Second Chance Sweethearts (Love Inspired) (15 page)

He’d seen the pain written all over Gloria’s face the day she had had to confront that most everything in her house had been laid to total ruin. Now knowing even the structure itself couldn’t be salvaged... It would be more than most people could bear.

“So what are you going to do?”

She twirled the corn on the cob a little absently as she collected her thoughts. “I’d told you earlier I thought I might just go get a condo. So I think I’m going to trust Billy’s advice. Sell it. Move.”

“And move on?”

“I think so.”

The sun dipped into the Gulf of Mexico behind her. The red and orange sunset rays played with the natural highlights in her honey-and-cinnamon hair, making them shine. The fire and feistiness dancing around her face spoke to the strength Rigo knew she was gathering within so she could make this decision.

She started to speak again, then hesitated before finally getting the words out. “And I think you’re a big part of that decision. I sat there for a long time after Billy left, weighing everything. And at the end of it, all I could think of was gratitude.”

Rigo dipped a shrimp in the small red puddle of cocktail sauce on his plate. “Gratitude? For losing your house?”

Gloria shook her head. “No, for you.”

“Me?” He couldn’t quite make it all add up. “How?”

“I can make the changes I need to make because I have something to look forward to. I told you that all during the hurricane, the word
strength
kept coming to my mind. I know now I’m strong enough to come out of the shell I forced myself into.”

She threw a translucent shrimp peel on the small pile between them, discarding it as surely as the chains of the past.

“Well, besides the condo, what else are you going to do?”

“Since the clinic is closing, I think I want to go back to school.”

Rigo could hear the old Gloria coming back with each syllable. The high school Gloria—fearless, always wanting to learn and do more. “Back to school?”

“Medical school. Pete has wanted to do a medical mission for years, and I think he’ll take this opportunity to go do that. That leaves no doctors on the island who are supportive of a place like the birthing center, and we’ve had so many women over the years appreciate the opportunity for safe out-of-hospital birth. I want to go to the next level and be the one who fills in that gap.”

Rigo couldn’t keep the smile off his face. “I think that’s great, Dr. Rodriguez.”

“Really?” She ended the word questioningly, searching for true approval.

“Really.” Rigo put his hand reassuringly over one of Gloria’s. Her skin felt smooth and slightly cool from the night air. He was amazed that these two hands, these ten fingers, had been the first soft touch for countless little lives, cradling them as they made their journey into the big, wide world. He’d seen her gentle professional hands at work, delivering Tanna’s little Mateo as a hurricane swirled around them.

He squeezed lightly, then stroked the curve by her wrist once, then twice with his finger.

“Hmm.” Rigo’s inner thoughts came out as a mutter.

She didn’t pull her hand away. “What?”

“I was just thinking. Your hands deliver babies. They bring new life into this world. But mine, they’ve been trained to hold guns.” He pressed the finger gently along her wrist. “This finger is my trigger finger. I can end a life with mine.”

“You’ve also been trained to rescue. Like you rescued me. If you hadn’t been there when I called, things could have been so much worse for me and Tanna and baby Mateo.”

Rigo laid his other hand, palm side up, like an offering on the table.

He met her eyes with his gaze, and she almost immediately looked down. Rigo felt his heart plummet with the speed of a passenger headed down a roller coaster’s highest hill. He’d felt so much hope when she’d said he’d rescued her.

He closed his eyes. He just needed a moment to regain his control.

Like a feather, Gloria’s fingertips grazed the heel of his thumb, where it connected into the palm of his hand.

Rigo’s eyes opened to confirm what had just happened. He saw her hand in his and swallowed hard.

Although her touch came lightly at first, once her hand landed fully on his, there was no denying its presence or significance. The contours of her palm still fit smoothly into his, and he noticed every curve and valley as they touched.

He opened his mouth to speak, but it had gone dry. Gloria smiled shyly.

“Remember that message you left me?”

“How could I forget? It was the single stupidest thing I’ve ever done in my life.” If he’d just come home that summer, so many lives would be so different and so much time never would have been wasted.

“You told me to go live my dreams.”

He nodded. There didn’t seem to be anything to say. Nothing good, anyway.

