Suspicious Minds (Fate #3) (4 page)

Olivia squeezed her eyes shut for a moment. Her sister’s
observation confirming that she wasn’t the only one thinking Lorenzo was even
better looking than she remembered was not helping her already frazzled nerves.
If her sister weren’t so young and impressionable, she might be tempted to tell
her about her one-time indiscretion with that sexy-as-sin man in uniform.

Her best friend Margie back home was usually who she got to tell
these sorts of things to, but she couldn’t this time. Margie was her reason for
needing to go out and do such a thing in the first place. Not only that, they
were pretty much no longer speaking. So Olivia hadn’t been able to tell
anyone
about it, and it was beginning to fester.

They said hello to Isabel, her sister Gina, Sal’s sister Sofie,
and his wife Grace as Olivia tried in vain to calm her overworked heart.
Whoever the other women were in the group they were busy chatting amongst themselves,
and no one bothered to introduce them. Grace was holding a baby, and both Emi
and Olivia bent over to inspect the precious little thing a little closer.

“This one isn’t yours, right?” Olivia asked, remembering Sal
mentioning their baby had recently started walking. The one she held now looked
just a few months old.

“No, this sweet little thing is my niece—Ruby,” she said,
touching the baby’s hand with her finger. “My kids are with my mom, but this is
my sister’s first, and she’s still way too attached to leave her with anyone.”

“Aw!” Emi said, reaching to touch the baby’s tiny little fingers.
“She’s beautiful.”

Grace smiled big and proud. “Yeah, she is. She looks just like
her mommy.” She glanced up as someone approached. “Speaking of which,” she
said, “here she is now.”

A younger version of Grace smiled at all of them as she took her
seat next to Grace. “Rosie, this is Olivia, the groomer for Yogi and Baloo.”
Grace turned to Olivia, smiling even bigger. “We were just talking about you
the other day.”

Rosie’s eyes went wide and smiled. “So you’re the one,” she said
in a tone that made the hair on the back of Olivia’s neck stand.
The one
what?

“I saw what you did with the pups,” she added, making Olivia instantly
relax a little. “My Sheba needs some major work. You do poodles?”

“I do every breed,” Olivia said, nodding. “Poodles are a bit more
challenging, but then so are Chows, and I welcome a challenge.”

The anxiousness she’d begun to feel about the possibility that
Rose might be Lorenzo’s wife was finally axed when Rosie started talking about
wanting her to come out and groom her dog. Rose mentioned her husband
Vince,
and Olivia literally felt the tension drain from her tensed muscles. Talk of
grooming and Sheba kept Olivia’s mind distracted for the moment. Rose even
booked a day for Olivia to come out later that week to her place to work on
Sheba. Then Olivia excused herself to the ladies’ room. Emilia stayed back
because she was holding baby Ruby.

To Olivia’s relief, Lorenzo was nowhere in sight. Maybe he’d
left. He
had
been in uniform. Maybe that meant he had to be somewhere
soon. Olivia could only hope. She hadn’t realized just how tense she’d been
until she was in the ladies’ room, powdering her nose. She loosened her arms
and shoulders, rolling her neck a bit, and took in the amount of detail even in
the ladies’ room: from the brightly colored walls and Mexican artwork that hung
on them to the sink bowls that sat atop the counter, giving the appearance of
rustic wash basins.

With her mind still on the decor of the restaurant, she ambled
out, continuing to take in all its intricate details. Whoever did the
decorating definitely knew his stuff. The entire hallway leading to the banquet
rooms had the look of a quaint Mexican village. She glanced up at what appeared
to be windows with shutters and smiled, feeling bittersweet at the colorful
pottery that hung from the ceiling. They reminded her of the many times she and
Margie had taken the drive and crossed the border to
Ciudad Acuña
for a
day of shopping and eating at their favorite restaurant. While it was supposed
to be their girl time, many of those times Jay accompanied them, and, of course,
Margie had always been just fine with it.

Walking smack into a wall jolted her instantly out of her
thoughts. The moment she realized the solid wall was actually a man’s chest was
mortifying enough, but when her eyes met Lorenzo’s uncompromising expression,
her legs went weak.

