Angel
The moment the girls walked away to the ladies’ room Angel saw that annoyingly smug smirk spread across Romero’s face as he sat back in the booth. Clearly, he’d been waiting for them to leave so he could say something.
“What?” Angel said, sitting back feeling stuffed.
Thanks to Romero’s scene at Andolini’s delaying their dinner, by the time they’d gotten their food, they’d all been so starved everyone ate way too fast.
“I hear Syd’s back.”
Angel rolled his eyes, cracking his fortune cookie open and pulling the fortune out. “Yeah, so?”
Eric watched Angel curiously. The only one he’d told so far was Alex. Romero had been joining Alex during his workouts a lot lately. No doubt this was something they’d discussed.
“So he dumped the girl he’s been with since high school and switched schools to be closer to Sarah?”
Glancing back to make sure Sarah wasn’t on her way back yet, Angel turned back to Romero with a frown. “Who said all that? He’s going to ESU. That’s in Los Angeles, not here.”
“Close enough.” Romero shook his head with that same expression Alex wore the day he told him about it. “Shit. I don’t know, man. I’m thinking Alex has a point. Maybe you do need to have a one on one with this guy. You know let ’im know you’re on to him.”
“On to what?” Angel asked.
“Yeah,” Eric said with a chuckle. “So he transferred to So Cal. It’s still over two hours away. What’s Angel supposed to be on to?”
Thank you!
Angel didn’t say it, but he was glad someone didn’t instantly believe what he’d felt in his gut from the moment he found out about Sarah’s male best friend way back in high school. He knew he was biased, and that’s why it was so impossible to believe the guy couldn’t have any feelings for Sarah beyond friendship. But Alex and Romero seemed so damn sure about it, and they didn’t even know all the details: Sarah kept in touch with him regularly. She told the dude everything and vice versa. Most importantly, he’d dumped his girlfriend for Sarah. He’d left that part out when he mentioned to Alex that Syd and his girl had broken up. He and Romero already made Angel feel like a big enough chump when it came to this.
Romero grabbed a couple of the crunchy noodles from the bowl in the middle of the table and stuck them in his mouth, shaking his head. “I’m telling you. I know what I’m talkin’ about here—”
“What do you mean you know what you’re talking about?” Angel asked, beginning to lose his patience. This was not a conversation he wanted to be having with Romero of all people. “You don’t have a chick. You’ve never had one.”
Eric laughed, and Romero shot him a look. “I’ve had plenty of chicks.”
“Not girlfriends,” Eric pointed out. “All those different girls you screw around with don’t count.” Eric nudged Angel. “Personally, I don’t think you have anything to worry about. You and Sarah are solid. Have been for years. Don’t let this guy get in your head.”
“All right.” Romero pointed at Eric. “So if Sof had a guy friend she’d known all her life and was this close to”—he lifted a brow as Eric’s expression started to go hard—“you’d be okay with that?”
“If she assured me they were nothing more than friends, yes,” Eric said, but he’d lost some conviction, and Angel had a feeling he knew why.
There was someone Sofia had known all her life and recently they’d had some major issues with him, but that was completely different from Sarah and Syd. Sofia didn’t even talk to Brandon anymore. Fortunately, that conversation was cut short when the girls got back.
Everyone except Romero was surprised by how little the bill came to. “I told you the owner knows my uncles.” He smiled, laying his portion of the reduced bill on the table. “He always hooks us up.”
After dinner, Romero announced with a smirk he had a several stops to make before the night was over. Then he pulled out his wallet, smiling as wickedly as only Romero could and announced his soldier had enough helmets for what he had planned. Yeah, Angel would be taking relationship advice from this hopeless romantic.
They dropped off Romero at his place, and then Angel and Sarah headed to the marina. Even though they’d just eaten, Angel knew that after a romantic evening walk along the marina boardwalk Sarah might be ready for dessert. He got the distinct feeling that his less-than-eager attitude about her meeting her dad and brother was bothering her. The last thing he wanted her to think was that he wasn’t happy for her because he was—sort of.
He wouldn’t be telling her this, but he didn’t think her dad deserved her in his life. Sure, the guy had been locked up for a better part of Sarah’s life, but he’d been out for over five years. And the fact remained that even he said it wasn’t until her brother began to show in an interest in meeting her that he actually made an effort to find her. Angel knew his whole not trusting any guy when it came to Sarah had a lot to do with it, but something else gnawed at him, and he couldn’t quite put a finger on it. Something just felt off. He’d never been the superstitious type, and he’d certainly never put a whole lot of weight on something like the fortune in his cookie he got tonight at the Lucky Dragon. But the ironic coincidence was unsettling to say the least.
