“I’m off actually,” Rose said glad for the change in subject.

“Good, I wanted to talk to you.”

Suddenly wishing she’d said she was on a break, Rose thought fast to try and get out of it. “I don’t have a lot of time. I—”

“I don’t need a lot of time. There’s just a couple of things I’ve been wanting to say to you for a long time.”

Rose stared at him, almost afraid to hear what he had to say. She couldn’t take any more heartache involving Vincent.

“I wanna apologize.”

This was not what she was expecting to hear. “Apologize?”

“Please let me finish,” he said, the mysterious smirk now replaced with a somber stare. “I know Vince explained everything, and obviously it didn’t make a difference to you, but I need you to know how sorry I am. It was entirely my fault Vince had to go away.”

“What?” Rose was missing something here, but the feeling of dread slowly crept in.

“I know you must think Vince chose me or Anita over you, but if you knew how Vince thinks, you’d know for him there was never a choice to be made. To him it was a given.”

Rose stared at him. “What are you talking about?” The dread was an all-out panic now. Had she made the terrible mistake this was beginning to sound like? “Your fault?”

“Yeah, I’m the one who was doing the dealing, not him. But he didn’t choose to take the blame and leave you. He had to. Obviously that makes no difference to you.”

“Wait.” She lifted her hand shaking her head. “Back up,” she brought her hand to her chest as she made sense of his words. “I never read his letters.”

“What? You didn’t?” The somber stare was gone. He looked disgusted again. “None of them? He wrote you all the time.”

“I read the first few, but he never told me any of this. He never explained anything. Just said he was sorry but offered no explanation at all.”

“That’s because he couldn’t tell you, but he did later. You didn’t read those?”

She shook her head a mixture of relief and sorrow overcoming her. Standing frozen in place as Lorenzo explained to her about Anita and her father and how Vince didn’t want to ruin her chances of getting custody of her brothers, the air in her lungs began to drain. He explained why it was so important to him that she and her brothers got out of that hell, so he couldn’t say anything until she was all settled.

“But he did write and explained it all about six months ago.”

“I never read it.” Her heart felt like it was being squeezed. “After the first few I couldn’t. It was too painful.”

Lorenzo’s eyes were as wide as hers felt. “So all this time—”

“I thought he’d gone back to dealing,” Rose felt a weight lift as another pushed it back onto her conscience, and once again she was choked up. “I thought maybe he’d been doing it the whole time.”

Lorenzo stared at her, the incredulous expression on his face making her feel that much worse. “But now you know he wasn’t.” He touched her arm. “Are you still in love with him?”

She nodded, feeling the tears already begin to fill her eyes. Could it really be true? Vincent had really stayed true to his word? She’d had it all wrong this whole time?

“You have to tell him?” Lorenzo urged.

Finally snapping out of her daze her eyes were on Lorenzo. “What? How?”

“Write him. He was devastated when I told him, Rose.” His eyes looked up behind her into the empty parking lot. “When I told him you had a boyfriend. You’re not gonna stay with this guy now, are you?”

She shook her head. “I was never really with him to begin with.”

Lorenzo’s face suddenly soured. “What? You don’t have to lie—”

“No, I’m not lying. I was lying when I said I was with him.”

Lorenzo’s face was still contorted, and he rolled his eyes.

“It’s why we don’t kiss, okay?” She felt stupid admitting it, but it was better to admit this now than have Vincent think she’d actually moved on, and with Ben of all people. “Grace was worried about me being depressed, so I made the whole relationship thing with him up. He went along with it because he’s my friend. But I’ve never gotten over Vincent.”

“So this guy comes down here and parks with you every chance he can, and all you two do in there is talk? That’s bullshit.”

“It’s true.” Rose insisted.

“I’ve seen the way the ass**le looks at you, Rose.”

“He’s just my friend.” Rose’s mind was racing now; she had to write back to Vincent. She had to tell him she understood now and forgave him completely.

“Are you planning on telling my brother about your friend, Rose? Because I’ll tell you right now he’s not gonna like it. He didn’t like this guy back then, and he sure as hell’s not gonna like knowing he comes down to visit you at work, and you two go out and sit in your car, and do God knows what for as long as you do.”

“I’ll talk to Ben. It’ll stop.”

“I’m here for another week,” Lorenzo’s eyes were menacing, “maybe more. I can talk to Ben for you if you want me to.”

“No,” Rose said firmly. “I’ll talk to him, and I’ll write Vincent tonight.”