“Is there a problem?” Oscar asked, his two friends stepping up behind him.
That’s when she knew her time with Oscar was over. Either she said there was a problem and watch the explosive outcome or she walked away with Alex and hopefully they could convince Romero to leave with them.
Romero had already started to say something when she set her beer down on the table and grabbed Alex’s arm with one hand and Romero’s with the other. “Let’s just go.”
“Who is he?” Alex demanded as they walked away, slipping his hand in hers and squeezing.
“I just met him, Alex!” she said, tugging at Romero’s arm. Not surprisingly, he was the harder one to calm once his brawling instincts flared up.
“Let it go, man.” Alex turned to Romero. “I’m cool. He’s not worth it.”
Romero finally stopped glaring at Oscar then turned to Alex and Valerie, the glare morphing into a grin. “Little bitch thought his three on two would scare us.” He scoffed.
“You guys are ridiculous!” Valerie huffed, walking away from both of them.
“What did I do?” she heard Romero ask.
“Go tell Angel and Sal I’ll be back in a few,” Alex said, catching up to Valerie.
Within minutes, they were on one of the side streets off the main strip, arguing loudly.
“I have to be friendly with them, Z. They’re customers!”
“And that means exchanging phone numbers with them?”
“What? What are you talking about? I didn’t—”
“I saw you!” she said even angrier that he’d have the nerve to deny it. “They handed you their phones, and you put your number in.”
He stared at her for a moment, looking confused, then shook his head. “The website,” he said. “The restaurant’s website. I was showing them where they can look for discount coupons.”
Valerie shook her head. It was more than that. She’d played the ole text-me-or-let-me-text-myself-from-your-phone-so-I-can-have-your-number game plenty of times. She’d seen the exchanges, the all-too-cheeky grins Alex had given those girls. He was feeding her bullshit as usual.
“Okay.” He held his hand up. “Okay. One or two may’ve asked for my number, and I did put it in their phones.”
Valerie pushed him and attempted to storm away, pissed at herself for making him admit it. It was what she’d never wanted: confirmation. Now that she had it, she could feel her throat constricting already. But, of course, he didn’t let her by. “The restaurant’s phone, baby,” he said, pressing himself against her and forcing her to move backwards until her back was against the wall. “They could look it up anyway, and if my not giving them the direct number to my cell isn’t a hint, then I don’t know what is.”
Just like that, her heart was already beating faster as his intense eyes stared into hers. She knew he was going to kiss her, and she was going to let him.
He did. Softy. Sweetly. And she kissed him back. “Why do you get so crazy?” he whispered.
She pulled her lips away from his, pushing her hand against his chest again. “Why do I get so crazy? What about you and your bulldog? You know that little tag-team thing you guys pull every time you see me talking to another guy or even when you do it on your own is getting old, Alex. You can’t just—”
“Yes, I can,” he said immediately, pressing his big body against hers, then traced her lips with his tongue. “And you know I will”—he nipped her bottom lip—“every time.” He kissed her deeper this time, longer, as he usually did when they were about to make love, making her tingle in all the right places at that most inopportune moment. He finally eased up and came up for air. “And for the record, I’ve never asked Romero to do anything.” He laughed against her lips. “You know that guy. That’s all him.”
Valerie could smile, thinking back now. After that she ended up at the Moreno’s booth until the end of the festival, having as good a time as she had the previous year. The girls that came by were still annoying, but Alex did plenty of holding her hand and kissing her, so the girls got it. Like with Angel, they toned their flirting way down, and Romero was more than happy to make up for the lack of single guys.
This year she’d be there from the beginning. She still had a lot of studying to do for her state test, but there was no way she was passing up getting to spend this much time with Alex.
Valerie already knew the drill. She’d been coming to this festival since she was a little girl. Each booth had three menu items and a specialty drink they were offering at a low price for people to sample. This year Moreno’s had a mini chimichanga, a carne asada sope, two taquitos with the works and, for the drink, a mini version of their signature peach mojito.
Valerie and Alex were assigned to the sope station, where they mostly giggled and groped and kissed each other every chance they got. This kind of playfulness so openly in front of others wasn’t unusual for them. It never had been, but there was something different this time. Normally they were teased about getting a room because Alex was all over her with his usual inability to keep his hands and lips off her.
While she loved how easily she drove him insane, this time felt so much sweeter. He kept leaning into her ear to whisper things like how beautiful she was or how incredible she smelled. Instead of sneaking in quick passionate kisses, he kissed her forehead several times or just hugged her from behind, breathing in deeply. Sal had even cracked a joke about the “two love birds” at the sope station, slacking off. Those kinds of remarks were typically reserved for Sarah and Angel or even Sofie and Eric.
Valerie never minded that she and Alex were treated more like the horny couple always full of drama. How could she even pretend to be insulted? They were that couple! Still she couldn’t help being excited by this turn of events. Sarah had even given her a knowing and excited smile. She, too, had picked up on things being different.
