Allison
Checking one last time in the rearview mirror, Allison made sure it wasn’t so damn obvious what she’d just done—or rather what had just been done to her—over and over. Parts of her body were still tingly, and she was certain, just like her lips, other more private parts were still swollen as well. Already, Lila had said she’d noticed a change in her. Of course, her sister was under the impression that she was still seeing Carson. Since even Carson had been a first for Allison, as far as Lila knew, Allison knew her sister was thinking he had everything to do with the change she’d noticed.
She got out of the car, took a deep breath, and headed in the house, determined to get this over with. Allison would stop short of telling Lila she was in love with Leonardo because she knew just telling her she’d been seeing him and planned to keep doing so would freak her out enough.
Admitting she’d fallen that hard for him this quickly even to herself had been hard enough to do. But every time she was with him, she felt it deep in her heart. She’d read about guys being pussy whipped, and since, technically, he was the first to make love to her, she questioned if what she was feeling wasn’t the female equivalent.
Except deep in her heart she knew there was so much more to this. She’d known it before he’d even so much as kissed her. There was something about him, and she knew now it was the combination of his hardened and daunting exterior coupled with his vulnerable side that he’d so quickly opened up to her that had her falling hard for him.
So, there were no if, ands, or buts about it. She was doing this tonight, and she was sticking to her guns. Opening the garage door, she walked into the hallway that led into the kitchen. Her heart thudded as she heard voices. Both Sonny and Lila were home now, yet she only heard Lila’s voice coming from the kitchen. “She’s here. I just heard the garage door,” Lila said to whomever she was on the phone with. “Yeah, I’ll call you back, if not tonight, tomorrow and give you the rest of the details.”
The moment she walked into the kitchen, Lila smiled big and goofily. “Guess what?”
“What?” Allison asked, genuinely curious as she put her backpack down on the kitchen counter.
It wasn’t often she saw her sister this giddy. “We have a date.”
Allison thought about that for a moment; then it hit her and she smiled. “For the wedding?”
“Yes,” Lila practically squealed. “And it’ll be a lot sooner than we were planning!”
This was not the Lila she knew, but it made Allison giggle because she loved seeing her sister this happy.
“How much sooner?”
“In two weeks!” Lila brought her hands to her mouth, only this time Allison caught the slight apprehension, and she couldn’t blame her.
This was a total shock. “Two weeks?”
“Yes.” Lila nodded, the smile waning ever so slightly. “If Sonny had it his way, we’d run out and do it now, but I know his mom would be so hurt, so I convinced him to give it at least that long.”
“Convinced him? Why the sudden rush?”
Lila smiled big, bringing her hand to her mouth again but didn’t say anything. Allison waited confused, but her sister only smiled, her eyes welling with tears. Then her other hand slowly moved over her belly.
Allison’s jaw dropped as the instant knot in her own throat threatened to suffocate her. The hot tears blurred her vision, and she blinked, willing the tears away. “You’re pregnant?”
The words came out as squeaks, and as soon as Lila nodded, her face contorting as she broke down, Allison rushed to her and hugged her. Lila hugged her so hard it scared Allison. After a few moments, she pulled away and looked into her sister’s tearful eyes, wiping both her own and Lila’s tears away. Then she lowered her voice. “But you’re happy, right, Sissy?”
Lila nodded adamantly, hugging Allison again, then whispered in her ear. “I’m as happy as I am terrified.” Allison pulled away to look at her as Lila glanced away toward the front room then back at Allison and added in a still lowered voice, “What the hell do I know about being a mom?”
Allison laughed even through her own tears. “Are you kidding me?” This only choked her up more. “I couldn’t have asked for a better person to take over when Mom died, Lila. Oh my God, you’re gonna be an awesome mom.”
That made Lila cry more, and Allison had to finally ask after holding her sister tightly for a few moments. “How far along are you?”
“I’m not sure,” Lila said, pulling away, and reached for a paper towel from the holder on the counter.
She ripped one off and handed one to Allison. They stood there wiping away tears and blowing their noses as Lila explained why she wasn’t sure. “My period’s never been regular, so when I missed it last month, it didn’t even faze me. But then my boobs got real sore this month. Way sorer than they ever get when I know I’m just PMS-ing. That’s when I realized I didn’t get it this month either. I was still thinking there was no way, but then I started feeling a little nauseated and going to the bathroom like a kid with the bladder the size of a dime, and I couldn’t ignore it anymore. So, this weekend I took a home pregnancy test. Then another.” She laughed, still sniffling a little. “And another.”
