Page 184 of From Rivals to I Do

His boys were trying to calm him down. One of them was saying, “It’s no big deal, man. I’ll pay you the money.”

Rafael slapped his hand on the table. “That’s not the point!” He flipped the table over, pulled out his gun, and then trained it on the older man. The older man put his hands up fearfully. “Wait, wait! Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot!”

“I don’t play with cheaters,” was all Rafael had to say before he fired the gun.

Abel had never seen anyone shot before. The memory of the man falling back out of his chair and the sound of his body hitting the floor replayed over and over in his mind every night since. He wished he’d never seen it happen.

And afterward, once Rafael realized that his little brother had seen everything, he pulled him to the side and told him that everything was going to be okay. He told him not to worry. Nobody was going to come for him. The guy was a nobody with a restaurant that nobody ever went to. Nobody would miss him.

Only somebody did. And the cops did come. Abel imagined himself being taken into foster care after his brother went to jail. He was only sixteen, after all. When he told Rafael that he was scared, Rafael convinced him that there was a better way. Abel would say that he did it. And since he was just a kid, he’d get maybe a year or so in juvie and be back home in time to graduate high school. Abel was just a kid, and nobody was going to send a kid to an adult jail.

But that’s not what happened. Abel confessed to the crime and was arrested. When he had to stand before the judge, he found himself looking at fifteen years in a real prison. Abel remembered standing there in court, terrified but keeping it off his face. He was doing this for his brother, he kept telling himself. For his brother…

Good, bad, fair, or unfair, the whole thing was supposed to be behind them now. He’d done the time, and he’d even gotten out early. His debt was supposed to be paid.

“I have to tell her,” he said, shaking his head sadly. “I can’t keep this from her.”

“Oh, yes, you can,” Rafael said.

“Raf, come on—”

“Abel, you will not tell Camilla what happened, okay? Not today. Not tomorrow. Not ever. In fact, you’re going to break it off with her.”

Abel was too stunned to speak. Rafael went on. “Look, the man died ten years ago. We can’t take that back. What do you think she’s going to do when you do tell her? You think she’s going to forgive you for protecting the guy that killed her father?”

The thought of Camilla turning on him didn’t settle well with him. They were just starting to get along. Things were just starting to go so well…

“Do it tomorrow,” Rafael said. “Do it fast and clean. Tell her you’re just not ready for a relationship.” He walked over to him and put his hands on his shoulders. “This is for the best. Trust me.”

It was. As much as Abel hated to admit it, Camilla couldn’t know.

***

Abel didn’t sleep all night. His mind just kept trying to spin ways that he could gently break it off with Camilla. The thoughts conflicted with their one day together and how good her hand had felt in his and the sweet, lavender smell of her hair as she’d rested her head on his shoulder. How natural it had been for them to sit on the park bench and watch Charlie playing. It was as though they were meant to be there together.

It so happened that his shift started a little later in the morning. Abel wasted no time, however. He arrived at work around fifteen minutes before his shift. Camilla happened to be at the register with one of the cashiers when he walked in. She spotted him almost immediately and smiled pleasantly. “See how good it is to be on time, Mr. Delgado?”

She’d said it playfully, walking up to him and nudging him like a colleague. It felt good. Completely different than when he’d first started.

“Yeah,” he said. “Hey, listen, can we talk for a minute? In private?”

“Sure,” she said. “Let’s go into my office.”

He walked behind her to her office, his mind spinning the story that he was going to tell. How would this go? Would she accept it? Would she fire him? She couldn’t fire him for rejecting her…right? That wasn’t legal. Still, legal or not, how was he supposed to keep working there with her after he said what he had to say?

His anxiety started to reach its peak when he walked into her office. She smiled up at him as she closed the door behind him. “How are you feeling?”

Abel had momentarily forgotten about the date and the fact that he’d said he was sick. “Fine,” he said quickly. “Yeah, I’m…I’m fine.”

“That’s good. I hadn’t heard from you. I was worried for a second.”

She looked beautiful, even in the cruddy fluorescent lights of her office among the staplers and file folders. She leaned against the desk, her uniform fitting her body and her curves perfectly, her blue eyes sparkling. Today, her hair was back up in a bun the way it usually was when she was at work, but somehow she didn’t look anything like the pinched-face librarian that he’d first met. “So what’s up?”

He took a deep breath. There was no other way to do it but to do it, he thought. “I, um, the date yesterday was…it was nice—”

“It was,” she said with a smile. “Really nice.” She walked up to him and took his hands. Her gentle touch sent shivers up his spine. “I was hoping we could go on another date sometime soon.”

He opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out. He looked down at her hands, the regret weighing him down. “Camilla,” he said softly. She moved closer to him, and suddenly he could smell the sweet scent of her hair. Lavender again. Had she always smelled this way? he wondered. He had certainly never noticed it until now. Now he didn’t think he’d ever forget it.

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