Redemption (Reunion Book 1) Read online

Lilah was so focused on Diego; it took her a moment to realize that almost total silence had fallen over the bar. She glanced back to see everyone else staring at the two of them. Several of the women shot daggers at her with their eyes, and she resisted the urge to cower in shame. Judging by the way Diego’s hands tightened on her waist, he probably noticed the stares as well.

  “Excuse me,” she whispered as she backed away from him and made a beeline for the restroom. She went into the last stall and tried to collect her thoughts, but the alcohol she drank was clearly clouding her judgment. She had no intention of venturing back out until she could think straight.

  After about ten minutes, Cheryl entered the restroom to check on her. “Are you okay, Lilah?” she asked with concern in her voice.

  “Of course I am,” Lilah insisted as she opened the stall door. “I just needed some time alone.”

  “Diego is concerned about you,” Cheryl said. “What’s going on with you two?”

  “Nothing!” Lilah said in a furious whisper.

  “Okay…” Cheryl said, her voice dripping with skepticism. “Lilah, it really didn’t look like nothing.”

  “Well it was nothing,” Lilah insisted. A moment later she recanted with, “Maybe it wasn’t nothing… but I wish it was nothing. I think I had too much to drink.”

  “Maybe we should just go back to the hotel for the night,” Cheryl offered.

  Lilah shook her head and said, “Absolutely not. You are having a great time with Hugo, and I don’t want to ruin it. I can just stay in here until you’re ready to leave.”

  “That won’t work.”

  “Why not?” Lilah asked.

  “First of all, everybody out there knows you’re in here. If you stay in the restroom all night, they’re going to think you’re weird.”

  “They never liked me anyway,” Lilah countered.

  “Lilah, that’s because they didn’t know you! Obviously Diego likes you after spending less than two hours with you tonight.”

  “You think he likes me?” Lilah asked.

  “I think every woman out there wants to scratch your eyes out because he likes you so much. He hasn’t talked to anyone else since you walked through the door,” Cheryl said with a reassuring smile.

  “This is so terrible. He can’t like me,” Lilah moaned.

  “Why can’t he?” Cheryl asked.

  “He just can’t.”

  “Okay. Well, Hugo and I have already made plans to go out next weekend, so if you want to go now, we can do that. You are not staying in the restroom all night. Either you go back out there with your big girl panties on, or we both walk out the door with our heads held high. I’ll drive since I’ve had less than half of my drink.”

  “I think it would be best if we go,” Lilah surrendered with a sigh.

  She emerged from the restroom to find everybody else chattering away in their own little groups. No one paid the least attention to her as she approached the bar. Diego was once again behind the bar, waiting on customers. “I’m here to pay my tab, so we can head out for the night,” she said as their eyes met.

  Was that disappointment that darkened his expression as he nodded? “Don’t worry about the tab. It’s on the house,” he said with a smile.

  “Thanks, Diego,” Cheryl replied with an enthusiastic smile before Lilah could come up with a suitable protest.

  “Thanks,” Lilah said in a lackluster little echo. She then trailed behind her popular cousin as she made the rounds to tell everybody good night.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Diego felt like he could breathe again after Delilah and Cheryl left the bar. What on earth had prompted him to pretend he didn’t know who she was? He had recognized her the second she had stepped out of the car and started yanking on that tight, little skirt she wore tonight. She hadn’t changed a bit since high school; if anything, she was more attractive.

  While he was behind the bar thinking about Delilah, Hugo took a turn singing Karaoke. Diego shook his head at his brother’s off key and pitchy rendition of Michael Jackson’s Billy Jean.

  “Boo! Get off the stage!” someone shouted from the audience.

  Hugo stopped mid-song to look at the heckler. “If you think you can do better, get up here!” he said with a big grin.

  Former cheerleader Carrie Jones jumped up and rushed the stage as she squealed, “Let’s do a duet!”

