CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

 

The crowd was probably one of the largest they’d ever had. Sadly girl’s college soccer never drew in large crowds, but being the finals, there was a full house today. Rose’s family took up a better portion of the bleachers.

They’d all come out to see her game again. It surprised Rose that Sal was okay with letting the managers do their jobs and actually manage the restaurants, so the owners didn’t have to be there all the time. Grace said he was getting better about letting others handle things. Now that he was going to have two kids, Rose could see him changing. It was a gradual change, but it was progress.

Rose concentrated on the game though inevitably her mind would wander off to thoughts of Vincent and where he could possibly be. Was he still alive? Was he injured? She’d gone over all the horrible possibilities all week. But she’d promised Lorenzo, and she really did want to believe that if she thought nothing but positive thoughts, it really would help. It seemed so farfetched—that he was alive and well and coming home to her.

She played harder than she ever had, giving it everything in her. Taking advantage of her angst, she used the game to let out the pent-up anger—releasing all the emotion she wanted to just scream out, because life was so damn unfair. She even got a yellow card for slamming one of the forwards down too hard. It was another one she thought she’d played fairly—all body. But she admitted she probably didn’t need to slam against her that hard.

By the time it was over, she felt more drained than she typically was after a game. They won, and she sat in the middle of the field on the grass with her other teammates now as the coach gave them the after-game speech and talked a little about the next game in the finals.

Rose had looked over on the sidelines and saw everyone waiting for her anxiously earlier. The coach better hurry up. Grace hadn’t mentioned it, but she was certain there’d be some kind of gathering they’d all be anxious to get to and start celebrating. Even though as good as it felt to win, she was still in no mood to celebrate. She was even worried Lorenzo might be insulted by their celebrating because of the circumstances. She looked up from the grass she’d been pulling away at when she heard Alison gasp.

“What?” Alison and now Candace were both staring behind Rose, so Rose turned to see what had them so startled.

Her jaw fell open, and she was immediately choked up. At first she thought it was a vision. She stared at him for a moment before shakily standing up. He was far, but it was him. She wasn’t seeing things. Vincent stood on the sidelines in his fatigues staring at her—waiting for her.

Rose’s trembling hands were now at her mouth, and she fell apart crying into them as she started toward him. “There is a God,” she whispered to herself as she began walking faster. “There is a God!” she said even louder now. His arm was in a sling, but otherwise, he was a glorious sight. Walking even faster, she broke out into a sprint as she got closer. Mindful of his injured arm, she wrapped her arms around his neck as soon as she reached him, sobbing against his chest. Holding on for dear life—she’d never let go again.

“I love you. I love you. I love you,” she told him in between sobs over and over again.

“I love you, too, Rosie.”

She continued to cling to him, crying like a baby and holding on to his clothes with clenched fists, afraid he’d disappear if she didn’t.

Still barely able to catch her breath, she pulled away to look at him, wiping the tears now streaming down his face, too. Then she wiped her own because they were completely blurring her vision. “Let me look at you, Vincent,” she said swallowing hard. “It’s really you. You’re really here.” She leaned her face into his chest, unable to contain the emotion that just poured out. It felt so unreal she had to look up at him again. “But how? When did you get here?”

“This afternoon.”

He explained how he’d been on a bit of a wild goose chase trying to figure out where she was—all in a taxi. Then finally someone from the restaurant told him about her game, and he’d gone straight there. He stopped talking to hug her again with a groan, and she hugged him back just as hard.

“I told you he’d be back, Rose.” She heard Lorenzo say, but she didn’t want to pull away from Vincent’s arms, so she just nodded.

The tears continued to come, but they were the best tears ever. Vincent had come home to her. He was really here, and she could hardly believe it. Then reality hit. She’d just got him back, and she was already going to worry about one thing. She pulled back to look in his eyes again. “How long are you back for?”

He smiled, lifting her hand to his lips and kissed it. “I’m here to stay.”

“What?” Her other hand was at her mouth again, looking around not understanding. All the other women around them were crying, too, and the men looked pretty broken up themselves as they held their wives in their arms. Grace cried the most against Sal’s shoulder, and Rose knew why. She’d been so worried about Rose.

“I’ve been medically discharged.” Rose turned back to him searching his eyes. “I’m done, Rosie. I don’t have to leave again.” He hugged her again, and she leaned into him with a trembling deep breath praying to God this wasn’t a dream. “I got your letter,” he whispered against her ear.

