Exiled to Texas to attend college, Beverly Hills debutant, Lola Brennan was encouraged to experience life and learn the value of a dollar, but instead, partied, played and blew through her trust fund.
Having no other choice, her parents cut her off, and insist she return home for the holidays.
Dante Brewer, raised by his single Puerto Rican mother has had a hard life. Away at college, halfway across the country, he’s devastated to learn that his little sister needs a kidney transplant and her life depends on him getting back home to East LA.
Paths collide in a heated rush when fate throws Lola and Dante together on a cross-country trek in a classic 1953 Cadillac convertible.
Racing against the clock, can they reach California before the spoiled little rich girl kills the hood rat, or is a taste of life from the other side of the tracks exactly what they both needed?
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The Long Way Home
Copyright © 2011 Robin Badillo
ISBN: 978-1-77111-035-8
Cover art by Martine Jardin
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.
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Smashwords Edition
The Long Way Home
By
Robin Badillo
To Mike L., for being crazy enough to think we could run away to Mexico and live life with our toes in the sand. Ah, to be twenty-one again…
Chapter One
On the verge of tears, Lola Brennan sat in a café near campus sipping her non-fat mocha latte, twisting the blonde ringlets sprouting from her thrown together ponytail.
In the middle of her junior year of college, she’d just gotten a call from her parents saying they’d cut her off. There would be no more money for school, no money for the lifestyle she’d grown accustomed to and no money for the little incidentals she believed she was entitled.
Life pretty much sucked.
Examining her chipped manicured nails, she sighed. They hadn’t been properly maintained in over a week and she hadn’t had a massage, facial or even a pedicure in nearly three. All the perks of growing up with money had suddenly disappeared and withdrawal had all but morphed into a full blown temper tantrum.
What had she done this time to warrant such brash actions from her father? She hadn’t let her grades slip below a C average. True, they teetered right on the edge of failure, but hadn’t actually fallen over.
She’d cut back on using the emergency credit card they’d given her. Trips to the mall had been limited to the absolute bare necessities like the little black Chanel dress, the perfectly matching handbag, with the lambskin lining and Jimmy Choo heels.
She’d been invited to a banquet hosted by the mayor’s daughter and she certainly couldn’t wear what she’d worn to the last party. The fifteen hundred dollar shopping spree was an emergency.
There had to be another reason for their decision. Lola, strummed her fingers on the table, preoccupied with what that could have been.
It couldn’t have been Brent Taylor. She’d convinced her parents that she’d stopped seeing him, just as her father had demanded. Driving her new car into the lake because he’d gotten drunk at a frat party wasn’t reason enough for her to break up with him for real and what they didn’t know wouldn’t hurt.
They were a thousand miles away. How could they know about that? Besides, why should they continue to hold her responsible for it anyway? Brent was behind the wheel. She wasn’t to blame. She had passed out in the back seat and wasn’t even driving.
In her mind, none of those things were reason enough for her parents to cut off total financial support. She was just enjoying her independence. Wasn’t college supposed to be fun?
Apparently not or they wouldn’t have sent a plane ticket with instructions to return home over Christmas break where they planned to sit down and discuss her financial situation.
Lola wanted to be in Aspen, with all of her friends, but that wouldn’t happen now. She was going home to California to face the music and beg for her trust fund back.
Aspen would just have to wait until next Christmas.
* * * *
On a mission to change his family’s life forever, Dante Brewer hadn’t been home in over a year. His final year at school was half over. The full ride scholarship he’d earned had served its purpose and given him the education he knew he would have never been able to afford otherwise.
All of his hard work had paid off. When he graduated in June, he’d pick right up where he’d left off, and resume taking care of his mother and fourteen-year-old sister, Jesse, back in Los Angeles. Only this time, he would have a career to sustain them instead of a part time job at the mechanic shop down the street.
Nearly four years halfway across the country from his family had been hard, but he had no choice. He had to go where the scholarship was offered.
Taking on extra shifts at work, Dante spent all of his money buying the plane ticket he now clutched tightly in his hand. This Christmas visit would be bittersweet because the gift he was bringing home to Jesse was more valuable than anything he could ever buy. He was giving her another shot at a long and happy life by donating his kidney to his little sister.
Jesse had gone into renal failure in November and dialysis had done all it could to keep her going. The transplant was necessary. Her life depended on it.
Trekking across campus, Dante’s stomach swirled as he recalled running all the way back to his dorm after learning that he was a match. Calling his little sister was the only thing on his mind and hearing her weakened voice when he told her he would save the day, almost made him believe that he could be the superhero she’d always thought he was.
He’d taken time off from his nightshift security job at the mall and was assured his position would be held until he’d recuperated completely and returned to school and work. It helped that he was well liked and respected.
Dante hadn’t planned to stay home as long as the doctors said he should though. He was stubborn and knew that every hour missed from work was money he couldn’t send home. He’d made sure they had whatever they needed even when it meant working overtime and going without while he was at school.
He had goals. He would graduate, land a job back home in LA and take care of his mom and sister the way his father should have. Dante wouldn’t walk out on them.
Jesse’s improved health was just the first of many goals he’d set for himself and was, without a doubt, the most important.
* * * *
“Can you believe my dad?” Lola asked her roommate, Stephanie. Still sitting in the campus café, she pondered her dilemma.
