CHAPTER 21

Knowing he’d be gone that evening, Sal made sure to schedule Grace for the opening shift Saturday. He picked her up and together they opened the restaurant. In the little time Grace had worked there she’d caught on to everything quickly. She walked in with him and helped him set everything up, get the registers counted and going, start the ovens, set up the kitchen and get everything else for the day—she was incredible. Only he and his siblings did as much with so much care. To all the other employees it was just a job, but Grace really cared, he saw it in her face. She wanted things done right, just as much as he did.

He walked up behind her as she worked in the kitchen, and wrapped his arms around her waist. “God, I’m gonna miss you tonight.” He kissed her just above the ear.

“Just hurry home tomorrow.” She spun around, wrapping her arms around his neck. He took her mouth in his, thinking about the things he’d do to her when he got back. Unable to hold back he kissed her even deeper. Hearing a small moan escape her drove him crazy. The kiss became even more frenzied now as he imagined doing things to her right here in this kitchen.

Someone cleared their throat loudly and Grace pulled away. Alex chuckled as he walked away from the kitchen door and into the office. Sal gulped trying to catch his breath as he glared a his brother’s grinning face. What an ass. In Sal’s hurry to pick up Grace, he’d forgotten Alex said he’d be in early to do the payroll.

“How embarrassing,” Grace whispered, pulling even further away from Sal.

He pulled her back to him. “Don’t be embarrassed. That guys has no qualms about attacking his wife in front of anyone. He’s worse than Angel.”

“Still,” she said her face a bit flushed.

“No still.” He kissed her, then hugged her tight, running his arms all over her back. “Damn, I can’t wait to make love to you.” He was already rock hard.

“I can’t either.”

Several times throughout the day he debated about just canceling his trip to Vegas and staying home to be with Grace. He could do to her tonight what he’d now have to put off for another time. But he didn’t.

Romero showed up as expected to drive him to the airport that afternoon. They dropped off Grace at her apartment and after a very long goodbye, he finally got back in the car with Romero. “Next time get a room and I can come back to pick you up.”

Sal smirked. “I can’t believe your wuss ass can’t come with me to Vegas. It’s one night!”

Romero shook his head, pulling a fast U-turn. “Nope. Are you kidding me? And risk Izzy turning this on me and taking off sometime on her own? Hell no.”

Sal stared out the window, hoping Grace would never think that way and make him have to worry about her taking off for the weekend to party with her friends. So far, she’d said nothing of the sort, but if she ever did, he’d just have to suck it up. One thing was for sure. This was the last time he ever left without her.

*

It didn’t take long to find the guys at the bar in Vegas. Sal had checked in, gone to his room and settled in before going back downstairs. He’d texted Jason and knew which bar to head to. Most of the guys were already getting loud. He knew a few from school but there were others he’d never met before. Jason walked up to him with a shot as soon as he saw him. “You need to catch up.” He handed Sal the shot, slinging his arm over his shoulders. “Everybody say hi to Sal, my college roommate.”

Sal got a loud greeting from all the drunken idiots and he lifted his shot in the air before downing it. At first, Jason was on him, handing him one shot after another. Sal was glad he’d eaten before leaving the restaurant that afternoon. Grace had made him something special and they sat in a back booth eating together. But after several shots he began to feel the slow buzz. He figured he was in Vegas for that reason and he wasn’t driving anywhere so he went with the flow, but he hated hangovers. He’d only had a few in his life and they weren’t fun. Talk about wasting an entire day. So he had a plan. He knew lushes hated partying alone, but he also knew once drunk enough they were easily fooled into thinking he was drinking just as much. Since Jason already had a head start this should be easy.

Sal texted Grace a few times to tell her how much he missed her. Even with all the noise and everything going on around him, she was all he could think of.

A few hours later, Sal knew Jason was cooked. Jason hung on him, talking and Sal could barely make out what he was saying. Sal had had enough shots to be feeling a comfortable buzz but he was no where near the state Jason was.“Maybe we should call it a night.”

The waitress came to their table with a tray full of what looked like more shots. “These are compliments of some of your admirers, gentlemen.”

All the guys spoke at once, cheering and asking her who sent the drinks and what they were. The waitress simply pointed at a group of women on the other side of the bar and said, “Tequila. Casadores.” She turned to Sal with that unmistakable gleam he was so used to getting from women. “This one’s for you.”

