Forever Yours (40 page)

“Angel, what’s up?”

He knew Sydney must be wondering why he was calling, and it was late, so he got right to it. “I need to talk to you.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he said, sounding concerned. “Everything okay?”

“Everything’s fine . . . I think,” Angel said then paused. “I know you and me talked about this, years ago—that time you came down and we talked at the restaurant and you assured me I had nothing to worry about when it came to you and Sarah. You said your relationship with Sarah has always been a platonic one. And while you love her, it’s different than being
in love
with her.”

Angel waited for a response in vain. The fact that Sydney was saying nothing made him nervous. He thought maybe by now he would’ve interrupted him and said something to reassure him that what he’d said back then still stood. But he didn’t, so Angel went on.

“I gotta tell you, man—and I’m just being honest here—I never bought that shit for a minute. So when she told me you dropped your girl for her, you gotta know what I was thinking, right?”

“Yep,” Syd finally said, and Angel waited, but Sydney didn’t say more.

“So am I right?”

There was no immediate “
no”
from Syd, and Angel stood up from where he was sitting. He fucking knew it!

“Look, Angel,” Syd said, exhaling. “
I’m
gonna be honest with
you
now. It’s up to you if you wanna tell her this. Personally, I don’t think it’s a good idea, but I’ll leave it in your hands. Okay?”

Syd stopped as if waiting for a response from Angel, so he shook his head, confused. “Okay?”

“Dude,
of course
I was in love with Sarah. How could I not be?” Angel froze where he stood, completely speechless. “When she left for La Jolla, I had every intention of waiting for her to get back so I could tell her. She was going through so much shit I didn’t want to add more complications to her life especially because she was so adamant that we were just like brother and sister. I even admitted to Carina way back in the beginning that I was in love with Sarah, but once she started seeing you and I heard in her voice the way she spoke of you—what you made her feel and how she went from talking about that being the worst time of her life to it being the best
because
of you—I knew I’d waited too long. I didn’t stand a chance. So I had a choice to make. Either I told her I was in love with her and couldn’t deal with seeing her with someone else and lose what we’d had for so many years or keep my mouth shut and accept it. Accept that she’d never be mine and keep the best friend I’d ever had.”

“So you’re still in love with her?” Angel almost regretted asking now. His dumb ass never even considered the possibility that Sydney would admit this. “Is that why you broke up with Carina?”

“Nah, man, I love Sarah, yeah, but Sarah’s in love with you—so much so I’d never even
hope
that something might go wrong between you two, because I know she’d be inconsolably miserable, and I’d never want that for her. My admitting to Carina way back before I got serious with her that I was in love with Sarah was my biggest mistake. She never got past it especially since Sarah and I stayed so close all this time. Look,” he said, suddenly sounding very serious, “I wish nothing but happiness for Sarah, and I’m genuinely hoping you two are together forever, because I know it’s what she wants. But let me be clear about one thing, Angel. I ain’t going nowhere. So it’s up to you if you wanna tell her everything I just told you and open up a can of worms or just believe me when I tell you that you have
nothing
to worry about. Sarah’s yours, man. Has been since day one and will be forever. I’m under no illusions of thinking that’ll ever change.”

Angel stood there, stumped. Was he pissed? Was he worried? He wasn’t sure how the hell he felt about this. “Huh,” he said because it was the only thing he could think of to say.

Sydney chuckled. “I always knew we’d be having this conversation someday, and I always figured you’d have something to say about it.” He laughed now. “But it sure as hell wasn’t that.”

Angel sat on his bed now, feeling like he needed to make a threat of some kind—warn Sydney if he ever got any ideas he’d come after him because it this were anybody else it’s exactly what he’d be doing—but with Sydney it felt unnecessary.

“From what Sarah’s told me about you, I think you’re probably trying to decide whether you should kill me or not.” Sydney laughed. “I tell you what. Why don’t you sleep on it? Just keep this in mind while you’re trying to decide. Even if you two broke up tomorrow, I wouldn’t dream of trying for something more with her than what I have now, and it’s not because I’d be afraid of ruining our friendship. In hindsight, I fucking wish I’d had the balls to chance it back before she met you, even if it meant risking our friendship. But I wouldn’t now. You know why?”

“Why?” Angel asked, still not sure how he felt about all this.

“Because once she met and fell in love with you, I knew I could never compete with that. You don’t compete with the love of someone’s life, and you’re hers. Believe me when I say I know Sarah. Okay? She’d
never
get over you. If you could just see it as clearly as I do, you’d know. She’s yours man. All yours.
Forever
.”

Angel stood up, feeling almost dazed. He’d known for years that Sarah was the love of his life and that
he’d
never get over her if he ever lost her. No matter how many times she said it to him, it seemed impossible to believe she could possibly feel for him everything he felt for her. The last thing he ever expected was for someone else to be pointing out that he was certain she was. Least of all Sydney.

To his surprise, when he looked in the mirror, he wore a crooked smile. “Forever mine,” he said without even thinking.

“Yeah.” Sydney let out what sounded like a defeated or maybe satisfied breath. “Forever yours.”

Epilogue

The gang decided to make one last trip up to Big Bear before the snow season was over. They spent the day on the slopes then walked around the picturesque little town, doing some shopping and sipping hot chocolate.

On their way back to the cabin after the exhausting but satisfying day, Romero insisted they drive around to see if they could get a glimpse of the training complex of Felix Sanchez, the current welterweight boxing champ.

“You’re not gonna be able to see shit,” Alex said as he turned on the road Romero asked him to. “It probably has a long ass driveway and is sitting way on top of a mountain.”

“You never know. I heard his property goes on for acres and acres. Some of it might be visible. I also heard he trains in the winter. He might even be up here now.”

