Valerie
Yoshi?” Valerie stated the obvious with a big smile as they drove into the parking lot.
They hadn’t been back here since that very first time he brought her here. The day they took the walk on the beach and he kissed her for the first time. At least not together. She’d been back a few times with her girlfriends and even once with another guy, but they’d just never made it back here together since that day.
“I know we ate at the barbeque, but—”
“Oh, I can eat again,” she said, grinning. “We ate over an hour ago.”
Alex laughed. “I figured as much.”
They parked and got out then walked into the sushi bar hand in hand. The place was fairly empty considering it was a Saturday night, so they took a seat right at the sushi bar. She figured, like Romero’s uncles and Alex’s friend Chels, many were gathered in groups somewhere still buzzing over the fight. This was huge.
Valerie had been so distracted and still glowing over Alex’s admission that he was fucking crazy about her to give the fight much thought. One of the televisions in the bar area was showing highlights of the fight or rather single round that ended so unexpectedly.
Alex laughed, shaking his head. “I wonder how much money Romero lost.”
“He bet on Sanchez?” Valerie asked, suddenly chuckling herself.
“Yeah,” Alex said as the waitress approached to take their drink orders.
Before Valerie could say what she wanted, Alex ordered for them. Two large Japanese beers. The waitress asked for both their ID’s and inspected them.
“Remember?” he asked as they both put away their ID’s and the waitress walked away. “You said the tall chilled bottles of beer looked so good that first day. But we were both underage.”
She smiled but wouldn’t mention that she’d since satisfied her craving to try one. It was still sweet of him to remember. “Why, Mr. Moreno, I didn’t think your memory was that good.”
“Not really,” he admitted with a smile then kissed her hand. “But when we walked in and I saw someone drinking one, it reminded me.”
He leaned in and kissed her lips, and then they both studied the plastic menus they’d been handed with pictures and the description of the many sushi rolls that were offered.
“They all look so good,” she said, sinking her teeth into her bottom lip.
“Order whatever and as much,” he added with a smirk, “as your little heart desires.”
The waitress brought their beers, and they each put in their first order of the all-you-can-eat dinner. Valerie excused herself to the ladies’ room. When she got back, Alex was gone. His keys and beer were still at the sushi bar where he’d been sitting, but he wasn’t there. She glanced around as she sat down assuming he must’ve gone to the men’s room.
“Valerie.”
She turned curiously to see who it was because she didn’t recognize the voice. As soon as she saw them, she smiled. “Oh, hey, Elijah.”
Elijah was a broker at her office whom she’d shadowed a few times, so, of course, she knew his name. He offered his hand, and she shook it, praying he’d give her a hint as to the name of the other guy standing with him and smiling just as big. His face was very familiar, and the way he was smiling at her she knew she was supposed to know him.
With no help from Elijah, she turned to the other guy in the suit. “Hey!” She reached for his hand too, over emphasizing her enthusiasm to make up for not knowing his name.
“We hear congrats are in order,” Nameless Guy said, and she was beginning to panic about not remembering his name—at all.
Then she remembered he wasn’t an agent or broker. He was a lender who came into the office often. “Yes, thank you. I just found out today. I’m very excited.” She smiled big. “So I’ll need your card to keep handy now.”
Immediately, he reached inside his suit jacket to the front pocket of his shirt and pulled out a card. She took it as Elijah asked about the test. Valerie glanced down at the name on the card. Trent Ewing . Trent. Trent. Trent. She repeated inwardly.
“So are you out celebrating?” Elijah asked, holding her gaze a little too long as he smiled and played with his pinky ring.
“I am actually.” She nodded, smiling again and looking away from Elijah.
Something about the way he was looking at her made her uncomfortable, so she turned to smile at Trent again. Just then Alex sat down next to her, laying what looked like at least a dozen perfect long-stemmed red roses on the table in front of her. They were wrapped at the stems with a red silk bow. Her mouth dropped open for a moment as she looked at the beautiful flowers then turned to Alex curiously.
“Flower shop next door.” He smiled then glanced up at Elijah and Trent as he picked up his bottle of beer.
Feeling her heart expand, she picked up the roses and smelled them. “Oh my God. Thank you,” she said, leaning in to touch his chin, and kissed his cheek. Then she shook her head suddenly and turned to Elijah and Trent, a little embarrassed. “I’m sorry. Where are my manners. Elijah, Trent, this is Alex.” She turned back to Alex. “Alex, these are co-workers of mine, Elijah and Trent.”
Alex shook Trent’s hand first then reached for Elijah’s. “It’s Eli,” Elijah said with a smile then turned and winked at Valerie. “We’ve talked about this, Val.”
“Yes.” She smiled, nodding. “I keep forgetting.”
Eli had a habit of playing with his pinky ring. It was something he did often even when they were working, but for some reason it unnerved her now. He was one of those good-looking older guys in his thirties who just looked like he had his act together. But there’d been times he showed a little too much interest in her, and that made her nervous now in front of Alex.