If you feel in your heart and soul that something is wrong, then it probably is.
He just wasn’t sure which of the two things that were bothering him lately this might be referring to: her dad and brother or Syd? Then again it was just a damn fortune cookie. He wouldn’t waste more time trying to figure it out.
For now, he’d go along and join her in her excitement—pretend to be as enthused as she was for the sake of not shitting all over what should be an unexpected but exciting development in her life. He knew this was huge for her, and so far he’d sort of dumped on it, but then he also hadn’t been in the best of moods for other reasons.
They strolled on the boardwalk, and he let her go on about her feelings, thoughts, and anxiousness about meeting her father and brother without interrupting. As expected, a half hour into their walk she was ready for ice cream.
“We haven’t been here in a while,” Angel said, holding the door open to Dipsy’s, the ice cream place they used to frequent a lot when they were first dating.
“I was just here not too long ago,” she said, looking up curiously at the poster behind the counter.
Angel glanced up at the poster announcing their Sundae’s For Two. “That’s new,” he said, already reading what each one consisted of to help decide which one he and Sarah could share.
“Not really. Me and Sydney had one last week. The girl behind the counter said they’ve featured them all summer and are real popular.” She turned to Angel. “I guess it has been a while since you and I were here last.” She smiled then pointed. “Look at that humongo one.” She giggled. “I told Sydney if I ever come back here with Valerie that’s for sure the one we’d share and she’d probably finish most of it.”
Normally, Angel would’ve chuckled along with her and agreed. Instead, he was still trying to shake off the irritation that she and Syd had shared a sundae. This was ice cream for crying out loud. She just said it herself. It was something she’d just as soon share with Valerie. It shouldn’t be a big deal. So why did it feel as if she just said she’d shared a fucking shower with the guy?
“What’s wrong?” she asked, squeezing his hand.
Glancing up at the poster, Angel avoided eye contact with her. He hadn’t even realized his jaw had locked tightly just like every time he thought about what Alex has said about Syd. “Nothing. I’m just wondering if I’m not still too full for this.”
She was quiet, and he could see from the corner of his eye that she was staring at him. Sarah knew him too well, which only irritated him more. Clearly, she’d already picked up on the fact that her bringing up Syd was off-putting. Why then had she? He worked his jaw and knew now there’d be no denying it.
“I can get a single one for myself,” she said, “if you don’t want to share one of the bigger ones.”
Angel turned to her, unable to soften the stony expression he knew he wore now. “Which one did you share with Syd?”
He knew she might think him petty, but he had a feeling what the answer to the question of why she’d brought it up might be. If she was trying to make her spending time with Syd sound casual and innocent—if she thought she could start weaning Angel onto the idea because it just may turn into a reoccurring thing—it wasn’t happening. Angel would set things straight right now. He’d never made it a secret that while he accepted their friendship he didn’t like it. She’d never asked him to like it, and he knew he never would. So talking about the time she spent with Syd without Angel would never be a casual and pleasant conversation, regardless of how innocent it may sound.
Her face fell for a moment, and he hated that. They’d been having such a good time up until she brought up Syd. She recovered fast enough, but he’d seen it—the disappointment that she couldn’t bring up Syd this casually without things getting tense. But it couldn’t be helped. His girl had gone out for ice cream with a dude who’d just dumped his longtime girlfriend for her, and they’d shared a sundae. She had to know the only reason this scenario was acceptable at all was because Syd was her longtime friend, but it’d still never be pleasant.
“The marshmallow crunch,” she said, lowering her voice.
Angel moved over to stand behind her and brought his hands around her waist, squeezing her tight. Resting his chin on her shoulder, he kissed her cheek. He’d made his point. Sydney would always be a sore subject, but he didn’t want to upset her or for this to ruin the evening.
Glancing up at the poster, he inhaled. “The Chocolate Swirl Monster sounds good.”
She turned to him with a sudden smile, and it felt as if she were about to say something but decided not to at the last second. She glanced back at the poster instead then spoke. “You sure?” she asked. “They’re pretty big.”
“I’m sure,” Angel said, kissing her temple again.
His plan to send the message that talking about her and Sydney was not something he would be embracing so easily seemed to have worked because they were back to her dad. He didn’t want her keeping anything about Sydney from him, but he certainly didn’t want her thinking just because the guy would be closer now he’d be a welcome subject. Before Sydney’s surprise visit, Sarah had mercifully kept any talk about him to an absolute minimum.
