CHAPTER 18

Sal picked Grace up after class the next day. Even as they drove to Moreno’s on the Marina, everything still felt so surreal. She’d hardly been able to concentrate in class, daydreaming instead about the past several evenings with him.

So far, Rose had been the only one who’d met Sal and hadn’t gushed about his looks. While she said he was good looking, she didn’t like that he seemed too serious, reminding Grace of her first impression of him that now felt like a lifetime ago. Never would she have imagined the day he interviewed her that things would turn into this.

It didn’t take very long for her to teach the two cooks that were there at the time how to make the new dishes. As Sal had anticipated, Angel was especially excited about the shrimp dish. That afternoon when Sal was done with all the interviews, they took a walk on the pier of the Marina. It reminded her of the awkward night she’d spent walking the pier with Frank. It amazed her, how different it felt with Sal now and how at ease she was with him. She leaned into him, taking a deep breath, glad that she was almost done with school so she didn’t have to rush home to do homework.

She turned to look at him. “Of course I do. You never know what the future holds. I know better than anyone that things can change in a blink of an eye. I’m always prepared for the worst, so if it happens, I’m ready. ”

She shrugged, turning all the way around to face him. She wished she could be more optimistic, but it was hard. “They do go hand in hand. I just wanna be prepared.”

He leaned in, his hard body pressing against hers making her heart speed up. “I’ll tell you right now. Unless something unthinkable happens, my feelings for you are already so concrete, I don’t see how things couldn’t work out.”

Her heart swelled, but she had a hard time concentrating with his body pressed against hers. The night before things had gotten pretty heated, but as usual, he didn’t push. She wondered how many more nights they could spend on that sofa in such a romantic setting before things moved forward. Just the way he looked at her even now warmed her insides. Before she could respond, he kissed her so passionately, she held on tight feeling her legs go completely weak.

~*~

As promised, the rest of the week they went back to his place every night, including her day off Tuesday. Every night, they spent hours talking, then getting very cozy on the lounge chair that was now Grace’s favorite place to be—under the stars, with an amazing view—in Sal’s arms.

Her mother hadn’t asked her much until Friday night when she’d texted her at work to tell her Frank was in town and wanted to see her.

She tapped out an answer, furious. Absolutely not!

It was closing time and they’d be headed to Sal’s place again, just like they had all week. The text had been sent an hour earlier, and she’d just noticed it. She dropped the phone in her pocket, knowing her mom would be texting her again.

Sure enough just as she walked back toward the kitchen where she’d worked all day it buzzed in her pocket.

Graciela be reasonable the man is Ruben’s boss. All he wants is a few hours then he’s gone again possibly for weeks.

Her mother was outrageous. Did she really expect Grace to continue this charade for good? All week she’d gotten home so late her mother had been asleep. She knew she was out with someone but Grace hadn’t had a chance to tell her about Sal. Before she could text back her phone buzzed again.

He’s picking you up at work. When you didn’t respond to my last text I assumed you were okay with it so I told him to go ahead. He’s on his way there now. Just be nice one last time. Ok mija?

“Oh yeah, she’s fine.” As inconspicuously as she could, she glanced past his shoulder to the front door and her heart sunk. Frank stood out there, leaning against his car, just like the last time, holding a bouquet of roses. Her eyes were immediately on Sal again. There was no other way out of this but to just tell him. “She set up another date with me and my step-dad’s boss.”

Taylor had hit it on the nose about Sal’s flaming eyes, because she saw them flare now. She reached for his arm. “It’s not like I’m even remotely interested in him.”

His eyes opened wide. “So you’re going?”

She turned towards the front door, feeling defeated. “What am I supposed to do? He’s already here.”

Sal’s head jerked toward the front of the restaurant as soon as she said that. “You tell him you don’t want to go. That’s what.” He started walking. “I’ll fucking tell him.”

Grace squeezed his arm. “No, Sal. Please.”

