Her mother tried in vain to protest that she didn’t want to be a bother, but Rose insisted she wasn’t.
“Where did Vince go?” she asked after she introduced her mom to Romero’s uncles and Aida.
“He’s in the restroom,” Manny said.
Rose didn’t bother looking at the menu anymore. It was the same as the La Jolla Shores restaurant, and she practically had it memorized. When Vince wasn’t back after more than a few minutes, she began to worry. That noise his stomach had made earlier sounded just awful. Maybe he was coming down with something. Come to think of it, he did seem a little tense.
“Maybe I should go check on him,” she said to no one in particular glancing back in the direction of the men’s room to see if he was on his way back.
“No, no he’s fine,” Romero said.
“Yeah, maybe he just had to drop a good one before dinner.” Max said. “Sometimes it’s good—”
Rose turned to face Max, disgusted, just as Romero nudged him. “Are you fucking kidding me right now?” Romero glared at his uncle then glanced back at Rose and smiled. “I’m sure Vince’s is fine.”
She wouldn’t say what she was thinking, but how would Romero know? Vince had been gone a while, and there was no sign of him anywhere. Turning back to her mom, she saw her whispering something to Sarah, who Rose hadn’t even noticed was there. She tapped her on the leg. “I’m gonna go see about Vincent.”
Her mother pushed out her own chair. “I’ll go with you. I need you to help me with something in the ladies’ room.”
Her mom convinced her they should go into the ladies’ room first before looking for Vincent. After adjusting her mother’s bra strap for like the sixth time, Rose asked if it finally felt right. Her mother looked at her watch then smiled. “Yes, that’s perfect.”
Rose stared at her confused. She didn’t even look at it or scrutinize it in the mirror like she had the first five times and always found something wrong. Her mom grabbed her hand. “Let’s go.”
Rose heard it as soon as they walked out of the ladies’ room—music. A guitar to be exact, strumming softly. It was being played over the sound system. A slow piece, soft but pretty, and Rose thought she recognized the song but was distracted when they came to the men’s room, and she slowed wondering if she should knock.
“He’s over here,” her mom said, walking ahead of her into the dining room.
Relieved Rose followed her but stopped when she realized the lights had been dimmed, and everyone was gone.
“What’s going on? Where did everyone go?” She glanced around then back at her mom who was on her way toward the front door. “Where did you see Vincent?” Her mother didn’t answer she just kept walking. “Where you going?”
A little spooked and not sure why, Rose hurried after her mom who simply waved at her to follow her. She hadn’t wanted to admit it earlier, but this had officially turned into a weird evening. As she stepped outside with her mom onto the boardwalk where everyone stood looking at her with big smiles, she was stunned. The entire family was there even the kids. The music she’d heard inside was playing out there, too. She recognized the song just as the crowd opened up and revealed a guy sitting on a stool with a guitar, two speakers, and a microphone in front of him. He sang a very soulful version of NSync’s This I promise you, but it was still very pretty.
Not exactly sure what was going on yet and already feeling emotional, Rose was sure it had something to do with Vincent. Obviously everyone but Rose had been in on it. Then she saw the boat: one of the dinner cruise boats like the ones Angel and Sarah’s restaurant offered brunch cruises on, on Sundays, only right now it was all lit up with what looked like Christmas lights. As it got closer and she realized Vincent was on it, she brought her hand to her mouth. “What in the world?”
This close she could now see that the lights on the boat spelled something out. When she was able to make out what it said, she choked up.
I don’t do cheese but this family is relentless
She laughed, still holding her hands at her mouth then read just below written even bigger.
Will you marry me, Rosie?
She looked around, and both her mom and Gracie were tearing up but smiled at her. Sal smiled at her too, standing next to Vincent’s parents who looked just as emotional as she felt. How did this happen? How did she go from having just Grace to having all this now? Even though she’d been brought into this family by technicality, Vincent was now asking her to be part of it officially—to be his wife.
They all smiled and motioned for her to go down the docking pier. The boat was almost there. Rose started down the pier, looking back when she realized the entire crowd was singing along to the chorus of the song. “Not cheesy,” she mumbled softly under her breath then laughed as she turned back and kept walking.
Still holding her hand to her mouth but unable to stop smiling, she watched as the boat reached the dock, and Vincent jumped out. As soon as he reached her, he got down on his knee.
“Marry me, Rosie.” He opened the small box he held, revealing a heart-shaped diamond ring and looked up at her. “Yeah?”
“Of course,” she gasped barely able to get the words out but swallowed hard, trying not to become a blubbering mess.
Vincent slipped the ring on her finger and stood up then turned to the crowd, lifting her hand in the air. “She said yes!”
