Forever Mine (The Moreno Brothers)

by Elizabeth Reyes

FOREVER MINE

  Written by

  Elizabeth Reyes

  Edited by

  Jonathan Robidoux

  All rights reserved including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  I dedicate this to my husband Mark, and my kids Mark and Megan for their love and support and for putting up with endless days and nights of me sitting in front of the computer writing. A special thanks to all the friends and other family members who’ve been listening to me ramble on and those who have read the entire book and provided excellent feedback.

  Prologue:

  Sarah felt herself go numb. This couldn’t be happening. She gripped the phone, her knuckles going white. The knot in her throat was unbearable.

  “Sarah, are you still there?”

  In an almost inaudible whimper Sarah answered, “Ah huh.”

  “I know this is hard honey, but it’s not the end of the world. We talked about this already, and you knew it was a possibility. I tried, Sarah. I really did. But there’s no way around it. We’ve gone over all the other possibilities, but anything else is too much of a risk. It’s for the best.”

  “But, senior year …” Sarah felt the anger building, and the tears burning in her eyes. She was ready to blow up, lash out. Then she heard her mom again. Her voice choked up as well.

  “I know, honey. I’m so sorry. I really screwed things up this time.”

  Her mom took a long, trembling deep breath and it broke Sarah’s heart. She wanted to be with her, to hug her, and comfort her.

  “It’s okay, mom. I’ll be fine.”

  Her mom cleared her throat and lowered her voice. Sounding very determined, she spoke again, “I am going to make this up to you. I promise, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  “I’ve already called Aunt Norma. She and Uncle William will be here this weekend. They wanna help us pack so you and I will have time to spend together. Then I’ll have to be in court on Monday.”

  Sarah gasped. “Monday?”

  “Yeah, babe, Monday.”

  Sarah covered half her face with her free hand and shook her head. Not wanting to make her mom feel any worse, she choked back a sob.

  “Alright, mom,” she whispered.

  “I’m gonna be here a while, honey, so don’t wait up for me. We’ll talk more about this tomorrow.”

  She hung up and looked at her best friend Sydney who’d been sitting on the bed next to her the whole time. Sydney stared at her anxiously.

  “She’s pleading guilty and gonna do at least three years. I have to go live with my Aunt Norma in California.” Sydney kept a strong front but Sarah fell into his arms crying.

  CHAPTER 1

  [b]ONE MONTH LATER

  La Jolla High School, California[b]

  Even as she stood in the middle of a bustling hallway with noisy students rushing by her Sarah felt utterly alone. One month wasn’t nearly enough to prepare her for new school, new friends.

  New life.

  God, how she missed Sydney. This wasn’t at all how she’d imagined her first day as a senior in high school would feel like. She had so many plans at her old school and now she stood here completely lost.

  Clenching her backpack in her hand she walked off in no particular direction. She wanted to get out of the middle of traffic of bodies. Where in the heck was Valerie? She had said the main entrance hall just outside the counselor’s office hadn’t she?

  They’d been dropped off together by her aunt but Sarah had to go to the counselor’s office. Since she’d enrolled so late her schedule hadn’t come in the mail like Valerie’s. No sooner than the moment they walked into school together Valerie started socializing promising she’d be right there when she got back from the office.

  The bell rang and Sarah tried not to panic. She glanced at her schedule but had no idea where her first class was. She backed up slowly until her back was against a wall. Had Valerie really abandoned her? No she wouldn’t. She took in some of the faces around her and wondered if she should just ask someone for directions to her first class.

  High pitched squealing got her attention and she turned to the front entrance to find some girl had her arms wrapped around one of the guys that had just walked in. Sarah rolled her eyes. She’d always hated those types of girls. The guy was obviously a jock because he wore his letterman’s jacket and so did his two friends.

  Deciding she was on her own, she walked back toward the office and frowned when she realized a map of the school had been just outside the office all this time. There were a few kids standing in front of it examining their schedules and then looking up at the map. Apparently she wasn’t the only newbie at this school. Not much of a consolation. Sarah looked around for Valerie, feeling more than a little annoyed at her.

  Male laughter erupted just behind her and she turned to find the same jocks she’d seen walk in earlier with a few more guys horsing around. The tall one that was greeted at the door by the squealing girl was smiling when their eyes met. The smile on his face seemed to dissolve slowly. And she stood there frozen, her lips slightly opened. For a moment she thought he might say something and then she heard Valerie.

  “There you are!”

  Sarah snapped out of her daze and watched as Valerie who’d already taken Sarah’s schedule smile wickedly. “We have two classes together!”

  “We do?” Sarah’s cheeks still felt warm but she quickly walked alongside Valerie, incredibly grateful for her timing.

  Valerie talked about the classes just until they were far enough away and around the corner of the building. “Oh, my God, Sarah, do you know who that was staring at you?”

  Surprised, and not sure why, Sarah pretended to not understand. “Who?”

  Valerie gasped. “That was Angel Moreno! Don’t you remember I’ve told you about him and his brothers?”