  The next thing he knew, the bar was once again jumping with the party atmosphere that had gone flat for a moment after Cheryl and Delilah’s departure. He stayed busy filling drink orders as he listened to his brother’s second most horrible performance ever. When Hugo rejoined him behind the bar, Diego said, “I see you saved the singing for after Cheryl left. Good call.”

  “What? Are you saying I can’t sing?”

  “Si,” Diego replied with a smile. “I’m saying you can’t sing, and I’m saying I noticed you hitting on my classmate all evening.”

  “You got it backwards, bro. Your classmate was hitting on me all night. It’s all good though,” Hugo chuckled.

  “Please. You two were all over each other,” Diego snickered. “You weren’t acting very much like a dignified doctor tonight, old man. First, you didn’t even want to come tonight, but you flipped the script when she started flirting with you.”

  “What can I say? She’s hot. I can put up with drunk people and karaoke if I get to talk to a woman like her,” Hugo said.

  “A woman like her? What do you mean?” Diego asked.

  “I think she’s a good person. She’s been through a lot with her health recently, but you wouldn’t know it from the way she acted tonight. She’s very positive and upbeat about everything. I think I spend too much time with pessimists, so Cheryl was a breath of fresh air. We’re going on a date next weekend, but I’m thinking about staying in town an extra night to see her at the reunion tomorrow.”

  “You didn’t even go to your own ten year reunion,” Diego reminded his brother.

  Hugo shrugged and said, “I know.”

  “What did you and Cheryl talk about?”

  “Work, life, that sort of thing. Why?”

  “Because you aren’t exactly Mr. Chatty, but you two had a lot to say to each other,” Diego answered.

  “I could ask you the same thing. What’s up with you and Cheryl’s friend?” Hugo asked.

  “Delilah is her cousin. She was in all of my classes senior year,” Diego answered.

  “Did you know her?” Hugo asked with a probing look.

  “Yeah, I knew her.” Diego didn’t mention that he’d had a huge crush on Miss Delilah Johnson back in high school. The one girl he would have most loved to date had existed in a completely different social sphere. She was one of the mature intellectuals, and he was the stereotypical jock. The pressure of coming up with a greeting smart enough to impress her had gotten to him on multiple occasions, and she hadn’t been the kind of girl who sent clear signals on what she was thinking. He had never been able to work up the nerve to ask her out, or even talk to her.

  “Was she one of your little girlfriends?” Hugo asked.

  “I wish,” Diego snorted. “She wouldn’t have given a guy like me a chance back then.”

  “What are you talking about? Weren’t you top dog in your class?”

  “Top dog? I’m not sure I should even try to answer that question. I was a good athlete, I got good grades, I was popular, and all the regular girls seemed to like me. I guess I did have it pretty good, but Delilah wasn’t impressed by the same things that other girls seemed to like,” Diego said.

  “If she couldn’t like you for who you are, then she’s not worth the effort, man. I thought you knew that,” Hugo chastised him with a frown. “There are plenty of girls out there. Don’t get hung up on the one who plays hard to get.”

  “That’s the thing, Hugo. She wasn’t playing hard to get in high school. I never even tried to talk to her, because I was so sure she would think I was the typical idiot jock who only cared about fo
otball and partying.”

  “Isn’t that exactly what you were?” Hugo asked with genuine confusion in his eyes. “Minus the idiot part, of course.”

  Diego shook his head. “Only on the surface,” he admitted. “I remember wishing I could have been one of those quiet kids sometimes—the ones who nobody expects anything from. It would have been so much easier if there hadn’t always been that insane pressure to always be the guy that everybody liked, the guy that everybody thought was cool.”

  “So, you didn’t enjoy partying at all?”

  “Of course I enjoyed it, but I would have been okay with half the partying. That’s all I’m saying.”

  “Why were you so sure Lilah wouldn’t like you back in high school?” Hugo asked.

  Diego sighed as he thought about the first time he’d laid eyes on her. It had been during lunch in the first semester of their freshman year. His status as popular jock had already been cemented in junior high, and having an older brother on the varsity football team had only added to it in high school. Living in Hugo’s shadow that first year had been both empowering and incredibly suffocating at the same time. He was popular, but he was expected to be a great football player, just like his older brother.

