Second Chance Sweethearts (Love Inspired)

by Kristen Ethridge

  “Well, actually, I wanted to talk to you about that. That’s why I stopped by.”

  Gloria’s heart did a small flip of anxiety. Was he moving out of his aunt’s house? Going to stay with some friends from Beach Patrol? She’d miss the brief interactions with him, and the not-so-subtle matchmaking from their unofficial chaperone, Tía Inez.

  “What do you want to talk about?”

  “After I finish up my shift, there’s a community dinner hosted by Porter’s Seafood Restaurant as a thank-you to the first responders in town. They wanted to do something now that the utilities are back on and the roads are open. We can all bring one guest, and I’d like it if you came with me.”

  The sound of a throat clearing from the doorway a few steps away cut through the air before Gloria could answer Rigo’s invitation. She’d heard that noise a thousand times during childhood. Usually when she’d been caught doing something she shouldn’t have.

  “Papí?”

  “No, Gloriana. You’re not going. Thank you for your concern for my daughter, Señor Vasquez, but we are home. We will take care of her. You are relieved of your duties, Chief.”

  Carlos Garcia placed particular emphasis on Rigo’s title. Gloria had never heard her father speak so harshly to anyone. A neutral tone of voice even when angry was almost second nature to Papí after years in the service industry. The customer was never wrong. But in this case, he made it clear that Rigo certainly was.

  “Mr. Garcia, I don’t think you understand.” Rigo began to state his case.

  “I understand perfectly, Rodrigo.” Papí cut the younger man off before he could even get started. “It seems you helped Gloriana during the hurricane when she needed assistance. But if you think I’ve forgotten how you left after your so-called best friend got shot, I haven’t. And I also haven’t forgotten that you never came back to Port Provident after you asked to marry my daughter.”

  “Wait. What?” Shock like liquid fire pushed through her veins. “What are you talking about, Papí?”

  Gloria took a step back from Rigo, toward the street side of the parking lot. She needed space.

  And air.

  And an explanation.

  “I never told you, Gloria. I didn’t want to make things even worse for you. But this coward...” Carlos pointed an accusing finger straight at Rigo’s chest. “This coward, he came by this very restaurant two days before he left for that tournament in Mexico. He stood right there, in my office off the kitchen, and promised to love you forever, and asked my permission to marry you. And fool that I am, I believed him and said yes.”

  “Rigo?” She followed the laser-precision point of her father and looked unwaveringly at the man who had held her heart in her youth, and who’d come close to capturing it again.

  “He’s right, Gloria.”

  In an instant, she tasted that bitter metallic taste again and tried to choke it down without letting her emotions out for everyone to see.

  “And he’s right about one more thing,” Rigo continued. “I was a coward. I told you that the other day in Mateo’s room.”

  Rigo walked with measured steps to where Gloria stood and took her hand in his. She could feel herself shaking with the trembles of memories and the secrets she never knew had been kept from her.

  “But, Gloria, you’ve got to believe me. I’m not afraid anymore. I’ve been forced to see the ugly corners of myself and to learn lessons I’d never wish on anyone else. And I had to go through that battle so that I could stand here today and tell you this with certainty. I’m not afraid anymore, not of your dad or of the past. I know what I’m willing to fight for. It’s you.”

  “How can I trust you? How can I trust any of you?” Gloria’s harsh whisper sounded like the rasp of sandpaper. She looked up and pulled her gaze from Rigo, to Papí, then back to Rigo again. “Papí’s right to not believe a word that comes out of your mouth. But, Papí, how could you not tell me the truth?”

  “Gloriana. I did what any parent would do. I would never deliberately hurt you.”

  The unspoken “unlike some people” hung in the salty, humid air around them.

