“I know, I know,” Sarah said. “I just keep waiting for the perfect moment, but there never is one. And the more time passes, the harder it gets.”

She saw the disapproval in Valerie’s face. Then thought about what nerve Valerie had. “What’s going on with you and Alex?”

Valerie frowned. “I haven’t heard from him since Thursday. I think his curiosity with me was over once he got what he wanted.” She shrugged. “It’s better if we don’t go out anymore though. In between all the making out we’d started doing a lot of talking, and surprisingly, I was beginning to feel a connection with him that was more than just physical. I’m sure he’ll call again when he’s ready for more. But if we keep going out, I might start falling for him, for real. I’d just be setting myself up for heartache.”

Sarah looked at her sympathetically. “Well, you never know. Maybe he felt the connection too.”

Valerie chuckled “I know what he was feeling alright.”

“You think he’ll say anything about you hanging out with Romero?”

Valerie’s face soured. “I doubt it. First of all, I don’t think I’ll be hearing from him anytime soon, unless he gets horny, and even then I really don’t think he cares. Besides, I didn’t do anything with Romero. He kissed me once but it felt wrong, so I stopped before we went any further.”

“Good,” Sarah said. “’Cause I don’t care what you say, I saw the two of you the very first day at the restaurant and there was a definite connection.”

Valerie half smiled. “Well, apparently he's been too busy this weekend; probably making more connections, to call me.”

“Angel’s picking me up in a bit. We’re going back to the restaurant for brunch again." Sarah gave her a crooked smile. "You wanna come?”

“No way.” Valerie gasped. “How desperate would that look? Me, showing up without being invited. No thanks.”

Valerie stood up and walked to the door, stopping when she reached it and turning around. “So, Sydney’s okay?”

“Yeah.” Sarah nodded “Just a couple of bruises, but otherwise he’s fine.”

“Did he wreck his car?”

“No. Luckily, he was in his dad’s truck. It’s a full size truck, so it might have been worse if he had been in his car. Sydney said it was mainly the passenger side door that was smashed.”

Valerie raised her eyebrows. “Well, I’m glad he’s okay” She turned around and walked out.

Sarah strolled over to her dresser. She picked up the string bracelet Sofia had given her. All the girls on the track team wore them for good luck, and even though Sarah wasn’t officially on the team, Sofia still wanted her to have one. Sarah thought it was sweet and smiled as she put it on.

Angel picked her up and she was back at the restaurant again. Alex and the guys were already there. They were sitting at a table in the corner. Sarah and Angel sat with them. Romero and Eric were engaged in one of their inane football disputes.

“I don’t care what you say, they should’ve never got rid of Drew Brees” Eric said.

“The guy threw five touchdown passes in one game!”

Romero shook his head. “Yeah, but against who?”

“Doesn’t matter, five touchdown passes, five!”

“Doesn’t count when it’s against the Raiders,” Romero said. “Shit, I could score five times against them.”

Alex laughed. “That’d be a first for you.”

“I’ve scored, ass.” He turned to Sarah. "Speaking of me scoring, where’s Valerie?”

Sarah went stiff. She glanced at Alex his face was expressionless. “Home.”

“You should’ve brought her,” Romero said.

When Sarah looked at Alex again, he was staring at Romero, but didn’t say a word.

Eric laughed. “Scored? She shot you down on Friday, and she was drunk. She takes one look at your mug sober, she’s gonna freak that she even let you kiss her.”

Alex's eyebrows shot up. “You kissed her?”

“She liked it.” Romero said, more to Eric than Alex.

“So, you went out with her?” Alex asked.

Romero turned to look at Alex. “Nah, we hung out after the game. All of us did at the beach.”

“But you kissed her?”

Sarah squirmed, wanting to disappear. Alex had that same tone he’d had on the phone with Valerie. The same unmistakable tone Angel would get when he was getting heated.

Romero made a face. “Yeah, so what? I can’t help it if the chicks dig me.”

Alex rolled his eyes, and looked at Eric. “And she shot him down?”

“Yeah.” Eric laughed.

Sarah nodded vigorously, and then stopped when she saw Romero was looking at her. The look on his face was almost comical. “She told you that?”

“Well, no... I mean… I can’t tell you what she said. It’s girl talk.” She stood up quickly. “I’m starving.”

“You got shot down.” Alex smiled.

Sarah could see it was a forced smile. Angel stood up with Sarah and followed her to the buffet table. When they got back Romero and Eric were arguing again about the Chargers and Alex was gone. Something told Sarah Valerie would be getting that call she’d been waiting for.

CHAPTER 15

Coach Rudy set up a friendly relay with another school in the middle of the week. Sarah was torn because the football team had made the playoffs and they were starting that same day. The game was during the day and away. Sofia and the coach really wanted her there. Angel told her not to worry, it was supposed to be a pretty easy win. They were playing the wild card team.