What she felt for him now had won over the fear of getting hurt. The more time she spent with Felix, the more she was sure he was absolutely sincere when he told her he was crazy about her. Strength came in different forms. This time she’d use it to conquer her fears and allow herself to enjoy the bliss that up until now she’d been enjoying only secretly. Though, it was hardly a secret anymore.
Grayson had been surprisingly understanding, though he’d still offered to be there for her if things got “tough.”
“I know you probably won’t believe this, Ella,” he’d said once she’d made it clear her mind was made up, “but I really do only have your best interests at heart. The media can be cruel, and I know you’re not going into this blindly. You’re probably all set to suck it up and be strong because that’s who you are. But it’s not fair, babe. Just ’cause he’s used to it doesn’t mean you need to put up an act and pretend you’re okay with it. I’ll be here for you always, okay? If you ever need to vent, don’t think I’ll talk shit if you come to me. I won’t. I promise.”
Ella had been left a bit speechless. She hadn’t expected that kind of reaction, but then it’d been one of the things that had initially made Grayson so endearing to her. His sincere concern had shown when he’d gone above and beyond for Memo.
Needless to say she was very relieved to have that behind her now, especially now that her relationship was slowly becoming less of a secret.
Today was an example of just how not secret their relationship was—from his friends anyway. Felix and Ella were on their way to Abel’s place. He and Nellie were having an informal dinner to celebrate having been asked to baptize Hector and Charlee’s unborn baby. All of them were now well aware of her and Felix being together, so when they got there, before they went inside, she thought she’d let him know she’d made a decision.
Felix reached his hand out to her as he came around the car in Abel’s wraparound driveway. “Grayson knows we’re together now,” Ella said.
As expected, he peered at her curiously. “Did he call or show up?”
The last time she’d spoken of Grayson to Felix was the day after their marathon conversation on the phone over a week ago. She’d told him about how all the texts Grayson had sent after she hung up on him that night were nothing more than apologies and that she’d finally answered his call the next morning. That’s when Felix made it clear to her what he thought of Grayson and asked her straight out what her intentions were with the guy. She assured him it was nothing more than to remain friendly and explained why. Felix had been okay with that but asked that she not keep him in the dark about any interaction with Grayson, especially if he was still going to be stopping by to see her.
“I told him that morning after we talked almost all night last week, the night I said he’d gotten rude with me. So he’s known all this time.” She squeezed his hand. “He hasn’t mentioned coming by to see me either. I’m sure he thinks that would be awkward with my boyfriend around and all.”
Felix’s lips stretched into a smile. “Your boyfriend? So that means . . .?”
She nodded, feeling giddy, and then yelped when he picked her up and spun her around. Before she could say anything more, his lips were on hers and he kissed her deeply. He brought her down slowly to the ground, but his lips never came off hers. They took a few steps back until she was pressed against his car where the crazed kissing continued as he cradled her face in his hands.
The sound of someone clearing her throat noticeably loudly had Ella pushing Felix away. An older woman holding a platter with food and a young girl wearing a smirk stood by the car behind Felix’s, staring at them. Ella couldn’t believe neither she nor Felix had noticed the car pull up.
“Mom?” Felix said, slipping his hand into Ella’s as her heart did a summersault, “I didn’t know you were gonna be here.”
His mother glanced at Ella disapprovingly then back at Felix. Ella felt her face ablaze instantly. “Caro invited us over for dinner,” his mother explained as she walked toward them. “I still haven’t met Abel’s new baby.” She glanced at Ella again. “I’m Isidora, Felix’s mother, and this is Alessandra, my daughter and his sister. And you are?”
“Yeah, yeah,” Felix said quickly. “Mom, you didn’t even give me chance. This is Ella, my, uh . . . girlfriend.”
His mother’s face jerked back to look at Felix with a raised brow. “Y eso?”
