One
Player
4 years ago.
“Reggie.”
I hid my smile as her whispered voice followed along with the breeze through the trees. She was waiting for me. I knew she would be. We had been sneaking into the family garden for months now. She was stunning. Everything about her called to me on some elemental level I couldn’t ignore.
I wanted her as my wife.
I asked her many times already, but each time she said no. I knew why too. It was her brother. My cousin’s personal bodyguard. He hated me for some reason, and I didn’t know why.
Honestly, I was too afraid to ask.
The man scared me.
I never trusted Angelo Demarco.
Angelo Demarco always believed he was better than everyone else. From the moment his family arrived when he was twelve years old, Angelo was nothing but a bully. As he got older, so did his vile tendencies towards anyone who didn’t fall in line. Then he became Gio’s personal bodyguard, and there was no escaping him.
Always watching.
My cousins and I never could get away with anything if Angelo were around. Uncle Val would often know what happened before any of us got home, and thanks to Angelo, the punishments were severe.
That was when we started ditching him.
It was easy at first, but Angelo quickly caught on, and now there was no place any of us could go without him knowing. Then his sister arrived, and though I was unsure how it was possible, the asshole got worse. The man was a leach, an insipid vile creature who only concerned himself with his own being and the power he wielded.
How he was related to Cat, I would never know.
They were like night and day. Where she was all light and beauty, he was the darkness that slithered in the night, looking to kill.
I hated him.
“Reggie?”
Creeping through the trees, I spotted her up ahead. God, she was beautiful. Long flowing raven hair. It was skin so soft that it looked to have been kissed by the sun God himself. But it was her eyes. Eyes the perfect shade of evergreen. So deep, so luminescent, I swore she could see into my soul. She was everything good and beautiful in this world, and I wanted to make her mine.
“Reggie, I know you’re here somewhere. If you don’t come out right this instant, I will tell your mother about us.”
Oh, she also had a spark of vengeance in her.
Grinning, I stepped around a large oak tree, leaned against it, and said, “Now, why did you have to go and bring my mom into this. You know that woman is just plain mean. Do you want her to ground me for life? Because she will.”
Catarina smiled brilliantly as she walked over to me, wrapping her arms around my waist. God, she smelled delicious. Like sugar and honeysuckle. My mouth watered just being around her.
“You are twenty-two years old. She can’t ground you,” she said, grinning up at me.
Shaking my head, I hugged her closer to me and whispered, “Trust me, Cat. That woman can do anything she puts her mind to.” As I lowered my head and kissed the only woman I had ever loved.
There wasn’t a single memory that I had that didn’t have Catarina in it. She was my best friend. My confidant. The one person I wanted to share everything with. From the first moment I laid eyes on her, I knew she was mine.
Mine to protect.
Catarina Francesca Demarco was one of my best friends. She was better than my cousins or my brother Dwayne with whom I used to get in trouble, with great regularity when we were small kids. Our families were close and often gathered together for dinners, holidays, and everything in between. We were always playing in each other’s backyard. We’ve always been there for each other when the other has had a bad time or experience. Cat and I are friends who can share secrets and not have the entire world hear about it the next day.
Like when Cat got her first set of braces. She felt like her world had caved in. I remember her getting mad at her parents for forcing her to wear them, then crying later after her first day of school with them on, as many of the kids ended up teasing her. I just thought she needed a hug and a friendly shoulder to cry on. So, I hugged her and was her emotional support for a week or so until the novelty wore off.