She looked up at him. “You did?”

He nodded with a smile so tender it reminded her of the very first time she’d seen that vulnerability in him. “Just a few days ago.”

He filled her in briefly on his injury and when he’d been discharged then explained why he hadn’t called to tell her about it when he found out he’d be home soon. But he said he’d tell her more, later when they were alone.

Apparently he’d been there long enough to watch the end of her game, and either they’d hid him or she’d been too into the game to notice, but he’d already been reunited with everyone else.

Lorenzo’s eyes were still red and puffy, but he played it off now, smiling and looking just as content as Rose felt. Unable to help herself after finally giving Vincent room to breathe, she turned away from him to hug Lorenzo.

“I believed really hard today,” she said and felt him hug her even tighter.

When she pulled away she saw how teary-eyed he’d become again, and she laughed wiping her own tears away. “Okay, we gotta stop.”

Vincent’s arm came around her waist, and he pulled her to him. “Yeah, this has to stop,” he said playfully.

He kissed Rose on the head and mussed Lorenzo’s hair. “Mom and dad still don’t know.”

Lorenzo went wide-eyed. “Are you kidding me?”

“Nope,” Vince said. “I had to see Rose first, but we can go get them. Uncle Sal is already talking about a big dinner at the restaurant.”

Thanks to Sergeant Fetherman he’d pulled a few strings and assured the higher ups Vince would call and inform his parents he was okay. Again Vince chose to surprise everyone and never made those calls.

After their very emotional reunion Rose was all set to go with Vincent and Lorenzo to pick up his parents. She wanted Vincent to tell her everything, but mostly she didn’t want to say goodbye to him ever again. Then Grace mentioned the contractions starting up again.

“Stay with your sister,” Vincent insisted. “I’ll come back tonight. Whether you’re at the restaurant or the hospital, I’ll come looking for you. I promise.”

She clung to him, the tears once again unstoppable, before letting him go with Lorenzo. He blew her a kiss as they drove away, and she blew it back breathing in deeply.

Feeling Grace’s arm around her, she turned to see Grace’s smiling face. “You should’ve gone with him.”

“No,” Rose nodded then rubbed Gracie’s enormous belly. “I need to be here with you. He said he’ll be back tonight.” She smiled. “I’ve lived through longer without him. I can do a few hours.”

She said it, but even she didn’t believe it. Already she longed to be in his arms again.

 

~*~

 

Lorenzo asked question after question the entire ride home. Then just a few minutes before they got to La Puente, his phone buzzed.

“Check my text.” Lorenzo said handing it to him. “That’s probably Sal wondering if I’ll be at work tomorrow.”

It took a second for Vince to figure out his brother’s phone, but he did and clicked on the envelope. A text message opened up, and Vince read who it was from out loud. “Sweet Rosie?”

“Oh that’s from Rose. What does she want?”

Vince ignored his question and repeated it again. “Sweet Rosie?”

Lorenzo laughed and shrugged. “I know a few Rosies. I’ve mixed shit up before, and it’s not pretty, so I gotta make sure they’re labeled. It could’ve been worse; there’s a Hot Rosie, and don’t even get me started on Rosie Cheeks.”

Vince stared at him for a moment longer. “Vince’s Rosie works too you know.” He looked down and read the text.

 

False alarm again with Grace, so just meet us back at Alex’s house like last week. Uncle Sal says by the time you guys get back, it’ll be too late for the restaurant, but we’ll wait up for you guys at Alex’s. Tell Vincent I miss him already.

 

That made Vince smile.

“What did she say?” Lorenzo asked.

“That she misses me.”

“That’s it?” Lorenzo frowned pulling off the freeway.

“And everyone is meeting up at Alex’s place.” Vince scrolled down the texts between Lorenzo and Rose. There were a lot. “You and Rose text this much?”

“Dude,” Lorenzo turned to him, “don’t read my texts. That’s some private stuff.”

Lorenzo reached for the phone, but Vince pulled it away. “Are you shitting me? This is Rose. My Rosie. What kind of private shit are you texting her?”

Vince skimmed through some of them. Mostly they talked about Vince and how much she missed him. But nothing private like what Vince took Lorenzo to mean that had him already steaming up.

“That was all pretty much this past week after we found out you were missing. She was miserable, Bro. We all were. But she was bad.” Lorenzo shook his head. “I didn’t even know what to say to her anymore.”