Too many times in her recent past she’d secretly used Elijah as a mental consolation to make herself feel better. There were times she’d been so down, feeling as if she were taken for granted by Alex—like maybe she didn’t deserve to be taken seriously. Having a man so put together like Elijah show interest in her felt good. Especially because he didn’t say inappropriate things to her like the younger guys she was used to. He’d made it clear even in the subtle way he said things that it wasn’t a meaningless fling he was in search of. Instead, he often talked about his future: Investing well for his later years. The home he was looking for once he settled down with a wife and kids. Another thing he made crystal clear was that he was very single and still hadn’t found that special woman.
“Well,” Elijah said with a smile first at Alex then her. “We’ll leave you be so you can continue celebrating. Nice to meet you, Alex,” he said, turning to smile at Alex. Then he turned to Valerie again. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow?” she asked, confused.
“You’re an agent now, Val,” he said with a big smile. “Sundays are your biggest open house days. I’m doing that big one tomorrow I told you about over in La Jolla Shores. Three multimillion-dollar homes in the same area. You’re more than welcome to take a shot at it if you’d like. I can’t be in all three homes at once.”
Valerie smiled, turning back to Alex, who didn’t crack so much as a smile. He even turned away to pay more attention to the television announcer giving updates on the Sanchez fight. “I don’t actually have my license yet,” she began to say, but Elijah was quick to interrupt her.
“Minor details.” He shook his head. “You know how this works, babe. Even if we get an offer tomorrow, it’d still be months before escrow could close. By then you’d have your license for sure.”
From the corner of her eye, she could see Elijah’s calling her babe had gotten Alex attention. So she shook her head quickly. “I’ll be celebrating all weekend. But thanks for the offer. I’ll see you Monday.”
Elijah and Trent excused themselves and went back to their table. Almost dreading it, Valerie turned to Alex, who, to her surprise, was staring at the television screen with what appeared to be a smirk on his face. He lifted a brow as he took another swig of his beer but said nothing.
“All right, just say it,” she said, lifting one of the roses to her nose to smell it again.
“Say what?” he asked, feigning complete ignorance.
“I know you have something to say, so let’s just get this out of the way now.”
“I have nothing to say.” He laughed, taking her hand in his and kissing it. “Actually . . .” he said, pausing as he glanced back in the area where Elijah and Trent were having dinner.
“I knew it,” she said with a smirk.
“No,” he assured her. “The old Alex would’ve had plenty to say.” She lifted an amused eyebrow as he continued. “Old Alex would’ve instantly hated that douche.”
The cook on the other side of the sushi bar handed them each their first roll. After moving the roses over and placing their plates in front of them, Alex went on. “The old Alex might’ve even wondered if he had anything to worry about. Maybe even reacted to hearing some other dude refer to his girl as babe right in front of his face. But not the new Alex.”
Valerie stared at him, completely impressed. Her hands were still on her lap where she’d left them after placing her napkin there.
“New Alex knows he has nothing to worry about.” He raised his brow again as he had earlier; only this time it wasn’t as playful. “Right?”
“Of course,” she said, reaching out for his hand.
“Well, there you go.” He smiled, though she knew him well enough to know it was a bit forced. “New Alex isn’t about to ruin our night of celebrating over this. But we will talk about that asshole later.”
Valerie laughed. She had a feeling New Alex was a bit too good to be true. She liked that he was trying to change—handle things more maturely. But she’d take the real Alex, temper-challenged and all, over Fake Alex any day.
He leaned over and kissed her gently. “Seriously,” he said, “I don’t know what it is, but it actually felt pretty good keeping it together and not reacting like I normally do. You know me.”
“Yes, I know you.” She laughed.
He smirked then chuckled. “We wouldn’t be laughing right now. I’ll tell you that much.”
“Well, I’m very proud of you,” she said, biting into a piece of her sushi roll as her insides warmed with excitement. “I’m gonna be honest and admit something to you, okay? I was a little skeptical about this whole change thing. It’s just been like this for so long, but I hadn’t even thought about this part of the change.” She squeezed his hard upper thigh, smiling as he stared at her. “Clearly, you really are making an effort.”
“I promised you I would.” He wiped his mouth, glancing back in Elijah’s direction and looking a little less smug than he had moments ago. “Make an effort that is. But you have to cut me some slack, okay? I may slip every now and again.”
She stopped chewing and stared at him. Like Alex, she was going to make an added effort as well to not jump to conclusions and give him the benefit of the doubt before snapping. So she’d assume by “slip every now and again” he meant he may not always be this patient and calm about things of this nature.
Nothing else.
Squeezing his upper thigh again, she smiled. “I know and I will. I appreciate the effort, baby. I really do.”
