Be My Queen (7 page)

He dared a look at his phone. Still no calls or texts. She was avoiding him. That had to be it. Had she decided that he was wrong for her? Did she want to break up? Were they even going out yet? Yes. Did she agree? He needed to have some small place in her heart.

Diego had to go to Lavender's house and find out what was really up. He'd apologize. He'd beg and grovel if that's what it took.

He locked the house and set out. The streets looked different during the day, but he eventually found the right one. He squared his shoulders and rang the doorbell. No sounds. He tried again. The house was still silent. Maybe no one was home. She was probably at school and unaware of his worry.

Or maybe the doorbell didn't work.

He knocked this time and heard slippers across a hard floor. The door opened to the biggest woman Diego had ever seen. She was at least his height and her shoulders were wider. Her hair was in curlers under a bed cap and her terrycloth robe could have covered Diego and Lavender with room to spare. He nodded his head. "Hello, ma'am. Is Lavender home?"

She looked down her nose at him. "Young man, do you have
any
idea what time it is?"

He looked at his phone. "Half past nine."

She humphed. "A good two hours before any decent person gets up."

Oops. No wonder no one had answered his texts. "Sorry, ma'am."

A vision appeared at the top of the stairs: his beautiful girl in a ruffled nightgown. She was the heroine of a gothic novel.

He stepped forward. The lady in the doorway stopped him. He'd forgotten she was there.

The woman turned. "Lavender, go back in your room, and don't come down until you're dressed properly." She turned to Diego. "And you, young man, should come back at a decent hour."

She closed the door in his face.

Now, that hadn't gone as well as he'd have liked. Still, Lavender was home. She'd have to come out sooner or later.

*~*~*

Lavender hurried into her room, ignoring all the questions. "Someone run out and tell him to wait."

"I'm not dressed."

"My makeup's only half done."

"I thought you hated him."

Lavender pulled on the first skirt she found. "He asked me to marry him."

"What?" chorused her friends, who could have been doing something more constructive, like keeping Diego from driving off.

Vish crossed her arms. "Then what made you cry?"

She turned to their expectant faces, and then away, to put on her bra and a new shirt. "I can't marry him, can I?"

"Civil union, domestic partnership. That kind of thing."

Lavender sighed. "I don't want that and neither does he. He wants a wife that can give him children as much as I want to be that woman."

Caiside frowned. "Did he mention kids?"

"No, but…"

"You didn't tell him, did you?" Alana rolled her eyes.

"Well, it's not like girls like us ever get 'happily ever afters'." Lavender pushed past them to the stairs.

Vish stopped her. "You can't go down, hanging out like that. If he's still here, I'll make sure he doesn't leave."

Lavender sighed and turned toward the bathroom. Ariel leaned against the door. "I don't believe that."

"Believe what?"

"That we can't have an 'ever after'. One of those boys from Saturday…"

Lavender froze.

Ariel pouted. "One of them likes me and we've been texting."

Lavender's gut sank.

"I haven't told him yet, and I won't until your week is up, if you don't want me to."

"Please."

"But you shouldn't let Miss Magnolia feed you lies. Her body has less to do with why she's single than her personality does."

True. Who would fall for drunken sob stories and lectures?

Lavender flicked her fingers through her hair. She didn't have time to give it a proper brushing or put her makeup on. Diego was outside. At least, he better be. Or these next tears would be in anger.

Diego looked up as Lavender stepped out of the front door. She was fresh-faced, with the slightest bit of puffiness at the eyes. If those tears had been his fault, he deserved hell. He kissed her hands. "Beautiful."

She smiled.

"I came to invite you out for the day. I didn't know you slept late."

Vishva hopped up the stairs until she was standing by Lavender. "When did you get up?"

"I'm staying with a family who has a high-schooler, and I woke up when he complained that he couldn't find his other shoe with the orange stripe, and his mother said why not wear the black ones, and he said that he couldn't, and she asked where he last saw it, and on and on. All this before seven."

