He didn’t finish, but he didn’t need to. Colin knew what Felix wanted to hear, and because it was true, he had no trouble saying it.
“It won’t happen.”
“I have your word.”
“Yes.”
Just then, Maria popped her head out, clearly nervous but also relieved that she hadn’t heard any shouting. “Are you two about finished? Brunch is ready.”
Felix exhaled. “We’re done,” he said. “Let’s eat.”
After they’d finished eating, Serena and her parents began to clean up while Maria lingered behind with Colin. “What did you say to him?” Maria asked.
“The truth,” Colin answered.
“All of it?”
“Yes.”
Maria appeared flummoxed. “Then it went a lot better than I thought it would.”
Maria was right – the brunch had been relatively pleasant, with Serena chattering on about the scholarship, Steve, and the escapades of her numerous friends. Felix and Carmen had occasionally asked questions, even lobbing a few queries toward Colin, though all were about work or school. When he’d mentioned MMA, he thought that Carmen had paled just a bit.
“Still…” Maria said. “I guess you were right. It was best to get it all out there in the beginning.”
Sometimes, Colin thought. Not always. Felix had been cordial, but there wasn’t any fondness or trust evident, both of which would take time to achieve, if that was possible at all. He didn’t say that, though. Instead, he reached for the door.
“Do you want to do some paddleboarding later?” he asked.
“How about we do something different instead. Like… Jet Skiing. We can rent them at the beach. Does that sound fun?”
He recalled the sight of her in a bikini again. “Actually, that sounds great.”
They met at Wrightsville Beach later that afternoon and spent a couple of hours on Jet Skis before Colin returned home to squeeze in a quick workout. They cooked dinner at Maria’s and then, like the night before, spent the next few hours wrapped in each other’s arms.
Monday morning came too soon, but that week they spent as much time together as they could. Colin met Maria for lunch twice, and on Wednesday, she spent the evening at Crabby Pete’s, nursing a Diet Pepsi and working on a legal brief for Barney with her MacBook propped on the bar in front of her. Aside from his shifts and classes, a few hours for working out, and family brunch, they were together almost every minute, and went to both the farmers’ market and the aquarium, neither of which Colin had ever contemplated visiting before.
Through it all, he simply tried to embrace the way he felt about her. He didn’t think about it, didn’t worry about it, didn’t try to understand it. Instead, he enjoyed the way he felt whenever she laughed, and how sexy she was when she knit her eyebrows in concentration; he savored the feel of her hand in his as they walked and talked, their conversations drifting from the serious to the silly.
On Sunday night, in bed after making love, Maria was lying on her stomach, her knees bent and feet up as she nibbled on some grapes. Colin found it impossible to take his eyes from her, ogling her until she playfully tossed a grape at him.
“Stop staring. You’re making me feel self-conscious.”
He reached for the grape and popped it in his mouth. “Why?”
“Because I’m Catholic and we’re not married, maybe?”
He chuckled. “Your mother asked if I was Catholic, didn’t she? When we were at lunch the first time?”
“You understand Spanish?”
“Not really. I took it in high school and barely passed, but I heard my name and the word católico when she was at the table. It wasn’t that hard to translate. But yes,” he continued. “I was raised Catholic. I was baptized and confirmed, the whole nine yards. But I pretty much stopped going to church after I got sent off to school, so I’m not sure what that makes me now.”
“She’ll still be happy.”
“Good.”
“How did they get you confirmed if you stopped going to church?”
“Donations, I guess. Probably a big one, because the priest let me do a cram course one summer and even though I didn’t do any of the work, the next year, they let me get confirmed anyway.”
“That’s kind of cheating.”
“It’s not kind of cheating. It is cheating. On the plus side, I got a go-kart out of it, so that was kind of nice.”
“A go-kart?”
“It was either that or I wouldn’t do it. For all the good it did me. I totaled it within a couple of weeks and refused to talk to my parents the rest of the summer because they wouldn’t buy me a new one.”
“Nice,” she said sarcastically.
“I’ve never hidden the fact that I have issues.”
“I’m aware.” She smiled. “But sometimes, I wish you’d surprise me in a good way when you talk about your younger years.”
He thought about it. “I beat up my older sister’s ex-boyfriend once. Does that count? Since he was a total jerk?”
“No,” she said, “that doesn’t count.”
He smiled. “Do you want to have lunch tomorrow?”
“I’d love to, but I already promised Jill. She texted me earlier and I forgot to mention it. I’m open to a late dinner, though.”
“I can’t,” he said. “I have to work.”
“You mean we might not see each other tomorrow? Whatever am I going to do?”