Renzo + Lucia: The Complete Trilogy

by Bethany-Kris

  That had Diego laughing because it wasn’t at all the answer he expected. Usually, chicks looked at a skateboard like it was the last thing they wanted to touch. They didn’t typically have an issue with saying there was no way in hell they could get on one and ride like he did. Luv was so confident in her answer that she could do something; he didn’t have a choice but to believe her.

  Glancing up, Diego watched the numbers overtop the elevator doors light up one after another as they climbed higher. The lightness in his chest—compliments of the remnants of his smoke from earlier—and in his mind had him more relaxed than he’d been in weeks.

  This was what I wanted, he thought.

  That morning when he woke up in the unfamiliar hotel room, the only thing that had been on his mind was to find some fun. To do anything except think about the things waiting for him back in New York. All the choices he had yet to make and how his future might look because of it.

  He didn’t want to think about any of it. So, he didn’t.

  Instead, Diego did what he did best. He got on his board, found a park, vlogged, snapped some photos, and made friends. He hadn’t expected the time to fly like it did, and he certainly hadn’t thought he would find Luv waiting for him outside the skatepark at the end of the day, but none of it had been a bad thing.

  She took him across the city, and they found the music he wanted. Then, drinks and lights and fun. He didn’t think he would end his day—or rather, start the next day—by heading to her place with the promise of a couch to sleep on because the drive would be shorter than going back to the hotel, but he didn’t mind.

  This was a good way to end it.

  Diego dragged in a breath, smiling when Luv’s gaze landed on him, and she raised a brow in silent question. What she was asking, he didn’t know. The gesture still had him opening his mouth to tell the girl things he just wanted to get off his chest.

  She was there.

  So, why not tell her?

  “Maybe it’s because I’m really faded,” Diego said, chuckling, “but this was the best day I’ve had in a while. I just want to do this for as long as I can … have fun, you know? Everybody else wants me to grow up, and I’m not sure I’m ready for what that means to them. Because it doesn’t mean the same things to me.”

  Luv pursed her lips, and it made the tip of her small nose lift in the cutest way.

  Cute?

  Diego blinked.

  Luv didn’t seem to notice his distraction when she said, “Just because people want you to do something doesn’t actually mean you have to do it, though, does it?”

  He thought about that.

  Because he hadn’t before.

  “I don’t know,” he muttered. “It’s not like what they want is bad. It’s just—”

  “Not what you want.” She shrugged. “And isn’t that what really matters?”

  Without very much context to Diego’s current situation regarding LA, his sister, and all the rest, Luv had given him a frank answer to what had felt like a complex problem. It wouldn’t make it any easier, sure, but it really did boil down to that one thing.

  What he wanted.

  He knew that answer.

  Of course, Diego didn’t get the opportunity to ruminate on his realization. The elevator came to a shuddering stop before the doors pulled open. A hallway lined with exposed, gray bricks greeted him. Luv was quick to surprise him again by giving him a wink and dragging his skateboard out of the elevator with the toe of her shoe. With a poised twist of her heel on the floor, she balanced on the board with the other and pushed off to roll down the hallway.

  Her laughter chased him out of the elevator. The little grin she tossed him over her shoulder made him take a second look at the woman down the hall. The sliver of creamy skin of her lower back peeking out under her bomber jacket had his chest growing tight. The swell of her ass under those tight, low-rise jeans swayed with a beat only she could hear, but he swore whatever music she was doing the little dance to echoed in his own mind, too. Every movement the girl made radiated with her confidence and rawness.

  Yeah, he’d noticed she was beautiful. How could he not? Now, he was really seeing it.

  His heart thundered hard.

  Harder than he expected.

  Diego passed two white steel doors with brass numbers overtop peepholes before he reached the one at the far end of the hallway where Luv waited for him.

  “You know,” she said, popping his board up with the heel of her shoe to catch it in her hand, “the offer of my couch was just to get you here, right?”

  “Was it?”

  Luv smacked her red-stained lips, and then her tongue peeked out to wet the seam of her mouth. “Kind of, yeah.”

  He stepped closer. She lifted to her tiptoes at the same time.

  That red stain on her lips? It tasted like cherries when he kissed her. He only wanted to know if the rest of her would taste the same … and he planned on finding out.

  • • •

  Diego pulled open the sliding doors that led out to a glass-walled veranda. Sitting on a chair that she’d covered with one of the beige blankets from the bed, Luv peeked up from the book she had spread open on her lap. In a black, silk camisole and short set that showed off her gleaming skin, he was reminded all over again how soft that flesh of hers felt under his hands. And how she tasted in the dark.

  At the sight of him, her grin grew wide. She closed the book, and set it aside to the table. With the exposed gray brick behind her, and the natural light coming in from the morning, he thought she looked kind of … perfect.

  She opened her mouth.

  Maybe to say hey.

  Or even good morning.

  “Don’t move,” he said before she could get anything out.

  The confusion that knotted her brow didn’t last for long. He made quick work of heading back inside her apartment and returning with his camera. She tipped her head to the side a bit, that smile of hers turning slyer in a blink.

