Again

  “Oh, good. I have something I want you to have. I almost mailed it out last week but then remembered the restaurant’s anniversary thing and thought maybe you’d make it this time.”

  Sydney glanced at Emi, whose eyebrows lifted curiously, but he smirked, shaking his head, so she’d know there wasn’t anything about his friendship with Cristina to be curious about.

  “You gonna be at the anniversary thing? Or did you need me to swing by your place?”

  “No, I’ll be there Sunday. I’ll just take it with me. It’s nothing big. Just something I know Mando would’ve liked for you to have. I found it this past year when I was going through some boxes in the garage.”

  Sydney pressed his lips together, remembering how that felt having to sort through your deceased loved ones things. “Cool,” he said, feeling bad that it’d been too long since he’d last called to check on her. “I look forward to seeing you. Everything fine? The kids doing okay?”

  Cristina explained everything was fine but cut the call short, saying she’d let him be since he was driving and they’d talk Sunday at the restaurant.

  “I didn’t realize you and Mando were that close,” Emi said once Sydney was off the call.

  “Yeah, he was real stand-up guy too. Damn shame he had to die so young. When he told me he was dying and how little time he had left”—he shook his head, looking out the window feeling emotional, so he cleared his throat—“I couldn’t believe it. It brought back memories of my dad dying so young. So I promised Mando the last time I was able to talk to him that I’d keep an eye out for his wife and kids. She’s got a big family and all. Probably doesn’t need me too, but I still try to call or text to check on her every few weeks or so.”

  “Well, that’s something I can certainly relate to,” she said with a weak smile. “I lost my both parents suddenly too. How’d your dad die?”

  “Brain tumor,” he said, staring straight ahead, pondering for a moment the fact that, in this entire year and as much as he and Emi talked, neither had shared about the deaths of his dad or both of her parents. “He was diagnosed at a young age with it. My mom said he was thirty-two. It was benign, and the doctors didn’t even see any need for surgery. Then one day ten years later he woke up and couldn’t feel his legs. He was rushed to the hospital where the puzzled doctors tried to figure out what was wrong with him. Two days later he was dead. The doctors had kept a close eye on him those ten years he’d had the tumor. It’d barely grown the whole time. When he’d last been checked six months prior to dying, everything had been normal. Turns out the tumor, for reasons unknown, had begun to press against a nerve, the nerve in charge of sending feeling to your legs. In the two days he spent in bed at the hospital, they said he developed a blood clot that ultimately did him in. Of course, they said the change in his tumor must’ve happened in the months leading up to this because they weren’t about to admit they’d missed something on his last checkup.”

  Sydney shook his head as he turned to glance at Emi, who, as usual, seemed to be hanging on his every word. It was just one of the things he found so endearing about her. Just like when he’d told her the truth about his past feelings for Sarah, he had her undivided attention.

  Even while talking about something this heavy, just one look at those profoundly curious eyes made him smile. “My parents had me when they were only seventeen. So even though he was forty-two when he died, he at least didn’t leave any small children behind. Yet my mom still had a really difficult time dealing with losing him so suddenly and unexpectedly. I saw the pain she endured, and I wish it on no one. I know Mando’s death has got to be hard on Cristina. It’s why I feel this need to stay in touch and check in on her.”

  “Wow,” Emi said exhaling. “I’m sorry about your dad. I can’t even imagine.” She shook her head as if to take it back. “No, I guess I can. Only with my parents it was different. They both went missing for some time before we found out they were gone. So there was this added element of desperate hope that they’d be found alive.”

  “Missing?” Sydney turned to her, understanding now why neither of them had shared such heavy stories. “What happened to them?”

  “The worst thing was it didn’t even happen to them together. We had to go through the whole waiting and hoping thing twice. My mom was murdered,” she said as she said many things, as if what she’d just said wasn’t shocking to hear. “She was found strangled in an alley after she’d gone missing for over a week. She worked several jobs, and one of them was bartending at a bar in the evenings. They said the man who was convicted of her murder had become obsessed with her and waited for her one night after her shift.”