“And now you’re crying like I’ve never seen you cry before,” Allison said, shaking her head.
“Yeah, that too.” Lila rolled her eyes, just as Sonny walked into the kitchen, smiling big.
“Well, my mom—” He stopped when he got a better look at their faces. “She has you crying now too?” he asked as he pulled Lila into a hug. “So, I take it she told you?”
“Yes. Congratulations, you guys.” Allison moved in for a group hug.
“I could hardly wait to get home because I wanted to tell you guys in person,” Lila said as they broke the group hug and Sonny wiped the corners of Lila’s eyes. “I especially wanted to see your first reaction.”
Sonny kissed Lila’s lips sweetly then her nose, and Allison sighed at the reminder of Leonardo’s tender kisses. “Did you honestly expect anything less than me being over the moon? Speaking of,” he said before Lila could respond. “My mom is going nuts. That crazy lady is cancelling all her plans for the next two weeks to prepare for this”—he held up finger quotes— “most epic event of her life.”
They all laughed as he went on. They sat around in the kitchen as Lila babied a cup of ramen noodles and Allison made herself a sandwich. After Allison’s epic time with Leonardo today, she was ravenous. Sonny made a list of things he’d be sending his assistant out to get for Lila from the market so she wouldn’t have to live off ramen noodles. Surprisingly, Lila explained she wasn’t eating the ramen because it was the only thing she could keep down. Her morning sickness was minimal, but strangely, she was craving the ramen like crazy. Still, Sonny insisted she needed to eat healthier.
They discussed the wedding, which was less than two weeks away, the Friday after this week’s. Even more surprising, they’d already arranged for it to take place at the beach home of one of Sonny’s best friends in San Diego.
Allison would’ve thought they’d just have it there in Sonny’s obscenely huge mansion. But he was quick to point out what a nightmare it’d be, not if but, when the paparazzi got wind of it. They weren’t making any public announcements about the pregnancy either until after the wedding because that’d only put the paparazzi on high alert. Sonny explained that Lila had given him the good news that morning, and they’d instantly agreed on setting a much sooner date for their wedding. It just so happened that his friend was in town today, so he’d hit him up, and his friend was all for it.
Allison decided to give it a few days before mentioning her new boyfriend to Lila. They were in such high spirits she didn’t want to ruin it. As much as Allison would like to think and insist that her sister would be open-minded, she knew this would be a tough topic. As uncharacteristically emotional as Lila had been tonight, Allison cringed to think what that conversation might turn into. Nope. She’d be giving it a few days so at least the newness of this very epic event in her sister’s life could simmer a bit.
The less than two weeks between finding out Lila was pregnant and the wedding flew by before Allison knew it. After several failed attempts of trying to bring up Leonardo, only to be interrupted by something pregnancy or wedding-related, Allison decided to just be real with herself. As much as she’d like to think her sister would be open-minded, she knew it was going to take some time to convince Lila she had nothing to worry about. So, she didn’t want to sour up a time in Lila’s life that she should be walking on air about by tainting it with memories of arguing about this.
So far, the only people who knew about her and Leonardo, besides Nine and O, were Jen and Drew. As inconspicuous as Leo and Ali tried to be, they were going to have to try harder. No one had actually told Drew about them. Drew had told Allison. Apparently, the way they gazed at each other when they thought no one was paying attention was so “disgustingly cute.”
Allison had tried to deny it, but just saying his name had Drew pointing at her and smiling smugly “You can’t even say his name without getting all dreamy-eyed.”
Deciding she was better off just admitting it so she could beg Drew not to tell a soul, not even her like-a-sister best friend Charlee, Allison had come clean. At first, she’d been worried that Drew might not be able to keep it from Charlee, but now she was happy about it. Since Jen’s own relationship with Jaxson had heated up, Allison barely saw the girl anymore. Between Allison sneaking every free moment with Leonardo and Jen spending all her time with Jaxson, the only time they’d gotten to chat in the past several weeks was in class. And that usually pertained to their assignments.
So, having Drew there as a much-needed sounding board couldn’t have come at a better time. Best thing about it, since she’d decided to wait until Lila got back from her honeymoon to tell her about Leonardo and because there was no way she was springing this on Lila at her wedding, Allison would be dateless for the wedding. With the wedding being so last-minute, Jen had prior commitments and couldn’t make the wedding either, and there was no way in hell Allison was inviting Carson as Lila had suggested. So, Drew was Allison’s only guest at this very exclusive and intimate wedding.
