Page 27 of Reckless Forever
Once we were done, we got into the truck and took our seats. I took my phone out of my bag and checked my notifications. Since Judah had been in his meeting, I hadn’t been glued to it. Everything else could wait. I clicked on my emails, and the first one that caught my attention was the one with “congratulations” in the subject line.
Dear Ms. Ivy Montana,
Congratulations. You have been selected for the SkyWatch international conference. This year’s conference will be held in New York City, and we look forward to seeing you there. Confirm your participation by clicking the link below.
At first, it was standard until I continued to read the email in its entirety, and that’s when things changed for me. I have never clicked a link so fast in my life. In fact, I was moving so fast that I misspelled my name twice trying to type it in.
Then I leaned over and showed it to my cousin; she didn’t get the hype at first, until she got to the last line.
“You see? This is the damn universe bringing you together. Pictures, every damn day.” She said as she pointed a finger at my face, making me laugh.
“I got you, I promise,” I said. I fought the urge to text Judah, but I knew he was in a meeting where he couldn’t use his phone.
My heart raced as I thought about how the hell I was about to convince Padrino to let me go to New York City. That would have been another challenge in itself.
Emilio pulled back up to the estate, let us out, and grabbed our things. He took Esme’s things to her truck. She walked straight to it, didn’t even come back inside to say goodbye to Padrino.
I pushed open the door of the estate and went into the study, where I knew he normally was if he wasn’t in the sitting area. I twisted the doorknob, and that was my first mistake instead of knocking. Yenny and the newest girl were on the couch doing whatever in the corner as he read the newspaper like he didn’t have a whole freak show in front of him.
He shouted in Spanish for them to get out, and they peeled themselves from the couch and walked toward the door. Yenny rolled her eyes at me as she walked out. I smirked at her.
I sat in the chair in front of him. He put the paper down and gave me his undivided attention.
“I have something that I wanted to tell you,” I said as we spoke in Spanish.
“What’s that?” He asked, clasping his hands in front of him.
“I was invited to a weather convention in New York City. I would like to go.” I said as I gave him the biggest smile that I could muster.
“No,” he said sharply, quicker than I expected.
“Padrinoooo,” I whined.
“You know that you can't-” he started before I cut him off.
“Padrino! I know! It’s been two years. That’s a long time. You know I love my career and what I do, I want to go.” I pleaded. Barely having to fake the one tear that fell.
He took a deep breath and looked at the pout on my face. His fingers tapped on the desk while he was deep in thought.
“How long?”
“Seven days.”
“You can go-” I smiled and squirmed in my seat before he raised his hand to stop my premature celebration. He continued.
“Under one condition. Emilio goes with you. Seven days, and I want all the details. You go to New York City and come back home. Anything else will be forbidden. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes,” I said as I walked around the desk and kissed his cheek before I ran out the door before he could change his mind. I could barely contain myself. I wanted to go to New York for no other reason but to have a chance to see Judah. Sure, he would come to Bolivia again, but it wasn’t like he could just bypass my godfather and come to my room. This was going to be an unrestricted meeting. I picked up my phone and counted down the hours to 10 p.m.
It was 10:30, and the FaceTime hadn’t come yet. Judah was always on time, so I don’t know if his work ran over or if something had gone wrong. By this time, I was pacing the floor, and my anticipation of sharing the good news with him was replaced with worry. By the time it was 11, I was on pins and needles. I know that the phone worked both ways, but only one of us had restricted use of our phones, and I didn’t want to overstep by making a call.
11:30, the phone finally rang. I answered it.
“My bad, baby. Mateo had me at his compound looking at something.”
Immediately, my worries were eased. I loved that he didn’t even make me ask where he had been. He went straight to an apology and an explanation. For a man who claims he has to answer to no one, it didn’t go unnoticed.
“It’s fine,” I said honestly.