  Sydney still felt speechless but spoke up anyway when she didn’t go on. “I think Lynn mentioned something about Romero’s aunt going missing and then later being found dead way back.”

  “Yeah, it’s been a while. I’d just started high school. It was a really tough time for us because not a year later my dad disappeared,” she explained further and now Sydney felt glued to her words. “His wasn’t a murder or anything like that. He had a bad heart and was on a business trip up north when he went missing. Never arrived at his hotel or the meeting he was going to. They found him in his car at a truck stop. His credit card receipts showed that was the last place he’d purchased anything. Since it was a truck stop in the middle of a long stretch of nothing, they think anyone that had seen him must’ve assumed he was just taking a snooze because he used his card there two days prior to being found.”

  “Holy shit,” Sydney said, turning to her again. “Here I thought I had it bad.”

  “No, yours probably was a lot worse than mine. I mean my mom’s was a million times worse than my dad’s passing. Don’t get me wrong,” she said quickly. “I loved my dad and all, but he hadn’t lived with us in years. We lived in Dallas, and when my parents divorced, he moved out to California. So it’d been years since I’d had him in my life on a regular basis. In fact, I rarely saw him, so it wasn’t too hard to get used to him being out of our lives for good. But he was no deadbeat. He paid child support up until the day he died since A.J. and I were still minors. And it was why we ended up moving to San Diego. He left us his house and a good chunk of change.”

  The conversation on the way to La Jolla had been interesting. While it was understandable why neither would be eager to share this harsh part of their lives, it just demonstrated, especially after also confessing about his real feelings for Lynn back in the day, how much his friendship with Emi had progressed. She’d since quizzed him again about Cheryl, insisting things had to be getting more serious than he admitted and questioned if maybe he wasn’t a little commitment-phobic. The only thing he’d admitted was that, yes, so far Cheryl had been the only girl he’d dated lately that he might consider a relationship with. But he wasn’t there yet.

  Arriving at the street festival with Emi felt a little weird. Strolling through the crowd proved a little tricky, and occasionally Emi had reached out and grabbed his shirt to keep them from getting separated. At one point as they maneuvered through a crowded area, she’d held on to his lower arm, which felt awkward, so Sydney had just slipped his hand into hers. It almost felt as if they were a couple like the many around them. As much as he would’ve liked to just keep her hand in his because it felt perfect—it was such a simple gesture, yet feeling her soft delicate hand in his had his heart racing—he was afraid to spook her. So the moment they were out of the crowd he’d let go and neither commented about it.

  They’d gone straight to the festival because her brothers were both working and her sister Liv was down there helping out. Apparently, she and Sal’s wife’s sister were best friends now, and Liv agreed to go down to help out since they were always so busy.

  They stopped at a few of the food stands to buy samples. Sydney shook off the unease of possibly having spooked Em, remembering how back in the days before Angel and even a few times afterward he and Lynn had held hands on occasion. Yet they’d never been
romantic at all.

  Lynn hadn’t been lying when she said each year the festival got even bigger. The place was packed. They stood under the shade for a while, listening to a band playing at one of the stages. “She’s good.” Emi turned to him wide-eyed as the girl on stage belted out an Adele song.

  “Yeah, she is.”

  He flinched when he felt someone tap his lower back. He and Emi turned to a smiling Lynn and Valerie. “When did you guys get here?” Lynn asked, hugging him then Emi.

  “Just got here a few minutes ago,” Sydney explained as he hugged Valerie. “We were making our way down to your stand next.”

  “We’re playing hooky for a little bit,” Valerie said, smiling big as she held up a beer cup.

  “It’s our break actually,” Lynn clarified. “We’ve been here since this morning. We were due.”

  She, too, held a cup in her hand. Sydney didn’t even have to ask; he already knew it was wine. Lynn didn’t do beer. She suddenly turned to Valerie, eyes wide open. “Is your friend here?”

  Valerie’s eyes opened just as wide as she slipped her hand in her pocket and pulled out her phone. “Good question. Let me text her.”

  Lynn turned to Sydney with a playfully remorseful expression. “Don’t get mad, okay?”