Valerie had taken a break just out in the back of their tent when Alex stepped out still wearing his plastic gloves. Valerie grinned when she saw the sour cream and powdered cojito cheese on his fingers—her favorite. “You ready to go take a little stroll around the festival?” he asked, beginning to pull off one of the gloves. “Sal’s back. He and Leslie can take over the sopes for a while.”
“Wait,” she said before he could pull off the second glove.
He watched as she took his hand and brought his finger to her mouth, sucking it clean. “Stop!” he whispered, looking around a bit panicked as she took two of his fingers all the way in her mouth and sucked hard. “Jesus,” he said, wrapping his other arm around her neck. “We’re gonna have to go back to the van now.”
“Let’s go.” She giggled, feeling a little evil because, with him leaning into her, she could already feel the confirmation against her hip that he wasn’t exaggerating.
He pulled back to look at her wide-eyed then glanced around. “It’s too risky. There are lots of people still coming and going in that parking garage.”
“Even better.” She giggled.
The second he was done pulling off both gloves he dumped them in the nearby trashcan and patted the front of his pants down. “You’re nuts, you know that?”
The way he eyed her she could tell he was trying to figure out if she was serious or not, but she could also see the smoldering heat becoming more intense in his eyes the longer he stared at her. “I thought that’s what you liked most about me,” she said, sucking the tip of her own finger teasingly.
“Stop that!” he practically groaned.
Before she could stop, he took her hand. “Let’s go.” He leaned quickly into the tent of their booth. “We’re taking off for a little while. You guys are cool in here, right?”
After getting the okay, they were off. Valerie’s heart sped up when she realized he was actually headed to the parking garage. “If we get arrested,” he said, turning back to her, “I’m telling my parents this was all you.”
She laughed at that, picking up her step to keep up with him. Glad that her short
s were loose, her insides were already bursting. Being with Alex was always exciting—passionate. But when they did things like this, it only heightened that excitement. Alex wasn’t a little guy. So being discreet was a challenge.
They reached the Moreno’s catering van near a corner in the parking garage as they both checked out their surroundings. There was no one around. Alex peeked into the van parked next to theirs to make sure no one was in it. Without warning, he lifted Valerie with such a quick swoop she yelped then covered her mouth, laughing softly. The moment he pinned her against the Moreno’s van, she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him madly.
They’d done stuff like this often enough that Alex was good at working fast. She’d like to think it was his experience with her and only her that made him this good at being sneaky.
Within seconds, he had a condom on and had pushed the crotch of her shorts and panties aside. In the next second, he was inside her. As usual, she’d been so ready for him it’d been an effortless plunge deep into her. She moaned as he drove into her fast and hard against that van. It was such a rush she’d felt the buildup almost from the moment he pinned her against the van. She was going to come fast, and she could tell he was too.
She wrapped her legs around his, pushing her hips up against him, wanting as much of him inside her as possible. When he let his head fall back, she sucked his beautiful, thick neck. Already beginning to climax, she got carried away sucking a little too hard. By the time he was done, he had a good-sized hickey right on the front of his neck.
It almost took from the ecstasy of it because she knew it’d be a dead giveaway of what they’d been doing while there were gone. Almost. She was still throbbing in pleasure when he set her down and began zipping his pants.
Alex leaned against the van, catching his breath. “Damn, sweetheart, that was good.” He clutched his chest, surveying the area cautiously.
A car drove down and around toward them, and Valerie smiled when Alex used his big body to shield her and did so completely. “You decent?”
“Yes.” She laughed softly, touching his hard back with her hand. “You just pushed things aside, remember? Never actually pulled anything off me.”
The car passed them, not even noticing them between the vans. Alex glanced back at her, holding out his hand. “C’mon, you dirty little girl. I swear you’re gonna give me a heart attack one of these days.”
“It’s what you say you like most about me,” she reminded him, taking his hand and eyeing him playfully.
He pulled her in front of him, wrapping his big arms around her from behind. “I do,” he said against her ear then kissed the side of her face. “But that’s just one of the many things I fucking love about you.”
Valerie tried not to tense at his use of the word “love.” He’d never used it in relation to his feelings for her.
It was just a figure of speech.
The idea that he might actually have feelings that strong for her was not an absurd one. Their crazy relationship, whatever it was, had been going on for years. But it excited her as much as it terrified her. If he started saying things like that to her, then it would only make things that much worse when things inevitably went south as they always did eventually.
Valerie had known for years she was in love with Alex. She’d just never said it out loud to anyone, least of all him. She never denied it though when Sarah, Isabel, and even her dad suggested that she was. Because she was—hopelessly. She just never went around saying it herself.
They strolled around the festival for just a bit and grabbed a couple of beers. It wasn’t even until she glanced up at him after sipping her beer that she saw it and nearly spit up her beer.
“Oh my God.” She laughed, bringing her hand to her mouth.
“What?” Alex asked with an unsure smile.
“It didn’t look that big in the darkened parking garage.”
He still stared at her confused, but since she was staring at his neck, he touched his neck. “What didn’t look that big?” The second he asked she knew he realized because his eyes opened wide. “A hickey?”
