“Had, I’m looking at real estate, so we can have a place to stay when your freelance business takes you to Manhattan,” he said. “I thought that would make my intentions clear.”
“I need the words, Mo. I need to know what you are thinking,” she admitted. “I don’t want to guess at what you want and hope that we’re both on the same page. I did that before and it backfired.”
“Fair enough,” he said, rinsing his razor, then turning to face her and leaning toward the camera. “Let me make this clear, I want to share my life with you. Do you want that? Or do you still have doubts about me?”
She smiled, and mimicked his movements and looked straight at him through the phone’s camera. “Let me make this clear. I want that too.”
He smiled at her, that sweet smile that he saved for only a few people, and she felt her heart beat a little faster. She knew she loved him, but she didn’t want to tell him that over a video call.
“Good. Now that we have that settled, should I text you the addresses? You can go by and check them out while you’re in town,” he said.
“Or we could come back for a weekend trip just for fun and check them out together,” she suggested.
“I like that. I’ll have my assistant make the travel arrangements. Send me your calendar,” he said.
“I will. I think the only major things I have are Helena and Malcolm’s pre-wedding stuff. Now that he’s back to being normal, it looks like everything is going to move a little more quickly than previously.”
“Good. Those two belong together,” he said.
“I agree. Thank you for what you did,” she said. To be honest, the old Mauricio was more about himself than his friends and his helping Malcolm and pointing him to a smart way to improve his finances had really impressed her. But more than that, she could tell Mauricio had started to look at the world beyond himself. He’d put his friend first and that was something the old Mo wouldn’t have done.
That made her heart overflow with love.
Damn.
Love.
She had been pretending the entire time they were dating that she was being smarter this time, that she wouldn’t make the same mistake of falling for him until she knew—what? There were no guarantees in love and she knew that if she was going to have any chance at true happiness with Mauricio, she was going to have to trust him and trust herself.
Why was that so hard?
* * *
Mo had convinced Alec to come with him to Houston today. The twins were sharing a hotel room, but Alec planned to skip tonight’s Houston Cares humanitarian dinner—it just wasn’t his thing. Still, Mo appreciated the company.
Not that long ago he’d have gone by himself and found someone to keep him company after the dinner and the reception. But of course, that was the old Mauricio, one who hadn’t realized just how much having the right woman in his world enhanced it. He’d spent a lot of time buying million-dollar houses and selling them, thinking that he would have his own and the perfect woman to be his hostess. But he had never realized that those properties were always going to feel empty without the right woman in them.
“Bro, you look too serious right now. What’s on your mind?”
On his mind? He wanted Hadley to be his. Not his girlfriend but his wife. He wanted her by his side as his partner for the rest of his life. And...he wasn’t sure she was there yet. That she’d forgiven him for past mistakes and saw the changes he felt he’d made.
“I’m thinking about Hadley. I miss her,” he said to Alec because he wasn’t sure how to put into words everything else he was feeling.
“That’s good,” Alec said.
“Good? How do you figure?”
“I just remember when she took the job in New York and you guys were sort of cooling off, you couldn’t wait to go out, remember? She’d barely cleared the city limit sign before you were on the phone to me and we were making plans to go out. This time...it’s different,” Alec said.
So the inner changes were reflected on the outside...at least to his brother. “It is different. I want more with her, but I’m not sure...”
“You know my track record with women is pretty much three dates and then it all goes to shit, so I can’t really offer you any advice,” Alec said. “Diego would probably have some.”
“Yeah, but I don’t want him to give me big brother advice, you know?” Mauricio said.
His brother just clapped a hand on his shoulder. It wasn’t that they had some tingly twin sense, but they both just understood each other better than anyone else ever could. Or at least Mo would have said that was true before Hadley. Before this time with her. By letting down his guard, he’d shown her his true self and now she knew him better than anyone else, possibly even Alec.
“What are you going to do about Hadley?”
Mauricio knew he wanted to ask her to marry him, but he was hesitating. He never hesitated. Not about anything. So why now? Did his gut know something his heart and his head didn’t?
Was he missing something?
“Seriously, dude, you have to stop making that face,” Alec said.
Mo shot his brother the finger. “She makes me...”
“Crazy?”
“Ha. I just want everything to be perfect.”
“Honestly, Mo, I think that was the problem with you two the first time. Life isn’t perfect, it’s messy and it’s complicated, and that’s what makes it worth living.”
“Are you kidding me right now? That sounds like something Bianca would say,” Mauricio said as he glanced at his brother.
“She did say it when our sweet nephew painted on my Brooks Brothers jacket. To be fair, it was a picture of him and me on a horse, but it was Brooks Brothers.”
Mauricio laughed. His brother might spend most of his time at his computer writing code, analyzing algorithms and making sure his high-end clients’ social media presence enhanced their brand and message, but Alec was also a clotheshorse. He always was faultlessly dressed. Not that Mo and his other brothers were rocking the grunge look, but Alec paid special attention to his image.
