No Easy Choices (A New Adult Romance) (11 page)

             
And just like he did with a huge portion of my sorority sisters, Javier quickly won over my parents. He was the right mix of outgoing conversation partner, humorous story teller, and respectful-but-attentive boyfriend who didn’t look all grabby and possessive. Mom warmed up to him after taking in his good looks and well-groomed appearance—and after he answered some standard questions and really nosy inquiries about his mom’s brother, the ambassador—and Dad was blown away by the way Javier actually stood up when my mom and I went to the ladies’ room, just because that’s what guys are supposed to do.

Overall, the dinner was great, even after the polite mini-argument between Javier and my dad over the check, both insisting that he be the one to treat us to dinner. My dad finally won out, but only because Javier respected his elders more than he respected his customs and his insane need to help everyone he came across.

             
As we left the restaurant and walked to my parents’ car, Javier kept my hand wrapped in his despite the raised eyebrows and unsure smirk from my mother. He gave me a very polite kiss on the lips, shook my father’s hand, and pulled my mother in for an incredibly unexpected hug. He waved to us and walked away, causing my father to ask, “Princess, don’t you think we should offer him a ride?”

             
I didn’t even get a chance to respond before a mid-sized black limo turned the corner from a side street next to the restaurant and pulled up next to Javier. A youngish-looking olive-skinned driver whose black uniform barely contained his huge frame jumped out of the front seat to open the door. My mouth fell open as Javier ducked inside the car and was whisked away. Guess that kind of explains his walking everywhere. It’s just so hard to park your limo on campus.

             
My mother, however, instantly eagle-eyed the shiny town car and pulled me closer to her to ask in a sweet voice, “What did you say his name was again?”

             
My phone rang in my purse and I fumbled to answer it, confused since everyone in town who knew me was still within two hundred yards of my body. “Hello?”

             
“Hello, princess,” Javier said, trying to use my father’s American accent. The hilarious result of his attempt just made me giggle before he morphed back into himself. “I forgot my manners. Would your parents like dessert at my home? Or, if they are tired from the travel, I will have dessert sent to their hotel.”

             
“I’ll ask them. By the way, who was that guy driving that car?” I asked, somehow knowing full well what he would say.

             
“That was Diego, my driver and bodyguard. He takes me everywhere.”

             
“He’s your bodyguard? Are you serious?” I asked. My mother perked her head up and stared at me. She was so predictable. All I really had to say was, “401K? Stock options? A house in the Hamptons?” and she would have snatched the phone and promised my hand in marriage. “Let me ask them.”

             
My mom might have been too tired before, but after seeing the limo and hearing about Javier’s bodyguard, curiosity got the best of her. We were soon on our way to Javier’s apartment for who-knows-what gourmet dessert he just happened to whip up while we were driving.

             
Instead of navigating the rickety fire escape, Diego was waiting for us out in front of the building, ready to escort us inside through a lobby filled with gold wallpaper, gleaming mirrors, and recessed lighting. I snuck at better look at Diego in one of the mirrors and was horrified to see a pink, puckered scar that ran from the front of his jaw to the back of his neck. It didn’t take a detective to figure out that the scar was from where a bullet entered in his face and went out the back of his head, grazing a permanent path along his skin.

             
Javier greeted us at the door, dismissing Diego in Spanish and closing the door before double locking it. He kissed me warmly, which was a little awkward in front of my parents, but they either didn’t see anything or they pretended not to. And as I predicted, there on the countertop was an elegant chocolate-and whipped-cream-covered dessert. Once again, too good to be true.

             
“I know Andie is thinking that this is not possible, and she is correct. I did not cook this one, Andie, I cheat. I have Diego stop at a bakery when you said you will come here.” He smiled as he explained the too-perfect dessert sitting on a glass cake plate on his countertop. He wasted no time serving it to us, even offering my parents coffee—decaf, of course, since they simply must be tired from their trip—and brewing up some coffee which he served in a French press on a platter.

             
“And now, at last, I will tell you why I call you here,” Javier began. Oh god, no. Please don’t let him start discussing the bride price in goats or camels or horses again. I stopped in mid-chew, only remembering to keep my mouth closed because my mother was sitting next to me and she was close enough to correct my manners with the jab of a pure silver dessert fork.

             
“I invite you here so you decide if you wish to stay here in my apartment until Andie is settled, or if you insist on a hotel. If you wish to stay here, there is room for all.”

             
Oh no
, I thought to myself, panic-stricken,
he’s going to tell my parents they can sleep on the couch while he and I take the bed
. I began shaking my head so slightly but so fast that it must have looked like I was having a seizure. Javier conveniently forgot to look in my direction before continuing to talk.

             
“There is room for mother and father in the bedroom, and Andie in this room. I, of course, will sleep next door at Diego’s apartment. That way, you have a kitchen and beds, and plenty of room until you find a new home for Andie.”

             
My dad looked around the apartment and nodded to himself with a smile, probably calculating how much it would not cost him to stay here instead of a hotel. And truthfully, it was a super offer. They could end up staying several days while we apartment hunted, since the semester had already begun and most places around campus had filled up. My mother was eyeing the glass-front cabinets and neatly stacked dishes inside, probably appraising the apartment.

             
And for my part, I was freaking out.

Chapter Seventeen

“It certainly was nice of your young man to let us stay here,” my mother said, coming to sit on the sofa where I had made my bed. “What did you say his family does?”

