As I opened my mouth to talk, I realized I couldn’t. Or I would really start crying, and I didn’t want to look like the hot mess I felt like inside.
“Come here,” he said, giving me a hug.
After a moment, he took my hand.
He led me back towards the dance floor.
Aaron was waiting not far from where I’d stood earlier, like he’d crossed the dance floor after David and then stopped.
We walked right up to him.
“What are you doing?” I asked David, now refusing to look at Aaron even though he was right in front of me.
David stood adjacent to us, almost like a minister about to marry two people.
What was he doing?
This was hard enough without being this close to Aaron.
Did he want me to apologize again? Was he upset with us for not reigning it in?
David shook his head, like he was trying to figure something out. “I realized something just now,” he said. He turned to Aaron. “I see the way you look at her, man.”
Aaron cast his gaze down, and I recognized the shame. I wanted to reach over and take his hand, but I didn’t.
David turned to me. “And I see the way you look at him, sis.”
I let myself glance at Aaron, who did the same. My chest gave a squeeze.
Aaron opened his mouth, like he was about to apologize again, but David stopped him. “I’m the one who should be sorry,” he said.
I struggled to register the words coming out of his mouth.
“I feel like a complete jerk because I see now that this wasn’t just some silly thing between you two. What you guys have is real, and I came between it because I couldn’t handle it.”
David turned to me. “Then it hit me that I can’t think of a better match for you, sis, then my best friend. I know him. He’s a good guy. He’s the type of guy that deserves a girl like you.”
I blinked back tears. Was this actually happening?
He took my hand then and put it in Aaron’s. Then David turned to Aaron. “Just never break her heart, man, okay? Because you do, you’ll break mine too, and I couldn’t handle it.” His voice cracked at the last word, like he might start crying too.
I started laughing then, and so did Aaron.
David practically collapsed into Aaron’s arms. “I love you, bro.”
Aaron patted his shoulder with a grin. “I love you too, man. I promise I’ll never break either of your hearts.” His gaze met mine then, and we smiled.
David pulled away and stared at Aaron as a new song came on. A cheesy, romantic, slow song. Once again, he got a little emotional. “What are you waiting for? Ask her to dance.”
Aaron turned to me, and he extended his hand. “Can I have this dance?”
My heart leaped inside my chest.
Then I took his hand. “Yes.”
It felt so surreal.
I had imagined this moment a hundred times, and somehow it was even more perfect than I ever could’ve hoped.
It may as well just have been us on the dance floor.
Aaron already had his arms around my waist, but then he pulled me in close. “I missed you so much, Rach.”
My eyes closed on their own, and I hugged him back like he would disappear if I let go. It was more than words could say.
We pulled away just enough so that our foreheads could touch.
The music played. Words weren’t needed.
Then Aaron closed the distance between us, bringing his mouth to mine.
His touch, the feel of his lips, my arms around his neck… it was like coming home.
Aaron was more than my first real friend, more than the cute boy I’d grown up with who’d crushed on forever.
He’d always been so much more.
And now we could be.
29
Dad stood at the grill. He waved Aaron and me over.
“Good afternoon, sir,” Aaron said, offering his hand to Dad. “Thank you for the invite,”
Dad shook it. “Of course.”
Was that the hint of a polite smile?
We’d come home from prom a week ago and told Dad the news. After about ten seconds of silent shock, he’d shaken Aaron’s hand.
Then a few days ago, he had told me to invite him over. He really wanted to get to know the guy dating his daughter.
“I suppose you’ve always been a part of our family,” Dad went on, checking on the chicken he had on the grill.
I squeezed Aaron’s hand, and he did the same.
Aaron smiled. “Thank you, sir.”
“I guess now it’s just official,” Mom said, walking past us to go back inside. She touched Aaron’s shoulder as she went by.
A minute later, Dad pulled some fajitas off the grill and looked for something to put them in. Aaron grabbed a glass container from the table nearby and handed it to him.
They got to talking, and I sat down, taking in the sunshine.
