He gave a few vague answers to relieve Sal’s further curiosity with the whole packing/unpacking thing. Vince thought they’d gotten past it. He was even relieved when Romero started in on him about Rose.

“You and Grace’s sister, huh?” Romero asked tossing his napkin on his plate with a smirk then burped.

Vince was about to respond when Romero added another irritating comment. “She’s straight jailbait, man.” He shook his head. “I couldn’t believe it when Grace said she was only fifteen.”

The smirk on Romero’s face was so annoying Vince couldn’t help but give in to his obvious riling. “Jailbait?” He was trying not to glare but knew he’d failed miserably. “What the hell does that mean?”

Oh, he knew what he meant all right, but that would only be true if Rose were promiscuous and tried to pass herself as older than she was.

Obviously this amused Sal’s stupid friend because he smirked even bigger now. “Means you’re gonna have your hands full, fighting off older guys who might mistake her for an eighteen-year-old.”

To his own surprise, this really pissed him off. Rose was his friend and one of the sweetest girls he’d ever met. “No I won’t,” he said raising his voice, “’cause she’s not like that.”

Practically laughing now, Romero lifted his hands in the air. “You wanted to know what I meant. I was just explaining.”

What an ass**le! Maybe Vince didn’t like this guy so much after all. Of course Vince knew what he’d meant about jailbait, but what he really wanted to know was what Romero was insinuating about Rose. Before he could recover, Sal added his own two cents.

“Romero is right. She did already get asked to that prom by an older boy.” Now even Sal smirked. “I dunno; you really think she was busy for days of unpacking? That’s kind of odd. Isn’t it? You sure maybe her prom date wasn’t keeping her busy?”

Completely ignited now by these two ass**les, the words flew out before he could think it through. “She was packing, okay? I wasn’t supposed to say anything, but they’re moving.”

Seeing Sal’s smirk fall flat gave Vince some satisfaction. Who was irritating whom now?

“Moving where?”

“They’re not sure yet. That’s another thing that’s kept her busy, Sal. They’ve been busy looking for a new place, too. But all we do is text, so she can’t write it all down.” Since it was already out, he may as just tell him. Vince didn’t know a whole lot anyway then it hit him, and he grinned. “If I see her tonight, I’ll finally get to talk to her. I can get the whole scoop for you.” Vince felt kind of crummy about giving Sal any information on Grace when Rose had specifically asked him not to, but he really wanted to see her. At this point he’d say anything.

“Sure you can go see Rose, Vin.” Sal suddenly smiled.

Yes! Vince had never felt so smug in his life. The smug feeling didn’t last very long because Sal quickly turned it around on him.

He proceeded to tell him under what conditions he could use the car. First off, he reminded Vince that Rose was only fifteen and warned him that if he did anything disrespectful or got her in any kind of trouble, his ass was gone. There were no second chances.

Romero got up in the middle of Sal’s warning speech and said he was out but not before adding one more jab. “Listen to your cousin, Vin. A girl like that can be trouble.”

That did it. “A girl like what?” Vince took a step away from Sal and one toward Romero. “You don’t know shit—”

“All right, all right!” Sal put his hand on Vince’s shoulder with a chuckle.

Sal assured him that Romero was just messing with him as Romero continued to walk away laughing.

“She’s a very nice girl.” Sal continued to smirk.

Maybe they were just messing with him. He’d had his balls busted plenty of times by his friends, but already things felt different when it came to Rose.

Strangely, this only made him want to see her even more now. He’d give in to any and all of Sal’s conditions. By the end of his conversation with Sal, Vince felt like he’d made a deal with the devil himself because behaving and keeping Rose out of trouble weren’t Sal’s only conditions. Sal wanted him to get him as much information on Grace as he could.

Vince finally agreed and it was on. If Grace said yes, Vince would be seeing Rose tonight.

CHAPTER SIX

Rose

Her phone beeped and she read the text.

I’m here.

Those two little words had her insides spinning. This was the first time she’d be seeing Vincent since the shower. Rose had finally convinced Grace, who’d been seriously warned by Sal, that Vincent shouldn’t be trusted to let her hang out with him. Of course these were warnings that had come when her sister and Sal were still together, but her sister had taken them very seriously.

Since Grace was so leery about allowing it and thought Rose was still too young to have a boyfriend, Grace made her promise this was nothing more than a friendship. Up until now that was all she and Vincent called it, so she had no problem agreeing to that.

Rose understood why Grace was so apprehensive about Vincent. Some of the things he’d done or gotten in trouble for in the past were pretty bad, but Rose could feel it in her heart that he was a good guy. He’d made some mistakes: mistakes he’d learned from and that he was really trying to make up for. Her heart fluttered remembering how he’d said he was doing everything he could to stay out of trouble. His incentive was that if he did stay out of trouble, he’d get to spend the summer in La Jolla. The possibility of hanging out with her was all he needed.