Forever Yours (5 page)

“I knew it was a bad idea to continue with him. He lived a dangerous life, and I didn’t want any part of it, but he promised me he was straightening out. He’d been out for months and since then had found a job doing construction. He even had his own apartment and wanted us to come live with him.” Her mom shook her head with a puckered brow. “I was young, naïve, and desperate. I knew I couldn’t stay with my friend much longer. Her family had agreed to let me live there just until I could get set up at a shelter for teen moms. Living with him at the time seemed like a better alternative, so I agreed.”

What her mom told her next broke her heart. After only a few months of living with him, she found out that not only was he seeing other women on the side but he wasn’t actually working and he was still dealing. When she confronted him about it, he asked her if she really thought he could afford all the things he’d been buying her and Sarah with a so-called construction job—one given to someone just recently released from jail. As for the other women, his only response to her mother had been that they meant nothing to him. Then he was arrested again.

“He used his one phone call to call me.” Her mother paused for a moment to ponder that. “He told me to pack my things and move out because we were going to be evicted soon anyway. He hadn’t paid the rent in a couple of months, and there was no way he could pay now. He told me to leave the furniture but to make sure I took all the bags in the closet. In hindsight, it was a blessing in disguise because I’d already begun to try and figure out how to leave him. I did have some money put away, but I didn’t have enough for an apartment. Then a few days after checking into the hotel and going through the things in the bags from the closet so I could try and pawn them, I came across the money he’d stashed separately in them—almost twenty thousand in cash total.”

Sarah’s mouth fell open. Her opinion of her dad kept going back and forth.

He was a good guy.

He was a bad guy.

With every revelation her mom gave her, she had more questions, but she couldn’t bring herself to interrupt her mom. Luna continued as Sarah listened intently

Her mother had no choice but to use the money to try and set up her and Sarah in another apartment, but she soon got word from her mother, whom she checked in with weekly, that Sarah’s father had called her from jail to let her know there’d be people looking for her. They wanted the money, but he claimed to have rightfully earned it, and he wanted her and his baby girl to use it. And so life on the run began.

Sarah felt almost ashamed that hearing that her father, the ex-convict and drug dealer, had always referred to her as his baby girl warmed her.

Through the years, her mother stayed in contact with Sarah’s grandmother via mail, and Sydney had been right about the packages being sent to his place because her mother didn’t want to leave a trail to where she lived.

“What was in the packages?”

“Clothes, sheets, blankets—anything your grandmother thought I might need. She even sent school supplies for you.”

“Why? Didn’t you have the money?”

Her mother smiled. “Honey, twenty thousand may sound like a lot of money, but you have to remember I found it when you were just a baby. It went fast. With us having to move so often, even though I did my best to make it stretch, it only lasted a few years.”

Her mother reached out to her, looking in her eyes. She looked exhausted as if having to relive all this had drained her. “So many times I thought about telling you. When you were younger, I was afraid of setting a bad example by telling you how rebellious I’d been. The last I heard about how long he’d be in jail was fifteen to twenty years. But I had no idea if he was out, and even then there was always the possibility he’d get arrested again. His whole family was bad news. I did plan on telling you when you were eighteen, but then the whole thing with me going to jail happened and then your ordeal and trial with the coach began. When everything settled down and we were all finally at peace, I just got to thinking maybe it was better you didn’t know. Your life, even with all the drama, was—
is—
turning out so well, and you seemed so happy with Angel I just didn’t have the heart to stir things up again.” Her mother sighed with a frown. “Looks like he’s taken that out of my hands.”

Plopping down in the seat across from her mother, Sarah too felt as drained as her mother looked now. “So it really is him looking for me?” she asked then added as she stared straight ahead at nothing in particular. “Sydney and his mom said he’s the spitting image of me and. . .” She turned to her mother, feeling the tiniest stir of excitement. “I have a brother?”

“I don’t know anything about a brother, but I suppose it’s possible.” Her mother gave her a cautious look. “I haven’t heard anything about your father since my mother passed. It was the only way I got any news from him, and that was only the handful of times he called her from jail to get an update on us. But once she died so did the only means of communication we had. You were still very young. I have no idea what became of him. I’d just assumed he was still in jail. If you’re considering moving forward with this, Sarah, I want you be careful. He was a dangerous man then, surrounded by dangerous people, and even though it’s been twenty years, I’d still be cautious.”

They sat and talked for a while longer. Sarah still had lots of questions. By the time they were done, Sarah felt completely worn out. It didn’t help that she and Sydney had been up late talking. In the last two days, she’d been hit with two major revelations: she had a father and brother who were looking for her, and Sydney had broken a relationship he’d been in for almost three years because of her.

She lay down on her bed, looking at the time. It was too late to return all the missed calls she had from Angel. He was probably just getting ready to start his practice. She read the only text he’d sent her.

Call me ASAP.

Knowing he wouldn’t answer because he was at practice she texted him instead then turned her phone off, glad she had a few hours before he’d be out of practice. She lay down ready to take a much needed nap. As tired as she felt with everything on her mind now, she wondered if she’d be able to sleep. She’d also been up early that morning because Sydney wanted to leave by noon and Sarah had wanted to spend a little more time with him before he left. Thankfully, her body gave in to the exhaustion and sleep came fast.

Chapter 5

Angel

Because the team photo thing had run late, they’d pushed practice out another hour. Angel and Alex had just arrived at the locker room and started to dress into their uniforms when Angel decided to check his phone again. Finally, he had a text from Sarah, and he clicked on it.

