Worthwhile

by Lynne Silver

  There was so much she wanted to explore, to learn and try, and at first, she hadn’t been sure whether it was her desire crying out, or it was her desire for this man. After spending the afternoon with him, she knew without a doubt—her passion was all about Drew.

  Mark Anthony or Channing Tatum could come over and try to interfere, and she’d say hasta la vista to both.

  “Olivia?” Her kiss-addled brain should’ve realized there was no way Drew could kiss her and call her name clearly, but she pulled back, wrapped her arms tighter over Drew’s shoulders, and stood on tiptoes to get closer. “Yes?”

  Drew tilted his head back slightly. “What?

  “Olivia?” This time there was no mistaking it. It hadn’t been Drew calling her name. They both turned their gaze in the direction of the male voice, and Olivia thought she was going to vomit when she saw her brother standing there. Not only her brother, but his whole crew from the shop, including Javier, who looked as though he wanted to shoot Drew on sight.

  In their coveralls and grease-stained hands, they looked like a scary gang. Unfortunately for Drew, they were eyeing him as if he were the rival gang.

  She hurriedly slipped out of Drew’s embrace and stood in front of him, trying to block him from harm.

  “Olivia,” he muttered. “You’re making it worse.” He physically picked her up off the ground a few inches and placed her to his side. Then he stepped forward with his hand outstretched.

  Her brother didn’t take the offering. He glared at Drew then at her. In Spanish, he started in on her. Who was this guy? Did Mami and Papi know? How long had they been dating? Was it serious?

  She threw an apologetic glance at Drew, then answered her brother, also in Spanish. No, their parents knew nothing. His name was Drew, and this was their first date and she really liked him, so he needed to go away.

  At that, Gabriel gave a look to Drew that would melt the tires off a monster truck. He advanced toward Drew who admirably held his ground. “Your first date, and you think my sister is easy?”

  “I’m standing right here, Gabriel. And I’m an adult. This is none of your business,” she warned.

  Her brother ignored her. With two fingers he pointed at Drew then at his own chest. “You and me. We’re gonna talk.” Next to him, Javier stood with his arms folded across his chest, and he nodded approvingly at Gabriel’s aggression.

  “Fine,” Drew said, and reached into his pocket for his wallet and extracted a business card. “Come to OCXA tonight.”

  Not good. Instead of Gabriel backing down, the news that her boyfriend worked at the hottest place in town had him hitting Hulk-rage. She had to do something. Now.

  She grabbed her brother’s arm and forcibly dragged him, at the same time glaring at his crew in warning that this was none of their business. Javi, in particular, still looked as though he wanted to murder Drew, which drove her nuts. He hadn’t been interested ten years ago; why would he care who she was dating now? Her brother had a few rights when it came to her dating life. Javier had none.

  “What are you doing?” she yelled in an undertone at her brother.

  “I’m being your older brother,” he said.

  “No, you’re acting like an insane father. More insane than our own father, I might add. What’s with the gang look? Are you trying to scare Drew?”

  Gabriel tossed a derisive look over his shoulder. “If he scares this easily then he’s a punk and you can do better.” He put a hand on her arm. “Trust me, Livvy. You don’t want a guy who can’t handle our family. Better to know now.”

  She looked from her brother to Drew, and realized there was some truth to her brother’s statement. Her Colombian family was large, loud, and in-your-face nosy. She wanted a guy who could fit in, and whoa, hold up. Drew was not that guy. He was the guy she was having fun with. Not the guy she was ever going to bring home to her parents. “Fine. Go talk to him at his club, but if I find out you were even a little bit aggressive or mean, I will not talk to you until we’re old and gray.”

  “Bro, where is your head tonight?”

  Drew looked at Carlos who’d asked the question. “Huh?”

  “You’ve been silent all night and you keep looking at the entrance,” Carlos said. He was sitting at a round table near the center of OCXA along with a crew of friends.