Sitting there across from each other sharing the sundae felt intimate. Angel listened to her go on, trying not to visualize her doing this with Syd.
“So I’m gonna email Leonardo tomorrow morning,” she said, licking her spoon. “I’ll keep it short and to the point, offering up no information about myself. And I’ll respond to my dad . . .” This was the second time she seemed to catch herself. “Uh . . . Omar, letting him know I’ll be responding to Leo.”
“It’s okay to call him dad, you know?” Angel said, offering a small smile, and shrugged. “I know he’s never been a real father to you, but technically he is your dad.”
For as much as Sarah had said in the past that she’d never had an interest in finding or meeting the man who’d fathered her, Angel had seen the excitement in her eyes already. It had to feel good to finally say “dad.” It’s what scared him most. He was trying to think optimistically, but the thought of this guy weaseling into her life after all these years and possibly hurting her or even just disappointing her, was enough to worry him.
“I know,” she said, taking another spoonful of ice cream in her mouth. “It just feels weird.” She tilted her head sideways as she stuck her spoon into the ice cream and left it there. “On an unrelated topic,” she began and then stopped and chewed her bottom lip. “When’s the last time you talked to Dana?”
That came way out of left field, and while Angel wished he could say “who,” he knew exactly who she was talking about. As far as he knew, they both only knew one Dana, but he had no idea why she was bringing this up now.
“Dana? I don’t even remember,” he lied. “Where’d that come from?”
Sarah sat back, placing her hands on her flat belly with a bit of a frown. “Oh, I’m so stuffed now.” Angel stared at her, waiting as she lifted and dropped her shoulder. “She’s been posting about the San Diego-Hawaii game. I didn’t see it. Valerie did. She said I might wanna let you know Dana might be up to something.” She lifted a very telling brow, her carefree demeanor going a little on edge. “Seems she’s really looking forward to seeing you. She’s even posting old photos of you holding her. You know from back in the days when you two weren’t an item. You just took lots of sweet pictures together with you all over her.”
“Okay, first of all,” Angel said, sensing the mood taking a turn for no good reason at all, “it’s been years since I’ve spoken to or even seen her. We are not gonna get into this—”
“I don’t wanna get into it,” she said, sitting up suddenly. “I just thought I’d give you a heads up. Obviously, last summer when you took a photo with her at the game she caught you by surprise, right? I don’t know,” she added, pushing her chair out. “Maybe you didn’t say a word to her, but you did smile real pretty for the photo.”
Angel pretended to think about that, feeling like an ass, especially since Sarah rolled her eyes at his feigned bewilderment. But at least she smirked. He’d been caught. Damn it. “I forgot about that,” he said, but that wasn’t so much of a lie as a stretch.
Until she’d brought up Dana tonight, he hadn’t thought about taking that photo with her since the day it happened. Sarah was spot on. Dana had caught him off guard, and he’d had no choice but to be civil and pose for the photo for her. He just didn’t think that the one moment she’d nabbed a photo with him deserved any discussion time with Sarah. He knew after that day he probably wouldn’t see Dana until their next game this year. It just hadn’t seemed worth it to even see Sarah frown about it. Thankfully, she didn’t seem upset now.
Sarah stood up, glancing down at the near empty ice cream tray. “Are you done? I need to go walk this off again.”
He threw his napkin and spoon on the tray and picked it up. As soon as they walked out of the shop, he pulled her to him and kissed her softly. “Okay, maybe I remembered seeing her last year but only once you’d brought her up. I really had forgotten all about it until now.”
She lifted that sexy little brow and puckered her lip for a second. “But you said you hadn’t seen or talked to her in years after I brought her up.”
“I know. I know,” he said, walking backwards onto the rail of the boardwalk and bringing her with him. “It was stupid. I just didn’t think it even merited mentioning. I talked to her for all of a minute if that. She caught me on my way to the locker room, and I was already in a rush, so I had an excellent excuse to make a quick escape the second the picture was taken.”
He leaned against the rail and pulled her close, wrapping his arms around her waist. That eyebrow of hers was still up, but the corner of her lip tugged. “Technically, you still lied, but I’ll let it slide this time. I just don’t want you lying or keeping anything from me if she does anything more in Hawaii. You’ll be out there for the entire three-day weekend. She’ll have plenty of time to try and corner you or whatever.”