“I loved Felipe. I loved Mateo, even though he never took a breath on this earth.” She tightened her fingers around his, the fingertips pressing his skin. “But you were the first dream I ever had.”

Rigo closed his fingers around Gloria’s hand, connecting them as tightly as woven cloth.

“If you’ll let me, I want to be the last.” He looked in her eyes, gathering strength from the flecks of golden light in the brown irises. He needed it for what he was about to say. “Gloria, I want to kiss you. I want you to know how I feel right now about you, about us. But not here. Not now. Not with all these people around. But later...maybe...would that be okay?”

For the second time tonight, he held his breath. He didn’t know what he’d do if she said no.

Gloria nodded.
“Sí, mi sueño.”

She called him her dream. She said yes. That was all he needed to know.

* * *

The sound of a bottle clunking into a metal trash can interrupted the ebb and flow of Gloria’s thoughts.

“Hey, Rigo! Want a drink?” Officer Brock Carpenter held up a small personal cooler. Gloria felt certain it didn’t carry cans of soda.

Knowing now that Rigo had been through rehab for alcohol issues, Gloria tensed as she waited for Rigo’s reply.

“No, thanks, guys. We were just about to head home.” Rigo stood and started scooping the shrimp shells onto a plate to throw away.

“Hey, wait. That’s Rodriguez’s wife.” Carpenter’s voice boomed across the three tables between them and rang in Gloria’s ear. “Glo! Haven’t seen you in a while. What are you doing here?”

The force in the officer’s tone nearly pushed her backward. What was the best way to answer that loaded question?

Rigo jumped in. “Dinner. We came to have dinner, guys, same as you.” She knew the sound of a trained law enforcement official trying to defuse a situation. She’d heard Felipe use this tone many times before.

Sometimes, she smiled slightly with the memories.

“That’s interesting, Vasquez. Get her husband killed, then take off and when you come back to town, take her out on a date. Nice work.” Carpenter saluted Rigo with a tip of the brown longneck bottle in his hand.

Gloria’s blood began to heat up, bubbles crowding into her veins, feeling as though they would soon burst into a boil. She picked up her plate and plastic cup and turned to put them in the trash can. She didn’t want to face Carpenter anymore. He’d always been a bully. She remembered Felipe didn’t like to have anything to do with him. “Carpenter, shut it. You’re letting that bottle do the talking and you’re upsetting Gloria.” Rigo closed two tables’ worth of distance, putting himself squarely between Carpenter and Gloria.

“Upsetting? It’s upsetting to see an officer’s widow out with the man who was there the night her husband was killed, then didn’t even show up for the man’s funeral. It’s like seeing something out of one of those bad chick TV movies.” He leaned over to the officer sitting next to him, a man Gloria didn’t recognize. His voice dipped low and smooth, like a mock television announcer. “He couldn’t save her husband, but he was the only man who could save her heart...tonight on the Life and Love TV chick movie of the week.”

A roar of laughter went up from the table.

“Good one, Carpenter,” said another officer in the pack. He took a slow swig from his own brown bottle.

“Yeah, Rigo was always there for the damsels in distress.” Carpenter winked for emphasis. “What the ladies didn’t know is he always worked it so he was the cause of the distress, then he could come in and save ’em.”

Ice began to form in the pit of her stomach. She couldn’t believe it was staying there so solidly since her blood continued to boil at a fast roll. Surely Rigo wasn’t manipulating the trust she had placed in him the past few days?

Rigo began to walk back toward Gloria.

“Come on, Glo, let’s go. And you, Milton—” Rigo pointed at Ricky Milton, one of his friends on the force, seated at the end of the table “—you shouldn’t even be with these guys. Don’t do something you’re going to regret—you can call me anytime, instead.”

“The only thing Milton regrets is not calling her first, since she’s back to dating cops.” Carpenter stood up and gave Rigo a forceful shove to the shoulder, knocking him off balance and into the table.

Like a well-timed SWAT attack, a swarm of officers leaped up from their own meals and pulled Rigo and the bully apart. Carpenter spewed a string of words that made Gloria, who’d spent the better part of her adult life around police officers, blanch with shock.

Especially since some of them were about her.

She felt as though the rogue punch had pushed
her
to the ground instead. The force of Carpenter’s crude words hurt as surely as a fistfight.