  “Waiting on someone?” Cat asked. “Perhaps someone named Olivia?” She leaned over to explain to Amy the situation. He tried to tune the girl gossip out. Amy’s husband, Danny, gave him a sympathetic look. Amy’s father and stepmother were in town visiting and were babysitting, giving the new parents a rare night out on the town.

  “You and Olivia are dating?” Amy practically shouted across the table. Oh crap. That’s right. He’d forgotten that Olivia and Amy had been friends a lot longer than anyone else at this table had known Olivia.

  He shrugged at Amy who kept staring at him, wide-eyed. He tried not to be hurt that Olivia hadn’t told her girls. But then again, earlier this evening, she’d told her brother that she really liked him, so he’d take that for a win. Yeah, that’s right. He still hadn’t told Olivia that he spoke fluent Spanish. He might’ve neglected to tell Olivia that detail, but it wasn’t as if he’d been actively trying to hide it from her. There simply hadn’t been an opportunity to speak Spanish in front of her yet.

  Not counting tonight when they’d been confronted by her brother and his little gang of auto mechanics. They’d looked more like auto thieves and carjackers. It’s why he’d invited Gabriel here to his club, where he had his table full of guys to have his back. And Cat. She was little but vicious after years of waitressing in seedy bars across the highway.

  “Yeah, we’re dating,” he admitted. Amy didn’t look happy.

  “But you don’t date,” she blurted, then she covered her mouth. “I’m sorry. That was rude.”

  “But honest,” Danny said, looking at him coolly. “Olivia is our friend. It wouldn’t be good if you treat her like you do all the rest of your women.”

  Cat glared at her brother. “Danny.”

  Drew held up a hand. “Nah, it’s cool. They’re being protective of her. Like him.” He gestured to the entrance where Olivia’s brother and crew were walking through. They rolled in like they owned the place and had been here a million times before, though Drew couldn’t recollect ever having seen them before.

  He’d remember, because, out of their mechanic’s gear and dressed up for a night out, they made an impression. Styled hair, full sleeves of ink, black clothing and denim completed a look that screamed of cool, but the kind of cool that said it was effortless and they didn’t give a fuck about looking cool. If things went well tonight, he was going to have to ask Gabriel and his crew to come back, because there was a new buzz in the air and the ladies in the club were definitely taking notice.

  “Shit,” Ian muttered under his breath. “Drew, do Amy and Cat need to go in the backroom?”

  “Nah,” Amy said. “That’s Olivia’s brother.” She was smiling until the reason Gabriel was here hit her, and she gave a suspicious look at Drew. Still, she pushed back from the table and rose to greet him.

  “Amy,” Gabriel said after kissing her on both cheeks. “What are you doing here? I heard you have a little princess at home.”

  Amy beamed and pulled out her phone to show off pictures of her daughter, Mia. Danny came to her side and casually wrapped his arm over her shoulder in a clear possessive move. Gabriel smirked slightly, then turned to Drew and lost his smile.

  “Let’s talk.”

  It was an order, and he chafed slightly at getting ordered around in his own club, but he had to pick his battles wisely. He led the way to his office, getting stopped by Ian, who murmured, “Need backup?”

  He shook off his friend and business partner and went alone with Gabriel, leaving his friends eyeing Gabriel’s crew as if they were the Sharks coming to meet the Jets.

  “Nice place you got here,” Olivia’s brother said as soon as the door was
shut behind them, dampening the sound of the music.

  “Thanks.”

  “You own the whole joint?”

  “Me, Ian, and his father, along with the bank and one or two other investors. But for the most part, it’s me and Ian.”

  Gabriel held up a hand. “Don’t give a shit about your financials. This ain’t last century. Olivia can provide for herself. I’m wondering why a guy who owns a place like this, who can probably score as much pussy as he wants, is interested in my sister.”

  “First of all, don’t put Olivia in the same class or even the same planet as the so-called pussy I get. And second, it gets stale, too easy. Boring. If you know you’re sister, you know she’s making me jump through hoops.”

  Gabriel laughed.

