Concealed - A Hiding From Love Novel #2 (12 page)

“The flowers for your mom or Denise?” I ask him, grinning.

“Shut up, asshole,” he snarls back. “They’re for you to give to my mom.”

“Wait, what?” I ask as we step onto his folks’ front porch. He shoves the bouquet in my hand just as his mom opens the front door.

“Mike! You didn’t tell me you were bringing a friend!” she says as she turns a big smile on me while I’m standing there like a total ass with beer in one hand and cheap grocery store flowers in the other.

I shove them out in front of me. “Hi Mrs. Duncan. These are, uh, for you.”

She exclaims over them, fussing about finding a vase as she leads us into the house.

“I’ll get you back for that,” I warn Mike quietly as we go inside.

He chuckles. “No, you’ll thank me when you see how much extra food that little gift gets you.”

He has a point.

Mike has several aunts and uncles and sets of cousins who live in the area, so the barbeque is well attended. I’m happy to see Carla there, and we settle down at a picnic table near the swimming pool to eat dinner together.

“So, how’ve you been?” I ask.

“Good. I’m glad to see you survived that little brunette who grabbed you at Margie’s the other night. She looked pretty pissed.” She looks at me with what could only be described as disapproval.

“Well, it wasn’t what it looked like.”

“Oh? What did it look like?” she asks.

“Like I was bumping and grinding with you instead of my girlfriend,” I answer honestly.

“Now that you mention it, that’s exactly what it looked like. And felt like. Not that anything was going to happen with us, but I’m not a homewrecker, Gabe, and that wasn’t too cool.”

I take a big swig of the cold beer sitting in front of me. “The girl… It’s complicated…”

She rolls her eyes. “Isn’t it always?”

I laugh then shake my head. “No, seriously. We were together, but it was a long time ago, and I came to Austin to see if maybe we could try again, but she’s got a serious boyfriend, and I’m not making much progress.”

“I’d say you’re making more progress than you think given how jealous she looked when she saw us dancing.”

I sigh. “Yeah, it’s like one step forward, two steps back. I don’t know what the hell’s going on in her head and she’s not been real forthcoming about giving me hints.”

She reaches across the table and puts her hand on mine. “I’m really sorry. Broken hearts suck. If there’s anything I can do, just let me know.”

I smile at her. She’s sort of like a port in a storm. I spend all day every day being buffeted around on the waves of my emotions for Alexis. Talking to Carla is soothing. I don’t have to try to guess what she’s thinking or what I’m supposed to be saying. She tells the truth, and I can be me. It’s simple and restful and I’m tired.

“Hey,” Mike yells as he comes walking over. “Me and Denise want to go see that new slasher movie. You two coming?”

I raise an eyebrow at Carla. “You game?”

“Sure,” she says. “I’ll just get up earlier tomorrow to do my econ reading.”

“Oh man,” I moan as I stand up and pick up both of our plates and cups. “I fucking hated econ.” She laughs, and after I toss the garbage, I hook an arm around her neck and give her a noogie. “Keynesian theories of demand and production are soooo sexy!”

She yelps and tries to slap me on the ass, and we all head off for popcorn, blood, and guts.

Alexis

Dolor comunicado, dolor alviado.

A problem shared is a problem halved.

I
avoid Marco for two days after I’ve spent the night at Gabe’s apartment. I also avoid Gabe. I pretty much stay locked in my apartment, coming out only to go to those classes I absolutely have to attend.

On day three, Beth shows up and nearly beats the door down. When I finally let her in, she’s pissed.

“What the hell, Lex? Is this how you deal with your shit? Lock everyone out and refuse to leave your apartment? Marco and I have been calling you for three days. If you hadn’t given us those couple of texts, we might have had the cops over here to search for your dead body.”

I run a hand through my disheveled hair and hitch up my baggy sweats. “Sorry,” I mumble.

“Hey,” Beth says, looking at me with concern in her voice. “What the hell’s going on, Lex? This is more than trying to avoid Gabe.”

I flop down on the sofa and Beth takes the armchair. She keeps her older sister eagle eye on me until I crack.

“I spent the night at Gabe’s the other night.”

“Holy hell!” she gasps out.

“It’s not exactly what you think. Everyone’s clothes were on. We talked and it was a tough discussion. We just sort of fell asleep on the sofa and I don’t know, but I can’t do this to Marco. It would kill him if he found out. What am I going to do, Beth?”

She looks at me with sympathy in her eyes. “Oh, sweetie. You knew this was coming. You didn’t really think you could avoid it, did you?”

I sigh, shaking my head. “I only hoped,” I whisper.

“I know.” She stands up and moves to the sofa, where she puts her arm around me. I rest my head on her shoulder. Big sisters are really useful things at times like these.

“Be sad tonight, Lex, and then tomorrow be the woman I know you are and do what you have to do, all right?”

“Okay. Thanks, Beth.”

“Hey, I’m your big sister, and I’m always here for you. I’m always on your side, even if it doesn’t seem like it sometimes.”

“I know,” I tell her as I lift my head and look her in the eye. “I’m a lucky girl to have you for a big sister.”

“Damn straight,” she answers.

Gabe

Es cosa de dos.