“I’m sorry,” she said, feeling her face go hot, and pulled her
hand away from his chest where it’d flown in reflex.

She was caught in his intense eyes as she had been earlier. Like
she had been so many times the night she met him. But it was only momentarily.

“Don’t be,” he said, glancing away quickly, and if she weren’t
mistaken, he seemed a bit panicked. Maybe his wife or fiancée
was
here. “I
wasn’t paying attention either.”

They stood there in heavy silence for a few awkward seconds until
she finally smiled and shrugged. “Small world, huh?”

The miniscule nod said he agreed, but his vacant expression now
bordered on hard. His eyes lowered, and she gulped when she realized he was
staring at her lips. He licked his lips as the memory of his kisses inundated
her.
Is that what he was thinking of too?
She stared at his lips as she
felt his face lean in a little closer to hers and froze when she could actually
feel his warm breath so close to her lips. Just when she’d been certain he was
going to kiss her, he froze too and their eyes met again. “Too small maybe.”

Ouch
.

“I can assure you,” he went on as he pulled back suddenly, “if I’d
known you’d be here
. . .
” He glanced away with a frown without
finishing then tipped the edge of his hat with a painfully forced smile. “My
apologies for running into you,” he said tersely. “Have a good day.”

Olivia stood there stunned for a moment as he strode past her.
She was tempted to say something—retort. It was one thing for him to have no
interest in anything more with her. It was even understandable that if he were
married or engaged he’d want to avoid any awkward run-ins with her, but he didn’t
have to be a jerk about it.

Still feeling the sting of his insult, she decided to not give
him the pleasure of knowing she cared. She only wondered now if even his
apology about running into her was meant literally or figuratively, because from
what he’d begun to say, clearly he was sorry he’d run into her.

The moment he was far enough away Olivia was able to let out the
breath she hadn’t even realized she’d been holding. She watched him head for
the stairs and hurry down them. He might be a rude jerk, but, after seeing him
again and in his uniform and being so close to him she could almost taste his
mouth, denial wasn’t an option. The man was a walking dream. Olivia could
hardly believe now she’d had the pleasure of sleeping with him. He couldn’t be
much older than her and Jay. Maybe it was that she’d known Jay from the time
they were kids, so she’d never seen him in terms of being a
man
. He’d
been just as young naïve as
she’d
always been until
the change
.
But even when he’d become that Jekyll and Hyde douche who’d played with her
heart for years, she’d never seen him as a
man
. The games he played were
too immature for her to give him that title. And even as irresistible as she
found Jay once upon a time, he paled in comparison to Lorenzo in almost every
way.