  “About what?”

  “Valerie has a single friend who we sort of told about you.”

  Sydney began rolling his eyes, holding in a groan.

  “Hear me out, okay? She’s been divorced for a couple of years. She’s the IT girl at Valerie’s office. Super cute, no kids, and she enjoys sailing.”

  “And long walks on the beach?” Sydney laughed.

  Lynn giggled, rolling her eyes playfully in Emi’s direction. “Doesn’t she sound perfect?”

  “Yeah, so why is she single?” Sydney asked.

  “Same reason you are,” she said, taking a sip of her wine with a smirk. “She just hasn’t found the right person. I haven’t actually met her, but I’ve seen pictures. She’s super cute.”

  “Yeah, you said that already,” Sydney smirked skeptically.

  “Her name is Lucy. Look,” Valerie said, holding out her phone to him.

  Emi leaned in with him to study the photo. She was cute. “She looks really young.”

  “She does,” Valerie agreed, putting her phone back in her pocket. “And she is but not too young. She’s twenty-four, a tech genius, and she practically squealed when she realized the single tech friend I was talking about was you.” Valerie’s brows bounced as she sipped her beer. “She’s already a fan. That’s probably her.” Valerie pulled the phone out of her pocket again.

  “Isn’t that crazy?” Lynn said, smiling widely, her attention going from Sydney to Emi. “Valerie just thought because you’re both single and techy you might hit it off, and come to find out she knows all about you and thinks you’re hot!”

  “She couldn’t make it today after all,” Valerie informed them with a frown after reading the text, “but she says she’ll be there tomorrow at the restaurant.”

  “Perfect,” Lynn said.

  “Don’t I get to weigh in on this?” Sydney asked.

  “No,” Lynn and Valerie said at the same time then laughed.

  “What’s there to weigh in on?” Valerie asked. “You just meet her and talk a little. If you hit it off, you exchange emails or tap phones or whatever two techy people do. It’s not like this is a private blind date. We’re all gonna be there. I’ll just introduce you two. No big deal.”

  Sydney gave Valerie an unconvinced look. He hadn’t prepared for anything like this. He’d looked forward to just catching up with Lynn and the gang, not an awkward blind date. And he didn’t care what they said. It sure as hell sounded like one, a setup anyway.

  Curiously, Emi hadn’t said much the entire time. She wasn’t one to stay quiet so long, but he supposed she couldn’t add much to this conversation since she didn’t know anything about Lucy.

  They returned to the huge setup Moreno’s had at the food festival. It was easily the largest one there. So many people were working it Sydney had to wonder who was back at the actual restaurants.

  They entered the back where Angel, his brothers, and Romero were playing dice against the curb. “Aren’t you guys supposed to be working?” Emi asked.

  It was one of the first things she’d said since they started walking back to the tent together. The guys all turned and greeted him and Emi. “I didn’t know you were coming down,” Romero said to Emi. “Did A.J. come with you?” he asked, looking behind them.

  “No, I came with Sydney.”

  Romero eyed Sydney, a bit questioning, and then nodded. “That’s right. You two live in the same building.” Just like that he was off to the next subject. “You hear about Sabian?”

  Sydney saw not just Emi’s eyes go wide but also her sister’s. She’d just joined them. “Did he sign?” Liv asked before Emi could answer.

  “Sure did,” Romero smiled, smug. “Seventy-seven big ones over the next three years, but he’s worth every penny. Your brother’s going to the World Series this year. Mark my words.”

  Emi and Liv squealed so loud they had everyone’s attention.

  “Who’s Sabian?” Lynn asked.

  “Who’s Sabian?” Romero asked obnoxiously loud.

  “Easy,” Angel said, shoving him as he walked by him and pecked Lynn.

  “Only the best shortstop the big leagues have seen since Jeter,” Romero said, ignoring Angel’s shove. “Between him, A.J., Marcelo Banks, and Prieto, we might be looking at a dynasty team here.”

  “Is he the hot one that plays for the Royals?” Valerie asked.

  Alex turned, narrowing his eyes on his wife, and she blew him a kiss with a big smile. “I’m just asking.”