They spent the rest of their dinner discussing her new career and his getting to play in the following week’s game—something he was really relieved and excited about. It made her nervous, but she wouldn’t tell him that. She knew firsthand how painful it would be if he hurt his ankle again. She’d been there when he first broke it, and it hadn’t been pretty. Like most ankle injuries, it was extremely painful. The poor guy could barely stand. But Alex had broken his in such a way he’d required permanent screws to hold it back together. She remembered his hitting it against his coffee table once and his face had nearly gone white, it was so painful.
His doctor had warned him already that while she was signing off that he was okay to play again he should consider waiting a bit longer to get back on the field. Another injury this soon could not only end his football career, but it could cause some major irreparable damage. But Alex was adamant. He said he’d never had any illusions of playing pro ball. What he did want to assure was that he didn’t lose his scholarship. Any more time off the field could cost him just that.
When they were finished eating, Alex asked where she wanted to go next. Since this felt like a new beginning for them and this was the first place he’d ever taken her, she knew just the place.
“Let’s take a walk on the beach.”
At first Alex, seemed off put, as if he had something bigger—better—in mind to do tonight. But then it seemed to come to him. “I know just the place,” he said as they got in the truck.
He drove to the lot they’d parked at the first time they’d walked there. He remembered. It was the silliest little thing, but it made Valerie so giddy that he’d remember.
As soon as she was out of the truck, she rushed to him and jumped in his arms, kissing his face all over. Alex laughed, holding her easily with just one arm and brushing the hair away from her face with the other.
“You remembered,” she said, pulling away to look at his eyes.
“Of course,” he said, leaning in to kiss her again so softly and sweetly it actually choked her up. “How could I forget?” he whispered against her lips. “Kissing you has always done the craziest things to me. I don’t know.” He shook his head. “But that first day. It was like I was already thinking it that whole time, from the moment I met you. I was dyingto kiss you. Then when I finally did, it only confirmed it. I knew there was something amazingly exceptional about you. About the way you made me feel. I thought maybe after some time it’d go away, fade a little. But it never has.”
Valerie took a deep breath, letting it out slowly as she stared deeply into those intense eyes of his. It felt so perfect being there with him it almost scared her. All those years she’d held back from allowing herself to expect more from him out fear of getting hurt, and now there was no way she could.
Her father had told her on more than one occasion how her mother had been the love of his life. He’d known it from the moment he first met her, and Alex was undoubtedly hers. She just wasn’t brave enough to tell him that just yet. It was too soon to ruin this amazing change. But there was something she could tell him.
“I know exactly what you mean,” she said, holding his face in both of her hands. “I felt it that day too and didn’t understand it either. I thought maybe I was nuts.” She laughed nervously. “Or being overly dramatic—romantic or something.”
“No.” He shook his head immediately. “It’s not nuts.”
“And it’s never gone away for me either,” she said, resting her forehead against his.
She kissed him again, deeper, longer this time. Her heart nearly pounded out of her chest, she was so overwhelmed with joy. She just wished that she could drown out the paralyzing fear. She hated that this felt like such a risk putting her feelings out there for him as she never had before. But at the same time it felt so right. She wanted to just enjoy it without the feelings of doubt.
Stopping to stare him straight in those dark intense eyes, she smiled, taking a deep breath. To hell with the fear. For once she was just going to allow herself to be happy—to expect more from Alex Moreno. He’d promised, right? “Let’s go find that wall,” she said, smiling big and biting her lower lip.
“I was thinking the exact same thing.”
Valerie laughed. “I thought I’d have to explain. You know which wall I mean?”
“Hell yeah,” he said, letting her down, and tugged her hand. “I didn’t want to admit it back then even to myself. But I think that day when I kissed you for the first time on that wall, I knew right then I was nuts about you.”
Her heart had been doing so much swelling over in the past twenty-four hours she wondered how much more it could take. But without another doubt, without any more fear, she leaned into him as he wrapped his arm around her and decided once and for all she was putting her heart out there, regardless of the risk. She looked up at him and smiled, big and unabashed. “Sal’s right.”
“About what?” he asked, surprising her that he didn’t immediately get it.
“We are so much alike,” she said, tilting her head. “I think I knew I was nuts about you that day too.”
“Kind of scary,” he said, pulling her closer as they continued walking.
Yeah, very scary. She wouldn’t ruin the moment—the day—this magical evening by saying it out loud. The two of them being so much alike could be a good thing. But it could also be a bad thing. They were both equally obstinate. Just as she’d made up her mind about really making an effort to make this work with as minimal drama as possible, she’d also made another decision. The last indiscretion she’d forgiven him for was just that.
The very last.
If he ever did anything to hurt her again, she’d be putting her heart out of its misery and ending things for good. There’d be no more forgiving. Her heart ached just thinking about it. She could only pray now that she hadn’t taken one chance too many with Alex. In the past, the things he did drove her crazy—made her livid—but things were different now. After just one full day of this change, anything from here on would feel like an ultimate betrayal.