“And what?” Eric asked from the middle seat of the crowded SUV. “You really think you’re gonna see him?”

“Hey.” Romero tapped the seat in front of him. “What’s with the negativity? I said you never know!”

Sarah sat on Angel’s lap in the back seat and was surprised by how he turned every peck she gave him into a long drawn-out kiss that had her tingling even in the crowded vehicle . “Stop,” she whispered against his lips as low as she could because Romero was right next to them. Leaning into his ear, she whispered, “You’re turning me on.”

His squirming and licking her neck made her giggle. “Hey.” Romero finally stopped arguing with Alex and Eric long enough to notice Angel and Sarah. “You two are fogging up the windows.”

Sofia who was sitting right in front of them laughed out loud.

“Check it out,” Romero said, wiping off one of the windows and pointed out.

“What the . . .?” Alex said, slowing down because of the sudden traffic.

There were television crews and news vans lined up all along the road. Some cars were pulling over just to get a photo in front of the gates to his driveway.

“I told you he’s up here,” Romero said. “These guys are probably all camped out here, trying to get a picture of him. He’s got that big fight coming up later this year.”

They finally made it through the mess of the traffic with Alex muttering the whole time about Romero’s stupid idea to go check out the complex. Eric and Romero debated the entire way about whether or not someone like Sanchez enjoyed that kind of attention. Eric thought it’d suck ass to not even be able go out and grab a bite without being hounded. Romero said it came with the territory and insisted from all the photos and footage he’d seen of the guy that he seemed to savor the spotlight.

When they finally reached the cabin, Sarah had hoped to sneak away into the bedroom to finish what Angel had started in the truck, but Sal reminded them it was their turn to cook.

“I got it, babe,” Angel said already pulling stuff out of the fridge.

“No, I can help,” she said, feeling less than helpful since Angel was a better cook.

“All right,” he said, pulling out the leftover barbequed chicken Alex and Valerie had made the night before, some tortillas, and a big bag of grated cheese. “Grab the avocados out of the fridge and make the guacamole.”

Sarah smiled in appreciation that he’d given her the easy task. She kissed his cheek then pulled the avocados out of the fridge. In the time it took her to cut up the avocados, dice everything that needed to be mixed into it, and mash it all up, Angel had already whipped up enough chicken quesadillas for everyone. They set everything up on the table and everyone dug in.

When they were all done, Sarah thought maybe they’d sneak away for a little bit, but then Sal announced he’d found some old videos he thought they’d all get a kick out of, so they all gathered round the television and watched as a grainy video started of the three brothers when they were very young staring into a cradle. Angel was the littlest one on his tiptoes, trying to get a better look.

“Aw,” Sarah said, smiling big. “How cute! You were being all nosey.”

“Yeah.” Valerie laughed. “Even way back then they were already all up in Sofie’s business.”

There was more footage of the three boys horsing around and then Sofie as the little princess, prancing in her Disney Belle costume. They all laughed as videos spanned from such a young age through the years. Sarah couldn’t get over how much their young dad looked just like all three boys.

There was also footage of Romero when he was much younger and all of them on their bikes jumping off ramps in the front yard. Romero sped by the camera several times.

“Remember that?” Sal asked, pointing at the ramp Romero was circling in the video. “I don’t think we ever had a ramp you didn’t fall off of.”

“Or break,” Alex said with a frown.

The video moved on to their older years: their little league football practices and even video of Sofie and Eric hanging out off to the side while the boys played at the park on Easter. Sarah giggled inwardly at how clueless the brothers had been about Sofie and Eric being in love even way back when.

Then there was video of Sarah at her first Thanksgiving with the Morenos. “Oh wow.” She brought her hand to her mouth. “I didn’t even remember someone had been videotaping.”

She exchanged glances with Angel, remembering how that night had been their first time.

There was footage of her and Sofie running at several of their high school track meets her senior year. Some of them made Sarah blush because she won in several and they all cheered even now as if it were just happening. They all even looked as excited as they all did in the videos way back then. Then there was graduation followed by the party at the restaurant. There was a bunch of short videos of them all at their restaurant, Andolini’s, the bowling alley, the beach, and many of their bonfires. The videos of all of them hanging out
everywhere
seemed endless but brought back so many memories; some even choked her up.

The videos moved on to the ones from Facebook and Instagram, some of the ones Leonardo had told her he’d watched: Sarah and Valerie goofing off in front of the webcam then Sarah and Angel doing a dumb YouTube boyfriend tag that had Sarah laughing out loud and blushing.

Sarah hadn’t noticed there was music playing in the background. She was so busy and enthralled by all the old memories until she noticed the odd choice of song for videos of old times with friends—“My Girl” by The Temptations. It got a little louder with each slide and video that was shown, and she noticed too many of them were of just her or her and Angel being cute—cuddling—kissing.

She turned to look at Angel, wondering now if he’d put the video together and a little embarrassed that he’d make everyone sit through so many of what she was sure everyone else was thinking were cheesy videos and slides. Finally, it was over, and she felt a little relieved though she’d definitely be asking for a copy.

“Who put that together?” she asked.

“There’s more,” Sal said, hitting a few things on the tablet connected to the TV.

More recent video of all them started playing, including this past Thanksgiving and Christmas then Sarah and Angel’s big birthday bash with
everyone
from his family. Even the out-of-towners were present. The video had Sofie and Sal in front of a webcam, reminiscing about their big family. How they all had their quirks, but they’d never trade anything for it. Then Romero’s charades video played, and all of them nearly fell out of their seats laughing. When his clip was over, it cut away to him talking into his toothbrush and looking into the camera.