“I’m done, I’m done...” Rigo said as he tried to shake an officer off of each arm. “Don’t worry, McLellan. I’m not going to finish off Carpenter. Even though I should.”

Gloria could see the heat in his eyes and the steel on his face. It was taking every ounce of self-control he had not to further defend her honor, but this time not just with words.

“You need to go, Chief Vasquez.” McLellan stared down Carpenter, warning him to keep his mouth shut. “Gloria, you need to go, too. But remember what I said.”

The implication with his simple sentence seemed clear to Gloria. He saw this as yet another bad situation Rigo found himself in. Another reason why Gloria couldn’t trust Rigo’s judgment. Another reason she shouldn’t let him back into her life.

But that wasn’t how she saw it at all.

“Come on, Rigo.” She took him by the arm, then tucked her hand firmly into the crook of his elbow.

Carpenter’s shove may have brought the assembled group of first responders to their feet, but Gloria’s hand on Rigo’s arm dropped their jaws.

And she knew without a doubt she was strong enough right now not to care what they thought.

* * *

“You okay?” Rigo reached out and patted Gloria gently on the leg as they drove down Gulfview Boulevard. There was no longer hesitation in his touch, nor in how she felt about it. He wanted to be with her. She wanted to be with him.

“That was some dinner, wasn’t it?”

Rigo laughed, the sound tinged with gentle irony. “That it was. The shrimp sure tasted good. Carpenter’s a jerk, Gloria. Always has been. Don’t let him get to you.”

“Oh, believe me, I’m not. This isn’t the first time I’ve been around him. Felipe had words with him at a Christmas party several years ago.”

“Really?” Rigo took his eyes off the road for a second to look at Gloria. “That was one of the greatest things about Felipe—nothing ever got to him. He was Unflappable Felipe.”

“Maybe on the job, but he brought a lot of that frustration home with him.” She stopped herself. She’d never spoken of Felipe’s mood swings to anyone. She knew he’d kept them hidden well from his brothers on the force. He hadn’t always been able to keep them hidden from her, though.

“Wait.” Rigo hit the brake on his truck and pulled quickly into an open parking space along the sidewalk that twisted along the Gulf’s edge. “Are you saying he hurt you?”

“No, no. Not physically, nothing like that. I knew he still loved me, but he didn’t know how to deal with the stress of the job, then coming home to miscarriages and disappointment. He couldn’t fix it and so he eventually tried to distance himself from it and threw himself into his work.”

“But he didn’t hurt you?” Rigo’s eyes said more than his words. Wide, open, searching. He focused on her face with a hyperintensity, trying to make sure she wasn’t holding anything back.

The concern he showed pulled at Gloria’s heart. She didn’t want to speak badly of Felipe. He’d been a good man, a good husband—even if they’d had some problems in the last years.

But even more than that, she didn’t want any more secrets between her and Rigo. No more misunderstandings.

They’d weathered enough mistakes that had changed the course of their lives. She didn’t know where this newfound trust and redeveloping closeness was leading them. But she knew where she didn’t want it to lead: right back to secrets and lies.

“No. But that night, when I learned he stopped to help you instead of coming straight to me...” She let her words trail off as she gathered a breath. She’d come too far to stop. “It hurt. I lost my husband and my child that night. And on top of that, I had to deal with knowing that backing up a suspicious traffic stop was more important than being at my side. He chose his work over me and Mateo.”

“Gloria, I’m sorry. I didn’t call him to cause a problem—I needed backup—but I am the reason he wasn’t there with you. My call is the reason he was killed. I’ve made so many mistakes, Gloria. I’d do anything I could to change them, but I don’t know where to start.” Rigo’s voice was as flat as the glass-smooth water just beyond them. There was no wind tonight, no waves.

And no need to hold back anything in their hearts.

“Start here.”

Gloria leaned her head past the center console of the truck. Rigo met her halfway, and the instant she felt the touch of his lips on hers, the past faded away where it belonged.

Rigo slipped a hand behind her neck and pulled Gloria a little closer, a little tighter. She let her head settle a bit on his hand, using his strength to fortify her own.

Her knees weakened a little, and she was happy to let the feeling take over. It meant she could still feel. It meant that spark could still light inside her heart and tickle as it rode through her veins.