Sorry I couldn’t answer any of your calls, but it was for good reason. If you’re too tired to come by after practice, can you please just call me? I really need to talk to you.

Did she really think he would be too tired to see her, especially tonight? Every call that had gone unanswered had made him more paranoid. She never ignored his calls this long. He hit speed dial immediately, knowing he had time before practice started to talk to her. It went straight to voice mail, so he looked down at his phone to make sure it was her he’d called and not someone else. Her text had been sent less than fifteen minutes ago.

It
was
her he’d called. Her phone was off? He tried again, and once again it went straight to voice mail. She really needed to talk to him but turned her phone off? He was pissed now that he’d missed her text when she first sent it. With his mind going wild about all the possibilities of what she might really need to talk to him after spending the day with Syd and ignoring his calls, he did something he only ever did when he was desperate. He called her mom. The entire time he’d been with Sarah he’d only done that a few times. Each time he’d been worried for some reason or another and unable to get a hold of her.

No way was he going to be able to concentrate at practice now until he talked to her. Her mom answered after a few rings. “Hey, Luna, it’s Angel.”

It felt weird at first calling her by her first name, but when they’d hired her on to work at the restaurant a couple of years ago, she insisted they all call her by her first name. She’d since left when she got another job somewhere else, but the name had stuck by then.

“Hi, honey,” she said, sounding a little tired. “Are you looking for Sarah?”

“Yeah,” he said, walking out of the locker room. “Not sure if her phone’s off or the battery died, but it’s going straight to voice mail.”

“Let me check,” she said then a few moments later whispered, “Oh yeah. She’s knocked out, hon. Is it important? You need me to wake her for you?”

“No,” Angel said quickly, his brows pinching. “That’s okay. Let her sleep. Was she not feeling well or something? Is that why she didn’t go into work?”

The only times Angel knew Sarah to take naps in the middle of the day were if she wasn’t feeling well or if they’d stayed out late the night before.

“No,” her mom said. “I didn’t even realize she was scheduled to go in today. I just assumed it was her day off. She was fine earlier I think she was just feeling a little drained. I’ll make sure to tell her you’ve been trying to reach her as soon as she wakes up.”

Clenching his teeth, Angel started back into the locker room, the tension he’d felt all day reaching another height. “All right, I appreciate that.”

He hung up and finished suiting up for practice, slamming his locker as he started toward Alex, who was waiting for him.

“Did you ever get a hold of her?” Alex asked.

“Nope,” Angel said simply as he walked past him.

Fortunately, his brother knew better than to ask anything else.

~~~

The moment Angel was showered and dressed he walked out of the locker room. Alex, who hadn’t dressed and showered in record time like Angel, had barely gotten out of the shower. Angel told him he’d be outside waiting for him. He’d already read the text from Sarah telling him her mom had given her the message and she’d be waiting for his call.

“What happened?” he asked as soon as she answered.

His practice had done two things. One, it worked to help alleviate some of the tension he’d built up all day thinking about Sarah and Sydney. He’d cracked a few guys a little harder than he normally would’ve, and that felt good, but it’d also made his being worried cross over to being pissed. He’d let his imagination get the best of him, and it’d run wild, so he tried now to calm himself before saying something he might regret later. Sarah not responding immediately to his question didn’t help.

“I, uh, can you talk?”

“Yeah, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing really, I just . . . ” She paused, working Angel’s already anxious nerves to the brink. “I just have so much to tell you that I don’t even know where to start.”

“Start with why you had to take a nap today,” he said, his words sounding harder than he’d anticipated. He held back asking if she’d been up late with Sydney because he knew he wouldn’t be able to tone that down.

It was something that made him slam a few guys on their asses today at practice because the thought of Sarah being up all night with Syd made him want to spit.

“I was up late,” she confirmed as he ran his hand through his hair, trying to stay calm. “And after everything that happened today, I felt so drained, so I just passed out.”

“Yeah, your mom mentioned you being drained. Why? And why were you up late?”

She let out a long breath and Angel held his. “Well, first of all, Sydney didn’t just decide to come down to surprise me on a whim like he first said he did. He came down to tell me my dad had shown up at his place a few days ago, looking for me. At least it was a man claiming to be my dad, but Syd and his mom swear he looks just like me. It’s why we were up late talking last night. He didn’t want to do it in front of my mom.”

“Why not?”

He was beginning to feel slightly relieved that the voice in his head, the one that had been drowned out by all the worrying he’d done today, was right again. There
was
a reasonable explanation for all this. But the paranoia was hard to kill. He still had his doubts.

Sarah told him about the story the man told Sydney being different from what her mother had told her about her dad all this time. She got as far as telling him about why she hadn’t gone into work because she needed to talk to her mom and she didn’t want to wait until after work. She’d had a feeling it was going to be a long one.

Alex walked out of the locker room and motioned for Angel that he was ready to go.

“Listen babe,” he said, hating to interrupt her, “Alex is gonna drop me off at the house, and I’ll come pick you up.”

“Are you sure you’re not too tired? I can tell you the rest on the phone if you are.”

“Hell no,” he said, already hurrying to Alex’s truck.

After everything he’d gone through today, he wanted nothing more than to have her in his arms now. He wasn’t completely over worrying that maybe Syd was in love with her like Alex seemed so sure of, but at least he knew now she hadn’t blown him off all day for the guy. Syd had left at noon like she’d told him in the morning, and there’d been good reason why she hadn’t answered her phone or responded to any of his texts. This was huge, and he could breathe a little easier now.