Vince stopped reading the texts feeling a little guilty now about jumping to conclusions. He looked out the window taking in the old neighborhood. “Yeah, well there were a few times out there I really thought I’d never see any of you guys again.”

He kept the fact to himself that Rose was the main thing that kept him going. When he got home, he felt even guiltier about that fact. If he thought Rose’s reaction to having him back had been emotional, it was nothing compared to his mothers. She was on her knees praying in front of lighted candles of the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ. When she saw him, she screamed, practically tackling him the process.

“Sagrado Corazon de Jesus! Me le lo trajiste! Me lo trajiste! Ay mijo, mijo querido!” She cried over and over, hugging and kissing him, and the crying was on again.

His dad had run out of the kitchen the moment she screamed and now had his arms wrapped around both him and his mother. Lorenzo joined them, and it was one giant crying family hug. If there’d ever been any doubt that his family loved him more than they resented him, it ended here.

He explained as much as he could. After his mother had calmed some came the millions of calls to family members. Her sisters, his grandma—Vince had to talk to all of them one by one. He barely understood his grandmother she cried so much. When they were finally done, they headed back to La Jolla. His mother had hoped to have her family over, but after the way everything had gone down and after everything that his uncle and Sal had done, she agreed she could do her family gathering another time.

They took both Lorenzo’s borrowed car and his dad’s because Lorenzo and Vince, if he had it his way, were both staying in La Jolla. But his mom rode with him and Lorenzo. She wanted to talk to Vince some more about his ordeal.

Halfway to La Jolla his mother huffed and out of the blue blurted out. “Lorenzo, I sincerely hope you are practicing safe sex.”

Both Vince and Lorenzo looked at each other and laughed. “Where did that come from?” Lorenzo asked laughing.

“Because since I’ve been sitting back here, I found a lip gloss, a girl’s hair thing, and a bra.”

Vince brought his hand to his mouth. What an idiot his brother was! To know his mom would be sitting in the back seat, and he didn’t even do a clean sweep of it first. Lorenzo stared straight ahead. “Yes, Mom, I practice safe sex.”

“And this is your uncle’s car. Did you forget that? Have a little respect. At least clean it out when you’re done with your business.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” Lorenzo said but was pretty much quiet the rest of the way.

Vince couldn’t help laugh every now and again and shake his head at Lorenzo. Yep, it was good to be home.

Lorenzo’s phone buzzed when they were just around the corner from Alex’s. “You want me to check that?” Vince asked.

“Yeah,” Lorenzo said, “they’re probably wondering if we’re still coming.”

With all the phone calls they’d made back home, they had taken longer than expected. It was pretty late now. The text was from Sweet Rosie. “It’s Rose again.” Vince clicked on the envelope.

 

They’re asking for an update on your whereabouts, and I’m dying to see Vincent again. What’s taking you guys so long?

 

Vince smiled responding that they were around the corner and that he was dying to see her, too. Her response threw him for a moment.

 

Don’t tell Vincent that. He might get suspicious.

 

He glanced at Lorenzo who was still staring ahead, only beginning to decide if she was playing when the next one came through.

 

I’m kidding, Vincent. I know this is you. Get here already. You’re killing me!

 

Even though that made him smile, he still gave into the curiosity of reading more of her and Lorenzo’s texts. One in particular caught his eye. It was from Lorenzo to Rose.

 

I can see now why my brother is so in love with you.

 

“Holy crap,” Lorenzo said as he parked and pulled the parking brake up.

Vince looked up before he finished reading the text, but at the same time feeling a little shitty about doing so in the first place.

The La Jolla Morenos never disappointed. As late as it was, Alex’s driveway was packed, and there were a lot of cars on the street. Vince could even hear music as they drove up.

“Were you expecting anything less?” Vince smirked.

He handed Lorenzo his phone and got out. Opening the back door to the car, he helped his mother out. Once out he closed the door for her, catching from the corner of his eye, the bra his mom had been talking about. It was a sports bra like the kind Rose wore all the time and the hair thing his mom mentioned—a head band—like the ones Rose wore to all her games and practices.

Looking over the roof of the car at his brother, he tried not to read too much into it. It couldn’t be. Not Enzo. Not his Rosie. Maybe he’d hooked up with one of Rosie’s soccer friends. Candace had been pretty slutty. She hooked up with that asshole Rose said didn’t do commitment, and yet she was fine with it.

That made more sense than his little brother and Rose. Though the fact that they were the same age didn’t slip his mind, and now more than ever he wished he had read that entire text.