AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Not true,” Mom said, shaking her head. “Devin can make friends easily only because of who he is, his fame. I can assure you they aren’t meaningful friendships. And I’ll let you in on a little secret. It’s not how many friends you have, but the kind of friends they are. You have Jess and Elizabeth, and I’d say those are two amazing friendships. Does Devin have anything like that?”
I didn’t think so. He had his friend Colin, but was he someone that Devin confided in? But Devin also seemed to not care so much. He had his friends, and he enjoyed their company. Wasn’t that good enough? “He’s more outgoing than I am.”
“I think that’s why you love him so much. His strengths and weaknesses are the opposite of yours. With your father, I was the outgoing one. He was more quiet and reserved, and he really didn’t have many friends, but the ones he did have made up for all the ones I thought I had. We balanced each other, just like you and Devin balance each other. Those make the best relationships.”
I hated it when Mom made sense, but then something else dawned on me. “Do you like Devin?”
“I don’t need to like him.”
I didn’t love that answer, and my disapproving look told my mother that. “Yes, you do. I want you to like him.”
Mom sighed. “He’s not the man I would have chosen for you, but he cares for you, and that’s what is important.”
“What would Dad have said about him?”
“Your father would have been hell-bent on keeping the two of you apart, which would have only drawn you and Devin closer together. He would have eventually given up and given you his blessing.”
“Do you miss him?” She so rarely talked about Dad. I wondered if we’d all have healed a little better if we’d talked more about losing him.
“Every day. But I have Tony now, and I can’t imagine life without him.”
I pushed my plate of pasta aside, not hungry. “Do you love Tony the way you loved Dad? Rosa says you can love people differently.”
“Rosa should mind her own business,” Mom said, evading the question.
“Do you, Mom?”
“Yes, Luna, I do. But it doesn’t mean I love either of my men less than the other. Does this have anything to do with Blake Carlton?”
“He somehow draws me in,” I said, amazed that I’d actually revealed that. The plan had been to never speak of Blake Carlton again, but I couldn’t shut my big mouth.
“I used to say that about your father.”
That was like a gut punch. I wasn’t supposed to have feelings for Blake, let alone ones that reminded Mom of Dad, so I took a different approach.
“But did you love Sergio Moreno from the bottom of your heart?” He was the man she’d dumped when she fell for my father. “When I think of Devin, I see him in my future as my husband and the father of my children. I don’t see Blake in my future.”
“I didn’t see Marco either. It’s best that you sort out your feelings for this man before the new racing season. If you love Devin, you may jeopardize your relationship with him by working closely with a man you have these mixed feelings for.”
After dinner, Mom had to catch her flight home. It was nearing nine as I drove her to the airport. Just as she was about to get out of the car, I stopped her.
“Mom, what exactly is the agreement you have with Rafe?”
I could see her wheels spinning. Did she not want to tell me? I wasn’t about to let her get away with leaving and keeping this a secret, and she knew it.
She pursed her lips before she spoke. “I knew when your brother wanted your money that I needed a means of keeping him in check. So I said if he wanted your money, he would have to promise me that you would be protected. There was a clause in your father’s will that allowed me to withhold your inheritance until the age of twenty-five if I felt the money would be used improperly. So what I did was ensure that you weren’t taken advantage of. If at any time I felt the team was being mismanaged, or that you or your brother were being taken advantage of, I could go to my lawyer and buy the team right out from under your brother and uncle, and they could do nothing about it.”
Mom was a badass!
“You obviously didn’t trust Rafe.”
“No, it wasn’t a matter of trust per se. I just know how determined your brother can be, and sometimes that is at the expense of others. I was just protecting him from himself.”
I said goodbye to her and headed home. I was both impressed and a bit insulted. Didn’t she trust us? Then I thought more about it. Mom was really looking out for both of us in the end. Rafe would do anything to make the team succeed, and spending more money than he had to keep it afloat wasn’t out of the realm of possibility. And that was something Mom wanted to protect against. I really couldn’t blame her.
I’d barely gotten out of the car when my phone rang.
“Luna Perez.”