It takes two.

I
T’S
been four days since Alexis spent the night in my apartment. I decided to let her make the next move, but now I’m wondering if maybe there are no more moves to be made by either of us. I’m handling it by acting like a total dick, so Mike and Ramon have stopped talking to me at work, leaving me to spend eight hours straight alone in my bay, elbow-deep in grease and car parts. That’s one good thing about men. If someone is an asshole, everyone else leaves him alone. Women would be all over me, asking what’s wrong and trying to fix me. I’m unfixable at this point.

It’s a few minutes before noon on day five when I hear Ramon give a quiet wolf whistle. “Man,” he growls. “If I were a few years younger, I might have to tell Tina to go visit her Tia Margo for a few days so I could get to know those two.”

I look up from the carburetor I’m working on and nearly bash my head on the raised hood when I see Alexis and Bethany walking toward us from the parking lot. Alexis is dressed in a pair of skin-tight faded jeans and a tiny t-shirt that says,
I got your carnitas right here - Lupita’s Café
. Her long hair is swinging from a high ponytail, and she’s laughing at something Beth is saying. My heart stutters for a minute before it picks its regular rhythm back up.

“I got this one,” I tell Ramon, my voice a little sharper than I intend.

He puts his hands up, palms out. “Okay, they’re all yours, bro.”

Just then, Mike comes out of his bay, shouting halfway across the parking lot, “Look at this! It’s the gorgeous Garcia sisters!”

“Damn idiot,” I say to myself as I watch Mike reach the girls and start kissing their hands like he’s some sort of medieval knight.

Ramon laughs while I wipe my hands off on a rag.

“So, which one is her?” he asks.

“The one on the left. The other one’s her sister.”

“You’re screwed, man. You know that right?”

“Believe me, I’ve been feeling it every day for two solid years.”

I walk out to the girls. Mike is telling them some story that will undoubtedly make me look like a dipshit.

“Mike, Ramon wants you to look at something inside.”

He visually spears me with an eyebrow raised, clearly communicating he doesn’t believe me for a second. Then he shrugs, says bye to the girls, and slouches off.

“So, this is a nice surprise,” I say as I look Alexis over from head to toe.

She blushes. I love making her nervous. She’s so cute when she’s all uncomfortable.

“Hey, Gabe.” Beth grins at me.

“How are you, Beth?” I smile back but don’t take my eyes off of Alexis.

“Oh, pretty good, but I’ve got this funny noise in my car. I’m going to go talk to the guys in your garage, okay?”

“Uh, yeah, you can check with Ramon. He owns the shop.” I point him out.

She waves and bounces away.

I turn to Alexis. “So, not that I’m complaining, but what are you doing here?”

“Can we talk for a few minutes?” she asks shyly. Alexis isn’t shy, so I’m not sure whether this is a good thing or not.

I nod and walk over to my truck, gesturing for her to follow. I drop the tailgate and take a seat. She hops up next to me.

I decide to let this play out so I sit quietly, waiting for her lead.

“About the other night…”

“Which other night?” I ask. Okay, so I sit quietly for a minute.

She rolls her eyes. “Just shut up and listen.”

I chuckle but make a zipping motion across my lips.

She clears her throat. “I’m confused, Gabe. Really, really confused. And not just about you. About a lot of things. These last couple of years, I thought I was supposed to be the person Marco and my family said I was. Now I’m not so sure anymore. I feel like I don’t know who I am, and I can’t have other people tell me who to be anymore. I have to figure out where the real me went after Afghanistan. You have to know – when I left Afghanistan, I meant what I said to you. I was ready to break up with Marc and come meet you in Sacramento and be together once you got out.”

“So what happened, Alexis? I don’t understand, and all I’ve ever wanted is for you to explain it to me.”

She smiles at me sweetly. “I know,” she says. “You deserve to hear it, and I’m sorry I cut you off. My only excuse is that I wasn’t ready to deal with all this shit, but now I can see it’s not going to go away and I can’t ignore it any longer.”

She sighs, and I resist my desire to wrap her up in my arms and soothe her pain away.

“When I got home, my family was frantic. Not being able to get to me when I’d been in danger destroyed them. My mom, she cried for two days after I got home, and my dad got mad and forbade me from ever leaving the state again. I’d come home expecting some sort of, I don’t know, hero’s welcome I guess. I thought I’d gone and done this brave, important thing, and all anyone said was how reckless I’d been and I’d scared them half out of their minds. In the span of a couple of days, I went from feeling like I’d conquered the world to feeling like I’d done something really wrong.”

“Oh, babe,” I sigh. “You did conquer the world. You survived something most eighteen-year-old girls can’t even conceive of. You traveled halfway around the world, you helped people, you stayed alive under fire.” I reach out and touch her hair for a brief moment. “You were amazing, and they had no right to take that away from you.”

She breathes deeply. “Well, the one good thing about the hysteria was that Marco had to kind of stay away. He was there at the airport when I got home, but then he went to his parents’ house while my family calmed down. About three days after I got back, I finally sat down with him and I told him the truth about everything that had happened between us, that I hadn’t planned it, but I’d fallen in love with you and I couldn’t see him anymore.