Even better, Drew was seeing someone now too, but unlike Allison and Jen, Allison got the feeling Drew wasn’t nearly as into him as Jen and Allison were into their guys. So, she hadn’t even flinched when Allison told her she probably couldn’t bring him. In fact, she seemed grateful.
The ceremony on the beach had been tearfully beautiful as the two sisters walked down the aisle hand in hand and Allison gave her sister away to her adoring fiancé. The reception, so far, was just as emotional. Allison had even nailed her maid-of-honor speech, and they were now eating one of the best Mexican dinners she’d ever had.
A couple approached the wedding table to ask what they thought of the dinner. Lila introduced Angel and Sarah Moreno to Allison. They were the owners of the restaurant who catered the wedding and were friends of Sonny’s best man, AJ “Rage” Romero. They were something straight out of a magazine: her with her beautiful light green eyes despite her dark hair and lashes and him with that smile, holy shit, and those dimples that looked almost fake.
Neither Allison nor Lila could say enough about the delicious entrees they’d been indulging in. Allison was still watching them walk away as she sipped her drink when Lila leaned into her and whispered, “Remind me to tell you about her and that Beast guy from the gym.”
The comment was so unexpected Allison spit out half her drink, reaching quickly for her napkin to clean her mess. Lila tapped her back. “Are you okay?’
Attempting to recover, Allison nodded, still trying to catch her breath through coughing. What the fuck?
“I’m good. Just”—she cleared her throat— “went down the wrong pipe.”
After a few moments of recovering and glancing across the room at that gorgeous woman with those to-die-for eyes and her hot-ass husband, Allison had to ask. She took advantage of Sonny being busy talking to his baseball buds. “What about her and, uh . . . that Beast guy?”
“I don’t know all the exact details,” Lila said softly, holding her champagne flute in front of her lips and glancing around casually. “But I guess years back when Sarah and Angel were still in college, this guy hit her up online and almost had her believing he was related to her. Said he was her long-lost brother or something like that. He even had the balls to show up and visit her, knowing she was already in a relationship with her now husband, and it turned out it was all this bullshit con to try to get with her.” Lila lowered her voice even more. “I’m not supposed to be bringing this up because from what Sonny was told, even though she and Angel had been in a relationship for years, according to AJ’s cousin, she almost went for it. Can you imagine? That she could be tempted by the likes of that Beast thug, when she had that.”
Lila paused for a moment when the waiter stopped to refill their water glasses. Allison took advantage of the much-needed moment to exhale. Of course, Allison could imagine it. Sarah’s husband was very handsome, but Leonardo had that bad-boy danger factor that she knew Lila would be furious about if she knew just how much it turned Allison on.
Only right now, all Allison could think of was there was no way Leonardo was a con. He fought getting close to Allison. He said he’d vowed not to allow himself to get close to any girl for years. Why would he trick a girl just to get with her?
As if reading her mind, Lila went on as soon as the waiter was gone to answer the burning question on the tip of Allison’s tongue. How did Lila know this to be fact? “A few weeks ago, when some of Sonny’s new and ex-teammates had a walk-through at the gym, AJ brought along his cousin and uncles. AJ’s cousin recognized Beast and asked Sonny about him. Sonny explained how he was part of the work-release program and the cousin said he wasn’t surprised the guy had done time then told him the story. Isn’t that crazy? Small world, huh?”
Before Allison could ask any more or even respond about this being absolutely crazy, Lila was whisked away by the handsome groom to go walk the reception and mingle with the guests. Allison stood to help her with her dress then watched as Lila walked away with her husband. Smiling despite the unease she was now feeling, she was still beyond grateful her sister found someone who made her so happy. Lila and Sonny looked so blissfully in love there was no way Allison was ruining this for them, not any time soon anyway, and especially not until she got to the bottom of this newfound information.
There had to be a reasonable explanation. Leonardo’s violent upbringing didn’t excuse his violent and criminal past, but it, at least, made his explosive temper understandable. Most importantly, he was trying to change that. What he’d done to the guy who’d been following her, while excessive, was also understandable. The guy did have a loaded gun.
Allison sat back down, glancing over at Sarah, who was now seated at one of the larger tables with a bunch of other couples. Her stomach was already knotting up. As if convincing Lila that Leonardo wasn’t such a bad guy wouldn’t already be hard enough, this just made things worse. There was no denying the disgust in Lila’s voice when she’d told Allison about the bullshit con.