“I was, um, waiting until it was official, and I just found out right now. That’s why we were . . .” He gestured to Ella and did a swirly thing with his hand. “Anyway.” He cleared his throat. “So this is perfect timing. You’re the first one who knows it’s official.”
His sister’s mouth dropped open. “No wonder you’ve been in town all this time. Mom and I thought it was kind of strange for you to stay put so long.” She held her arms open to Ella, who glanced at Felix and then dropped his hand to hug Alessandra. “Nice to meet you, Ella.” She pulled back to look at her. “Sorry, but I’m terrible at this. I don’t recognize you. Singer? Athlete?”
“None of the above,” Felix said quickly and a bit defensively, reaching for Ella’s hand.
“I’m kind of athletic,” Ella offered.
Felix looked at her weirdly before turning back to his sister, but Ella didn’t miss the warning eye. “She works at 5th Street.”
“Ah,” his sister said with a smile. “Got it.” She turned back to their mother. “And now we know why he’s been in town so long.”
His mother held up her free arm now too. “Ven aqui,” she said, and Ella quickly, obliged hugging her as well. “¿Hablas español?”
Ella responded in Spanish that she, in fact, did speak Spanish. Felix took the platter from his mother as they all walked toward Abel and Nellie’s front door. His mother began grilling her in Spanish about how she and Felix met and how long they’d been seeing each other.
She saw the smirks all around as they entered Abel’s enormous and beautiful house. Isidora introduced her to Abel’s mom, Caro, who was equally inquisitive about her and Felix’s relationship. She sat with the two women, Alessandra, and Nellie at the kitchen table.
Isidora told Caro she hadn’t known a thing about Ella until she’d met her just outside.
“Nellie and Charlee had mentioned something about Felix being over the moon about a girl at the gym.” She winked at Ella and reached across the table to touch her hand. “I saw that same look on Felix’s face on my own boys when they brought home Nellie and Charlee.”
Ella felt her face warm, unable to think of a single thing to say in response to that, but the comment had the butterflies in her stomach swarming. This was all happening so fast. She was glad now she had no warning that she’d be meeting Felix’s mom and sister tonight, or she was sure she would’ve been a mess all day. She may’ve even tried to get out of it. This was way too soon.
Thankfully, after a few more minutes of grilling her about her work at 5th Street, her family, and then her school, they moved on to another subject—cooking. Caro asked Isidora about the dish she’d brought. It was one of those layered dips, but Isidora added her own flare to it.
Charlee walked into the kitchen just as the conversation had moved back to Ella, with Isidora and Caro inquiring about her cooking skills. Ella couldn’t have been more grateful for the interruption because the truth was her skills in the kitchen weren’t all that great.
“I’m teaching my guerita how to cook,” Caro said, reaching out for Charlee, who walked over and placed her arm around Caro’s shoulder.
Charlee wrinkled her nose. “I’m not very good at it.”
“Oh, but you’ll get better,” Caro said, rubbing Charlee’s baby bump. “This baby’s gonna eat Mexican food just as my boys did even if he or she is as redheaded as you.”
“Wouldn’t that be something?” Nellie asked, smiling big.
Just then Abel walked in the kitchen, holding a whimpering infant in one arm and trying to unwrap his daughter from his leg with
his other.
Nellie was immediately on her feet. “He woke up?”
The moment Nellie took the baby from him, Abel picked up his daughter, who immediately hid her face in his chest.
“What’s wrong with her?” Caro asked.
“She just woke up too,” Abel said, soothing his daughter’s hair and kissing the top of her head. “I guess she wasn’t expecting to walk out into a kitchen full of people.”
“Aw,” Charlee said, reaching out her hands to the little girl. “Too many people for you, Reina? Come to auntie.”
The little girl had already begun to reach for Charlee when Caro put her hand up. “No, no. You shouldn’t be holding her. She’s too heavy and it’s not good for you.”
Reina immediately recoiled and wrapped her arms around Abel’s big neck. “I got her,” Abel said, walking toward the refrigerator.