“I feel ya. So do we think Bianca is right about this? That we should embrace the mess?”
“Yes. I’ll deny this if you repeat it, but she’s damn smart, probably smarter than any of the rest of us.”
“Probably?”
“I was trying to give us the benefit of the doubt.”
Mo smiled. “Thanks. How do I apply that to me and Hadley?”
Alec shook his head. “I don’t know. But we both have experienced things that were supposed to be perfect or a sure thing that didn’t work out. I think with you and Hadley, there’s some kind of connection that only works with the two of you. Don’t screw it up.”
He was trying not to. But he wondered if by focusing on all the things he’d done wrong the last time, he was missing some of the moments he’d gotten right, and that wasn’t what he wanted.
He needed to trust his heart and his gut when it came to Hadley. He knew that if he didn’t, he’d always be on guard and that wasn’t the way to move forward. That was just as bad as pretending to want a relationship the way he had the first time. The scary part was that this time he wanted everything he’d treated so lightly the last time he was with her. It would serve him right if she just wanted to keep being friends with benefits.
But Hadley had never been easy to predict, and it seemed to him that she wasn’t the kind of woman who would be satisfied with anything less than a full commitment.
* * *
When Zuri and Josie texted her to see if she could hang out, Hadley texted them back that she was in New York. She was surprised that they were together. Josie had been spending pretty much all of her free time with Manu.
Her phone buzzed, and she answered the video call to see both of her friends sitting on the front porch of Zuri’s
townhouse with glasses of iced tea.
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Zuri asked. “We thought you’d be in Houston with Mo.”
“I’m sorry. It was a last-minute trip,” Hadley said. “I had been planning to go with Mo to the gala though.”
“It’s okay. We were hoping for some gossip from you about Scarlet O’Malley.”
“How would I have gossip about her?” Hadley asked. Scarlet was from a famous—or maybe notorious—family. They had more money than Midas and scandal and tragedy seemed to follow them wherever they went. Scarlet had a reality television show that was in its seventh season. She’d started it the year her sister had died of a drug overdose.
The tabloids were always speculating that she was searching for a father figure, as her normal type was twenty years her senior and into the jet set party lifestyle that was her world.
“She’s going to be at the gala tonight,” Josie said. “Which I only know because she was linked to Manu last week on TMZ.”
Now Hadley remembered. Scarlet was going to hand out one of the awards. According to Mo, it was to show she’d turned over a new leaf. Hadley wasn’t too sure about that, but she did know that Scarlet had recently donated a lot of money to a rehab center on the East Coast in her sister’s name. So maybe she was trying to change.
“How was Scarlet linked to Manu?” Hadley asked.
“Apparently they were at a fundraiser in the Hamptons together,” Josie said. “He invited me to go but the English department isn’t as willing to give time off for a trip to the Hamptons as the athletic department is.”
“How are things between you two otherwise?” Hadley asked, noticing that Zuri had turned to watch Josie, as well.
“I think they’re good,” she said. “I struggle a little with how busy his schedule is, but for the most part we’re doing great.”
“Good,” Zuri said, putting her arm around Josie. “You’ll get used to his lifestyle and he’ll adjust to yours.”
“I hope so,” Josie said. “But back to Scarlet O’Malley... According to TMZ, she has to do some serious damage control on her image... There was a viral video of her—”
“Don’t tell me. I don’t want to know. She’s famous because her family is rich. She hasn’t done anything worth celebrating.”
“I know,” Zuri said. “But it’s so much fun to watch the train wreck that is her life.”
Hadley had to admit it was distracting to watch someone like that, whose entire life seemed like a runaway train. “Anything else happening in Cole’s Hill?”
“The Five Families Country Club has a new COO and no one likes her.”
“Who is it?”
“Raquel Montez. She wants to get rid of the old smoking room that smells of cigars... You know, the one that all the good old boys hang out in?”
“I do. That room is gross, but the guys all love it. I’m not sure she’s going to get the money from the board to do it.”
“Apparently she doesn’t need full board approval,” Josie said.
Hadley continued to chat with her friends, and when she hung up with them thirty minutes later, she realized that she missed Cole’s Hill. She’d always wanted to get out of there, get away from the small-town feeling. But now she wanted to go back. She wanted to talk to her mom and Helena, and find out their opinion on the new country club COO. She was becoming that small-town girl she’d always feared she would be and for some reason she was okay with it.
Mauricio texted her a picture of himself in his tuxedo with the caption How do I look? and she felt the sting of tears as she realized how much she loved him. But she wasn’t going to text him that.
She wanted to see his face the next time they were together. Make sure that she was 100 percent sure of her feelings.
She simply replied, Gorgeous.
A kissing face emoji flashed on her phone screen, followed by, Miss you.
Miss you too. I’m trying to change my flight to an earlier one.
Good. Text me your details. Want to stay in Houston for a few days when you get back?
Why?
Just figured it’d be nice to have a reunion without the distraction of our families.
Hadley laughed to herself. Their families were huge and could be intrusive without meaning to be.
