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10
After my meeting, I walked toward town, physically and emotionally spent. Hopefully, I’d convinced Ella that granting Eddie’s parole would be a huge mistake. Now all I could do was try not to worry as I waited for the decision to be announced.
At Main Street, I thought about Salvador and the first time he kissed me. We’d been right here on this corner in front of the old jewelry shop, which was now a wine bar.
He’d taken me to see Monty Python and the Holy Grail, a movie that made Salvador laugh so hard soda came out of his nose. Personally, I didn’t think the movie was that funny, but there was something endearing about the way Salvador laughed with abandon. I admired that about him even now.
As we headed to the coffee shop, Salvador slipped his hand in mine. I’d been so surprised by the gesture that I laughed.
“What’s so funny?” Releasing my hand, he stepped back and peered down at me, offended.
“Well, you didn’t try to hold my hand or kiss me or anything during the movie. And now, here in broad daylight, you make your move?”
He shrugged. “I was laughing too hard during the movie to think about that. And now... Well, it just felt right, you know?”
His vulnerability and the way he looked at me with those chocolate-brown eyes hit me right in the gut. I nodded, knowing exactly what he meant.
Salvador stepped closer. “Can I kiss you?”
“You want to kiss me?”
“I do.”
“Here? In front of everyone?”
“Yes.” He grinned that cocky grin of his that I found irresistible. “Do you have a problem with that?”
A warm tingling sensation spread through me. Before he could change his mind, I stood on my tiptoes and slipped my arms around his neck. As he pulled me toward him, every cell in my body came alive. Every—
I jumped at the sound of my phone yanking me out of the past to the present. As if a memory could reach across time and space, Salvador’s picture popped up on my caller ID.
Why was he calling? Why now?
I stared at his photo. I’d taken the picture at the hospital after Brandy’s twins were born ten years ago. Salvador looked so proud and happy holding the boys in his arms. Our divorce was still fresh back then, and seeing him was still hard. Because I was trying to be a better person by letting go of things I couldn’t control, I uploaded the picture to his contact information.
“Hello, Ruth Anne.” Salvador always sounded so guarded on the phone with me.
“Hi.” I wanted to tell him where I was, but I held back, knowing that was a horrible idea. While I still cared about my ex-husband as a human being, there were certain boundaries I didn’t need to cross. Talking about our first kiss was definitely one of them.
“I just wanted to check on you and see how you were doing,” he said. “Did you meet with the parole board yet?”
“I did.”
“And how’d it go?”
“Good. I think.”
“That’s good.”
“Yes.”
A tense silence pressed down between us as I tried to think of something to say.
“All right,” he finally said. “I’ll let you go.”
“Okay.”
I started to thank him for calling, but he spoke first. “Do you think you can ever forgive me? Do you think you can ever... I don’t know, stop despising me so much?”