It was a good thing Abel’s kitchen was so big, because within minutes Noah and Roni were there with their two boys. Gio and Bianca showed up a little later with their little one. They all acted as if Ella had been part of this group forever. Meanwhile, she still couldn’t believe she was there with all of them—with Felix’s mom!
At first she thought it might be a little awkward between her and Bianca given her history with Felix, but it wasn’t at all. She was as sweet as she’d always been, and while Ella knew she shouldn’t play favorites, their son, little Gio, had always held a special place in her heart. She’d heard a little bit about the scary beginning they’d had when he was first born. Every time Gio brought the shy but very happy little guy wearing his two little ear pieces into the gym, Ella’s heart went out to him.
Ella had moved over by the stove to help Nellie flip tortillas. “I’ll be out back with the guys,” Felix said, kissing the side of her face from behind. “You’ll be okay in here?”
Ella nodded, smiling, a part of her still wondering when she’d be waking up from this dream.
“Of course she will,” Nellie said with a smirk. “Get out of here.”
Felix kissed Ella again before walking away. The moment he was out of the kitchen, what her father would’ve called “the hens” were at it.
“I’ve never seen him like this,” his sister said.
Isidora shook her head. “Me neither.” She peered at Ella. “And you said it’s only been a few weeks?”
Ella nodded, feeling her face warm again, something that had never happened so often either. She was only glad Bianca had walked away earlier to take little Gio to the restroom; otherwise, that might’ve been awkward. A conversation in front of his ex about Felix never having acted this way before with any girl would just be weird.
She remembered when she’d first heard about that whole scandal in the papers and all over the television. That felt like a different lifetime now. Another world. Never in a million years would she have believed she’d be here with that same notorious boxer’s friends and family, listening to them go on and on about how into her he was.
Felix Sanchez was officially her boyfriend now. Was she really ready for all this? She thought of Grayson’s warning about it getting tough. The media still didn’t know about them, and already it felt overwhelming. By the end of the night, as much as Ella had enjoyed her time with all of them, her head was spinning. They’d gone from talk of never having seen Felix so happy to the girls warning her to ignore the tabloids. As much as they’d all had to deal with it, they all agreed it’d be especially hard on Ella because of Felix’s unsavory reputation.
She and Felix had already touched on the subject. The girls and the mothers were all in agreement with the same thing Felix had told Ella. Always talk to him first before believing anything you read or hear about in the tabloids. Ella had already decided it was exactly what she’d be doing.
“I know my boy’s made mistakes in the past,” Isidora said. “But one thing I’ve always told Felix is not to bring any girl to me unless he was serious. Technically, today he hadn’t planned on me being here, but I’ve also told him to have respect for you girls.” She motioned to Nellie, Roni, and Charlee. “I know you don’t want him parading different girls in and out of your homes either. So I don’t think he would’ve brought anyone here unless he was serious.”
“Oh, no,” Caro said, lulling baby Abel in her arms gently. “I’m telling you I’ve seen that very look I saw on Felix’s face today on my own boys. I think your boy’s been zapped.”
When Ella was finally in the privacy of Felix’s car, she leaned her head back and let out an exaggerated breath.
“That bad, huh?” Felix asked, wincing.
“No, not at all.” She laughed, feeling a little guilty. “It was just all . . . a little overwhelming. That’s all. A lot to take in at once, but I had a good time.”
“If I’d known my mom and sister were going to be there, I would’ve given you a heads up. I asked Abel why he hadn’t mentioned it sooner, but I guess his mom called my mom this morning without mentioning it to anyone. And I hadn’t talked to my mom since yesterday.”
He asked what they’d talked about, and she told him about the cooking, the babies, and the tabloid warnings, but she refused to tell him just how zapped they all made him out to be.
“I don’t live far from here,” he said, staring straight ahead at the road. “You wanna check my place out?” He turned to her now, looking a little unsure. “We don’t have to be there long if you’d prefer not to be. I just figured since we’re out this way we could. But I don’t want you to think that just because you said—”
She touched his hand. “I’m fine with that.” She smiled. “I’d love to see your place.”
