the enchiladas,” said the lady Rose had put the plate in front of. “He had the mole.”

Rose turned back to her. “Oh, I’m sorry.” She switched their plates and finished serving just as Sal walked out of the back room in a hurry again and waved her over.

She rushed to him. “Something wrong?”

“Well, not wrong, but Grace is having contractions again.”

Rose’s eyes bulged. “Really?”

“It’s still a few weeks too soon,” Sal frowned, “but the doc said to bring her in anyway. I gotta get out of here. Alex is already on his way. Can you hang out just until he gets here?”

Rose nodded quickly. “Sure.”

When Alex arrived, she gathered her things and left. She wanted to go home and get her things ready, so she could at least stop by the hospital on her way to her game.

Knowing she wouldn’t be home long, she didn’t bother parking in the garage like she normally would. Sal hadn’t been parking in there lately either. With Grace so big now, it was hard for her to get in the car if it was parked in there, so he’d started just parking in the driveway the last few weeks.

Frowning as she made her way into the house, she thought about how disappointed Grace would be that she’d be missing her game today. Just as she reached her room the doorbell rang. She walked back to the front door wondering who it could be.

As soon as she opened it, she remembered. “Lorenzo, Oh my God, I almost forgot.”

“About your injection, really?”

“Yes, Sal asked if I could go into the restaurant for a few hours this morning, then Grace went into labor a few hours ago. My mind is all over the place,” she said walking back toward her room.

After washing his hands in the restroom, Lorenzo stood at her bedroom doorway. “We doing it in here?” he asked.

Rose glanced around. “Yeah, I think it’s safest,” she said as she pulled the stuff out of her drawer. “My mom isn’t here. I’m not sure if she went to the hospital with them or not. I wouldn’t want her to get here suddenly and walk in on us.”

“It takes but a sec, Rose.”

“Still,” she said looking up at him again, “close the door behind you just in case.”

She handed him the syringe and everything else he needed including rubbing alcohol and a cotton ball. “Do it on my lower back. I don’t want anything affecting my legs today.” She turned around and lifted her blouse, lowering her shorts a bit. How in the world did this happen? Her standing here in her bedroom holding her shorts down for Vincent’s brother. Just the thought of him gripped her heart something awful. “Have you heard anything new?”

“Nothing.” She felt him rub the cold cotton ball on her lower back. “My dad said he’s gonna try calling again today. All done.”

She turned to him, smiling, hoping he wouldn’t see that she was already tearing up again. “You’re getting better every time. I didn’t even feel it this time.”

He handed her the syringe and the empty little bottle of the vitamin injection with an equally forced smile. She put the things down on her desk then to her surprise felt his hand in hers. When she turned to face him, he brought his hands to her face. “Listen to me, Rosie. The power of thought is an awesome thing. You have to believe he’s okay. You have to believe he’ll come home to us.”

Just being that close to him, feeling his strong hands on her face, and hearing him call her Rosie brought back overwhelming memories of Vincent. It was more than she could take, and she fell into his shoulder crying softly. “I wanna believe, Lorenzo. I really do.”

“Then do it. Believe.”

They both froze when they heard the door out front close and footsteps then voices.

“Rose,” Grace called out. “I’m gonna make your game after all. It was a false alarm. But come out here; I wanna show you something.”

“Oh my God,” Rose whispered, sniffling and wiping her tears away as she pulled away from Lorenzo.

She rushed to put the evidence of her injections away. “What do I do?” Lorenzo asked.

Rose glanced at him then responded to Grace. “I’ll be right out, Grace. I just need to finish getting dressed. Give me a minute.”

“Okay, but hurry.” Grace sounded almost giddy.

Rose turned back to Lorenzo. “Just follow my lead okay,” she whispered. “Whatever I say just go along with it.”

Wiping her face clean, she looked in the mirror quickly to make sure it wasn’t obvious she’d been crying—again. She waved at a very befuddled-looking Lorenzo to follow her.

Grace stood just outside her door and waved a sonogram picture at her. “I’m having a girl!” She danced in place until she looked behind Rose and stopped dancing, the smile all but wiped off her face.

“That’s great,” Rose said trying to keep Grace in her cheery mood. “I told you, you were.”

All this time in every ultrasound Grace had the baby’s legs had been crossed. She’d been dying to know and had pretty much given up finding out until the baby was actually born.

Sal stood just a few feet behind Grace. He didn’t look too pleased either about Lorenzo and her stepping out her bedroom together.

Rose pointed her thumb over her shoulder. “Lorenzo is going to put up some shelves for me in my room.” She turned to Sal, wishing she wasn’t such a god-awful liar. Her stupid voice even changed octaves when she spoke. “If that’s okay with you, Sal, I was just showing him where I want them.”

Sal nodded, but his expression remained just as hard. Rose glanced back at Grace. She appeared as convinced as Sal. “So Vivianna it is, right?”

Grace seemed confused for a moment then smiled. “Yes,” she turned back to Sal. “We agreed right? Vivianna for a girl.”

He nodded again just as Rose’s phone started ringing in her room. “I gotta get that,” Rose said rushing back into her room. She felt a little guilty about leaving Lorenzo out there alone with them.

“Where are you?” her coach demanded.

Rose spun around to look at the clock on her bedside. “What do you mean? The game is not until—” She brought her hand to her forehead. She’d completely forgotten the coach had asked them to be there extra early this time. “Oh geez, I forgot! I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

She hung up and grabbed her bag. “Lorenzo, can you please drop me off, so I can change in the car while you drive?” She turned to Grace. “That was my coach; I was supposed to be there twenty minutes ago. I totally forgot.”

Grabbing Lorenzo’s arm before he had a chance to respond, they both hurried out.

“I’ll see you there, Rose.” Grace called out. “Good luck, and don’t worry. You got this!”

Rose jumped in the back seat and started with her shin guards and socks. “I can’t believe I forgot. But I guess this week has been a crazy one.” Rose had given up trying to rid the dull ache from her heart. She’d accepted now. It was never going away.

“Was your coach mad?”

Rose rolled her eyes. “He’s always mad.”

She rummaged through her bag looking for the right color socks and jersey. By the time they got to the stadium, Rose was in her complete uniform. Over the years she’d gotten pretty good at changing without ever having to be completely naked or show skin. She could slip her jersey over her shirt then pull the shirt out from underneath. She was even able to change from her regular bra to the right-colored sports bra the same way.

Stuffing her things in her bag quickly, she jumped out of the car as soon as Lorenzo pulled over. “Thanks so much,” she stuck her head in the passenger side window. “Will you be at the game?”

“You bet. You better kick some ass.”

She smiled, wondering how long it would be, if ever, before Lorenzo’s smile and the twinkle in his piercing eyes stopped reminding her of Vincent.

Just as she began to pull away from the window, Lorenzo called out to her. “Rose.”

She turned back and looked at him. “Remember, think positive.”

Taking a deep breath, she smiled. “I will. I promise.”