“Was she any good? Mind if I take a swing at her? She’s okay when she fixes herself up a little,” Ricky snickered.
“I don’t think you’re her type,” Diego replied.
“Not her type? Who does that ugly, little bitch think she is? She couldn’t even be my sancha,” Ricky said with a touch of anger.
“Yeah, I’m sure you get girls way hotter than Delilah all the time, man,” Diego said with a nonchalant shrug and tried again to move on.
“Fuck her, man! Delilah ain’t shit anyway. I bet you’re glad she’s leaving town so you can get after that one girl your mom brought to the wedding. Now, that girl is freaking hot!”
“You mean Beatrice?” Diego asked.
“Yeah, whatever her name is. I bet you can’t wait for a piece of her hot, little ass,” Ricky responded with another laugh.
When Diego failed to respond, Ricky gave him a little shove and said, “Right?”
Diego recognized the change in Ricky’s demeanor that indicated an imminent burst of belligerence. “Yeah, I can’t wait,” he agreed with a fake little chuckle that left a bad taste in his mouth. “I forgot that I need to take care of something for my dad. I’ll come find you when I finish,” he said, as he walked away. He knew from experience that Ricky wouldn’t even remember this exchange in a few minutes.
“Thank you so much, mija,” Mrs. Horta said as Lilah helped her to her feet.
“Are you okay?” Lilah asked as they walked toward one of the park benches on the perimeter of the building.
“Yes. She’s lucky she caught me by surprise, or I would have knocked her on her ass,” she huffed.
“You sound like you need to sit down and relax,” Lilah replied with a smile. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen something so unexpected. Mrs. Gonzales is always so professional and uppity. I can’t believe she attacked you.”
“She’s been giving me the evil eye ever since Diego testified against Mayor Holt.”
“Why does she care about that so much? It’s not like she was related to the Holts,” Lilah asked.
“They were friends with the family. You know how small town politics are. She’s just mad because one of her stupid friends went to jail, and she can’t stand that her son is the one who did it. She thinks I should just get over the fact that Mayor Holt treated my son like his life didn’t matter. She’s got another thing coming if she thinks I’ll do that.”
Lilah wrapped her arms around Mrs. Horta as she started crying. “Adrian did matter; he still does,” she insisted.
“I know. Did Diego tell you about the new park?” Mrs. Horta sniffed.
“No, he didn’t. What about it?”
“They just started construction on a new park over on the south side of town. Diego got the council to approve it when he first got elected. They are going to name it Adrian Horta Memorial Park. It should be finished next spring.”
“That’s great!” Lilah exclaimed. She knew it was a small consolation for the loss of a child, but at least it was something. She hugged Mrs. Horta close again as tears came to her eyes. “I guess Diego’s mom realizes what a huge influence you are in his life. She’s just jealous.”
Mrs. Horta let out a little snort in response. “She has everything, including all her sons, why would she be jealous of me?”
“I can think of a few reasons. Number one being the close relationship you have with Diego. He is a way better man from knowing you. She has to see that, whether she wants to acknowledge it or not.”
Just then, a burst of noise came from inside the elaborate reception tent.
“I think you are missing the bouquet toss,” Mrs. Horta said.
“That’s okay. I’m not superstitious,” Lilah said with a shrug.
“But it’s fun. Don’t you want Diego to see you catch the bouquet? He wouldn’t miss that kind of hint, especially if you winked at him,” Mrs. Horta said with a naughty smile.
Lilah laughed as she shook her head. “I don’t know if we are ready for hints like that just yet. Diego told me he doesn’t know how he feels about being in a long distance relationship, and I have to leave for my book tour first thing in the morning. I won’t even be able to stay for the brunch,” she said.
“Mija, I don’t think Diego needs any hints where you’re concerned,” Mrs. Horta said.
“What makes you say that?” Lilah asked. Her heart thudded in her chest as she thought about the number of times they had been intimate in the last month—too many to count, yet still not nearly enough. She always went a little weak in the knees when he whispered things to her in Spanish. She didn’t know what half of it meant, but she melted anyway.
“You don’t really think that Diego did all those things just for me, do you?” Mrs. Horta asked. “Sure, he has learned his lesson, and he is a nice young man now, but why do you think he came to me and tried to find a way to help me in the first place?”
“Because he felt bad about what happened to Adrian,” Lilah insisted.
“That was only part of it, Lilah. All that man ever thinks about is finding a way to impress you. If you can’t see that, then you’re blind. How do you feel about him?”
Lilah shrugged and turned away. “I don’t know,” she hedged.
“I think you do,” Mrs. Horta said softly. “I know a lot more than you think I do.”
“I think he’s just having some fun with me while I’m here…I think things will change between us once I leave tomorrow, but I also think I love him,” Lilah confessed.
“Are you going to tell him that before you leave?” Mrs. Horta asked as she placed a hand on Lilah’s forearm.
“I don’t know. I’m supposed to spend the night with him, but I don’t know what we’ll talk about,” Lilah said quietly.
“Right, you two are going to spend the night talking,” Mrs. Horta snorted. “Is that why you two were sneaking out the back when su jefita jumped me?”
