Playing with Fire (7 page)

Noelle’s head and heart warred for a
moment longer, but the determined look he gave her settled the
dispute. “Alright, fine. As long as you promise after one dinner
you’ll leave me be.”

Trent grinned so big that Noelle could
see he had dimples on each side of his mouth. He brought his hands
together in front of his chest and bowed. “I promise I’ll do
whatever you want after dinner.”

Her mind instantly filled with all
kinds of half-naked images.

“I’ll pick you up at seven.” Before
she could recover he was out the door.

Delphine returned a moment later and
sat back down. “What’s that look about?”

Noelle sputtered for a moment. “I got
suckered into a date tomorrow night with Trent.”

“Oh lord. I hope you know what you’re
getting yourself into with that one.”

Noelle shrugged and took a bite from a
cold French fry. “I have a feeling I’ll find out soon
enough.”

CHAPTER
FIVE

Trent found a parking spot in the
grass of his grandmother’s front yard and walked around to the back
of the house. He could hear his Tía Lita’s laugh before he even
turned the corner and wasn’t surprised to see thirty people
gathered around the food tables on the patio. This was a typical
Saturday night.

He said hello and gave kisses to all
of his aunts and cousins and shook hands and hugged all his uncles.
When a swarm of small children surrounded him he made it a point to
greet every one and give them each a piece of bubble gum, but only
after they promised to chew it after dinner and not
before.

Once the children ran off giggling and
resuming their game of tag, Trent looked up to see his grandmother
was in her usual spot, on the porch swing with her yarn and needles
on her lap.

“Hola mijo. You made it!”

Trent bent down to kiss her
weathered cheek and she patted his face. “
Guapo
as ever.”

He smiled and waved her off. “You
probably say that to all the guys.”

She tsked and shook her head. “No
mijo, only the ones it’s true about. What took you so
long?”

Trent shrugged. “Nothing, I just had
to stop and see a friend.”

She winked at him. “Una
mujer?”

“Yes, a woman. But she is only a
friend. I just met her.”

His grandmother patted the seat next
to her. “Sit and talk conmigo.”

Trent shook his head. “No way, I’m not
going to get twenty questions from you today. Is my mom
here?”

His abuelita’s face changed
into a look of sadness. “Si, over talking to your Tío
Ri
card
o. She lost
her job, again.”

Trent sighed and excused himself. As
he walked across the yard, he couldn’t miss the physical change in
his mother. She had lost weight and looked exhausted. Seeing her
like this made him want to track down his father and throttle
him.

Rosa Torres-Granger’s expression
brightened when he wrapped his arm around her shoulder and kissed
the crown of her head. “Hey Mom.”

She turned and took his face in her
hands. “There’s my boy. How are you? Why haven’t you come
over?”

In his family, if he didn’t see his
mother or grandmother at least every two weeks they thought
something was wrong. “Work. I’m training a rookie and I’ve taken on
some more hours.”

“Your father was asking about you this
morning.”

Trent cleared his throat. “That’s
nice. Abuela said you lost your job. Do you need any
help?”

His mother shook her head. “No. I’m
fine. I’ve been adding to my hidden stash so no
worries.”

No worries,
that was easy for her to say. Since he was a
young boy he worried about his mother. She worked two, sometimes
three, jobs to make sure he and his sister had been provided for,
all the while his father had done nothing but drink and whore
around. And yet she still loved him and still let him live with her
even though they’d divorced two decades ago.

“If you need anything let me know. I
hate seeing you struggle while that sorry excuse of a father
…”

For being a twig of a woman, his
mother’s strength was still there as she grabbed his arm and yanked
it. “No, mijo. That is your papa. You don’t speak of him like
that.”

“But …”

She held up her finger and put it on
his lips. “No ‘buts’. We’ve had this talk too many times and I
don’t want to fight today. Let’s eat and enjoy spending time with
family.”

The resolute look in her eyes told him
she would have no more on the topic. He relented, “Anything for
you.”

She patted his cheek again. “That’s a
good man. Now let’s eat. The tamales and menudo are getting
cold.”

Trent spent the next hour eating and
talking with his uncles, his tíos, about how the Chargers were
looking this season.

Once the food was wrapped and taken
into the house, his Tío Guillermo and a few of his friends grabbed
their guitars and began playing mariachi music. Soon the yard was
full of dancing children and women.

Trent stood on the fringes and clapped
along to the rhythm. A few moments later his Tía Ramona pulled him
out to dance with her. From there on he did not stop dancing until
all of his aunts, cousins, mother, and grandmother got a turn
around the impromptu dance floor.

Just as he was getting ready to take a
breather, a tall brunette was thrust into his arms by his abuela.
In that moment he knew his suspicion had been right. His sweet,
loving abuelita has set him up.

“Hola.”

Trent smiled in greeting to her. There
was no denying she was beautiful, with long dark hair and chocolate
eyes, but she didn’t stir anything in him.

“
Mi Ilamo
Anita.”

He
nodded.
“I’m Trent. So how do you know my
grandmother?”

She tilted her head slightly and gave
him a questioning look. He was afraid to ask a question he already
knew the answer too, but couldn’t help himself. “Habla
Ingles?”

She shook her head. “No.”

Trent nodded and grinned. This was
typical for his grandmother. He looked over to her and she waved
and smiled. He glared at her, but she gave him an innocent
look.

The rest of his dance with Anita was
fairly quiet, but he’d managed to find out that her family just
moved next door and they were originally from a town not far from
where his grandmother was born, near Toluca.

When the song ended, he excused
himself and made a beeline for his grandmother.