  Rigo’s brown eyes darkened as she watched. “Gloria. I don’t deserve it, but I’d like the chance to prove I’ve learned those lessons. I’ll do whatever it takes. But I can’t show you if you won’t take this first step. I said I’d never leave again, but if your dad is proven right, I will. I’ll be out of your life forever. Will you just come with me tonight? Will you give me the chance?”

  Gloria felt Rigo’s grip tighten slightly on her hand.

  She didn’t have to give Rigo a second chance. Everyone would understand if she closed the door firmly, especially now that she knew he’d even asked for her hand in marriage, then left.

  But maybe, just maybe, she needed to.

  Maybe that was the strength she’d been looking for. The strength to forgive. The strength to move on. Maybe it wasn’t physical strength.

  Maybe it was something even, well, stronger than that.

  She nodded shortly and took a fortifying breath. In all her years, she’d never stood in front of her papí and openly defied his wishes. She needed a certain strength to do that, too.

  But more than that, Gloria thought, she needed love. Or at least a chance at it. She’d been living scared and closed off from the world, from memories, from emotions, for too long.

  “Pick me up at seven.”

  * * *

  The pungent smell of shrimp-boil seasoning laced through the air. No nose in a multiblock vicinity could escape the smell of Gulf shrimp, mini cobs of corn and golf-ball-sized new potatoes. A dozen or more aluminum boiling pots stood on iron stands beside waist-high tables covered by piles that resembled a kind of food Everest.

  Diners were welcomed to one of Port Provident’s most legendary landmarks with a gray banner attached to the front taupe-brick facade of Porter’s Seafood Restaurant, which read in bright red letters We Will Never Forget that You Answered the Call.

  Countless hours of frantic rescues, of pushing on in the face of imminent danger, of backbreaking work, of sweat and of tears were represented at the thirty or so tables that had been moved out to the parking lot.

  Fire, Police, EMS, Beach Patrol, FEMA, National Guard, state, local, federal...they were all represented here. Although he’d lived every minute alongside these men and women—and there were moments he’d relive in his mind for the rest of his life—Rigo could barely comprehend just what was in front of him as the family behind one of Port Provident’s most historic and well-known establishments used the language they spoke best—food and hospitality—to deliver a message on behalf of the whole town. The carpet they rolled out was stiff with salt and smelled of everything Hope had spit ashore, but there was no denying it was red.

  Rigo could see the appreciation on the faces of his colleagues. This mountain of shrimp meant more than just a full stomach and a hot meal.

  He hoped it would mean something to Gloria, too.

  “Do you want to grab those two seats over there?” Rigo pointed at two red padded seats on the corner of one of the far tables. “There aren’t many places to sit left. This is a much bigger crowd than I thought. I’ll go get a plate for each of us if you guard the table.”

  “Okay, that sounds good.” Gloria plucked her way through the maze of tables.

  Rigo couldn’t help but notice all the little things about her. The slight sway of her hips as she walked, the smile she gave to a group of friends as she passed. She was everything he remembered and so much more. He’d been blind, so blind, before. But as he followed her every step, he knew he could see clearly now.

  And he knew what he needed to do. And what he’d never do again.

  Steven McLellan, one of Felipe’s closest friends on the force, walked away from where he’d been talking
to Gloria as Rigo brought back their plates. Since Rigo had returned to Port Provident, Steven had maybe uttered ten words to him. And eight of them probably came while they were in the Grand Provident Hotel’s command center during Hurricane Hope. There had been a time when they’d all been guys on the force, bonded together with life and death and everything that came in between.

  Then the death of one of their own broke that circle and Rigo’d run off from the lives that remained. He didn’t blame Steven for avoiding the interaction.

  But once again, the weight of regret reached down and crushed straight on Rigo’s shoulders. He’d made a mess of so many things, so many relationships. The fact that Gloria had consented to come here tonight with him gave Rigo hope, though. If he could repair this relationship with Gloria, maybe he could make amends with others, as well.

  “How’s Steven?”

