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He glanced over at her as he started the car. “Let me make it up to you.”
His voice flowed over her, smooth as melted butter, and she resisted the urge to sigh. “This I’ve got to see,” she said instead, and was met with a half grin that resonated deep within her.
Their topics of conversation on the way to the marina could be described as small talk. The weather, her brother’s antics, how Judith had surprised the both of them though they kept talk of her to a minimum. Still, with every word Katrina found herself relaxing, until the point where they reached the marina and he parked in the lot for The Pier, the hardest restaurant to get a table at.
“What are we doing here?” she asked. The lot was packed and there were people waiting outside hoping to cash in on a missed reservation.
“Remember when Martin brought me a cellphone?”
“To replace the one that broke in the crash, yes.”
“Wait, let me get your door,” he said to her, stopping her hand from pulling the lever, and she smiled.
“All right,” she replied, her lips turned upward in a soft smile.
The humidity had dropped, and a cool breeze floated across the lake, its slight waves splashing as Lorenzo opened her door. She took his hand as she exited the car not expecting him to lace their fingers together after she’d stood. When he did, she paused, their eyes locked in a silent glance, one that healed another fraction of her heart.
“Anyhow,” he said as they began their walk hand-in-hand to the front door, “when I got my cellphone, I called in a favor.”
“You planned this that long ago?”
“I wasn’t expecting you to find out about my past. I sure as hell wasn’t expecting you to be okay...are you okay with it?”
“It hurts. It hurts knowing what happened to you more than I can put into words right now. I’ll never be okay with them hurting you. But I’m okay with you.”
Saying the words out loud, to him, took a weight from her that she had been carrying since seeing him lying on her bathroom floor. Lorenzo managed one of his half-grins before they were stopped at the door.
“Name?”
“Cade, reservation for two,” he said. After a quick look, the woman ushered them the rest of the way inside and to their table, which sat by the window overlooking the water. Before they had a chance to finish smiling at one another, their waiter arrived with two large glasses of water with lemon along with their menus.
“We made it,” she commented, and his smile widened.
“Forget the club, this is where I should have taken you that night.”
“We never would have gotten reservations. And what kind of favor did you call in?”
“Let’s just say the owner’s kid got into a bit of trouble that I worked out.”
“Okay, we’ll say that, but that doesn’t tell me anything.”
“It tells you I made good on a promise. I have taken you to The Pier.”
She smiled at him. “Yes, you have.”
His eyes drank her in as she did the same to him, still mesmerized that all these years later, here he was.
“Ren...where did you go? When you left, I mean.”
One of his shoulders lifted and dropped. “Wherever I could. I did some couch surfing, a shelter here and there. Once you’re 18 and you’re out of the system, there isn’t much if you’re not prepared, you know? If you don’t have that family support. And I didn’t, so I did what I had to do. Tracked down leads on my old man, met his old best friend, and suddenly there I was immersed in the world of this bar. My old man, he’d wanted to own one, too. He never got the chance, though. Maybe I can keep a little bit of his memory alive at Cade’s, though. And Ma...I keep wondering if she’d be proud of the person I’ve become.”
“I’m sure the answer to that is yes.”
“Thank you.”
“But mixed martial arts...how? Why?”
“I was looking for an empty building to crash in.” He took a sip of water before he continued. “That’s where I met Martin.”
