Forever Yours (14 page)

She looked up and nodded. “Yep,” she said then looked back down at her phone.

“Something wrong?” Angel asked, hating that feeling that it could be anything these days—Leo, Syd, her dad.

“No.” She looked up at him again, smiling that sweet genuine smile he loved seeing on her like earlier when she’d laughed so heartedly. “I got the confirmation from UCSD that they were able to switch that class I wanted switched.”

Angel casually let out a sigh of relief. All he wanted was one night of no drama—a night he could just enjoy his girl with no outside third parties intruding in their carefree time alone. They said their goodbyes and Angel had every intention of doing just that tonight: enjoying every inch of Sarah all too himself without interruptions or other annoying thoughts.

~*~

Sarah

Last night Sarah had decided to keep Sydney’s opinion about Leonardo’s photo to herself. She hadn’t been able to help herself and had forwarded him the email yesterday from her phone. He didn’t respond until the eve when they were at Max’s party. His initial response was three capital letters.

“W.T.F?!”

He later elaborated with a longer email that he had no doubt Angel would have some objection about the photo. Sarah had wanted Sydney’s sincerest response, so she hadn’t mentioned in the first email what she’d thought of the photo or that Angel had seen it. She just sent it as a generic check-out-this-fish-Leonardo-caught type of email to see if Sydney would even mention it. As expected, his reaction was completely sincere and what Sarah had feared. He, too, was suspicious of Leonardo now. Though Angel hadn’t actually said so, she’d seen it in his face. She’d been reading Sydney’s email when Angel had asked her if anything was wrong. She didn’t actually lie about the confirmation of her classes being changed. It was the email just before Sydney’s second email regarding the photo. She just hadn’t wanted to ruin what had turned out to be such a fun night. When they got back to her place, she’d been glad she hadn’t because they’d had another amazingly exhausting night.

That morning, however, unlike yesterday, Angel had to leave early. He was opening the restaurant. Sarah had the day off and was planning to make a nice dinner for her and her mom when her mom got home later that night. She also figured, given the questionable photo, she should get to know him sooner rather than later so she could decide now if she was moving forward and meeting with him or cutting her losses now before she was in too deep. She shot off an email that morning letting Leonardo know her day was pretty much open if he wanted to chat online.

His response once again had been almost immediate. They’d set up a time, and now she sat there just minutes away from when they’d decided the chat would take place. For the first time since this all came about, she didn’t tell anyone about this. She was nervous enough, so she figured she’d do this alone and then share it with Angel, Sydney, Valerie, and even her mom.

She sat in front of her laptop now, waiting for the indicator to flash. When it did, she clicked on it and up popped the screen with a smiling Leonardo. “Hey,” he said with an even bigger smile.

The first thing Sarah noticed was the low voice. It was how she’d expected him to sound, but it was so resonant it made her clear her voice, afraid hers might squeak.

“Hey,” she smiled, back pulling a strand of hair behind her ear in nervous reaction.

She tried her best not to stare at all the tattoos or his muscles that bulged out of his tank. She knew from experience that the only time Angel and Alex’s bulged that way was just after they’d worked out. It made her wonder if he’d just finished working out, and if so, was there a reason for that?

The scars were another thing she’d noticed. She couldn’t be sure because they were on the light side, but he had quite a few just under his hairline at the tip of his forehead. Trying hard to relax, she did her best to just enjoy the excitement that he was very likely her brother.

“I gotta tell you, Sarah. You’re all I’ve been thinking about lately. It’s just so crazy that I have a sister. I don’t think it’s really sunk in and probably won’t until we meet, but this is close.” His fingers tapped the desk in front of him, and then he laughed. “Shit. I didn’t think I was gonna be this nervous.”

“Good. I’m not alone,” she admitted, clearing her throat again. “I was pretty nervous about this.