  “Yes, that’s the one,” Emi said a little too excited. “And we might actually get to meet him now.”

  Valerie’s jaw dropped. “I hadn’t even thought of that.”

  “Yeah, well don’t start,” Alex said with a playful glare.

  Romero smirked but continued, quoting stats and arguing his theories and predictions for the Padres’ dynasty team.

  “Relax,” Alex said, his face souring. “He’s good, but not that good.”

  “Are you kidding me?” Romero said, getting fired up the way Sydney had seen him do plenty of times.

  Sydney noticed the difference between Livi’s and Emi’s interest and excitement about this versus Lynn’s and Valerie’s. Valerie had already wandered away and made herself a plate of something. Lynn turned to Sydney, losing interest as well. “You hungry?”

  “A little,” he said, glancing around. “Whatcha got?”

  “Let me show you,” she said then turned to Emi. “Emi, you hungry? Syd’s gonna eat.”

  Emi barely glanced their way to say she was fine for now and got right back to listening to Romero still talking about Sabian’s stats. “The guy batted over four hundred almost the entire season last year.”

  Sydney could understand why Emi and her sisters would seem so excited about this news. Romero was right about one thing. The Padres did have a damn good chance of at least making it to the World Series this year with Sabian, A.J., and those other guys he’d mentioned. If A.J. were Sydney’s brother, he’d be just as excited.

  After making Sydney a plate with several of the samples on the menu, they stepped outside the hot tent and stood under the shade of a tree behind the tent while Sydney ate.

  “I talked to your mom the other day,” Lynn said, sipping the cup she’d been holding that whole time. “Well, texted. She’s getting better about responding. We went back and forth for a little bit.”

  “Oh, yeah?” Sydney asked, surprised.

  He knew Lynn still stayed in touch with his mom even after all these years. But he thought it was just through Facebook, the only social media his mom subscribed to.

  “I texted her earlier in the week to let her know about the festival. Last time I saw her, she asked me to remind he
r the next time it came around.” Lynn glanced behind him as if to check for something. “She asked about Emi.”

  Sydney coughed, taking a swig of his water but managed to not have the cough attack he thought he might. “What about her?” he asked casually, but like Lynn, he discreetly lowered his voice too.

  Lynn shrugged. “Just asked what I knew about her. She said every time she’s talked to you lately you mention Emi and that you seem different these days. Happier.”

  He narrowed his eyes at Lynn but kept eating, not wanting to let on how uncomfortable he suddenly felt. “Happier? Did she think I was depressed or something?”

  “I dunno,” Lynn said, but Sydney knew her too well.

  She knew exactly why his mother had asked, and it was why she brought it up now—Emi wasn’t around to hear her.

  “Emi lives in the same building as I do. She’s around a lot, so I guess I’ve mentioned it a few times to my mom. I’ve been seeing a lot more of Cheryl lately.” He made sure he threw that in because he could see it in Lynn’s eyes. She knew why his mother had asked and was probably wondering the same thing herself. “But I don’t think that makes me happier or anything.”

  “That’s right. I forgot about Cheryl,” she said, her eyes widening.

  Obviously!

  “Does Emi know about Cheryl?” Lynn asked, her voice once again lowering.

  Sydney laughed, more out of exasperation than anything, but he also wanted to make a point how ridiculous the question was to him. “Yeah. Why wouldn’t she?”

  “Oh, I don’t know.” Again with the innocent little shrug. “She’s normally so cheery and talkative, and she got a little quiet after hearing about the setup we have for you and Lucy tomorrow. I almost felt bad like maybe you haven’t told me something about you and her—”

  “Nope,” he said before she could even finish that last statement. “Nothing like that at all.” This time he did the innocent shrug. “I’d tell you if there was. But there isn’t. I’m seeing Cheryl, and Emi’s seeing someone too—has been for over a year.”

  “Really?” Lynn tilted her head, her beautiful green eyes shimmering up at him. “Funny, I’ve never heard her talk about a boyfriend, and she’s never brought anyone to any of the family functions, aside from you, that is.”