Angel pulled her even closer. “I’m sorry I lied,” he whispered, pissed at himself now for the stupid spontaneous decision to do so. “It’ll never happen again, and you know you have nothing to worry about.”
“I know I don’t.” She nodded, relieving some of the unnecessary tension that had started to build. “I actually hadn’t planned on even mentioning it, though I already knew she’d been posting stuff about it. But it wasn’t until today when I found out she posted those old photos of the two of you that I thought I should at least warn you.” She poked his chest with two fingers. “And you know you don’t have anything to worry about when it comes to Sydney, Angel. We’ve been over this enough. I don’t like the way the mood shifted in there”—she motioned with her head—“when I brought him up.”
He exhaled slowly, cracking his neck from side to side. He wasn’t going to argue with her about this, but there was no way she could compare his nonexistent relationship with Dana to her and Sydney’s relationship. Instead of holding it in, however, he did decide to just make one thing clear.
“Look, babe, I believe you when you say you’ve never looked at Sydney in anything more than in a friend’s type of way. But I’m gonna be honest with you.” She pulled back to look at him curiously. “You know I’ve never bought the fact that he’s never had feelings for you. His choosing you over a girl he’s been with for years . . .” He shook his head because the more he thought about it the more blatant and in your face it felt. “It just sets off all kinds of alarms. I wanna be understanding, but I also don’t wanna be stupid or naïve.” He sighed, holding her closer again and kissing the top of her head. “I’m trying. I really am, but you gotta cut me some slack. No matter what, Sarah, I will never be thrilled to hear about you hanging out with another dude even if he is just your friend but especially now. What he did breaking off such a long relationship was huge. I’m sure it wasn’t something he decided to do overnight. And he did it for you.”
Sarah started to say something, but he lifted a brow for her to let him finish.
“Try to see this from my perspective, sweetheart.” Her expression softened almost in what appeared to be understanding or even agreement. “His girl asks him to choose between her and you. He chooses you, and then he leaves Columbia to go to ESU, a school two hours away as opposed to across the country from you.”
“ESU is up there with Columbia—”
“That’s not the point, Sarah,” he said, shaking his head. “All I’m saying is I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt because more than anything I’m hoping I have nothing to worry about. Just give me some time to get used to this, and don’t expect me to warm up to the idea of him being around a lot more with the two of you hanging out. I can try for your sake, but I’m just being honest. I already know I won’t.”
Taking a deep breath, Sarah leaned against his chest. “Fair enough. As long as you’ll at least try.” She pulled away to look at him. “He said he’d try to make it down a few more times before summer was over, but I seriously don’t think he’s gonna have time. He has to drive out to Los Angeles and get situated. He’s getting an apartment out there, moving in, looking for a job, and has to find a roommate all in a matter of a few weeks. There’s no way he’ll have down time to spare on hanging out here. Then once school starts you know what that’s like.”
The relief sunk in slowly and steadily with every word she said. Sarah was right. It did sound as if Syd had his hands full, and Angel knew firsthand how busy things got once school started. Even with him and Sarah attending the same school, between practice and games, Sarah’s training for the track and field team, and schoolwork, they often went the entire week without any time to just hang out. If it weren’t for the times he and Sarah were scheduled together at the restaurant, they might go even longer without seeing each other if either of them had a different job. Maybe he was giving Syd too much credit to think he might be trying to pull a fast one by transferring to within two hours of Sarah.
For the first time since she’d brought up Syd, Angel smiled genuinely, kissing the tip of her nose. “You’re right. I promise I am gonna try my damnedest not to not let the mood shift so drastically the next time you bring him up. I don’t want you thinking you can’t talk to me about him.”
A slow mischievous smiled crept up on Sarah’s face. “Maybe I should’ve mentioned it earlier.”
He almost dreaded asking, but she was smiling, so maybe it wasn’t anything annoying about Syd. He’d just made a promise he already knew was going to be tough to keep. “What?”
“My mom’s gone for the weekend.” She smiled even bigger now. “She and Elias took off to Vegas. I have the place to myself all weekend.”
Instantly, he was smiling big too. “Then what are we waiting for?”
Tugging her hand, he started the brisk walk to his car as Sarah giggled alongside of him. He’d made love to Sarah plenty of times, and he already knew it’d never get old. But having the pleasure of waking up with her in his arms didn’t happen nearly as often as he wished it could. He wasn’t sure what he was looking forward to more now—all the things he’d do to her this weekend or waking up with his arms tightly wound around her two mornings in a row.