His smile went from big bright to soft and sweet. “Don’t be. I’m the least intimidating person you’ll ever meet. I promise.” She could hardly believe a guy that looked like he did could sit there and say that with a straight face. But he sat up, straightening up a little without laughing as she expected him to. “So how are you? You have a free day today?”

“Sort of.” She smiled. “I’m off today. My boyfriend is working, and my mom’s in Vegas, so I have the place to myself and pretty much nothing else to do.”

“Hey, sounds like a good time to get to know your brother.” He smiled again, sitting back and crossing his arms. “How long you been with your boyfriend?”

It took her a little by surprise that that would be his first question, but she didn’t over think it. She just answered as casually as he’d asked. “Almost three years.”

“Really? Wow.”

Taking his prompt, she shot right back. “How ’bout you? You have a girlfriend?”

“Nah.” He shook his head then sat up again, leaning his arms on the table or desk in front of him.

He wasn’t lying when he said he was nervous. He seemed really antsy.

“I had one for a little over a year, but we broke up a few months ago. It’s just as well,” he added with a shrug. “Since I’m seriously considering moving out to California with Omar, it wouldn’t have worked out. Things were already shaky between us. Oh, hey, that reminds me. You’re in the San Diego area, right? How far is that from Hansen Beach?”

“About an hour,” she said, thinking about it. “Yeah, I think it’s like halfway from here to Los Angeles.”

“That’s cool,” he said. “We’ll be pretty close to each other.”

“Yeah,” she smiled, trying to sound as excited as he did, though she wasn’t sure if that made her more nervous than excited.

As the conversation went on, Sarah found herself relaxing a little, even laughing at some of the stories he told her about his childhood. His friends in Phoenix sounded a lot like Angel’s friends. He’d known them his whole life, and they were still really tight.

“Aren’t you gonna miss them when you move away?”

“Uh . . .” He seemed to ponder that for a second. “Well, one of them might come out there with me. My closest friend, Alonzo. And the others said they’d visit. Plus, I plan on going back a lot. I recently bought a Jet ski. It was used but still in real good condition, and we’ve been having a blast out here in Havasu this summer. We’re out there almost every weekend. I plan on making the trip back out a lot.”

Sarah thought of the first photo he sent on the lake then the second and how he’d been in his swim trunks. The longer she talked to him, the more she felt as if maybe he was the real deal. Not once had he flirted with her or even said she was beautiful. He was so down to earth he even reminded her a little of Romero the way he’d let some F bombs slip here and there, but he’d quickly apologize.

“So have you had a chance to talk to Omar about the past? About his time in jail or about the rest of the family? You know anything about his brothers and sisters?”

“No,” Sarah shook her head. Even her mom didn’t know much about her dad’s family except that they were all trouble according to what little she had told her, but she’d keep that to herself for now. “I really haven’t talked to him, and my mom doesn’t know a whole lot about his family. They weren’t together long when she got pregnant and he went to jail the first time,” she explained. “Then when he got out again and they moved in together she said he didn’t take her around his family at all and really didn’t talk about them.”

“So you don’t even know how many uncles or aunts we have? We have cousins too, Sarah. Lots of them. You don’t know anything about them either?”

“No. Nothing.”

With all this thinking about having a dad and an actual sibling in her life now, Sarah hadn’t even thought beyond that and the fact that she might have cousins. Lots of them?

“Have you met any of them?” she asked curiously.

He shook his head. “No, uh, Omar said he doesn’t keep in touch with them except for the sister he moved in with for a while. But he said he could get me their info and stuff so I can contact them. Only once I found out I had a sister I said first things first. I need to meet Sarah before anyone else.”

That made Sarah smile. He brought his arms up placing his hands behind his head as he sat back giving her an excellent view of his flexed biceps and triceps and a curious view of his tattoos. “So when can I meet with you in person?”