Vishva grinned. "Sometimes we don't go to bed until dawn."

Lavender stepped down a step. He set his hands on her waist. "Can I take you out for breakfast? Now that you're up and all."

She was taller than him on the step above. He took advantage of her position to kiss her.

The door opened. The lady of the house grabbed Vishva's arm. "The three of you: inside this instant. We are not a sideshow to be gawked at on our front stoop. For shame!"

Lavender's hand clapped around Diego's. He transferred her hand over, so he'd have a free one to wrap around her waist. He wasn't going anywhere without her.

*~*~*

Lavender sat on the hard loveseat as close to Diego as she could without being so close that Miss Magnolia would force her to move. Why did Miss Magnolia want to know everything about Diego? She'd been questioning him about his family, his job, his assets, and his living arrangement for close to an hour. Lavender's belly rumbled. She needed breakfast.

But more than that, she needed Miss Magnolia not to give her secret away. Why did everyone want to wreck her perfect week?

Miss Magnolia looked Diego over and opened her mouth in what was sure to be a proclamation. Lavender stood up. Miss Magnolia glared at her, but she didn't care. She was going to have her week, even if she had hell to pay afterward. "Diego is taking me to breakfast."

She pulled him to his feet. "We'll be back later."

She tugged him outside while he was still saying goodbye. As they got in the car, Ariel ran down the front steps. Lavender wished Diego would just drive away, but of course, he didn't. Ariel held out Lavender's new purse. "You'll need this."

Lavender took the purse and thanked her. It weighed more than it had last night. She waited until Diego pulled into traffic to look inside. Her friends had added her phone, a tube of lipstick, an eyeliner pencil… and three condoms and a tube of lube. She pulled down the visor and used the little mirror to apply her makeup. The rest wasn't worth the bother. She could survive a day without her phone, and she had no need for one condom, let alone three.

*~*~*

Diego enjoyed watching Lavender eat. She was beautiful whatever she did. He ate a second breakfast while she ate her pancakes. "Did you hear my voicemail?"

She looked at her plate. "Should I?"

"Maybe not. I got a text that you were in a bad way and I kind of freaked out."

She glanced up through her eyelashes. "Did you?"

He shrugged. "You could listen to it for your own amusement."

She put her hand on his. "Did you say anything important?"

"I asked you out to Disneyland today. I've never been, and…" He was rambling again.

She patted his hand. "I haven't been there either, not in all the time I've lived here."

He turned his hand over. "How long is that?"

She looked at their hands. "In my family, we move away from home young. My brother at twelve. I was closer to fifteen."

Yikes! Diego's mother hadn't wanted him to move out for college, and she still kept his room up in case he needed it again. Of course, that might be because he'd left stuff at his parents' house. His sister's old room was now officially a guest bedroom.

"I moved in with my mother's friend."

"Is that the lady you live with now?"

"Miss Magnolia? No, she takes in homeless girls."

"You were homeless?" He hated the idea of any person without a home. How had his beautiful Lavender survived out there on her own?

She shook her head. "My mother's friend's son got hurt in the big hurricane and she sent me to stay with her cousin in L.A. so she could take care of his family."

"Then you came to stay with Miss Magnolia?"

"Later. The cousin already had a full house, so I found a place of my own. A few places later, I ended up on Miss Magnolia's stoop."

He curled his hands around hers. "That must have been hard."

"I survived."

She didn't look upset, but he massaged her palm anyway. It made
him
feel better. "I'd rather see you thrive."

She laughed. "You're so sweet."

"I really mean it." He kissed her fingers. Maybe she'd thrive behind the counter at a coffee shop or ice cream parlor. Or as an office worker in a purple suit. But she seemed the creative type. Maybe her own little home business in a room so full of craft supplies that the computer looked out of place. No. She'd put purple lace around the monitor to make it match.

If that craft room was in Diego's house, all the better.

He kissed her palm. "So you aren't in college?"

She blushed and pulled back her hand. He let her go. "I'd be surprised if you graduated with all that moving around."