             
“I didn’t say, Mom. They don’t do anything. His dad is deceased.” I wasn’t in the mood for a conversation, certainly not about Javier and his family and how much money they had. Something was eating at me and I couldn’t figure it out. Plus, I just had entered a bizarre realm where my parents jumped at the chance to sleep in a stranger’s apartment, a stranger who happened to introduce himself to them only a few hours ago by announcing that he was marrying their daughter. And that he wanted a goat. Sure, they were fine with that, apparently.

             
“Well, he’s a little odd, of course, but I think he seems to have come from a good upbringing. His manners certainly are flawless. I wish I’d had a camera to snap the look on your dad’s face when Javier wanted to pay for our dinner! I thought your dad was going to have a heart attack at the thought of some college student buying our meals.” She started laughing so hard she had to cover her mouth with a delicate hand so Dad wouldn’t hear her.

             
“That was kinda funny,” I agreed. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen Dad actually speechless before.”

             
“I mean, we had no way of knowing Javier could afford such a thing, so your dad was more confused than anything else. He probably thought this kid was going to go wash the dishes in the kitchen or something, just to pay for our dinner!”

             
“Yeah...” I muttered, agreeing without really hearing her.

             
“Sweetie? What’s wrong? You haven’t been yourself since we got back from the restaurant,” she said, really sounding worried about me. The sad thing was, I couldn’t tell her because I didn’t know either. “You know you can talk to me. Are you still upset about Theta? I told you I can place one call to nationals and have this whole thing cleared up by breakfast time.”

             
“No, that’s not it,” I answered a little too quickly. The last thing I needed was my mother pitching a fit and having me thrown back into that lions’ den with welcome arms, courtesy of threats from the national headquarters.

             
“Well then, what? Is it school? You know, you don’t have to stay here at the end of the school year if you don’t like it. You can transfer somewhere closer to home if this was too big of a transition. You just seemed so independent, so when this school accepted you, I thought you were ready.”

             
“No, I like the school, too. I just...I don’t know, I can’t put my finger on it.”

             
“Is it Javier?” she asked quietly, giving me a knowing look.

             
“No, why would you think that?” I asked, genuinely wanting to know what made her jump to that conclusion, even while a voice in the back of my brain woke up long enough to start agreeing with her.

             
“Honey, c’mon. You haven’t noticed?” she said with a smile.

             
“Noticed what?” I pressed, confused about why she would think there was a problem. She’d only just met him a few hours ago, give him a chance to get settled before you start blaming people!

             
“Well, besides noticing that he’s totally head over heels for you...haven’t you noticed that he’s just too perfect? It’s like he’s getting all this out of a book on how to be a winning boyfriend. Meet the parents for dinner, shake the father’s hand, have your limo driver stop by to get a perfect dessert...I just hope it’s not all for show.”

             
I couldn’t believe she could be so abruptly judgmental about someone she’d just met, but then I started to worry because my mom was actually making sense. Javier was too perfect. Even I knew that. And I wasn’t so much worried that this was all some sort of act to impress me, in fact, it was the opposite. I was a little bit worried that I couldn’t be perfect enough to ever impress him.

             
When I didn’t say anything for a second, Mom smiled down at me and smoothed some hair back off my forehead like she used to do when I was little. “There’s my little over-thinker. You never were one to just jump in without looking at all sides of the situation. I’m sure it’ll come to you, and you’ll feel better once you’ve had time to think it through.” She kissed me on the forehead and headed back down the hallway to the bedroom.

             
I turned on my side to get comfortable, and from where I was laying on the sofa I could see Javier’s framed pictures on his television stand. He didn’t say much about his family in the few conversations we’d actually had, so I got up and walked closer, picking up each of the three photographs and holding them closer, turning them so they caught the light that had been left on over the stove. Javier was in each of the pictures, one with an older couple that must be his grandparents, one of him with a woman who looked enough like him that she was obviously his mom, and one with his arms linked behind the backs of three girls, two of them younger than Javier and close enough looking that they could have been twins, and one several years older than the rest of the kids, maybe even old enough to have been their babysitter.

No. His sisters. And the missing age gap, the gap where his brothers should have been, brothers who couldn’t have been older than young teenagers when they were killed, if the math from this photograph was right. I somehow just sensed that there were other kids missing, faces that should have come between Javier and the oldest sister. His brothers had been killed just as they would have been high school students, along with his father.

             
And that’s when it hit me, the thing that had been nagging at the back of my mind for the last few hours, hours that should have been happy as my parents and my new boyfriend laughed and talked like they’d known each other for years.

             
The bodyguard.

             
The far-off college in America.

             
The tiny school in the middle of nowhere.

             
Javier was on the run.

             
The people who had come after his family weren’t finished yet. That’s why he had a bodyguard. That’s why he was so happy all the time, living like someone determined to get the most out of life because it could all be over tomorrow.

             
I replaced the pictures exactly the way I’d found them and crawled back under the soft blanket on the sofa, wide-eyed and afraid, both for Javier’s safety and for what it could mean to a guy I really cared about. Of course, I worried about what it could mean for a future with Javier and me. How could I get involved with someone who was on the run? If he let his guard down for even a moment, he could be gone, and that’s exactly what he had done when I was with him. Every time I came over, he had been alone or sneaking around to avoid Diego. Climbing the fire escape or walking to dinner on our date, it had been a way to slip past his bodyguard and be alone with me. He was taking risks with his actual life, just to spend time with me.