“Sort of,” Lilah hedged as her face heated in embarrassment. “He asked me to find him after I was finished making sure you’re okay. I don’t think his mom is going to bother you anymore tonight.”
“If you’re supposed to be finding him, what are you doing sitting here talking to me so long? I want to get back to dancing anyway. Mr. Horta has probably been sitting at our table thinking I fell in the toilet,” she laughed.
“Okay. I’ll walk you in, and then I’ll go find Diego,” Lilah agreed.
After escorting Mrs. Horta to her husband’s side, Delilah went in the direction Diego had gone with his mother. As she walked down the nearly deserted corridor, she heard voices near one of the empty gaming rooms. Ordinarily, she would not have dreamt of eavesdropping, but she heard someone say her name in a nasty tone. She slipped behind the nearest door and listened as Diego and his friend Ricky talked about her. The word bitch washed over her several times as she waited for Diego to say something in her defense. Instead, she heard him agreeing with his friend. He even agreed that he couldn’t wait for her to leave town so that he could start seeing someone else. She remained hidden until Ricky walked away, but as soon as Diego walked out of the room, she revealed herself.
“Lilah! I was just looking for you,” he exclaimed with a smile. “Are you ready to get out of here before something else happens?”
“No,” she said as she started crying again. “What was that all about?”
“What was what all about?” he asked as he took a step closer.
“I heard everything you and Ricky just said about me,” she informed him with a great deal of coldness in her voice. It was the only way she could keep from breaking down completely in front of him.
“Delilah, just calm down and listen to me. I know it sounded bad, but it wasn’t what you thought.”
“Oh? It wasn’t? So Ricky didn’t just refer to me as a bitch multiple times? You didn’t just agree with him that you can’t wait until I leave town so you can start seeing that woman that your mom drug along to the wedding today? How dare you pretend to be
one thing when we are alone together and then go right back to being the same disgusting jerk you were back in high school when your friends are around?”
“Dammit, Lilah; do you ever just listen before you attack? You have got to be the most judgmental woman I’ve ever met in my life. Is it really that hard for you to give me the benefit of the doubt even once? Every time you hear the tiniest thing you don’t like, you attack me like all the problems in the world are my fault.”
Lilah took a step back from him and crossed her arms over her chest. “So now I’m judgmental and a bitch,” she whispered.
A moment of silence ticked by as they stared at each other. Lilah mentally begged him to apologize and offer at least a somewhat satisfactory explanation, but he did not. “I’m not making plans to start seeing Beatrice when you leave. I’ve already told you that more than once,” he finally said with an unrelenting frown. “I wish you would just trust me.”
“How can I trust you when every time I turn around you are either talking to some other woman or agreeing with your friends that I’m not good enough for you?”
“I haven’t talked to one other woman since we started seeing each other. You can’t hold me responsible for things my mother does. And I was not agreeing with Ricky about you. Is that what you heard just now? I really hope not, because that’s not at all what happened. What you heard was me trying to escape a pointless conversation with a drunk person, so I could be on my way to find you! You are so quick to jump to conclusions about me. What is your problem? I thought we were going to have a nice time together tonight.”
“Yeah, for tonight,” she said bitterly. “That’s all you ever wanted from me anyway, right?” She looked up into his face for confirmation that she was wrong. What she found instead chilled her to the bone.
A cold look settled in his eyes as he said, “What’s the point in even trying to convince you otherwise? You really can be a judgmental bitch sometimes.”
Shaken, Lilah stared at him for almost a full minute before she turned away. The hardened expression in his eyes and grim line of his normally soft lips seemed like indications that there was nothing left to say. Their fun, little summer fling was clearly over.
She made her way to her rental car and drove back to Heather’s house. She didn’t bother to change out of her dress before packing all of her belongings and stuffing them into the trunk. Her original flight didn’t leave until noon the next day, but she was going to change her ticket and leave early. The sooner she got back to her real life, the sooner her broken heart could start to heal. Her only consolation as she drove down the dark highway was that she hadn’t actually told Diego that she loved him. The tender side of him that he revealed only to her had won her heart so easily, she wondered if it had belonged to him all along. That thought disheartened her, so she tried to push it out of her mind and go back to hating him.
“What do you mean she’s gone?” Diego asked Heather.
Heather pulled her dressing robe tighter around her body and yawned up at him before saying, “Gone means she left to catch her plane to California this morning. I’m not sure what time she took off, but she said she was switched to a flight that was leaving at five this morning. She’s probably about to take off right now. Would you like to come in?”
Tinges of dawn were just beginning to light up the sky, but the interior of the house was still dark. “No, I don’t want to wake up Cyrus,” he said.
“It’s a little late for that,” she said with a pointed look at her watch. “We usually get up pretty early anyway.”
“I guess I’ll see you at the brunch in a few hours,” he said with a smile that felt fake and awful.
Brunch was painful to sit through. On the surface, everyone was overjoyed for the newlyweds, but Diego could feel Hugo and his father’s concern coming at him in palpable waves. He had told Hugo about his feelings for Lilah, but his father was probably only guessing at why he could barely muster a smile or participate in any conversations this morning.
“What’s wrong, mijo?” his mother asked.