  The first time he saw Delilah, she had been seated at the chess-nerd table. All of the students who had been involved in sports and other, more physical, extracurricular activities had sat on their side of the cafeteria and snickered at the chess club. The chess-nerds had taken an entire table and set up ten tournament sets, complete with their chess clocks and notation pads. They ignored the giggles and stares of all the other students as they played their practice games during lunch.

  Diego had been seated in the middle of the table right next to the chess club, directly across from Delilah. She was both the only girl and the only black student on the entire team, so she had stood out like an orchid among daisies. He had been too busy watching her concentrate and wishing he knew how to play chess to notice his two good friends harassing her. Torrence had flung a few crumpled straw wrappers at her, and she had ignored them as she focused on her chess game. Her patience finally broke when Ricky had used his straw to shoot a spit wad directly at her face. When it hit her square in the forehead, her eyes snapped up and alit on him as both Torrence and Ricky ducked out of view. In that moment when their eyes met, Diego had done the only thing he could think of; he had smiled and waved at her. Her lips had tightened, and she’d raised her eyebrow once before going back to her game. The look she gave him that day had practically screamed, you are so immature!

  “Hello? Diego?” Hugo interrupted his thoughts. “You never answered my question.”

  “What question?”

  “What makes you so sure she wouldn’t have liked you back then?”

  “She was into things like chess club, speech and debate club, and writing for the school paper. She never hung out with anyone I hung out with. I think my friends would have gotten on her nerves,” Diego answered.

  “Newsflash, bro. You still have the exact same friends! Don’t you think they’ll still get on her nerves if she’s such a goodie-two-shoes?”

  “She’s not a goodie-two-shoes,” Diego said quietly.

  “What is she then?” Hugo asked.

  “I’m not sure yet,” Diego answered just as someone approached the bar.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Diego tried not to stare at the steady stream of people arriving for tonight’s reunion. He kept a friendly smile plastered to his face as he made small talk with everyone who showed up. He pretended to be interested in all their stories about things they did back in high school, all the while his mind was on someone who hadn’t yet arrived.

  Someone was talking his ear off about something that had happened at one of the many parties they had both attended in their senior year when he heard the familiar sound of Cheryl’s boisterous greeting. When Cheryl walked into a room, everyone noticed. Diego turned away from Carrie just in time to see Delilah follow her cousin through the door. While everyone else was busy flocking to Cheryl, Diego was trying to calm his body’s reaction to seeing Delilah in the low-cut, slinky dress she wore tonight.

  Her eyes briefly scanned the foyer before they landed on him. She looked taken aback for a brief instant, but she also looked happy to see him. He smiled at her and started making his way toward her, and all the while his heart was racing. This moment was like the day he realized he had a crush on her. He didn’t know how to interpret the look in her eyes, and suddenly he was in high school all over again, wondering if the girl standing before him would like him.

  “Hey, Delilah,” he said when he reached her.

  “Hi,” she responded with a smile. She turned her face up to him, and he noticed that the lighting in the room did magnificent things for her complexion. She looked flawless, but, unlike all the other women who had showed up so far, she didn’t have on a bit of make-up. Cheryl and her crowd sparkled and glittered like glammed up movie stars, but Delilah reminded him of a little flower among jewels.

  “You look really pretty,” he said. She responded with another smile, but he cringed on the inside because of the inadequacy of those words. The way she looked tonight brought to mind images that were way more poetic and descriptive than pretty, but he couldn’t get his brain to make sensible words out of all the feelings bombarding him as he looked at her.

  “And you look very handsome tonight, Diego,” she said with a little sparkle in her eyes.

  “So is my appearance acceptable? I know the prettiest girl at the reunion can’t be seen with a scrub,” he joked with a smile.

  She took a step back and let her eyes roam all over his body. When they made it back to his face, he had to suppress the urge to pull her into his arms and kiss her right there. “You know very well that you’re the best looking guy here, Mr. Handsome,” she quipped.