So far he’d done everything right. He’d told her he was willing to wait however long it took her to decide whether or not she was going to give this a chance without pressure, and he had. They’d spent almost every night on the phone since that first day in the stairwell. So she knew he hadn’t been spending his evenings with anyone else. As far as she could remember, she’d been the one to cut the calls at the end of the night every time or they would’ve stayed on longer.
His sister had brought up the fact that he’d been in town—stayed put longer than he ever did. There was no denying now that he was feeling for her the very thing she was feeling for him too.
Ella was done feeling scared or that this was too good to be true. If his friends, sister, and own mother were convinced he was serious, then it was time Ella started believing it too. Why wouldn’t one of the hottest young celebrities out there who could have any girl he desired in the world choose her?
Just as that thought jump-started the doubt that was still so impossible to squash completely, they came to a stop and Felix turned to her. He lifted her hand to his mouth and kissed it. “You look beautiful tonight,” he said. “I mean you always do, but tonight”—he shook his head—“I don’t know what it is. Maybe it’s just that the more I’m around you the more amazing I think you are.”
Almost too choked up to respond, she somehow found the words. “Thank you,” she whispered.
He leaned over to kiss her softly and sweetly, and as cliché as she knew it was, Ella literally felt the earth move around her.
~*~
Felix
If Ella hadn’t proven to be the most down-to-earth and easiest girl to talk to Felix had ever met, he might still be worried about overwhelming her with his wealth. Since he’d first given her a ride in his Bentley, she’d now been privy to a few of his other expensive cars. He’d also taken her to a few restaurants in Hollywood only A-listers were allowed in and were all over-the-top posh. He explained it was necessary if there was any hope of not being interrupted by eager fans or bombarded by the paparazzi that these restaurants were the ones to go for the ultimate in privacy. There were only a few places he frequented where photos of him arriving or leaving were never leaked, and these were the ones he knew of in the Los Angeles area.
Otherwise, they’d be looking at another experience like the pizza place whe
re photos of him arriving and leaving with Ella and Carmen had already been circulating. If she’d seen them, she hadn’t mentioned it, and he wasn’t going to ask. The gossip stories of his love life were rarely positive ones, and these had been no exception. The headlines he’d seen suggested he’d be enjoying the company of both girls that night, but that wasn’t the worst part. Abel, of all people, had pointed out a story on an online gossip site where along with the photos of him, Ella, and Carmen, they’d put together a collaboration of all the photos where’d he’d been seen out with more than one woman at once. Since the media had a way of twisting things around, some were pretty bad.
Felix knew that Ella was aware of his past and that she’d still agreed to give him a chance regardless. He’d always said he’d live his life to the fullest without looking back and having no regrets, but now he was beginning to think there were a few things he wished he could take back.
The drive up his half-mile driveway was a silent one as Ella stared out the window at the elaborate landscaping alongside of it. Since he hadn’t planned on bringing her here until she agreed to an official relationship and he had no idea today would be the day, he racked his brain now to try and remember if he’d left anything inappropriate out. He hadn’t done anything inappropriate in the last few weeks, but he couldn’t remember if he had any photos out that might be embarrassing or awkward for her to see. He couldn’t think of anything, but it still it made him uneasy.
They walked into his place as Ella took in everything a little wide-eyed. It was a bit showier than Abel’s house. Felix fixed the crystal vase and candle stick on the entrance table that looked as if they’d tipped over, frowning about the difference between his over-the-top home and Abel’s. When Abel had bought his house, he’d already had his family in mind. Felix had bought this house in the prime of his bachelor days. So there were some other major differences as well. Even though he preferred taking women back to his penthouse hotel rooms rather than bringing them here, he’d still bought it and decorated with the intention of having a good time in it. And he had hosted some pretty awesome parties here a few times.