Making You Mine (32 page)

She touched his cheek with the back of her hand. “You don’t have to tell me. I know. I felt it, too.”

Sal stared at her feeling the icy terror creep down his spine. After today, he definitely didn’t know how he’d ever live without her.

*

Sal made out Melissa’s blurry smile as she looked up at him. His arm was draped around her neck. “You got it, babe?”

He tried smiling back but could barely get the words together to respond. “G-got it.”

The hotel room opened and they walked in. Something was wrong. This whole situation was wrong but Sal could barely put two coherent thoughts together much less figure out what it was. As soon as the door closed, Melissa’s hands were on Sal’s pant’s zipper.

Sal jerked out of his sleep, the bright sun immediately making him squint. It took him only a second to remember where he was. In a tent, in his backyard with
Grace
.

He had a feeling he’d wake up early, but he thought it would be because of the sun coming up so early. Not because of this. His heart pounded. The dream was the exact memory he had of that night in Vegas only the snippet of memory was a little longer this time. Further proof that he
had
been with her that night. Gulping hard trying not to think about it, he checked his phone for the time. It was only six.

Even with his rude awakening Grace hadn’t budged. She still slept soundly on her stomach, her face on her pillow, facing him. He turned to face her, still breathing hard from his dream and studied her delicate features. The beautifully elongated eyes he’d loved staring into last night each time they’d made love. Those lips, he could kiss them forever and never tire of tasting them.

She gasped suddenly. Sal stared at her ready to wake her if she appeared to be having a bad dream. The corner of her lip went up ever so slightly and she let out a very satisfied sigh. He had to wonder if she was dreaming about last night. He’d been so exhausted by the time they knocked out he hadn’t even dreamt, at least he didn’t remember dreaming anything—until the morning’s disturbing dream.

He lay back on his pillow again and brought his phone up to his face. Not wanting any interruptions yesterday, he’d placed his phone on silent the entire day. He figured if anything was important enough, they’d leave a voicemail. The whole day he had only checked his voicemail once and to his annoyance it had been from Melissa. He deleted it without even listening. But he had several texts he hadn’t checked

The first was a picture from Alex of one of the twins, smiling in her sleep. Like his mom had said a few days ago when he’d gone over and saw one of them do the same thing, “Probably gas.” Still he smiled and saved the picture on his phone.

The next three were from Melissa he turned the phone just slightly so there was no way Grace could see and began highlighting the entire thread to erase it. Damn phone. He wished there was a faster way to do this.

He picked the phone up, blinking a few times. Grace was already on her elbow leaning in. She kissed him on the forehead and nose “Does it hurt?”

“I’m good,” he said, rubbing his forehead then putting his phone aside and taking her in his arms. She yawned. “It’s too early—damn sun. You wanna go inside? I have solar shades on my bedroom windows. You’d literally think it’s night time unless you peeked out.”

She yawned again and he kissed her head. “I could probably fall asleep out here again but if you’d rather go inside, that’s fine, too.”

“Yeah, lets go.” He reached for his boxers on the side of the mattress and handed Grace his t-shirt. She slipped it on then glanced around. Sal stood up. “What are you looking for?”

She grinned. “My underwear.”

Sal reached his hand out. “You’re not gonna need them. Trust me.”

Grace took his hand and stood up. Unfortunately, his t-shirt was long enough to cover everything. They both walked out into the sunlight squinting.

They walked in the house and Grace walked directly to the guest restroom. “I gotta go in here first.”

Sal took advantage, speeding up to get to his room. “I’ll be in the bedroom.”

He went straight to his restroom and closed the door. Before he forgot, he made sure he deleted Melissa’s texts. He frowned, pressing the buttons on his phone. He was going to have to figure out how to block her number.

By the time he walked out of the restroom Grace was already in the bed. Sal climbed in next to her ready to go another round… or two. After a few rounds the night before she’d been able to enjoy it more. He kissed her, slipping a hand down her leg, stopping just on the inside of her thigh. “You tired?”

She let her leg fall open, and smiled. “Not
that
tired.”

Sal groaned, taking her mouth in his again, as if he’d never kissed her before.

~*~

The Friday morning after Grace’s glorious weekend of
camping
in Sal’s backyard she walked out of her room and into the kitchen. For once, she wasn’t running late and was looking forward to making herself a nice omelet. She’d been walking on air for weeks now. But this past week had been surreal.

“So he’s only had a few slot machines put into the lobby of his hotel. He said he’s just getting his feet wet, and already he’s seeing a huge return. He’s ordering more machines and starting up the remodeling to have the full blown casino up and running, hopefully by this summer.”

“He happened to mention he’d be looking into investing some of his extra capital soon. He said he’s going to need a lot more tax write-offs, if this takes off like he thinks it will. So I mentioned your hopes of opening up your own restaurant someday…”

Grace turned to face her. She didn’t like where this was going. Her mother grinned before taking a sip of her coffee. “He said he’d be more than happy to help you out with that. Imagine that, Grace. You can get your restaurant going so much sooner than—”

“Forget about it.”

“Why? Graciela, don’t be a fool. This man is offering to help you out with your dream. All you have to do is be
nice
—”

“Look.” Her mother stood up and leaned against the counter. “He mentioned us going out to visit him and enjoying a few days in his hotel again. We could all go as a family. Your boyfriend doesn’t even have to know—”

“You’re crazy. I’m
not
doing anything sneaky. Sal would be livid, and to tell the truth, I don’t even think I’m ready to run my own restaurant yet. It’s a lot of work.”

