Unveiling Love

Chapter Nine

Four hours later, we'd stopped for gas three times. It would have been more had Sandro not loaded travel tanks in the bed of the truck. I'd only ever seen my dad do that when we went camping, but I wasn't about to say that out loud.

"Is it possible to pull over and eat?" I asked, effectively breaking the hour long silent streak we had going on. I'd mentioned one day being a mother and Sandro freaked out and asked me to stop talking.

"There's a McDonald's at the next exit. It'll be a little while though."

"That's fine, but can I at least talk now?"

"What do you want to talk about?"

"Well, I want to ask you a question, but I don't want you to get mad."

"That's not a good start. I already feel ticked and you haven't even asked yet."

I leaned my head on the headrest and looked out my window. Why did this man have to be so difficult to talk to?

"Ask, Rosa."

"Are you sure?"

"Are you trying to cause medical issues for me?" he asked.

"Okay! I'm sorry! I'm just curious as to why you kissed me on my birthday. I feel like I deserve an explanation."

He was quiet for a long time. So long, in fact, I thought he was going to ignore my question. He surprised me though.

"When you wrote me the letter the summer after you turned eighteen, I thought it was sweet. You were eighteen, so in my head you were still a kid, you know?" he asked. I wanted to whither away because, no, I didn't know what he meant. It was depressing to know he still saw a kid when I'd wanted him to see me as an adult. "Anyway, the following year you all came to Colorado and I was able to see you for a few days. You weren't a kid anymore. Then of course your twentieth birthday was a big deal so Ivy wanted to go home. You had a boyfriend at the time." His hands clench the steering wheel. "I got jealous. I was used to your flirty behavior and then all of a sudden, you were directing it toward someone else. I shouldn't have kissed you, but I'm human and I made a terrible mistake."

"You were jealous of Brad?" I asked. A smile was slowly making its way onto my face.

"It wasn't my brightest moment."

It was the most Sandro had ever spoken to me, and thankfully I had the sense to not push him. He'd admitted a lot in that few minutes. The least I could do was let him have some peace after his confession.

"Thank you for being honest with me," I said after a moment.

"I feel like 'you're welcome' is the wrong response, but, you're welcome."

A little while later, he pulled off on an exit ramp and took my to McDonald's for lunch. It wasn't long after that I finally lost my fight with sleep.