That caught her off guard. Even with the tattoos and numerous scars—as they’d spoken longer she noticed more—he still seemed harmless even sweet in his own awkward way, but she’d been hoping to talk to him a few more times online before making any plans to meet. “Um, I, uh—”

“I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be pushy.” He brought his arms in front of him, leaning on them again. “Omar said you want to take things slow. This has just been so painless and easy I guess I just jumped ahead of myself there. I can wait as long as you need me to.”

“It’s not that.” She stopped, unsure how to say she still hadn’t fully accepted that this was really happening. “Everything’s happened so fast. I just want to do this slowly.”

“I get it,” he said quickly. “It’s cool. I told you I’m not the most patient, but I’ll try to be. I promise. We can just do this until you’re ready. However long that is.”

It was an almost strange feeling hearing him say that. She knew he was talking about meeting as brother and sister, but it felt different. It felt as if maybe they were talking about something else, which was insane, so she shook it off and instead focused on how thankful she was that the chat had gone well—so well she could hardly believe when he mentioned that they’d been chatting for over two hours.

Her eyes were instantly on the corner of her monitor to confirm he wasn’t mistaken. “Oh wow. The time flew.”

“Yeah, it did,” he smiled. “Doesn’t mean we have to hang up unless you want to.”

Strangely, she didn’t. Before she could react to that last comment, he asked her a question that completely threw her. “Growing up, did you tell people your dad was in jail, or did you just say you never knew him?”

Sarah stared at him for a moment, a knot forming at her throat. “I didn’t,” she whispered then cleared her throat. “I didn’t know anything about him until just recently when he came looking for me. My mom kept it all from me. To protect me,” she added quickly. “All she told me growing up was that he’d never wanted anything to do with us. I didn’t really ask much.”

He was quiet for longer than he’d been the whole time they’d been chatting, and then finally he spoke again, changing the subject entirely, and told her about his stepsister. Even though she was a stepsister, he’d still had a sibling of sorts for at least a few years. Unreasonably, that made Sarah jealous. She’d grown up all alone, but at least he’d had a sister he’d grown up with, even if she wasn’t blood. That made her think of the next best thing she had, and she told him about Sydney. Curiously, this interested him quite a bit, and he asked a lot of questions. By the time they finished chatting, it had been nearly four hours, and she’d told him so much that when she hung up she wasn’t sure if she should be happy or worried.

Then it hit her. The entire time she’d been talking to him she completely forgot about her phone. Her mom should’ve been home by then, and she wasn’t. She rushed into her room, trying not to panic that maybe her mom had called to tell her something was wrong and she’d missed the calls because she’d left her phone in her purse in her room.

Pulling it out from where it was buried in her purse, she immediately saw all the missed calls and texts. “Shit,” she muttered, looking through her missed calls log.

She had several from Angel and one from Valerie but none from her mom. She clicked over to her texts and saw she did have one from her mom, so she clicked it immediately.

Running late. Lots of traffic. Stuck on the Cajon Pass. Don’t wait up, hon. I’ll call in a couple of hours.

It’d been sent a little over an hour ago. She frowned, but at the same time, she was relieved. The chat had gone on so long she’d completely forgotten about that dinner she’d planned on making. She went through the rest of her texts quickly. Valerie wanted to talk. Angel was wondering why she wasn’t answering and if everything was okay. She hit speed dial and called Angel, knowing he’d think it odd that she’d been chatting with Leonardo for over four hours. She had no choice but to just tell him the truth. She wasn’t about to start lying about this. And it stood to reason they’d have a lot to catch up on. There was no reason to.

She was still waiting for him to answer when the doorbell rang. She walked out into the front room and heard a phone ringing just outside the door, and then Angel answered. “Hold on,” she said, peeking out the front door window. “Oh, it’s you,” she said, swinging the door open for Angel, who stood on her porch with the phone to his ear.

They both hung up, putting their phones down as she unlocked the metal door. “I was worried,” he said. “I knew you were alone today, and after calling you a few times, I just—”