She nodded as he looked around then pulled her hand with him toward the building with the mirrored windows. “I thought you were sucking hard, but it felt too damn good to tell you to stop.” He stopped cold in front of the window and stared at it for a second.” Valerie!” he finally said, turning to look at her then back at the window. “This is huge and dark!”
“I’m sorry.” She laughed. “I got carried away.”
Alex let his head fall back, his laughter turning quickly into a groan. “I’m never gonna hear the end of this from my brothers. They’ll know exactly what we were up to.”
Now that would be embarrassing. “I have cover up,” she offered.
Glancing away from the window and back at her, Alex peered at her strangely. “Cover up?”
“Yeah.” She nodded. “It’s in my purse back at the booth, but I can try and sneak it—”
“They make stuff for this?” he asked, his expression going a little hard. “And you use it?” The hardened expression went even more severe. “For what? I don’t give you hickeys.”
If he didn’t seem so mad suddenly, she might have laughed but she didn’t dare. Instead, she explained quickly. “No. It’s not for hickeys. It’s makeup. I just call it cover up because it’s to cover up blemishes and zits and stuff.”
That was as long as she could go without laughing because the thought that he’d actually think they made something specifically to cover hickeys and that she conveniently carried it around in her purse was hilarious.
“This isn’t funny, Z.”
“I know. I know!” she said, deciding to take one more dig as she reached her hand out to him. “Don’t worry. I’m a pro at covering these things up.” The glare was instant, and she had to laugh again. “I’m kidding!”
He took her hand and squeezed it then pulled her to him, nearly spilling both their beers. Valerie laughed most of the way back to the booth at how ridiculously easy it was to rile him up. But she knew after all these years he had to know she was just playing with him when she said things like that.
She was able to sneak the cover up out of her purse without anyone seeing her then sneak back to where he was waiting. It didn’t completely cover it since it was so dark, but unless you were really looking it was covered enough.
For the next hour or so, everyone in the booth was in good spirits, laughing and having a great time. Then Sal got the call. The mood instantly changed when Sal said that it was their dad on the phone. They didn’t expect to hear from him until at least tomorrow. Sal had rushed out of the booth to take the call, and when he trudged back in a few minutes later with that somber look, Valerie knew it couldn’t be good.
“Gramps is in a medically-induced coma now.”
They all stared at him, equally concerned, as he explained how the other day when his grandpa had fainted he hit his head and now there was some brain tissue swelling. The doctors didn’t want to chance it, so they had to perform emergency surgery to help alleviate the swelling and then put him in a coma until the swelling went completely down.
“That could take up to a week, and Mom and Dad are gonna be over there at least that long.”
“No shit?” Alex asked. “They’re gonna be gone for a week?”
Sal nodded. “Maybe longer, but he said he’ll be in touch. You gonna be okay with the restaurant or you need me to take some time off?”
“Nah,” Alex said too quickly. “I got it. I’m just worried about Dad. He was a mess before he left.”
“He sounded okay,” Sal assured Alex.
They all got back to work since the crowds hadn’t slowed down, but the mood had definitely taken a somber turn. By the time they were done and had everything packed back in the vans, Valerie leaned in and hugged Alex. He hugged her back tightly. “You okay?” she asked, looking up at him.
He took a deep breath. “Yeah,” he said, nodding.
“I’ll be better if you stay with me tonight. Will you?”
Since last week when he first asked her to stay with him, she’d only slept at her own place twice. She nodded, feeling her heart swell that he’d want her with him again. “I’ll stay with you,” she said, smiling.
“Thank you,” he said, kissing her sweetly.
As if he really needed to thank her. Valerie rested her cheek against his hard chest. The more time she spent with him and the more their relationship was beginning to feel like a normal one, the more she was convinced of one thing: the wild roller coaster they’d had to endure to get here had been absolutely worth it. If she had to do it all over again, she would—in a heartbeat.
Chapter 4
Alex
What the hell was he thinking? Time Series Analysis? Really? Of course, Sal thought it’d be a good idea to take this course. His brother loved this shit. Alex had already dropped a course and failed another. There was no way he could fail this. His parents had enough to deal with right now for Alex to risk losing his scholarship and have them deal with his tuition. But if he didn’t pass this course with at least a C-, he’d be off the team and his scholarship would be history.
Professor Davenport examined the computer screen in front of him with Alex’s coursework and the shitty grades Alex had gotten in the last couple of assignments and quizzes. Alex had already looked into it. There was no way around this. It was too late to drop the class, so his only option was to pass the class no matter what it took. He knew he was grasping, but he had no choice but to sit down with his professor and implore the old man to give him a chance. He’d do extra credit work or write a paper—whatever it took.
The long silent moments the unsympathetic professor stared at the screen using his mouse to scroll felt like an eternity. The old man continued to scroll agonizingly slowly, looking completely unimpressed—irritated even. When Alex was finally out of there, he had to refrain from letting out a roar; he was so pissed at himself. But at least it wasn’t a “Sorry, there’s nothing that can be done.”