Love in Bloom (De La Fuente Family 3)

What was he doing?

Who was the man talking in the background?

He let Allie lead him through the bar to the doors of the club, because he’d begun to crave fresh air.

“Mateo, what’s wrong with you?” Allie asked, but something told him she knew.

“Put him in the car.”

Was that Derek’s voice?

“Too much to drink.” Allie laughed, as he lay across the back seat of a car.

He watched, through barely focused eyes, as she climbed on top of him. His limbs felt too heavy to move—to push her off. There was some commotion behind her seconds before white light exploded in front of his eyes and the car door slammed shut.

“He’s ruined now,” a male voice slurred. “Make sure you don’t screw this up.”

“I won’t,” she replied.

His lights went out.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Erin had managed to hold herself together until she’d gotten home to her apartment, and then she’d let go. She’d cried herself to sleep and felt sick and miserable after Mateo’s behavior at the club.

She’d watched him wrapped up in Allie as they’d left the club. Her heart had broken.

When Mateo had first shown real interest in her, she’d known that he was a handsome man and had a past with the ladies, she just never expected him to abandon her the way he had. Everything between them had felt real and beautiful, until he’d spotted the other woman across the club.

When she’d walked away, Sadie had talked her in to believing that there must be more of a reason, but she’d given up on that idea when she’d seen him leave.

She’d been a fool and waited for about an hour for him to return to her, but he hadn’t so she’d left and shared a cab with her friends who’d tried to stay at her place. She’d just wanted to be alone though and managed to finally get that through to them.

So they’d left and she’d had a melt down.

It was early morning: five am. And the more she thought about it, the more she wondered if something else really had been going on with Mateo last night.

In Montana, he’d been torn when Allie had clung to him for comfort after her brother had been in an accident, but something had been different. The man she’d fallen in love with wouldn’t hav

e just left her at the club even though he knew that she had friends with her.

So why hadn’t he returned?

She’d go to his apartment and ask for an explanation. He’d told her that it wasn’t how it looked so she’d give him the benefit of the doubt. But what if she walked into something she wasn’t prepared for? What if he really was through with her?

There was only one way to find out.

She quickly dressed in her comfort jeans, shirt and chucks. Placed her sunglasses over her eyes to cover the evidence of her night in tears and grabbed her purse.

All the way to Mateo’s apartment in the cab, she chewed her lip wondering how he’d react to seeing her at his apartment so early. He hadn’t made any attempt to call since he’d left her alone.

And twenty minutes later, when the cab pulled up at his complex, she’d come to the decision that she wasn’t going to back away. She wanted to know what was going on and hated that she felt on edge because of him and his actions.

They usually said actions speak louder than words, but on this occasion, she hoped the actions had been more misleading than anything.

Erin paid the cab driver and let herself in through the front doors, where she smiled at the security guard. Luckily, he was the same one who had been working when Mateo had put her as a resident in his apartment and gotten her the keycard sorted so she could come and go as she pleased.

The elevator ride up to the twenty-third floor took it’s time and by the time she’d gotten off and stood outside his door, she felt sick to her stomach.