“I think I drank too much last night,” he lied. “I have a headache.” At least the headache part was true.
Once Hugo and Cheryl drove off for their honeymoon vacation, everyone else turned to Diego. His mother was the first one to speak.
“Diego, what is going on?” she demanded.
“Mom, I don’t want to talk about it, at least not with you,” Diego replied quietly.
His mom looked hurt for the briefest instant before she gave him a cutting glare and stalked away. “You try talking to him, Carlos,” she said to his father.
Diego took one look at his dad’s face and knew that he wasn’t going to be allowed to get away with being rude to his mother. He followed his father into his study and sat down in one of the chairs across from his massive desk. As a child, his father’s desk had always inspired a great deal of awe. It had been a symbol of his father’s influence and authority. Now, the desk only served to remind him that he still wasn’t half the man his father was. His father never would have called his mother a bitch.
He thought about that moment and cringed again for the millionth time that morning. Even before the words had passed his lips, he knew they were wrong. He had regretted them even as they were flying out of his mouth. He hated that he was the cause of that look of hurt that had come to Lilah’s face last night. His father definitely wouldn’t have done that to his mother.
Carlos Gonzales took his place behind the desk and drummed his fingers as he stared at Diego. This was the same routine Diego had sat through multiple times growing up. First there was the staring, then the sighing, and finally the opening statement of how they expected more out of him. Diego wondered what version of the opening line he would receive this morning. He was completely shocked when his father smiled and said, “This is about a woman, isn’t it?”
Diego sat forward and asked, “How did you know?”
Carlos laughed and leaned back in his chair. “I always know. Plus, your mother mentioned something about a woman who has been going all over town stirring up stuff. Is she also the same one you were with when your mother went to your house with Sandy’s daughter a couple of weeks ago?”
Diego nodded.
“That’s what I thought. You want to tell me what’s going on?”
“Dad, I wouldn’t even know where to begin,” Diego said with a sigh. “I guess last night is a good place to start. She overheard Ricky insult her, and I didn’t stick up for her. She got upset and called me a jerk, and then I called her a bitch.”
Carlos winced as he said, “Oh! Yeah, girls don’t like it when you use that word. Trust me; I know. She called you a jerk; you called her a bitch, and now you’re probably thinking, ‘what’s the difference?’ The difference, according to years of research with your mother and her sisters, is that when you say ‘bitch,’ in your head you’re probably thinking, ‘girl-jerk.’ But, when you say ‘bitch,’ all she hears is, ‘female dog’ or ‘subordinate,’ etcetera, etcetera. If she calls you a jerk again, you point out that name calling is not right, and if you must return the favor, I’d stick with calling her a jerk right back. That will make her think twice about saying it to you. Just don’t say bitch. They hate that, and it causes way more trouble than you want to deal with; trust me. I called your mother a bitch exactly once in our marriage.”
“You did?” Diego asked. “When? Why? I’m surprised she didn’t kill you.”
“It was pretty early on. I asked her why she never cooked anything I wanted to eat, and she got angry. Back then, she was still in dental school, so she really didn’t have time to make the kind of meals my mother used to prepare for me. I was resentful, because I was brought up to believe that, no matter what kind of job she had outside the home, it was still her job to take care of me. We argued, and she swore she’d never make me dinner again if I didn’t appreciate what she had time to prepare. I called her a bitch, and she got very upset. She didn’t tal
k to me for a few days, but we managed to move past it.”
Diego raised his eyebrows as he imagined his parents fighting as a young couple. They never even raised their voices at each other now. Since he was small, Diego had only ever witnessed mature, adult discussions between the two of them. There had been times of tension, but never screaming.
“Is that why you cook dinner every night?” Diego asked his father.
Carlos smiled and gave a little salute. “That’s how I got your mother to talk to me again; I started cooking. It just sort of stayed that way over the years. To be fair, I don’t think she ever really liked cooking anyway. I hate cleaning, so she always cleans up after dinner. That’s not the only compromise we’ve made over the years, but I think it just might be my favorite one.”
Diego tried to imagine himself in his father’s shoes, sitting in his study, giving relationship advice to his fully grown son. He wanted to believe he had it in him to become the paragon of strength and masculinity his father was, but he just didn’t know if he would ever be as mature as his father. “Well, she’s gone now, so I don’t really have the chance to talk to her about it. She probably wouldn’t talk to me even if she was in town,” he replied.
“So, I guess that means it’s the end,” Carlos said with his special brand of intellectual sarcasm dripping from every word. “That’s a shame; she seemed like a nice girl when I met her at the last council meeting,” he added with a hint of regret.
“I don’t really want it to be the end,” Diego admitted. “I just don’t know what to do.”
“You want my advice?” Carlos asked as he leaned forward and looked Diego deep in the eyes.
“Yes, sir,” Diego nodded.
“Go to her and apologize for calling her a bitch, and tell her how you feel about her. Tell her the truth, and give her a chance to apologize for calling you a jerk. If she’s the right one for you, you two will work it out, but someone has to be the first one to reach out. Put your pride in the back seat, and go to her.”
Redemption (Reunion Book 1) Page 16