Sal glared at her. “Do you want to go with this guy, Grace?” His loud words turned the heads from of the few employees that were still there cleaning up and they glanced out the front to see who Sal was talking about.

“No. Of course not.”

“Then don’t go.”

“I won’t.” Her heart was going a mile a minute now. She never expected his reaction to be so explosive. “But let me tell him.”

Sal pulled the keys out of his pocket. “Lets go.”

He held her hand firmly all the way to the door then unlocked it for her. He started to walk out with her but she pulled her hand out of his. “Wait here, please.”

He stopped, but obviously had no intentions of going back in without her. She tried to give him a reassuring look but he was busy staring Frank down.

Frank smiled as she approached him. “Hello, Grace. You look very nice tonight.”

“Thank you. Listen Frank I’m really sorry but I can’t go with you tonight. I already had other plans my mom didn’t know about. I didn’t get her text until just now.”

There was no hiding his disappointment. “That’s too bad… and there’s no way you can change them?”

“No, she can’t.” Sal slipped his hand in hers. Grace wanted the earth to split open and suck her in. This was the most awkward situation she’d even been in and it was all her mother’s fault. “Not tonight or any other night. Got it?” Sal pointed at the roses. “And you can keep those. Take them to her mother. She’d probably like them.”

Frank looked flabbergasted. He cleared his throat. “I see.” He nodded at Grace. “I’ll give your mom a call.” He didn’t even glance at Sal, before spinning around and walking to the driver’s side of the car.

Sal didn’t wait for him to leave before heading back inside, holding Grace’s hand in his. Some of the busboys stood just inside the door. “It’s cool guys, get back to work.” They all walked back toward the kitchen. As soon as he locked the door, he turned to her, his eyes still on fire. “Why didn’t you just tell him the truth?”

Grace gulped. The intensity practically radiated off him and though it unnerved her, she stood her ground. “I just wanted to get rid of him as fast as I could, and let my mom do the rest. It’s her fault—let her deal with it.” Remembering how she felt when Melissa showed up wanting to see Sal, and how Sal had told her already that he was seeing someone, softened her. He had every right to be angry that she’d even consider going out with Frank, even one last time. She brought her hand to his face, caressing his cheek, and he leaned into it. “Don’t be mad. Please? I promise to set my mom straight as soon as I get a chance to talk to her.”

Her pulled her too his chest, hugging her tight, and she felt how hard his heart pounded. “Well, I set him straight already so if his ass ever shows up here again, he’ll be answering to me. I thought you said your step-dad got the job already. Why is your mom still asking you to entertain this guy?”

“I don’t know. He owns a hotel casino in Laughlin, and I guess she wants to stay in his good graces. Guess she thinks he might come in handy someday.”

Grace was so furious with her mom, especially because she knew her mom didn’t give up that easily. She’d seen Sal’s attempts to hide his contempt for her mother whenever Grace spoke of her. He didn’t even try hiding the disgust now. She could only hope Frank had enough sense to listen to Sal and not her mother.

~*~

That night, after spending another incredible evening with Sal in his backyard, he dropped her off late again. Only this time, her mom was waiting up. She’d texted Grace earlier, but after Sal had calmed down about Frank. She dared not even read another one of her mother’s texts for fear that he might ask her about it. She could only imagine what her mother would be texting her after talking with Frank.

Her mother sat slumped at the table in what was beginning to feel like an increasingly small kitchen. Spending so much time in Sal’s huge house made her realize how small this place really was.

“I’ve heard a lot about Moreno’s. My girlfriends go there often for Sunday brunch. I didn’t realize you were involved with one of the brothers. I heard they’re all very good looking. How many are there?” It seemed her mother had suddenly forgotten all about Frank.

“Three. He wasn’t happy about Frank showing up there, mom. You can’t do that anymore.”

Her mother frowned. “I know. He told me. I didn’t know what to say. I thought maybe you just put up one of your co-workers to make him go away because you were being stubborn. I felt so bad that I invited him over tomorrow for lunch.”