Her mother put down her cup on the counter. “I can help you.”

Grace laughed. “Like you helped in Juarez? You hated working in the restaurant.”

“I’ll work the business end. You can do all the restaurant stuff. Rose can help, too. She mentioned the other day wanting to get a job.”

Grace turned to her. “She did?” That bothered her. Was Rose still worrying about Grace leaving her? Grace
had
ended up sleeping over Sal’s on Sunday as well. The only reason she’d come home at all on Monday was because of Rose. Otherwise, she might still be there now. Sal certainly wanted her to stay. She remembered Rose’s comment about getting a job and moving in with Joey and Taylor.

“Yes, wouldn’t it be nice working side by side with your little sister?”

Grace continued making her omelet. It
would
be nice but doing anything with Frank was out of the question. “It’ll happen someday. But not with Frank. I’ll do it when I’m ready… and on my own.” She flipped her omelet a couple of times before flipping it onto her plate.

“He’ll be here this weekend.” Her mother crossed her arms over her chest.

“What?” Grace stopped at the refrigerator where she held the door open, looking back at her mom.

“I think it’s a great opportunity, Grace. Aren’t you tired of living in this hell hole? This could be our chance to get out of here. Finally have a
real
life.”

If her mother only knew she
could
be out of this place and living in a dream home with Sal. If it were up to him, she’d already be there. The only thing keeping her here now was Rose. “What is he coming for, mom? I told you I’m not doing anything with him anymore.”

“You don’t have to. Just come home early when you get out of work and talk to him. Throw some ideas around. He knows you’re in a relationship now. He’s not expecting anything. It’s strictly business.”

Grace shook her head and picked up her plate and the glass of milk she’d just poured herself. “Nope.” She started walking to her bedroom.

“Graciela, think of your sister.” Grace slowed down, feeling the guilt grenade her mother just threw at her begin to detonate. “You’re hardly ever home now. This would be a great way for you two spend more time together.”

The grenade went off sending shards of guilt through Grace’s already frail conscience. She stopped, not turning around, just taking in her mother’s words. She could almost feel her mother’s wicked grin penetrate through her back. She held her head up, shook it, and began walking again. As conniving as her mother had always been, Grace had to hand it to her. She’d succeeded in making her consider it—but only for a second.

After making sure Rose was spending the night over a girlfriend’s Grace spent Saturday night at Sal’s. She hadn’t spent the night at his place, since the past Sunday and she was really beginning to hate saying goodbye every night. That wasn’t even the main reason. Fear of him dropping her off and Frank’s car being parked outside of her building had a lot to do with it. The last thing she wanted was for him to get upset over such a non-issue.

Of course, Sal was more than happy to have her stay with him. He’d been saying things all week like, “I got you your own toothbrush and I cleaned out a space for you in the closet.” Leave it to her mother to dampen the euphoria she’d felt all week by laying on the guilt about her being gone so much.

They’d just finished showering, after an incredible morning in bed. Sal walked up behind Grace as she finished combing her hair and wrapped his arms around her. Both had the day off and they were taking a champagne brunch cruise off the marina with Angel, Sarah, Sofia and her fiancé Eric. It was part pleasure and part research. Angel and Sarah were thinking of doing something similar with their restaurant—offer brunch cruises on Sundays. Sal said he’d taken a dinner cruise before, but it was a long time ago and he hadn’t been paying attention to any of the details.

“Almost ready?”

Grace nodded. “You think…” Sal stared at her through the mirror. “You think it would be okay if my sister came with us today?”

His expression wasn’t a good one and she wondered if he’d expected this to be more a romantic thing. “Let me call Angel and see if he can get her in. He booked this earlier in the week. You should’ve said something sooner, babe.” He pulled his phone out of his holster and kissed her on the cheek before dialing. “Your sister’s welcome to tag along with us anytime, Grace.”

After checking with Angel, then waiting for him to call back, Rose was in. Grace hugged him as soon as he was off the phone. “And we’ll have time to pick her up?”

Sal glanced at his watch. “Yeah, there’s plenty of time.”

Grace kissed him then hurried to her phone. She called Rose instead of texting and explained she needed to hurry and get ready. Rose sounded excited when she heard the word cruise. This would be a first for both of them. Grace made sure to text Rose after she’d hung up and asked her if by any chance Frank was still there. To her relief, he’d only been there a short while last night and left.

They arrived at the marina a bit early and had some time to kill so they spent it in Angel’s restaurant. The men went to the back office. Angel wanted to show them specs online about the cruise services he’d looked into. Grace sat at a booth with Sarah, Rose, and Sofia. Sarah had the waiter bring them drinks.

Sofia’s expression changed now that the girls were alone, and she suddenly grinned. “So what have you done to my brother, Grace? I’ve never seen him like this. I even caught him humming the other day in the back room.” She laughed.

“For the better, Grace,” Sofia assured her. “Trust me. He was getting way too uptight. He nitpicked about the smallest things. He’s always been Mr. Do-It-Right-or-Don’t-Do-It-All. Which is fine, especially when you’re running a business. We need at least one person to be that way. But he was a little too much sometimes. Ever since you’ve been around he’s eased up a lot.”