David came out of the house with a big bowl of Mom’s homemade salsa, Mom trailing a few feet behind him with paper plates.
He set the salsa down, greeted Aaron, and then he sat down next to me.
For a while, we didn’t say anything. We just watched Aaron and Dad talk.
Then David laughed. “He’s so nervous, can you tell?”
I giggled. “So nervous.”
Then he turned to me. “You’re right, you know.”
I quirked a brow. “What do you mean?”
“About Aaron being your friend first,” he replied.
“I shouldn’t have said that,” I told him. “It was—“
“True,” he replied, turning to me. “And you guys have always been good friends. I just never really saw it.” He paused. “Or maybe didn’t want to.”
For a second, we just sat there.
Then he cleared his throat. “I’ll be leaving for college soon,” he said, “but I’m glad you’ll have Aaron. He’ll look out for you.”
I smiled. “And who’s gonna look out for you?”
He grinned playfully. “Mom will, if she can figure out a way to be in two places at once.”
David’s graduation was in a couple of weeks, and already, the tears had started.
Dad called David over, and he left. A minute later, Aaron sat down with me.
“How’d it go?” I asked him.
Aaron blew out a breath. “I’m alive, aren’t I?” he said, blowing out a breath.
I leaned on his shoulder. “You’re doing great. My whole family loves you. They’ve always loved you.”
He wrapped his arm around me and kissed me on top of my head. “Good because I plan on sticking around for a while.”
I looked up at him. Then I kissed him.
The sound of David’s voice made us stop a second later. “Guys, at least warn a guy first.”
Aaron and I started laughing.
Fair enough.
I got up and pulled Aaron up with me. “Come on,” I told him. “Let’s go for a walk.”
He looked kind of hesitant, though. He turned back to my Dad. “Sir, may I?”
I liked the increased respect and fear for my Dad.
Dad nodded, giving his blessing.
He finally followed me. We walked down the road and past the creek.
I told him about the day he’d helped me and given me his hand getting off that fallen tree. “I think that was the first time I realized I had a crush on you,” I told him.
“Yeah?” he said. “I already liked you by then.”
I gave his hand another squeeze.
“I just never could see why a girl like you could ever like me back,” he went on.
“Why?” I asked him.
He shrugged. “I just always thought there was nothing special about me, especially compared to my brothers.”
I stopped so I could turn and face him. “You’re wrong about that, Aaron Garcia. Never forget it.”
He bent down and kissed me. “Never.”
Epilog
ue
Cade
Aaron came home, closed our bedroom door behind him, and fell back on his bed with a sigh.
I looked up from my math textbook and smirked. “I should grab a mirror and show you the cheesy grin on your face,” I joked.
“I don’t care,” he replied. “Rachel is officially my girlfriend, my best friend no longer hates me, and her dad didn’t kill me. I’m good, man.”
I laughed at that. “So I take it that the cookout with her family went well?” I asked.
“Yep,” he said. “I didn’t say or do anything stupid, and I got to kiss her good night. Doesn’t get any better than that.”
He lay there all dreamily for about ten more minutes until he finally got up and headed downstairs to play video games.
I went back to my math homework.
Aaron and the rest of my brothers probably had just as much homework as me, but they weren’t ones to do it on a Saturday night.
They hated the tedious thing that was homework. Math problems. History papers. Reading assignments for literature.
I liked all of it.
It was what I was good at, same as Ben with football and Aaron with basketball.
Drake with his music and avoiding people. And emotions.
And Eli, our youngest brother, was another up and coming football star.
The rest of my brothers excelled at things that naturally made them stand out and be cool.
I was the opposite.
I was good at school. That was about it. It was tough sometimes, being surrounded by charming athletes and a bad boy music genius, but it was what I had.
Now that both of my older brothers had girlfriends, it was definitely the only thing I had.
Drake had his music, and he generally liked being left alone.
And our baby brother Eli was a punk.
All the more reason to focus on my studies.
I’d already learned the hard way that getting a girl’s attention like my brothers could was not my thing.