  “She doesn’t think we’re dating. She thinks she can handle a no strings relationship. I’d appreciate it if you let me be the one to explain that she’s all about strings, and I’m holding them tight.”

  “What do you know about her past?”

  “I assume you’re talking about her early high school years?” he asked.

  A terse nod.

  “I know it doesn’t matter. It was a long time ago and has no bearing on who she is now and the person I want to be with.”

  Her brother smiled, rose, and held out a hand. “That’s what I wanted to hear. Welcome to the familia.”

  “Thanks, Gabriel.”

  “My family calls me Gabriel. To the rest of the world I’m Angel.” He pronounced it the Spanish way, with a g that sounded like an h. “You can call me either. I’m telling you because you’ll need to know me as both.” He extracted a card from a wallet in his back pocket. “That’s me, my business. You want your car done nice, call. I’ll give you the special dating-my-sister rate.”

  “Oh?” He was actually intrigued. He’d looked up his shop this afternoon and had an instant hard-on for the kind of custom work Angel-Gabriel did. “How much is the family friend’s rate?”

  “For you, because you’re dating my sister? I don’t kill you. How’s that for a discount?”

  “I’ll take it.” They clapped hands, and he suspected that he and Angel-Gabriel were going to get along fine. Together they headed back to the club floor to discover that in their absence, Drew’s friends were back around the table. Gabriel’s friends were on the dance floor surrounded by interested women, except for the tall, dark-haired guy who was at the bar, glaring at the world. His glance went from a scowl to murderous when he spotted Drew.

  “What’s his deal?” Drew asked, nudging Gabriel in the right direction.

  “Javi?”

  “Is that his name? He looks like he wants to kill me. Are you sure you’re Olivia’s only brother?”

  Gabriel smiled. “Javi likes Olivia. Back in high school she went for him, but he turned her down because she was too young. He assumed he had time. Now he’s pissed and he’s gunning for you.”

  He inwardly groaned, but outwardly projected calm. “You snooze, you lose. If he liked her, he should’ve done something about it.”

  “Oh, he will, and I assume you’re not going to like it. Giving you a friendly warning here.”

  “Olivia’s an adult. She’ll make her own choices, and I’m not going to fight over her like she’s a bone and I’m a dog. But I won’t like it if some guy’s making a move on my girl.”

  “Noted.”

  He found his seat at the table and sank into it, grabbing his beer and signaling for a drink for Olivia’s brother. A tension he hadn’t realized he’d been holding all day seeped out of him. He’d won over the brother, now for her parents and the biggest challenge yet. Her.

  Olivia wasn’t quite sure how she and Drew had managed a day trip out of town together with absolutely no forethought or planning, but here they were in Drew’s truck an hour north of Miami, on the way to his hometown of Titusville.

  “I’m worried about leaving your mom alone,” she said for the third time.

  He squeezed her bare thigh, making her shiver. “Relax. She’s feeling fine, but didn’t feel up to driving there and back and doing all the packing. She has our cell phones, and Ian and Cat are on call if things go really south.”

  The original plan had been for Drew, Karen and Olivia to drive north and pack up Karen’s things and get the house ready for sale. At the very last minute, Karen had announced that she wasn’t up to a road trip, but Olivia and Drew should go.

  Drew hadn’t argued at all, and Olivia had gone along with it, because the idea of getting out of Miami for the day was too exciting to pass up.

  “Do you think she planned it?” she asked.

  He gave a little snort. “She had a two-page list written out already prepared of the things she wants sold or donated and what she wants to keep. What do you think?”

  She smiled out the window. “I think she’s playing matchmaker.”

  “You’d be right. She likes you, Olivia Rodriguez.”

  She reached for his hand and placed a kiss on the back of it.

  “She’s not the only one who likes you.”

  “I’m a likeable woman,” she said.

  “You’ve got your charms,” he agreed.

  They lapsed into a comfortable silence, with him looking at the road ahead as he drove. She watched warehouses and strip malls flash by. She leaned her head against the window to look at him. “My brother likes you.”

  “What makes you say that? He told you?”