  “He’s good. Kathie and the kids should be returning to the island early next week. They went to stay with her mom up in Nacogdoches. Kathie said there’d been a lot of wind and rain, but otherwise Hope was pretty uneventful that far northeast.”

  “Good.” Rigo meant it. He remembered Kathie as a woman who bestowed smiles with ease and acted as a doting mother on her twins. Knowing they’d been away from all the chaos of the past few days definitely was a good thing. “Did he say anything else?”

  Gloria looked around, eyes shifting from one person she knew to another. Then she looked down at the table.

  “What, Gloria? Did he say something about me?”

  She shrugged a shoulder. “Yeah.”

  “Gloria? What did Steven say? I’m a big boy. I can handle it.” He needed to know what he needed to answer for. It was almost like doing penance. He needed to answer the questions, he needed to atone for the impression he’d left behind when he left for rehab and gave the strict instructions that no one in town was to know where he went.

  “He just wanted to know why I was here with you.” Gloria raised a boiled shrimp and began to deftly separate the peel from the pink cooked meat. “He said a bunch of the guys started talking after I showed up at the command center with you during the storm. They think I need to stay away from you.”

  Rigo knew this warning would reach Gloria sooner or later. The brotherhood in blue looked out for their own—especially the widows of their own—like that. And the fact that Rigo was back leading the Beach Patrol division wouldn’t give him a free pass from their well-earned skepticism. He knew that and accepted it.

  “He’s just trying to protect you. Do you agree with him?” Rigo could feel the pressure at the back of his jaw as his teeth gritted together. He waited for her answer, dreading what it could be.

  “No, I don’t. Or I wouldn’t be here with you right now.” She flicked another translucent shrimp shell to a corner of the plate. “But I didn’t have much of a defense to give Steven. For better or worse right now, Rigo, I’m just going with my gut. I use my instinct in birthing situations to help my mothers and their babies. I’ve already said a prayer or two that my instinct doesn’t fail me this time. It’s hard to tell friends and family they’re wrong. Especially when they’ve been there for the last few years.”

  “And I haven’t.” He figured he might as well just say the unspoken.

  “Right. Don’t make me regret this, please, Rigo. That’s all I ask.”

  “Gloria. I gave you my word today in front of your parents and Gracie. I’m all in or I’m out for good.”

  She picked up one more shrimp, then dropped it back on the small pile and looked up. “Then tell me you’re all in. Let’s stop talking about what was or what could be. I need to hear you say it.”

  “I’m all in.”

  “That’s all I needed to know.”

  Rigo started to peel his shrimp. The steel of his jaw began to relax enough he thought he could eat. They both savored the fresh shrimp and popped the small, round red potatoes in their mouths—eating in a companionable silence for a few minutes.

  “I had an interesting conversation today.” Gloria broke the thin stillness between them. “I think I’ve got some big decisions ahead.”

  Rigo put down a potato he was about to eat. He could tell this had nothing to do with their earlier conversation. “What’s going on?”

  “It’s my house,” Gloria said. She fiddled with a miniature ear of corn, then set it down and salted it absently. “After I left Huarache’s, I met Billy Patterson to talk about my insurance claim. And he said that based on his experience in Florida two years ago after Hurricane Carmencita, he thinks that they’re going to call my house a total loss. He said FEMA will require it to be razed when it’s rebuilt, and a bunch of other red tape. As my friend, he advised me just to do what I thought. Go ahead and sell it and walk away. He said he’d show me how to take care of everything.”

  He’d seen the pain written all over Gloria’s face the day she had had to confront that most everything in her house had been laid to total ruin. Now knowing even the structure itself couldn’t be salvaged... It would be more than most people could bear.

  “So what are you going to do?”

  She twirled the corn on the cob a little absently as she collected her thoughts. “I’d told you earlier I thought I might just go get a condo. So I think I’m going to trust Billy’s advice. Sell it. Move.”

  “And move on?”

  “I think so.”