Although, the truth was that it was just one girl’s attention that I wanted.
The problem was that she had no idea I existed.
She was the prettiest girl in school and completely out of my league.
While she came from the world of platinum credit cards and luxury vehicles, I came from buying furniture second-hand and consuming lots of rice and beans to make ends meet.
So it was never going to happen.
Funnily enough, she was one of Aaron’s girlfriend’s Rachel’s best friends.
And I was pretty sure that Eli hung out with her younger sister sometimes.
Except A girl like Audrey Gray would never go for a guy like me.
Like the math properties outlined in the textbook in front of me, that was practically a proven fact.
So even though Aaron had finally made his epic crush on Rachel a reality, there was just no hope for the nerdy, non-athletic Garcia brother.
No hope at all.
Author’s Note
Guys, this book…
In the Author’s Note for Ben, I told you that it had been several months of not writing as I got through a separation and divorce.
I was able to get through all the personal stuff and back to writing.
Once I started writing Ben, the story flowed, and I finished it in about 6 weeks.
This book took closer to 8-9 weeks, but I can’t tell you how much I struggled with it.
I’ve written about 18 books before this one, but this one has probably been the hardest.
I doubted the story and whether it was good enough most of the time.
I struggled to write it most days.
It was just all around a tough book.
But it finally came together.
With every book, I get this moment where I go back and read the first draft and think, “Oh my gosh. This is sooo good. I can’t believe I wrote this!”
That moment didn’t come until the very end for this book. LOL.
Just know that a big part of me goes into my books and these characters.
I write fast sometimes, but I don’t just churn books out.
There are times where I experience my own hero’s journey alongside the characters as I fight my way to the end.
I think this book taught me that I really do love writing because it would’ve been so easy to quit on this one.
There were moments when I wondered if this was what I was still supposed to be doing or if it was time to move onto something else.
But I realized that this is what I’m supposed to be doing, and I fell back in love with it.
So thank you.
Thank you for sticking with me during the past year.
I’m excited to finally be getting back into the swing of things and publish as often as I was before.
Thank you for reading my stories and loving my characters as much as I do.
It means the world to me.
Every single email and social media comment always makes my day.
Thank you <3
Also, I can’t wait to tell you about the rest of the Garcia brothers ;)
Yesenia
P.S. Don’t miss Cade’s story! Preorder Kissing Cade & Other Unexpected Things here:
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Acknowledgments
Thank you to my daughters. You give me life and bring me joy. I love you guys more every day that goes by.
A big thank you to my good friend, Tonya. Her kind wisdom got me through the toughest moments while writing this book. Thank you for helping me remember why I fell in love with writing <3
Another huge thank you to Jenny at Seedlings for creating this beautiful book cover. Amazing work, as always.
Thank you to my best friend, Zendy, for being my biggest supporter.
And, of course, last but certainly not least, a huge heartfelt thank you to you. I couldn’t do what I love if it weren’t for awesome readers like you :)
About the Author
Yesenia Vargas is the author of several young adult romance books. Her love for writing stories was born from her love of reading and books. She has her third grade teacher to thank for that.
In addition to writing and reading, she spends her time hanging out with her family, working out, and binge-watching Netflix. In 2013, she graduated from the University of Georgia, the first in her family to go to college.
Yesenia lives in Georgia with her two daughters.
Check out what she’s up to at yeseniavargas.com.
Also by Yesenia Vargas
#BestFriendsForever Series
#TheRealCinderella
#LoveToHateThatBoy
#GoodGirlBadBoy
#TheBoyfriendDare
#AllIWantForChristmas
#BreakingTheRules
#MeantToBe
Boys of Summer
Falling for the Rich Boy
The Garcia Brothers
Falling for Ben & Other Impossible Things
Dating Aaron & Other Forbidden Things
Find all the download links as well as a complete list of my most recent books at yeseniavargas.com/books/
Dating Aaron & Other Forbidden Things (Garcia Brothers Book 2) Page 13