  He offered his arm, and the two of them entered the party together. His hand settled at her waist as he escorted her to their table in the far corner of the room. He noticed that Cheryl and his brother had selected the most boisterous table in the place—the one filled with the homecoming court and a host of former cheerleaders and dance team members. This was the first time in his life that Diego didn’t sit at the popular table, and he loved the freedom of not having to dazzle everyone all night. Here in his quiet corner with Delilah, he could concentrate on getting to know her better.

  “Thanks for not standing me up tonight,” he said as he pulled out her chair for her.

  After he took his seat, she glanced at him and said, “As if Cheryl wouldn’t have dragged me here kicking and screaming tonight.”

  “Nice,” he returned with a chuckle. “I can only get a date with a smart woman when she’s forced by her cousin.”

  “I was joking,” she said.

  Diego noticed she didn’t say she wanted to spend time with him, but there was no way he’d ask her. “So, Miss Johnson, how long are you staying in town? You know there’s going to be a picnic tomorrow at Le Tulle Park.”

  “Cheryl and I aren’t staying for that. I fly back to Illinois tomorrow, and Cheryl can’t be in the sun.”

  Diego tamped down on his disappointment as he smiled at her again. His mind immediately started churning out ways to see her again. “I guess we better make the most of tonight then. I’ll have to drag you out to dance every dance.”

  “What happens when I get tired?”

  “You can lean on me and let me lead,” he said.

  Just then, the host of tonight’s reunion took the podium to start the formal events for the evening. Nominees for most successful were announced, and pictures of everyone from then and now were displayed on a screen in a continuous loop. Delilah giggled several times as pictures of their classmates popped up on the screen. Diego noticed that not one picture of her was included, but she didn’t seem to mind.

  When the music started up, he and Delilah wandered over to the refreshment tables and helped themselves to some drin
ks. On the way back to their secluded little table, Diego was stopped by several people wanting to talk to him. None of them remembered Delilah, and he had to introduce her over and over again to his friends. His brother’s words from last night echoed in his head as he watched Delilah’s interactions with everybody. She seemed perfectly nice and reasonable, and everyone they came across seemed to like her. She didn’t even seem to mind the few minutes they had spent talking to Torrence. Of course, Diego had warned Torrence to keep his razzing to a minimum tonight. He didn’t want to give her any reasons to shy away from him.

  The first ballad of the night came on, and Diego coaxed Delilah onto the dance floor. He put his arms around her as they moved their bodies in sync, and she melted into him. His hand rested at the small of her back, and the skin on skin contact drove him ever so slightly crazy as he imagined her stretched out naked in his bed as his kissed every inch of her smooth skin. The entire time they danced, his body was just short of actual arousal. He wondered if she knew the effect she had on him tonight. She wore a barely-there, backless dress that she couldn’t possibly be wearing a bra or underwear with. When he glanced down during their dance, his suspicions were confirmed. He caught a glimpse of the tops of her unbound breast, and had to forcefully make himself look away.

  They took a break from dancing and went back to their table. As soon as they sat down, she looked up at him and asked the last question he expected from her tonight. “Why aren’t you married yet?” she asked.

  “I’ll get married as soon as I develop a relationship with the right woman,” he answered as he leaned in a little closer. He caught a whiff of her hair as he asked, “Why did you ask me that?”

  “Last night, you mentioned coming back here because it’s a good place to raise a family, and I was curious why you don’t have a family already. I’ve counted at least ten women here tonight who would probably love to help you out with that,” she said.

  “Are you one of them?” he asked.

  Her eyes met his, and she looked horrified for a moment, prompting him to adopt a relaxed posture and say, “I was kidding,” in a light hearted tone. The truth of the matter was that he hadn’t been kidding at all. If she gave him the least bit of encouragement, he could see himself being wrapped around her little finger and loving every minute of it. Before his mind wandered too far down that path, he changed the subject. “How long have you known how to speak Spanish?” he asked.