  The sun dipped into the Gulf of Mexico behind her. The red and orange sunset rays played with the natural highlights in her honey-and-cinnamon hair, making them shine. The fire and feistiness dancing around her face spoke to the strength Rigo knew she was gathering within so she could make this decision.

  She started to speak again, then hesitated before finally getting the words out. “And I think you’re a big part of that decision. I sat there for a long time after Billy left, weighing everything. And at the end of it, all I could think of was gratitude.”

  Rigo dipped a shrimp in the small red puddle of cocktail sauce on his plate. “Gratitude? For losing your house?”

  Gloria shook her head. “No, for you.”

  “Me?” He couldn’t quite make it all add up. “How?”

  “I can make the changes I need to make because I have something to look forward to. I told you that all during the hurricane, the word strength kept coming to my mind. I know now I’m strong enough to come out of the shell I forced myself into.”

  She threw a translucent shrimp peel on the small pile between them, discarding it as surely as the chains of the past.

  “Well, besides the condo, what else are you going to do?”

  “Since the clinic is closing, I think I want to go back to school.”

  Rigo could hear the old Gloria coming back with each syllable. The high school Gloria—fearless, always wanting to learn and do more. “Back to school?”

  “Medical school. Pete has wanted to do a medical mission for years, and I think he’ll take this opportunity to go do that. That leaves no doctors on the island who are supportive of a place like the birthing center, and we’ve had so many women over the years appreciate the opportunity for safe out-of-hospital birth. I want to go to the next level and be the one who fills in that gap.”

  Rigo couldn’t keep the smile off his face. “I think that’s great, Dr. Rodriguez.”

  “Really?” She ended the word questioningly, searching for true approval.

  “Really.” Rigo put his hand reassuringly over one of Gloria’s. Her skin felt smooth and slightly cool from the night air. He was amazed that these two hands, these ten fingers, had been the first soft touch for countless little lives, cradling them as they made their journey into the big, wide world. He’d seen her gentle professional hands at work, delivering Tanna’s little Mateo as a hurricane swirled around them.

  He squeezed lightly, then stroked the
curve by her wrist once, then twice with his finger.

  “Hmm.” Rigo’s inner thoughts came out as a mutter.

  She didn’t pull her hand away. “What?”

  “I was just thinking. Your hands deliver babies. They bring new life into this world. But mine, they’ve been trained to hold guns.” He pressed the finger gently along her wrist. “This finger is my trigger finger. I can end a life with mine.”

  “You’ve also been trained to rescue. Like you rescued me. If you hadn’t been there when I called, things could have been so much worse for me and Tanna and baby Mateo.”

  Rigo laid his other hand, palm side up, like an offering on the table.

  He met her eyes with his gaze, and she almost immediately looked down. Rigo felt his heart plummet with the speed of a passenger headed down a roller coaster’s highest hill. He’d felt so much hope when she’d said he’d rescued her.

  He closed his eyes. He just needed a moment to regain his control.

  Like a feather, Gloria’s fingertips grazed the heel of his thumb, where it connected into the palm of his hand.

  Rigo’s eyes opened to confirm what had just happened. He saw her hand in his and swallowed hard.

  Although her touch came lightly at first, once her hand landed fully on his, there was no denying its presence or significance. The contours of her palm still fit smoothly into his, and he noticed every curve and valley as they touched.

  He opened his mouth to speak, but it had gone dry. Gloria smiled shyly.

  “Remember that message you left me?”

  “How could I forget? It was the single stupidest thing I’ve ever done in my life.” If he’d just come home that summer, so many lives would be so different and so much time never would have been wasted.

  “You told me to go live my dreams.”

  He nodded. There didn’t seem to be anything to say. Nothing good, anyway.

  “I loved Felipe. I loved Mateo, even though he never took a breath on this earth.” She tightened her fingers around his, the fingertips pressing his skin. “But you were the first dream I ever had.”