  “No,” Sarah lied. Of course she remembered part of the reason she could hardly breathe when she recognized him.

  The bell rang again.

  “Oh, shit,” Valerie looked at her watch. “We’re gonna be late on our first day.”

  She grabbed Sarah’s arm and they were off on a foot race to their first class.

  [b]TWO WEEKS LATER[b]

  Angel made his way quickly around the science building. His stomach tensed up as the bell rang. He was late to practice again and he knew his coach wouldn’t be happy. It was the second time this week, but he had to stay after class to get the extra credit assignment. He was failing Spanish II, again. Spanish! His parents owned a Mexican restaurant, for crying out loud. Only reason he took it was because he needed two years of a foreign language to even have a prayer of getting into a four year college. And now it may cost him time on the field.

  Apparently, he was only good at the curse words and the teacher called his Spanish, Spanglish. It was a Catch 22 though, if he didn’t stay late to get the extra credit assignments, he wouldn’t be able to make up some of the lousy scores he’d been getting on the quizzes. If he didn’t make them up he wouldn’t have the grades to play on the team. Not picking up his grade also meant staying after school for tutoring. Just the thought made him groan.

  He made it to the weight room just as they were starting warm ups. The coach barely looked at him and pointed to the bleachers outside in the hot sun.

  “Twenty,” he said. “Make 'em fast.”

  Running bleachers was the worst. As he began to sprint toward them,
he heard Dana call out to him from the track area where the cheerleaders were warming up.

  “Bleachers again, Angel?”

  He nodded barely looking her way. Some of the other girls laughed and joined in. His dimples made their appearance as usual, although his smile was anything but genuine. The catcalls stopped making him uncomfortable a long time ago, especially from this group of girls.

  At seventeen, Angel was already an impressive six-feet-two. He was very much following in his two older brothers’ footsteps. Although it was nice to have instant notoriety as soon as he started high school, there were times he resented having to live up to his brothers’ legacies. He had the looks, the build, the popularity, but, unfortunately, not the grades.

  He frowned at the thought of his two older brothers being on full sports scholarships in college, and here he was struggling to stay eligible to play high school football. It was embarrassing but he wasn’t going to give up. As his father, and lately his oldest brother Sal, always say, failure is not an option.

  Lost in his thoughts, and still annoyed with himself, Angel ran slowly and pensively up the bleachers for the fourth or fifth time, he’d lost count. Sweat trickled down his face and he struggled to keep his breathing steady. He usually could get a rhythm going, but not today. Someone ran right past him a little too close. Startled, he almost lost his balance. He caught himself and was about to give him an earful when he heard her apologize and realized he was a she.

  “I’m sorry, did I bump you?”

  “No, I’m good,” Angel was bent over with his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath.

  “You sure you’re ok?” she asked again.

  He looked up at her for the first time, still breathing hard. The sun was directly behind her. Angel squinted at a petite silhouette. She shifted slightly, blocking the sun for a moment. The first thing he noticed were her eyes. They were an amazing light green. A startling contrast to her dark features. She stared at him as she too stood there breathing hard.

  Her hair was up in a ponytail, except for a few strands dampened by her perspiration that stuck to the sides of her face and forehead. It surprised Angel that he didn’t recognize her from anywhere. He thought he knew everyone in the school. But there was something familiar about her, he just couldn’t place it.

  “I’m fine,” he said.

  “Good.” She started untangling the earphone wire. She’d apparently taken it out of her ear when she stopped to check on him. She didn’t smile back or ask anything else. She seemed eager to be on her way. He watched as she adjusted it in her ear and got ready to go back to her running.

  With his heart pounding and palms sweating, to his own surprise he stammered, “So, you like to run?”

  Stupid, stupid, stupid.

  She turned and looked at him without responding. Maybe she hadn’t heard him, he hoped.

  “I’m Angel, what’s your name?”

  “Sarah.”

  All he could manage was a smile as the name sunk in.

  “Well, have a good one,” she said, and ran off.

  He watched as she ran up and across the bleachers. From a distance she looked very small with little to no curves. Then it hit him, lost girl, from the first day of school. That’s where he’d seen those eyes. He’d noticed them even then. He remembered feeling struck but he hadn’t seen her since and had almost forgotten about it. Almost.

  He started his bleachers again, and his thoughts went back to his grades. Was he really gonna need to be tutored? He shook his head in disgust and picked up his pace.

  ***

  Sarah ran, concentrating hard. She had a feeling he was still watching her, and would die if she fell or tripped. The butterflies in her stomach were out of control. How could she almost knock him over? Of all people it had to be him. She should’ve said more to him but she'd been at a loss for words, thoughts, just like the first day of school when he’d caught her gawking at him like an idiot. Ever since then she’d avoided coming face to face with him again. Any time she even thought she saw him, she’d run in the opposite direction.

  Her legs almost gave out when she realized who she bumped. Damn him and his smile. As sure as she was that he probably didn’t even remember her, she hadn’t wanted to chance making a fool of herself again.