She puffed herself up. "I'm not totally uneducated."

"I never said you were." He hadn't meant to offend her. Time for a change of subject. He retrieved her hand. "I've said you are beautiful and I'll say it again."

He hummed a few lines.

She cocked her head. "I recognize that one."

"Good. Disneyland?"

She gave him a long, slow smile. His day was getting better and better.

*~*~*

Lavender rested on a bench in the shade of a giant tree and accepted the bottle of cold water from Diego. He sat beside her. "Having fun?"

"With you? Yes."

He flashed a grin. She looked away. He was too tempting by half. She shouldn't encourage him.

He threaded his fingers into hers. "So I made a good choice?"

She looked around the park and back at him. "The venue? Or the date?"

He kissed the back of her hand. "My mother will love you."

"Will she?"

He acted like Lavender meeting his mom was a sure thing, which both thrilled her and made her sad. She wasn't the kind of girl that boys brought home to the family.

"I'm told she's intimidating, but when my birth mother got sick—she was Mom's college roommate—Mom quit her job, packed up her car, and drove cross-country. She practically moved into the hospital. Dad was super stressed and our housekeeper took advantage of her access to the house bank account. Mom realized that after my birth mother went on hospice. She took over the housekeeper duties and taking care of us—Amanda was five and I wasn't quite one—and she gave Dad space to mourn his dying wife."

Lavender shivered. She didn't like sad stories. "And after she died?"

"My birth mother made Mom promise to stay and take care of us. Mom says she would have, anyway. She was the one who cuddled me close when I needed attention, the one who read me stories and put me to bed, the one who woke with me in the night, who let me cuddle beside her in the dark when I was scared, the one who rocked me when I was sick. My mother."

Lavender smiled. Her mother had been a wonderful woman, too.

"Amanda took longer to warm to Mom. She still calls her Catherine, but not to her face."

"And your dad?"

"Dad let her be housekeeper, nanny, and hostess, but she wasn't anything else for more than seven years. They got married the month I turned ten, but she's been my mother, my real mother, as long as I can remember."

She squeezed his fingers. "I like her already."

"Thanks." Then he kissed her. She could live this dream a few days longer.

Diego glanced at his phone. Patrick must be awake. Lavender was still freshening up, so Diego opened the text. Patrick wanted to save his strength for tomorrow. Diego was invited over for an evening of pizza, beer, and movies. Diego texted back to ask if Lavender was invited. Patrick said she was.

Now, to ask her.

She strode up to him, queen of the world, and her lips demanded a kiss, which he gave willingly. He needed her like he needed air. He stepped back with a sigh before he got too hard to walk. "Come to dinner with me."

She bit the inside of her lip. "I listened to your voicemail."

He looked at the ground. "Yeah?"

"Do your friends know you are inviting me to dinner?"

"Yes."

"And what did they say?"

"Patrick wanted to know if they should order an extra pizza, and I said to hold off ordering anything until we arrived." Diego wasn't sure what kind of pizza Lavender liked.

She pressed her hands to his chest. "So when is this dinner?"

"As soon as we get there."

"Do you think," she licked her lips, "they'd mind if we were late?"

Diego swallowed hard. "How late?"

"I know a place where we could get a good view of the city."

Weren't all viewpoints make-out spots? Please let this be a make-out spot.

*~*~*

Lavender leaned back and licked her lips, but she kept one hand on Diego's chest. His kisses were electric, and the good thing about making out in the car was that their hips were apart. She was not going to let an embarrassing incident happen again, no matter how hot he was.

Diego took in deep breaths. "You have to come stay with me in Portland."

"Do I?"

Diego swallowed hard and wiped his hands on his jeans. "We'll see if you can stand living where the grass in green and the air is clear, with fewer people and less traffic."

"And more rain." But starting over would be wonderful. She could move to a place where no one knew her secret, where people couldn't find out by someone else letting their own condition slip.

His pressed his hand on hers. "Please say you'll consider it."

She grinned. "Does this have anything to do with me meeting your friend?"