It made her angry that her heart still fluttered when she
remembered how incredibly exciting that night with him had been. Frowning as
her still weak legs began to move again toward the banquet room, she tried to
snuff the disappointment. Even if Lorenzo weren’t engaged or in a relationship,
he was making one thing abundantly clear: he was in no way interested in
anything more with Olivia now than he was that night.

~~~

With Lorenzo gone and obviously not coming back, Olivia
and Emi had spent far more time at the repast then they’d originally planned.
She and Rose had really hit it off, and they talked for hours. She was sweet
and super easy to talk to. Though, Olivia had to get used to hearing her own
last name when Rose referred to her cousin Moe. It seemed to everyone here in
California, with the exception of his uncles, he went by his last name—Romero. But
aside from that, she and Rose had one of those instant connections as she’d had
many years ago with Margie where Olivia just knew they could easily become good
friends.

When Olivia showed up at Rose’s house that week to groom Sheba,
Rose had come out and chatted with Olivia again in the van. She’d even brought
out lemonade and snacks.

“Since I had Ruby I hardly get any time for girl talk anymore,” Rose
explained as she opened up the bag of cheese popcorn. “I’m still working, but I
do it all from home now since I don’t want to leave Ruby with anyone. It’s easy
enough,” she said, putting some popcorn into her mouth. “I do the books for the
restaurants and for my husband’s business, but before I had Ruby, I spent a lot
of time at both businesses. I got to chat with the other girls who work at the
restaurants and have lunch with them and such. Now I’m home alone most days.
Just me and the baby. My sister, whom I usually do most of my chatting with, is
too busy these days with the three kids, and she’s
still
the head chef
at their restaurant. So sorry”—she laughed—“if I just made myself at home here
while you try to work. Let me know if you’d prefer to work without an audience.
I’ll get out of your way.”

Olivia smiled, glancing up from Sheba’s wet fur. “Actually, I could
use a little girl talk myself.” Olivia shook her head when Rose held out the
popcorn offering her some. Then she frowned, looking back down and brushing
Sheba. “Kind of sucks when you stop speaking to the only friend you’ve ever
really talked to like that.”

“Stopped speaking?” Rose asked.

“Yeah,” Olivia locked on Rose’s curious eyes. “My best friend
back in Texas. Even though I moved out here almost two years ago, we never went
even a day without some kind of communication, and a lot of it was talking on
the phone, not just texting or social media.”

“So what happened?”

“A little over a month ago I found out she and my ex-boyfriend .
. . Well, I don’t know if technically he was ever actually my boyfriend,” she
admitted with a somewhat embarrassed frown. “But he was my first, you know . .
.” Rose’s eyes went a bit wide and she nodded, but she didn’t comment. “Jay and
I had been friends since we were kids and then began flirting and started
kissing until we were making out and did everything else. He was the first guy
I ever slept with, and I was pretty crazy about him even though our
relationship was complicated. But if anyone knew how crazy about him I was, it
was Margie.” Olivia eyed Rose, who was till staring at her curiously. “In fact,
because my brothers didn’t care for him, she was the
only one
who ever
knew about it. Now they’re engaged.”

Rose gasped. “You’re kidding?”

“Nope.” Olivia shook her head, still not sure how she felt about
it.

She was completely over Jay. Of that, she was sure. It was why
she’d broken away from him and his games in the first place. She was so over
the destructive relationship—not to mention she didn’t want one of her brothers
getting locked up for life for killing the asshole.

“Things between him and me had been pretty much over for a while,
but . . .”

She shook her head, staring out into space thinking about how
much she should actually share. To say her relationship with Jay was stormy was
putting it lightly. Many aspects of it she’d never admit to anyone. Even Margie
didn’t know about some of the more shameful things Olivia had allowed Jay to
talk her into. But she could still share some parts with Rose.

“It’s just weird, you know? She was there the whole time from the
very beginning when I started going out with him, and I told her
everything
.”
Well, almost.
“You know how best friends are, right? I gave her the blow
by blow of our first kiss, our first make-out session, and my journey from
first base to finally doing it with him. I cried to her through all the
bullshit he put me through. And now she’s marrying the guy? How am I supposed
to talk to her without feeling so incredibly awkward?”

“Oh wow. But I agree,” Rose said, nodding and digging in her
popcorn bag. “That would be weird. How did she tell you?”

“She didn’t.” Olivia stopped brushing Sheba’s hair, surprised by
how good it felt to finally talk to someone about this. “I saw his relationship
status update on Facebook. It went from single to
in a relationship,
and
when I saw who he tagged as being in a relationship with, I nearly fell out of
my seat.”

Rose was eating her popcorn now and peering at Olivia wide eyed as
if she were at the movies and this was an exciting part of said movie. If
Olivia hadn’t gotten so worked up remembering that day, she might’ve laughed. Instead
she went on.

“The worst part is a few days later he changed it again to
engaged. So if they were engaged she’d obviously been seeing him for a while,
right? And all this time she and I had still been talking almost daily, and yet
she never once mentioned it.”

“That’s so shady,” Rose said as she took a sip of her lemonade. “She
could’ve at least asked you if you’d be okay with it. Things like this happen.
So did you ever talk to her about it, or did you just stop talking?”

“I called immediately,” Olivia chuckled, but it didn’t deter the
bitterness she still felt. “I was just so shocked and even thought for a minute
maybe he was just messing with my head like he’d been known to do. She admitted
they’d gotten involved months after I moved out here. And yeah, she did say it
just
happened. Supposedly they were keeping each other company after I’d moved, and
they just started falling for each other. As different as she and I are, in some
ways, she’s a lot like me.”