  Sarah knew all about the great Moreno brothers. Valerie had lived here her whole life, and gone through grade school and middle school with them. Since Valerie had a huge crush on Angel’s older brother, Alex, she told Sarah about them all the time.

  Sarah thought back to the first time she’d seen Angel, two summers ago. She and her mother came out to visit her mother’s sister, Valerie’s step mom, Aunt Norma. Valerie took her along to a beach party with her.

  It was an all-day party, but Valerie being self conscious about her body, decided they’d show up late, after all the swimming was done. They arrived when everyone was just hanging around the bonfires, and listening to music. Sarah had never really grasped everything Valerie told her about Angel and his brothers. She made them out to be movie-star, drop-dead gorgeous. Valerie poked her when he and his friends arrived. “There he is. That’s Alex’s little brother.”

  Sarah looked up and saw him in all his glory. He was anything but little, even back then. He and his friends seemed to move in slow motion toward a group of girls. The girls waited their anxious smiles enormous. He wore a tank top that showed off his muscles and denim shorts. Sarah had never seen a finer-looking smile. His dimples were incredible. She watched as one of the girls practically jumped into his arms, hugging him, and then looked around casually to make sure everyone was watching.

  “Is that his girlfriend?” She’d asked Valerie.

  Valerie immediately huffed, “She wishes. That’s Dana, the one I told you about, she’s forever throwing herself at him and tries to convince anyone that will listen that the two of them are an item. Everyone knows he’s never had a girlfriend. Why should he? When he can have all the girls he wants, whenever he wants?”

  Sarah remembered watching him and fantasizing that day. It was all she could do. The girls he hung with seemed so experienced, and cool around him and his friends. They laughed sometimes a little too exaggerated, but still at least they could hold a conversation around him she’d barely been able to breathe the first day of school when he looked at her. And now she had almost knocked him down. If he did remember her as the gaping fool from the first day, he’d now have yet another asinine memory of her. She was hopeless.

  None of that mattered anyway. Making friends was not on her agenda. She didn’t plan on sticking around long enough for that.

  She picked up the speed and tried to remove him from her mind. She remembered Sydney’s birthday. It was this weekend, and she had to make sure she finally emailed the gift. She’d made a slideshow with pictures of the good times they’d had, along with all of the songs that held special meaning to just the two of them. She knew Sydney would appreciate it much more than any store-bought gift.

  If it hadn’t been for Sydney, she didn’t know how she would’ve gotten through the past year, and she wanted to show her appreciation. Sydney meant the world to her. They’d been through so much over the years, last year especially when the nightmare with her mom started.

  When Sarah was forced to move to California with her Aunt, she and Sydney made a pact to always keep in touch. So far, they’d swapped emails, and since Sydney’s parents offered to get her a cell phone that had unlimited minutes, they talked every day. No matter how far away, Sarah was determined to keep Sydney and his family in her life forever.

  Aunt Norma didn’t know about Sarah’s plans. She would be eighteen in January, and once she was, no one, not even her mom, would be able to stop her from going back to Arizona. She would save enough money to be able to pay Sydney’s parents to let her stay with them. She already had several baby sitting gigs lined up. Between that, and school, there was no room for a social life.

&nb
sp; Sarah could hardly wait. Just the thought made her smile. Next semester she’d be running for her home track team at Flagstaff High, where she belonged, and her life would go back to the way it should be.

  She glanced up from her feet as she made her way down the bleachers and saw Jesse Strickland waiting for her at the bottom, arms crossed, smiling from ear to ear. Oh, God, what now? She fought the urge to roll her eyes, as she reached the bottom, Jesse standing in front of her, deliberately blocking her way. He reached over to pull an earphone out of her ear but she stopped his hand from getting any closer and did it herself.

  “You know what today is?” he smirked.

  “Nope.”

  He stared at her in disbelief. “Valerie didn’t tell you?”

  Sarah shook her head, not the least bit interested. She was getting hotter, and already sweating. She knew she’d soon be drenched if she didn't start running again.

  “Is this gonna take all day?” she said. “I’m in the middle of my run here.”

  “It’s my birthday,” he opened up his arms. “I’m here to collect.”

  Sarah’s eyes narrowed, and she stepped back. “Collect what?”

  He stepped forward grinning big. “Well, being that we’re here in school. I’ll take a hug for now.” He leaned in, and began putting his arms around her small waist.

  Sarah scowled, pushing him away. “I don’t owe you anything!”

  Obviously amused, he lifted an eyebrow and proceeded to move forward and force a hug. “Oh, come on, Sarah, we’ve done so much more before, what’s a hug now?”

  “That was a long time ago, and a mistake, so get over it!” She struggled to undo his hands that clasped behind her waist. She felt his weight on her, heavy at first, pushing her against the fence. And then just like that, the weight was gone. It took her a moment to understand what just happened, then she realized someone had pulled him off of her, and saw Jesse slammed against the side of the bleachers.

  Her legs went limp. She held on to the fence for support with one hand, the other lay flat on her chest feeling the hard thud of her heart against her chest. It was Angel.