Grace let out an exasperated sigh, then remembered and smiled. “I won’t be here.” She started to her room done talking to her mom.

“I thought you said Saturday was your day off this week?”

“It is. But I have a baby shower to go to. I’ll be gone all day.” She needed to get to bed. She was looking at a long day tomorrow. She’d made plans to have breakfast with Taylor and Joey, since they were both whining about being abandoned ever since she started seeing Sal. She’d kill two birds with one stone because while they were out she could pick up a gift for the shower.

~*~

Since Alex refused to take the babies out yet, even though they’d been cleared by the doctors to leave the hospital and were home now, the shower was being held at Alex’s home. As usual, his parents had gone overboard. When it came to throwing parties, their mother was insatiable. Nothing was ever too much.

Sal spent the entire morning helping get things together. He felt bad that they’d all gone over to help start setting things up last night and he’d chosen to spend another evening alone with Grace instead, so he’d headed to Alex’s early that morning.

The place was a madhouse already, as was usually the case the morning of any Moreno family party. Alex’s covered deck was big enough, but his mom still insisted on adding a huge canopy over the pool area to allow for extra tables and chairs around it, which only meant one thing—she’d invited everyone. He was surprised only a handful of family members from Mexico were there, but the day was still young.

He walked over to where Alex was setting up a popcorn machine. Next to it was a cotton candy machine. Alex frowned when he saw him. “Can you believe this shit?”

Sal laughed. “I can’t believe you’re surprised.”

“I told her I don’t want all these people around my girls. Do you have any idea how many germs are going to be floating around here today? She’s nuts if she thinks she’s going to pass the babies around for everyone to hold.” Alex slammed the back of the popcorn machine closed and moved on to the cotton candy machine “You better talk to her. Because you know me, I’d never say anything to hurt mom’s feelings, but when it comes to my girls, I’m putting my foot down.”

“Easy.” Sal clapped Alex on the back. He expected nothing less than a lion’s roar when it came to Alex and all three of his girls. “I’ll talk to her. Don’t worry.”

He walked back toward the house. Great. He was bringing Grace around for her first formal meeting with the family and already there was the possibility of a family meltdown.

His mom assured him no one would be passing the babies around. She had plenty of pictures of them to pass around instead. She’d also set up a screen outside that would play the babies’ homecoming video—two hours of goo-gooing and gah-gahing and two beautiful baby girls who slept through the whole thing.

After helping for a few hours, he went back to the restaurant to check on the food that would be delivered to Alex’s house a little later. Alex requested Gracie’s casserole and she’d been incredibly flattered. The huge trays looked as good as the ones Grace had made.

He went home to shower and change then headed to pick up Grace. He worked his jaw when he remembered the man Grace’s mom sent to pick her up last night. At this point, he wasn’t sure he wanted to meet her mom at all. The guy was at least ten years older than Grace. But that wasn’t even the point. At this point, he wasn’t sure he wanted to meet her mom at all. Just the notion that she’d use her own daughter like that infuriated him. Now that Grace was with him, there was no way he would put up with that kind of shit.

As he drove up her street, he pulled his phone out to text her that he was there. He noticed from the very first time he picked her up that she hadn’t wanted him to come up to her apartment. He knew she had it hard. He wouldn’t push anything that would make her uncomfortable.

Pulling up slowly next to a Cadillac that looked just like the guy’s Cadillac from last night, he parked right out front of her apartment building. He couldn’t be certain, but it was the same make and color and looked completely out of place in this neighborhood. He parked behind it and called Grace instead of texting her, taking in the Nevada plates as her phone rang.

“We’re on our way down. I’ll explain when I get out there. Just give me a second please.” She hung up before he could ask anything else. He wasn’t sure who he was more enraged with, her mom or the fucker for having the nerve to show up after he’d made it clear Grace was with him now. He certainly wasn’t mad at Grace. He slammed the door to his own car and stalked toward her building. Maybe he hadn’t been clear enough.