They all cheered and clapped, and the guy playing the song started over again only this time in Spanish. Vincent hugged Rose then kissed her. “You know after listening to the lyrics of that song pretty closely,” he shrugged, “it’s not so sappy after all. I think I can tolerate hearing it every now and again.”
Rose laughed. “I’m surprised you remembered.”
Vincent leaned his forehead against hers. “I usually don’t remember that kind of stuff, but I told you Rosie with you everything is different. Although,” he smirked, “I do have a confession to make.”
Rose tilted her head. “What?”
“After hearing you say how much you loved the song, I had to look it up and check out the lyrics. And I’ll admit they’re pretty cool,” he shrugged, “sappy, but still cool, especially the part about not being able to live without you because I really can’t.”
Feeling her heart swell, Rose smiled, feeling a little less feeble that she wasn’t the only one who felt this way. Of course they couldn’t live without each other. She felt it ever since that first summer. They were meant to be together—forever. “You don’t have to,” she kissed him then did what he loved doing so much to her and traced his lips with her finger, “not ever again.”
Acknowledgements
I'd like to thank my family: my husband Mark, my son Marky, and my daughter Megan. With this being my eighth novel, they now know the drill and roll with the punches like troopers. I appreciate that you guys don't bat an eye anymore when I sit in my jammies for the entire day sometimes longer in front of my computer. This is our new life, and I'm so happy that you've all learned to embrace it. I love you!
To my two critique partners Tammara Webber and Abbi Glines, I'm so grateful that even with your incredible successes that keep your lives so busy these days, you still make the time to give me your take and add your nitpicks and suggestions. I'm honored to work with both you ladies.
To my beta readers Judy Devries, Dawn Winter, and Theresa Wegand who are fabulous about reading through my books in a single day and have full reports for me by the very next day! I truly appreciate the time and effort you put into making sure I understand the first impression my books made on you. I'd also like to give a special thanks to Emily Lamphear who was gracious enough to beta-read Fate for me and also get back to me with a full report the very next day. Your military knowledge was invaluable to me. It was of the utmost importance for me to get it right, and without your personal knowledge I wouldn't have felt completely comfortable that I'd done so with research alone. I thank you from the bottom of my heart!
To
my editor (who also beta-reads), Theresa *Eagle Eyes* Wegand, I thank you for the professionalism and the thoroughness that you put into your work. Time after time you've wowed me, and I sincerely look forward to working with you on all my next projects.
To my cover artist, Stephanie Mooney, I thank you for sharing your incredible talent and having the patience to deal with me, even when I ask for things changed again and again. Check your email btw. You probably have yet another one in there from me about tweaking just one more thing on our latest project. ;)
And last but certainly not least, I'd like to thank my incredibly vocal, loyal, and wonderful readers! Without you none of this would be possible. I thank you. My family thanks you, and my mommy who constantly wrings her wrinkled little hands and says "Aye, gracias a Dios que parece que les a gustado tus libros." [Thank God, it seems people like your books.] Yeah Mom, it seems that way. And yes, I thank God, but mostly I thank you awesome readers! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
About the Author
I was born and raised in southern California and still live here with my husband of almost nineteen years, my two teens, my Great Dane named Dexter, and one big fat cat named Tyson.
I spend ninety percent of my time in front of my computer writing and keeping up with all the social media, and I love it. There is nothing better than doing what you absolutely love for a living, and I eat, sleep, and breathe these stories that are constantly begging to be written.
Fate is the first in my latest series entitled the same thing, Fate. If this is the first book you’ve read of my mine, you should know that Fate is a spinoff series of my first series, The Moreno Brothers. Yes, all the brothers including their friend Romero and their sister Sofie have their own stories. Visit my blog for information, excerpts, and teasers of those books. For those of you who are familiar with my books, there will be more in the Fate series, including other characters from the MB series whose stories need to be told because we never got to find out what happened to them. Stay tuned and visit my blog for more information on this.
I also have another series, 5th Street, about the love lives of the young aspiring boxers from the 5th Street boxing gym in East Los Angeles. There are two books out in that series so far Noah, & Gio. I will step away from my Fate series for now to continue with the third book of 5th Street, Hector.
Representation: It is with great pleasure that I announce that Jane Dystel of Dystel & Goderich now handles all questions regarding subsidiary rights for any of my work. Please direct inquiries regarding foreign translation and film rights availability to her.
For more information on my upcoming projects and to connect with me (I love hearing from you all!), here are a few places you can find me:
My blog: authorelizabethreyes.blogspot.com
My Facebook fan page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Elizabeth-Reyes/278724885527554
Twitter: @AuthorElizabeth
And you can email me at
[email protected] Table of Contents
fate
Copyright
Dedication
Table of Contents
Epigraph
Prologue
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Epilogue
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Elizabeth Reyes, Fate
Thank you for reading books on BookFrom.Net Share this book with friends