  “You have no visible bruises.”

  He laughed. “That you’ve seen. Maybe your brother is bruised?”

  “He’s not,” she said. “He texted to tell me he likes you.”

  You had to look hard, but his lips turned up at the corners. The rest of the ride passed quickly, with only a quick stop at a rest stop to use the facilities, grab snacks, and let Brodie out to pee. Drew declared that you couldn’t have a road trip without a giant bag of cheesy popcorn and blue Gatorade. She teased him about the grossness and nutrition of his choice, but found herself scarfing back handfuls of popcorn and chugging Gatorade.

  “How’s work going?” he asked, reaching for a handful of popcorn, one hand on the wheel. He gently pushed Brodie back. “No popcorn for you, buddy.” The dog gave a short bark, then went back to lie down on the narrow seat.

  “Is he mad because I stole his seat?”

  “Nah. He wants to be in the back, but I won’t do it on the highway. He should get used to you in the front seat.” They smiled at each other. “You didn’t answer my work question.”

  “It’s getting better,” she said. “Or I’m getting used to it. I’m not sure it is a good thing to get used to. There’s some truly horrifying stuff rolling through the doors.”

  “I bet.”

  “Mostly it’s the smell. I’ll never get used to the smells.”

  He shot her a questioning look.

  “Nearly every person comes in reeking of vomit and other bodily fluids.” She shuddered. “And I’m the lowest ranking nurse, so of course I’m on clean-up duty.”

  “Gross,” he said.

  “Yep. What about you?” she asked.

  “What about me?”

  “Is OCXA it for you? Do you love your job?”

  “I do love it, but it’s been less than two years. I’m not sure if I see myself doing this long term. Plus, the market is fickle. We’re the hottest club now, but two years from now, even two weeks?” He shrugged. “Who knows?”

  “But there are things you can do, right, to keep yourselves popular?”

  “Yeah, and for now I’m finding it interesting, but long term? Don’t know.”

  “What would you want to do when you grow up?”

  He laughed. “There’s the million-dollar question. I don’t know. I think that’s the part of my dad I inherited.”

  “The inability to grow up?” she teased, but he took her seriously.

  “That, but I’m trying. No, I’m talking about career ADD. In the loosest sense of the word, my dad is a s
alesman. Sometimes he sells for reputable companies, sometimes he partners with random people selling snake oil, but he always has an angle, is always looking for his next shot.”

  “His next get-rich-quick scheme?”

  “No, that’s the weird thing. It’s not the money. It’s the excitement of the next challenge. I feel it in me, too. The fun was the challenge of getting the club. The day-to-day operations? Ian’s in heaven. Me? Meh.”

  “I’m sure you’ll figure it out,” she said. “Hopefully in such a way that’s not disruptive to your family the way your father was to you.”

  He was silent at that, and she worried she’d gone too far. This was barely their second date, if this could be counted as a date at all, but it felt as if they’d gone from circling each other to something more. It was something she’d never experienced with a man before. She’d gone on a lot of first dates with the men her parents found for her. In some cases, she even went on a second date, but never had she felt as if she belonged with someone and was part of a team the way she did with Drew.

  He still terrified her, especially with his talk of attention issues. What happened if she took a huge risk on entering a real relationship with him, only to discover that he’d moved on to the next woman? She didn’t want to be like Karen, alone and sad about her lost love.

  She didn’t have time to reflect or worry about it, because Drew announced they were entering Titusville. She looked around curiously, having never been to this part of Florida. Her family road trips had been reserved for Disney World or Sanibel.

  She looked around eagerly, but her grin faded as she saw it looked like the rest of Florida. Chain supermarket, chain big box stores and some mom and pop pet stores and things like that.

  “Not much to see,” Drew said, apologetically. “We can swing by some of the NASA stuff, but there’s not much to see unless we get out of the car and take a tour.”

  She pondered that for a minute. Space travel had never been on her list of interests, so she was indifferent. “We have a lot to do at your mom’s house. Let’s skip any sightseeing.”