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Chapter Twenty-Seven
The drive from theairport to Jason’s hometown of Prosper should have taken forty-five minutes. Alejandro made it in under thirty. I looked at him as we pulled off a highway named for one of America’s more recent presidents. “You realize that the toll roads here have cameras and they will send you a ticket.”
“Ah,” he said, “But what is the point of having money if not to make such a problem go away.”
I looked at him incredulously before he started laughing. “Relax,mi cielo, any other time I would be concerned with the speed limit. But I am used to going over a hundred kilometers an hour and only blinking once. If ever there was a time to use these skills it is now.”
He had a point. Plus there is no denying the way a fast car got a girl all hot and bothered. Watching him concentrate as he downshifted and navigated the back roads to Jason’s house was fascinating. I don’t think I could ever get tired of watching him. And I didn’t care if he knew it. What was love if not staring awkwardly at your partner when they couldn’t do anything about it.
Thankfully Jason did not live in one of those gated planned communities, and the drive up to his parent’s house was relatively easy. We parked in the large circular drive and Alejandro reached across to grab my hand. “We’ve come all this way, even if he turns us away, we have to try.”
I took a steadying breath and squeezed his hand before unbuckling my seatbelt and stepping out of the car. Alejandro came around to my side and we walked up to the front door together. One way or another we would have our answer.
Before I could even raise my fist to knock on the front door, it opened and I looked down into the furious face of Sarah Stevens. She pushed forward with her wheelchair, backing us down the steps as she closed the door behind her. Then she started down the ramp to the left of the door, whisper-ranting the entire way.
“No. No way. You have got to be kidding me. What are you doing here? I specifically asked you,weeks ago, what you wanted with my brother. And you said nothing was going on. And I believed you. Andthe very next dayhis name was all over the tabloids. The only reason I didn’t kill you then is because he made me promise not to. But now. Now he is injured, and broken, and heart sick, and you have the gall to show upnow?” She stopped millimeters from my toes where we had walked down to meet her wrath.
“I’m sorry, Sarah. I really am,” I pleaded. “I truly didn’t know everything was going to blow up in our faces and we really had agreed what had gone on between us was over. Yes, there was before that, but I wasn’t lying. I promise.” All of the exhaustion and anxiety of the weeks that had passed since I last saw her crashed over me and I began to cry.
Alejandro squeezed my hand and then crouched down to look Sarah in the eyes. “I know you love your brother and want to take care of him. We do too. That’s why we are here.”
Sarah huffed out a breath as she glared hard at him, “Do you love him? Really?”
“With all of my heart.”
She looked up at me, “And you?”
I nodded through my tears. “Yes.”
She looked back at Alejandro. “Fine. But only because he is so miserable without you two. But if you break his heart again I will end you.”
Alejandro extended his hand “You have my word.”
They shook solemnly and then we followed Sarah back up the ramp and into the house. It was a one-story ranch with a large open entryway. Grand in my book, but very modest compared to the rest of the houses we had passed on our way in. Sarah gestured to an open door down the hall, “He’s in there.”
“Thank you.” Alejandro squared his shoulders and began walking, pulling me along with him by the hand. We stopped just outside the doorway and looked in. Jason lay in a large bed watching some sports game on the TV across from him. His expression was completely unguarded, and despite being a giant of a man, looked so small and vulnerable with his cast, blond hair tousled on the pillow. He looked up as Alejandro knocked on the door frame and I saw a wall fall across his gaze as he registered who we were. It hurt. It hurt a lot, but I understood. He had wanted to make this work from the beginning and we had turned him down. Now we were here, clearly together, in his home.
“What do you want?”
“May we come in?” Alejandro asked.
“If you must.”
Alejandro stepped into the room, leaving me in the doorway. “How are you feeling? Are you recovering ok?”
“I’m fine. I’ll be back to challenging you for that seat, don’t you worry.”