Sal smiled taking it from her. Jason already held his and lifted it toward the group of women. “There’s my kitty Kat.”

Sal squinted barely able to make out the girls in the smoky crowded room. Jason handed him the drink and held his up for a toast. “You sure you wanna drink another one?” Sal asked.

“This is my bachelor party, man!” Jason slurred, hanging on to Sal’s arm for support. “Don’t get all Mother Teresa on me!”

Sal clinked Jason’s glass with his then took a sip of the drink. Casadores tequila wasn’t the smoothest tequila out there but he didn’t remember it being this rough. Maybe it was because the Third Generation tequila they’d been drinking earlier was one of the smoothest out there.

Jason downed his. “Whoa!” He lifted his empty glass in the air then frowned at Sal’s still almost-full glass. “C’mon! Don’t be a pussy!”

There was no arguing with a drunk so Sal drank the rest instantly feeling his entire body warm. Jason smiled big. Another waitress walked up to them with a tray of drinks. Not shots this time but Sal didn’t recognize the drink. “The ladies are intent on getting you guys loaded,” she said passing out the drinks.

Sal rolled his eyes. As if Jason needed even one more shot. He took the drink the waitress handed him and smelled it. Whatever it was it was potent.

“What is this?” he asked with a frown.

She smiled. “Liquid Cocaine. It tastes better than it smells, trust me. Your ladies know their drinks.”

Sal turned to the corner where the ladies were feeling a lot more buzzed than he had just earlier. It wasn’t until those ladies looked like nothing more than a bunch of fuzzy bodies in motion that he realized just how buzzed he was.

He took the drink and held it up in the direction of the fuzzy bodies, losing his footing for a moment. Half the drink spilled onto his wrist and he licked it, holding on to a barstool for support. He’d never even heard of Liquid Cocaine but if he had to guess it was straight gasoline laced with acid.

There was a commotion by the bar with the guys and Sal looked over to see Jason on the floor between the barstools, laughing and telling everyone he was okay. Some of the fuzzies rushed over and one of them bent down to help the other guys get Jason up. Sal couldn’t make out what the fuzzy said. She sounded like the adults in the Charlie Brown cartoons. After that so did everyone else. Someone else handed him another Liquid Cocaine. He wasn’t even aware that he’d drunk the first one.

It got harder and harder to open his eyes after every blink but he was sure no one noticed as he stood there, holding on for dear life to the bar stool next to him. Jason said something to him he didn’t understand and he felt an arm link onto his. Stupidly, he let go of the barstool, apparently the only thing that was keeping him up. If whoever held his arm hadn’t been there he would’ve gone down for sure.

It got real loud all of a sudden and there was a scuffle. Sal couldn’t even make out who was shoving who but he heard glass break. Someone pulled him away from the shoving crowd and he struggled to stay upright. He blinked, the whole room blurring in and out as they stumbled toward the exit. He noticed people looking at him as he walked through the casino, but he could barely focus his eyes. Each time he blinked, it got darker until everything finally went black.

~*~

Rose’s face lit up when she read her text and Grace frowned. Lately that had been happening a lot. Rose had never smiled so much from reading her texts. She knew exactly who the text was from. “Rose, I hope you’re not getting too friendly with Vincent. Sal was adamant that he’s bad news.”

“How friendly can we get? He lives so far.”

“He’ll probably be driving soon.”

Rose finally looked up from her phone. “Oh yes, he’s gonna wanna drive all the way to Chula Vista from La Puente, just to see me. That’s over two hours.”

Grace slipped on the shorts to her pajama bottoms. “You’d be surprised what a man would do when he’s really interested in a girl.”

Rose laughed. “A man? He’s sixteen. He can’t even afford to call me because we’re on different carriers and he’s not allowed to use up his mom’s minutes or they’ll take his phone away. Besides who said anything about him being interested?”

Grace gave her a look. Rose was showing her innocence, but ignored her question, not wanting to push that topic further. “Aren’t weekends unlimited?

“Not his. His mom got the cheap package so even on the weekends they only have so many minutes.”