  “You want a picture, really?”

  Diego shrugged. “Why not? It’s … a memory. It’s how I keep them.”

  “What is?”

  He hesitated in lifting the camera to his sights. “What?”

  “What memory,” she clarified.

  Oh.

  Everything, he wanted to say. Except he didn’t think she would understand. After all, she had only been a very small part of his trip to Vegas, but she had also been a big factor in making him come to a decision about what he planned to do when he left to return home.

  “Here,” he settled on saying. “Being here.”

  She drew her knee up on the chair and glanced out at the view surrounding the tall building. “Well … okay.”

  He took the shot.

  Didn’t second-guess it.

  Diego didn’t even check it, either.

  Luv smiled his way again. “And hey, I got a call this morning. Everything is on track with Ren, so he’ll probably finish with the job before you go back to New York.”

  Even better.

  TEN

  Diego

  The email Diego found waiting for him on the last day he would spend in Vegas was short and to the point. Like maybe Marty Lorde had shot it off last minute because he didn’t have time to do much else. Considering the man’s job and the client list he toted, it was a very real possibility that he did only have time for the three sentences he emailed Diego.

  Not that it mattered.

  The three sentences were more than enough.

  Diego,

  Attached is a plane ticket—thought you might want to fly out to LA to see the project my team is working on with Nexit Entertainment in Hidden Hills. I showed them some of your stuff, and they’re interested in putting you in a campaign or maybe doing a sponsorship if you’re up for it. I’ll be in and out for the next week while I finish up things so any replies will go to my assistant.

  Regards,

  Marty Lorde, Manager

  Los Angele
s

  Diego took in a breath and read the name of the company again. Nexit Entertainment. Known across the world for their festivals, the organization’s events typically sold out in minutes. Getting any kind of brand deal or sponsorship from Nexit would be … beyond his wildest dreams. Undoubtedly a five-figure check, not that the money was the most important thing. It was still a big deal to him, though.

  Resting back on the small sofa in his brother’s hotel room, Diego kept reading over the email again and again as though the words might change. Of course, they didn’t. It just … all seemed a bit surreal to him. There was an actual A-list manager that wanted to sign Diego on as one of his clients. It was a little scary. Completely fucking amazing, too.

  Diego checked the flight details on the tickets. If he took Marty up on his offer, it meant he would have to fly to LA only four days after he got back to New York. He could already imagine how that would go over with his sister and her husband.

  Rose would say no; she thought LA and all the possibilities waiting in the Land of Dreams was nothing more than bullshit at the end of the day. Certainly not the guarantee that college and a nine-to-five promised. Although, those things had never been something that interested him in any meaningful way. And wasn’t that the thing? Shouldn’t Diego be able to do something that he was passionate about? Something that would make him the happiest to do?

  Trevor would back Rose up because that’s just what he did.

  Already, he had a pretty good idea about how the LA conversation would end when he brought it up to Rose. Diego hated arguing but that was the thing. He knew now that if he really wanted to chase these dreams, then he couldn’t let anyone stand in his way. Even if that person was his sister.

  Right?

  The click of a latch had Diego glancing up from the laptop he had left on the coffee table with the email still open, waiting for his reply. The person who entered the hotel room was not at all who he expected, if only because Luv had called the room the night before to say his brother wouldn’t get back until the day he was supposed to leave.

  Except …

  There Renzo was.

  Diego couldn’t help but smile at his brother’s entrance. “I thought you weren’t getting back until tomorrow?”

  “Pulled some strings. They owed me at least one day with you after the week I had.” Renzo grinned and slammed the hotel door shut behind him. “And hey to you too, kid.”

  “Not a kid, bro.”

  His brother only shrugged. “You will always be a kid to me, even if we both know different.”

  Diego barely had time to react to Renzo’s approach. He stood from the couch only to be engulfed in a warm, tight hug that reminded him of safety and home. Even in the spread of years that Renzo had disappeared from his life, those hugs remained the one thing that never changed when his brother came back.

  They still grounded him.

  It gave him love.

  A long time ago, Diego stopped being pissed off about the fact that his mother cared more about drugs than them. He didn’t even know who his dad was except that he didn’t have the same father Ren and Rose did, but that asshole had never been around, either.

  And none of it mattered.

  He had a family.

  One that loved him.

  He refused to be bitter about the things he didn’t have when it wouldn’t do him any good to focus on all of it. His energy was better spent with the people that did care. Hadn’t they proved that to Diego time and time again?

  Renzo slapped him hard on the back as he pulled out of the hug. He didn’t go far, keeping his hands firm and heavy on Diego’s shoulders to give him a good once-over with his sharp, familiar brown gaze. Those dark eyes of his brother didn’t miss a single thing, either. It was something Diego had come to learn, and he stopped trying to hide shit from Renzo because of it, too.

  “I came straight to the hotel—supposed to head to the complex, but whatever. I promised we’d talk, remember? Shit changed, you know? Sorry. I’m here, though. Let’s talk.”