“Not even a golf ball has as many dimples as I’ve seen in this backyard today.” Allison turned to Drew, who took the empty seat next to her. “I knew there’d be a lot of beautiful people here considering Lila and Sonny’s celebrity status, but this is ridiculous. I give up trying to make any heads turn in this tough crowd.”
“You look spectacular, Drew,” Allison said, sounding so reminiscent of Lila’s scolding tone whenever Allison put herself down.
“Thanks, but spectacular’s not gonna get this white girl far in this crowd of Latino hotness.”
Allison laughed, glad for the distraction. “Who said Latino guys aren’t into white girls? Hector’s a perfect example. They don’t get any whiter than Charlee, and he’s pretty much the epitome of Latino hotness. But aren’t you spoken for, missy?”
Drew smirked. “No crime against looking and maybe doing a little drooling.” When Allison raised her brows in surprise, Drew laughed. “Nothing wrong with fantasizing either. Brad is great and all, but sometimes it’s fun to just, you know . . . daydream.”
They chatted a little more about Drew’s boyfriend Brad. Drew told her more about him: how he was the first guy he’d ever brought around her daughter Chelsea and she’d dated plenty before him. “Even her snobby dad approves of him. Gads,” she added, shaking her head. “How I ever got involved with someone wound up so tight is beyond me.”
“And he likes Brad?”
Allison thought of the conversation she’d had with Leonardo about the beast in him. She couldn’t imagine having his kid, breaking up, and then bringing another man around their child. The very thought made her cringe.
“What’s that about?” Drew asked with a laugh. “I said he’s wound tight, but he means well. He just wants what’s best for her. He likes what he's heard about him so far, but I'm sure he'll approve.” Drew rolled her eyes, shaking her head. “Brad’s a publicist. It’s in his blood to schmooze. He’d charm the pants off anyone.”
Instantly, Allison’s mind was back on Leonardo. “I don’t know about anyone.”
She glanced over to where Sarah was now laughing with the other women at her table. Lila and Sonny were at that table along with AJ and Felix, who were engrossed in conversation as their wives chatted as well. Charlee and Hector walked over, splitting up when Hector joined the guys and Charlee stayed by the women. Within minutes, the ladies took a seat at the table where AJ’s wife had been sitting near Sarah. That gave Allison an idea.
“Besides Charlee and the other wives of Hector’s friends, do you know any of those other women?”
Drew glanced over curiously. “Not really. Some look familiar. Why?”
Hesitating at first, Allison decided to change the subject and tell Drew what Lila had informed her of. Then she added what she’d been thinking the whole time Lila had told her and still was. Allison admitted she’d been doing the math. Assuming Sarah was Leonardo’s age if this went down in their last years of college and assuming they did four years, this still would’ve happened at least eight years ago. If this happened in their early years of college, then even longer.
“What are the odds that AJ’s cousin still remembered the story correctly after all this time?” Allison asked. “Or that Leonardo is even the same guy? One thing Lila did say was that the Moreno’s restaurant chain is a family business that their parents first started. All their restaurants were in the San Diego area, which means they were all born and raised here. Leonardo’s never mentioned living in this area, only Mexico, Arizona, and then Los Angeles.”
Drew glanced over to Sarah several times as Allison told her the story. Charlee was sitting even closer to her now. “Maybe we could ask her about it?”
“No!” Allison said quickly, adding the part she’d left out. “According to this guy who told Sonny about it, he said Sarah nearly went for it.” Drew’s eyes opened wide, so Allison went on rolling her eyes. “This guy wasn’t even in the equation. How would he know if she almost went for it? That’s not something a guy would want to admit to friends, right? That his girl had nearly cheated on him. This guy obviously made assumptions, but still Lila said she wasn’t even supposed to be mentioning it to me. Not here anyway in front of them. So, no, you can’t just go ask her about it.”
“Then I won’t ask.” Drew stood up. “She’ll tell me on her own.”
“What?” Allison asked, standing up too and feeling a little panicked. “How are you going to do that without asking?”
She’d only hoped to pick Drew’s brain a little about Sarah if she knew her, not have Drew go snooping around for answers. Drew tsked, shaking her head. “Ali, you of all people know there’s an art to getting people to open up. I may’ve majored in documentary filmmaking, but I was required to take a few interviewing courses in the process. Don’t worry. Whatever information I get out of her, she’ll volunteer herself and never even know I was digging for it.” Drew motioned for Allison to follow her. “This will be fun.”
Allison gulped nervously. Even if it turned out to be true and Drew did manage to get Sarah to talk about Leonardo, she wasn’t sure how much fun it’d be hearing about it.