Grace shook her head. She’d mentioned to Sal how Rose and Vincent had been texting. He wasn’t happy about it at all. But Rose was right. Grace didn’t see the harm in them texting, as long as nothing more became of it.

“He is going to Rosarito in a few weeks with his family and he asked if maybe he could meet me somewhere as he passed through here.” Rose’s eyebrows went up and she gave Grace an imploring look. “We’re just friends.”

“Nope, not happening.”

“Why not? He just meant like grab a hamburger or something. His whole family is going to be with him. It’s not like we’re gonna be alone.”

Putting her hand behind her head, Grace frowned at Rose who was looking at her incredulous. “Aren’t you supposed to be eighteen or something?”

Rose laughed, lying down next to Grace. “No one checks your I.D. You just tell them you’re eighteen and that’s good enough for them.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I know people that have gotten them.” Rose lifted herself onto her elbow and faced Grace. “He’s just misunderstood, Grace. That whole tagging thing wasn’t even his fault, he was with the guys that were doing the tagging and they all got hauled in together. Even the tattoo he says he regrets. He and a few of his friends did it on a whim. He calls his it his incredibly stupid, temporary insanity moment and he says he hopes that’s as stupid as he ever gets. He’s actually really smart.”

Grace didn’t like how empathetic Rose spoke of him. The few times Rose had spoke of any of her guy friends, she had very little to say. Maybe it was because this one happened to be her boyfriend’s cousin, but Grace could totally relate to the excitement she saw in Rose’s eyes when she looked down at her phone and realized the text was from Vincent. It was the same way she felt when she got a text from Sal. This was disquieting to say the very least. Her sister was only fifteen after all. Rose glanced down at her phone and her face lit up.

“What is he saying that has you smiling so big?”

She saw Rose try to wipe the smile but it was a fruitless effort. She did for a second, then shrugged and laughed. “He’s just so funny. The way he speaks and texts is hilarious. Most people shorten words in texts like OMG and JK; he writes it all out. And you saw how he looks like this hard ass bad-boy with a tattoo and all, but the way he speaks is so not like that. I noticed it right away when he schooled me on the differences between koi and regular fish. Then just now I told him I was in my room talking to my sister and look what he responds.” She showed Grace the text and Grace read it out loud.

“I’ve heard the relationship between two sisters is far more profound than any relationship they’ll ever encounter with anyone else. Would you agree?”

Rose laughed. “I mean who talks like that?”

“Does he actually talk that way or does he just text like that?”

“No, just like with his text, not everything he says is heavily worded but yeah, he threw in a few like that when we were talking at the shower. He used the word consequently when the subject of getting a job came up. He said ‘Consequently my dad will be speaking to my uncle today about possibly hiring me for the summer at one of the restaurants.’ He might come out and stay with your in-laws for the summer.”

Rose’s reference to her in-laws threw Grace. She was already beginning to panic about the idea of Vince being so close to Rose all summer, then Rose used the term and her mind went elsewhere. Ever since she heard Sofia mention her sister-in-laws at the shower with the implication that she might possibly be next, she’d been trying not to put too much weight on the thought. But now that Sal had told her he was in love with her and she’d begun to allow herself to accept it as the truth, the likelihood that she might actually be his wife someday was beginning to feel more and more plausible.

“Earth to Grace.” Rose waved her hand in front of Grace’s face.

Grace shook he head and remembered Vincent. “I hope you don’t plan on spending any time with Vince this summer. Sal hasn’t mentioned him coming out for the summer and honestly the way he speaks of him, I highly doubt he’d be willing to have him work at the restaurant.”

“But Sal only knows what he’s heard through the grapevine. Vinnie said he’s never been close to any of his cousins out here in La Jolla. I’m sure if Sal gives him a chance he’ll see he’s not so bad.”

“That’s what worries me. If he’s in La Jolla, that just might change.” Grace could totally see why Rose would be attracted to Vincent. He was a Moreno after all. The amazing-good-looks fairy had been more than generous when passing them out to that family.

Rose glanced back down at her phone and smiled brightly again.

Nothing good could come of this. She’d get to the bottom of Vincent coming down for the summer as soon as Sal got back from Vegas. She lay there, knowing it would be hours before she would actually get any sleep. So many thoughts swam in her head it was impossible to settle her mind down enough to fall asleep.