That sounds perfect.
She put her phone away and fell asleep thinking about how unexpected this second chance with Mauricio was and how happy she was that she’d gotten it. She didn’t dwell on the fact that it had come on the heels of a pregnancy scare, but instead saw it as fate stepping in to show her the kind of man that Mauricio had become.
She’d been struggling to leave him in the past and now she acknowledged to herself that it was because she had still been in love with him. She might have been able to get over him if she’d never gone to the Bull Pit that night. Never danced with him until the music had lowered her inhibitions and led her straight into his arms.
But she had.
And for the first time she embraced it. Maybe the drinks and the music had been like a beacon showing her the very thing she’d been afraid to go after: the man of her dreams.
Not a knight in shining armor, but a real man with faults and charms and so many things that made him just right for her.
Fifteen
Mauricio patted his pocket and the ring he’d purchased for Hadley earlier that afternoon. He had made up his mind that he could follow his gut and still not lose control of his temper and his actions. He’d changed. Now he had to start believing it himself. There was no way he’d be able to convince Hadley that he was a new man if he couldn’t even convince himself.
He and Alec had room service delivered to his hotel suite. The food had been sort of questionable looking, but he’d eaten it all the same. Alec had left the room to take a call and hadn’t had any of the fettucine Alfredo, which Mo was beginning to think was a good thing as his stomach started to feel like shit. He was violently ill in the bathroom, and when he returned to the living room, Alec came over, putting his arm around Mo’s shoulders as he staggered into the room.
“You look like crap,” Alec said, leading him to the couch and helping him sit down. “What’s wrong?”
He shook his head as he swallowed hard, trying to keep from heaving again. “I think the dinner wasn’t very good,” Mo said. “Get me some antacids and I’ll be okay.”
Alec squeezed his shoulder and walked over to the kitchen area. Mo tried to swallow again but felt his stomach wasn’t having it and he bolted for the bathroom. He felt weak and light-headed when he staggered back into the hallway and found his brother watching him with more than a little bit of concern on his face.
“Lay down, Mo. You’re not going anywhere.”
“Whatever, bro, I can’t miss this gala tonight. It’s a really big deal that they recognized our organization, and if I’m not there, it will reflect badly on us.”
Alec pushed him toward the bedroom. “I’ll go for you.”
“You hate this kind of event,” Mo said, but he was already toeing off his shoes as he sat down on the edge of the king-sized bed. Alec helped him out of his jacket.
“I do. But I love you, so I’ll do this for you. I’m going to have to borrow your tux though. I don’t even have a dinner jacket with me.”
Mauricio undressed quickly and the ring box fell out of the pocket of his trousers as he handed them to Alec.
“I guess you figured out what you are going to do about Hadley,” Alec said, picking up the box.
“Yeah, I love her, bro. I can’t keep pretending that I’m casual about having her in my life. Damn, don’t tell anyone that. I wanted her to be the first one I said that to,” Mauricio said.
Alec just laughed. “My lips are sealed. Get your ass in bed and get to feeling better so you can tell her when you see her.”
A
lec finished getting dressed in the tux and then brought Mo a bowl from the kitchen and a damp cloth for his forehead. “Want me to call Mom and ask her to come check on you?”
“Don’t do it. I’m not that sick,” he said. Their mom tended to be full-on smother-mode when one of them was sick or seemed to need her. “I thought you loved me.”
“I do, but you look really bad... We’re talking Walking Dead shit here.”
“I feel like it, but I think if I just lie here, the room will stop spinning and I’ll be fine.”
Alec put Mauricio’s phone on the bed next to him. “Text me if you feel worse. Are you sure you’ll be okay?”
“I’m fine, Alec. Thanks for doing this for me,” Mo said. “I wrote a speech and it’ll be on the teleprompter. Have you used one before?”
“Yes. When I was valedictorian,” Alec said.
“Ass. Stop bragging. You only beat my GPA by .025.”
“I still beat you,” Alec reminded him.
His brother walked out of the bedroom and Mauricio lay in his bed, watching the ceiling spin around, wishing that Hadley were here with him. That stopped him in his tracks. He’d always needed to be strong and at his best in front of her but now he just wanted the comfort of Hadley.
He took his phone and texted her, even though he suspected she might be out to dinner with her friend Merri. Then he stopped. He didn’t want to be that kind of guy who was always texting and not letting her enjoy her time with her friends. So he contented himself with a brief emoji text that just had the kissing face.
He drifted off to sleep, dreaming of asking Hadley to marry him. He knew that he needed to not screw it up the way Malcolm had once he’d gotten engaged. And he had a plan. He glanced down and saw he was holding a piece of paper that just said, Don’t screw up.
That was his plan. He needed a better one than that.
He woke with a start. His phone vibrated in his hand and he opened his eyes to see it was Alec. He’d texted a picture of the award they’d given him.
Congrats, bro. You okay?
One Night With His Ex (One Night Book 1; Velasquez Brothers Book 2) Page 14