  Diego laughed, as weak as it was. “Really?”

  Renzo nodded. “Yeah, man. Of course. I mean, if you still need to.”

  It was only then that Diego noticed how his brother was dressed. In all black. Right down to the army boots he wore that he laced tightly around the ankles. The bag his brother dropped by the door when he first entered was new. None of it was Ren’s usual get-up, and even the phone tight in his grip wasn’t his normal device, either.

  Shit.

  He really did come straight from the job.

  “I—”

  “What’s that?” Ren asked, nodding at the opened laptop.

  Diego let out a hard breath. “An offer to fly to LA for work.”

  That had his brother paying attention. “What?”

  Now or never, Diego thought.

  “A couple of weeks back,” he said, “when I was home in New York, I met up with Marty Lorde. You know him—he manages the rapper you like that came out of the Bronx a few years back. Remember?”

  Renzo said nothing.

  Just kept staring.

  Diego kept talking. “He talked about signing me on as one of his clients. I’ve already built a following of my own. But someone like him could really help me to take it to the next level because I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing half the time, you know? Maybe he can help me get to LA and figure some stuff out. I really, really want to do it, Ren. I know it’s not college like Rose wants, and I’ll be leaving school before I can officially get my diploma, but I can finish everything and still take the exams even if I am out there. It’s what I want to do.”

  “Diego.”

  He swallowed hard, meeting his brother’s gaze as his rambling came to an abrupt stop. “Yeah?”

  “New York isn’t like LA.”

  “I know.”

  He said nothing else. There was nothing else for him to say about that when he didn’t care that LA would be a whole new world to him.

  Renzo bent down to get a better look at the email on the laptop screen. Diego stayed silent while his brother read through the details, and even after when Ren stood straight and scrubbed a hand down over his unshaven jaw.

  “Huh,” Ren muttered.

  “I know it’s not respons—”

  “Fuck what’s responsible right now.”

  Diego blinked. “What?”

  All at once, Renzo turned on him again. His hands landed to Diego’s shoulders, and strong fingers gripped tight to squeeze with the comfort he hadn’t expected. “All I care about is what you want to do … as long as it’s really what you want to do, and you know you can always call it quits. You’re basically grown, Diego. A few weeks away from turning eighteen. You can make these choices on your own, even if they’re crazy or wrong or entirely right. They are yours to make. I know Rose thinks we need to be your stand-in for parents, but right now, I’m just gonna be your big brother. Okay? Tell me what you want to do. That’s what you’re gonna do.”

  He took a second.

  Just one.

  “I want to chase my dreams. Even if that’s all they will ever be. Just dreams. I want to chase them.”

  He knew that should terrify him. The not knowing. Except the thing was, Diego had never been the type to be afraid of the unknown. Actually, the relief of finally being sure he was going to go headfirst into whatever this was—jump from this edge he stood on—kind of felt like free-falling. And damn, he was so far from scared of what his future might hold because of it, too.

  Renzo smiled wide. “Does that mean you’re going to LA next week?”

  Diego’s gaze flicked to the laptop and then back to his brother. “Rose will—”

  “Understand. She will. Eventually.”

  Was Ren right? Would Rose understand why he had to do this like Renzo did? Diego certainly hoped so because he only had one answer to the question his brother asked.

  “Yeah, I’m gonna go to LA.”

  ELEV
EN

  Luv

  Of course, Luv made her way to the airport to say goodbye before Diego headed back to New York. Yeah, she could have sent him a text or even called as they had exchanged numbers during his stay. It might have even been the easiest, or cleanest, thing to do. But he hadn’t asked her to come so at first, she held off until Renzo called and brought it up.

  As far as she knew, he wasn’t aware that Diego and Luv spent the night together. Or even that they had really made … was friends the right word?

  It felt as good as any.

  Better than anything else.

  Nonetheless, Ren thanked her for looking out for his brother and said if she wanted, then she was more than welcome to come to the airport and see Diego off. He gave her the flight time so that she could make it there in lots of time, but in her typical fashion, she waited until the very last moment.

  Just because she could.

  Luv had never been one for goodbyes, anyway. Not the long, drawn-out type. Certainly not the sad ones with tears and hugs. Her lifestyle made it kind of hard to give any friend she made special time and attention when she was constantly coming and going, and never stayed in one place for too long. Not to mention, when a friendship couldn’t be deeper than surface things because of who she was.

  And so, she much preferred to tell people—who she might care to meet again—that she would see them again soon. Whenever she could, that was.

  She quickly realized, after Renzo’s call, that maybe she did want to see Diego again someday. When? Well, that she didn’t know.

  That was okay, too.

  Someday, they would run into one another and perhaps, they could pick right back up where they left off.

  Or … that was the hope.

  Sitting in the airport eatery with a mostly untouched sandwich in front of him, Diego was the first to notice Luv’s approach. The smile that graced his handsome mouth made her own grow in response.

  “Hey,” he said, gaining the attention of the man sitting across from him.