“She looks good para tu.
So?”

Trent put his hands on his hips. “So
nothing. Abuelita, I don’t need your help finding a
woman.”

“Yo no se. You’ve never brought one
home.”

Trent kept his voice low so he
wouldn’t cause a scene. “Abuelita, you know why I haven’t brought
anyone home yet. I want it to be the right woman.”

She reached out for his
hand and patted it.
“I know,
mijo. Lo siento.”

Trent raised her hand and kissed it.
“Apology accepted. But you need to understand that I am going to be
with whom I want, not who you think I should be with.”

“Your mother did that and look at her
life. If only she had found a good, hardworking Mexican … But no.
She had to run off with some sailor.”

It had been thirty-five years since
Trent’s mother had first met his father when his ship had docked in
San Diego. But to his Abuelita, it was like yesterday, and she
still regretted letting her seventeen year old daughter ever walk
out the door.

Trent kneeled in front of
his grandmother and reassuringly rubbed her arms. “Abuelita, stop
beating yourself up. I’m not my mother
or
my father. I wish you would trust
me.”

He saw the tears begin to
well up in her eyes and hugged her.
“Te
quiero
.”

“
Te quiero,
mijo.”

Once she composed herself, Trent
kissed her goodbye and made his exit.

He thought about all the skeletons in
his family closet. They were the reason he was the way he was. From
being a cop to being a ladies man, his past never seemed to be far
behind him.

As he pulled away from abulita’s, he
didn’t realize at first that he wasn’t taking the quickest route
home – he was driving downtown, toward his favorite clubs, as if on
autopilot. But he kept driving right past and went home instead. It
had been a week since he’d stepped foot in one of them, and
surprisingly he didn’t miss it at all.

No, he was finding out life was much
more exciting simply hanging around an old motel. More
specifically, life looked different with Noelle in the
picture.

Noelle sunk further into her bubble
bath and closed her eyes. Delphine had been nice enough to give her
the day off and she was enjoying every minute.

Not only had she slept in, but she’d
also done nothing but sit around in her pajamas and watch movies
for most of the day. Now she had an hour before Trent arrived and
she was doing her best to relax.

Noelle couldn’t remember the last real
date she’d had. Lenny had never really taken her out, but then
again his definition of a night out was hitting a drive-thru for
burgers and then going over to his dad’s to play poker while she
sat on the couch, with his mother, in silence.

She laughed to herself. It felt like
another lifetime ago. Though it seemed like a lot had happened in
the last week, really it was just adjusting to a newer, better,
kind of normal. Noelle would gladly live this life any
day.

After she finally stepped out of the
tub, she took her time getting ready and hummed to herself while
she decided on what to do with her out-of-control hair.

A knock sounded at the door and she
jumped. Noelle looked at the clock and saw there were still thirty
minutes left before Trent was supposed to pick her up. She tiptoed
over to the door and peeked through the peephole.

A second later she unlocked the door
to find Delphine with a hot pink makeup case in hand. “Please tell
me you’re gonna do more with yourself than that!”

Noelle looked down at her plain pair
of jeans, white canvas shoes, and white v-neck t-shirt. “What’s
wrong with this?”

Delphine pushed past her and set her
stuff on the table. “Nothing’s wrong with it if you want to look
like a boy.”

Noelle scoffed. “I don’t look like no
boy! The boobs are a dead give away and you know Trent’s gonna be
looking at them all night so why does it matter?”

Delphine pulled out a chair and
pointed to it. “Sit down. Don’t you have a skirt or a dress? What
about some heels?”

Noelle shook her head. “No ma’am.
Lenny didn’t want me wearing that stuff. Jeans and t-shirts is what
I got.”

Delphine rolled her eyes. “Typical
possessive man trying to make you look ugly because he was so
insecure you’d leave him. Well how’s that working for his sorry
ass?”

Noelle laughed out loud. “You’re
terrible, Delphine.”

Delphine opened the make-up case and
rummaged through. “I’m not terrible, I’m truthful. And from that
smirk on your face you know I’m right.”

Noelle shrugged. “Maybe a
little.”

Delphine laughed at her. “Maybe my
ass. Now let’s see what we can do in the next thirty minutes before
lover boy gets here.”

Noelle tilted her head and gave her a
stern look. “He isn’t my lover boy.”

“Yet!”

Noelle crossed her arms. “I’m not
interested in him like that, Delphine.”

Delphine snorted. “The hell you
aren’t. Any woman with a pulse would be interested if that man
looked at them the way he looks at you.”

Noelle bit her bottom lip. “You really
think he’s that interested? Or am I just another bed
warmer?”

Delphine shook her head and tilted
Noelle’s face into the light of the overhead lamp. “I’ve known him
a long time and I’ve never seen him like this. I think he may
finally be ready to grow up and settle down.”

“Grow up how?”

After a moment of silence Noelle
pulled back to look at Delphine. “How, Delphine?”

Delphine dropped the liquid foundation
bottle back into the case and grabbed the facial powder. She dabbed
a big fluffy make-up brush into it and then began applying it to
Noelle’s face.

“I grew up with Trent’s mom, we were
best friends back in the day. She met the wrong man and got
pregnant and married him, but he whored around on her something
terrible. Even as a little boy Trent said he’d never be like that.
When he started renting rooms here I assumed he was following in
his father’s footsteps after all. But Trent and I have had long
heart-to-hearts through the years and he isn’t like his dad. If he
seems like a ladies’ man, well, he has been. But I think he does it
to get it out of his system. Once he meets the right woman he’ll
always be faithful.”