Studying her plane ticket, the word coach bothered her immensely.
“Girl, your dad sounds like a tyrant.”
“More like Scrooge,” she mumbled more to herself than aloud.
Deep down she knew her father wasn’t a tightwad, but right now, the last thing she wanted was to lessen her annoyance. The more unfair he sounded, the more she could justify her own point of view.
“So, is he like going to let you have your trust fund or not?”
“I don’t know. I plan to work my daddy’s little girl routine on him and hope he’ll forget all of this so everything will go back to the way it was.” She pushed her mocha latté across the table and watched the liquid slosh. A nagging twist in her gut told her that her parents weren’t going to budge.
“I’m so happy my parents are in Europe half the year. I only chose a college in Texas because I figured this was the last place my mother would ever want to visit and I was right.” Stephanie folded her arms across her chest, appearing quite pleased with herself.
“Well at least your mother understands the need for a woman to be pampered. Mine said I should get a job over the summer if I wanted to have money for next year. Can you believe that crap? Just because she did it when she was my age doesn’t mean I should.”
“Humph,” Stephanie scoffed. “Aspen won’t be the same without you.”
“Don’t remind me.”
Lola sat back and thought hard about what she was going to say when she got home. She only had a week to plan her defense. The five days until her flight left would be nerve racking and the five-hour flight with a one-hour layover in Denver would be all the time she had for a dress rehearsal. December fifteenth couldn’t come fast enough.
Glancing down at her cell phone, she noted the time. “Crap, I’m late for class. I better run.” Lola scooped up her purse, books, folders and the loose papers she’d never taken the time to organize.
“See ya’.” Stephanie waved as Lola pushed in her chair.
“Later, Steph.” Lola stomped toward the door with her mind spinning and filled with more thoughts of what she would say to her dad. Begging would be easier in person. He rarely resisted her when she fluttered her long eyelashes and pouted. She’d learned that trick by the time she was three.
Contemplating strategies and not paying any attention to where she was going, Lola crashed right into someone. Her cheek burned from where she made impact into the shoulder of whoever had the misfortune of crossing her path.
Paper, books and folders flew into the air and floated down onto the café floor.
“Gees, can’t you watch where you’re going?” she blurted before looking up at the handsome bronze face before her.
Her cheeks instantly flushed hot, taking in the sculpted features of the doe-eyed god before her. He was gorgeous.
“I’m so sorry about that. I was distracted,” he replied with a deep baritone timbre that seeped into her like coconut oil on a sizzling hot beach. He picked up the scattered mess of books and papers they’d both dropped during the collision.
“Uh, no, it’s totally my fault,” she replied, immediately changing her attitude. Lola fluttered her long eyelashes, tilted her head to the side and curled her lips into a calculated smile.
“Um, here.” He shoved a stack of papers and books toward her. “I think these are all yours.” His tone morphed into an agitated huff, as though completely unaffected by her wiles.
“Uh, thanks.” Lola swallowed hard.
“No, problem.” He turned and headed for the door, not even looking back in her direction.
Lola’s heart sank, shocked by his lack of attention, especially considering she’d pulled out the big guns, using her best flirting technique.
She watched him disappear through the door and shrugged. “Humph.” He must be gay.
She picked up her purse, along with her dented ego, from where she’d dropped them on the floor, and headed to class.
* * * *
As Dante left the café, he threw the crinkled papers and files in the trash and hurried down the sidewalk.
A flash of the beautiful girl he’d just crashed into darted across his cluttered mind. It wasn’t that he hadn’t noticed her sweet smile, incredible blue eyes or flawless skin wrapped up in a perfect package. He just didn’t have the time or the patience for girls right now. Not even strikingly stunning ones. The only girl he had time for was Jesse.
It was after seven o’clock and already dark by the time Dante made it back to his room. He tossed his jacket across the foot of his twin bed and sat down at his computer desk. Rubbing his throbbing temples, he ran down the mental list of everything he had to do over the next few days.
He reached for his books and plane ticket. Making sure he made it to the airport early enough bothered him and was top priority. If he called a taxi he would get there quicker, but use more than he could spare of the money he had left. The bus was reliable, but he had to leave extra early to get there on time.
He flipped through the pages of his textbook where he’d put his boarding pass and itinerary for safekeeping.
“What the hell?”
The ticket was gone.
Dante frantically grabbed his jacket and checked the pockets. Where could it be?
Leaning against his small, dimly lit desk, he retraced his steps from the last time he’d seen the ticket. His heart pounded in his chest and a cold sweat broke across his brow.
He had it at the café and when he went to his last class and—majestic blue eyes flashed in his mind’s eye. The girl.
They had both dropped their books. He’d picked everything up and handed her stuff back. Maybe he’d inadvertently given her his ticket mixed up with her things.
How could he find her? Was she even a student there or was she just visiting? Questions stacked up, intensifying the acute throb in his head.
Panic swooped down, nearly taking his breath away. Oh, shit! What if I threw it away with the rest of the papers at the café? Dante clenched his fists. There was only one way to find out and the café was the best place to start.
If it had ended up with the girl, which he hoped it hadn’t, finding her could be nearly impossible.
He didn’t have much time and the non-refundable tickets were too important to waste another second speculating over. He had to find them.
Jesse was counting on him.
Chapter Two
“Coach? I still don’t see how in the world my dad could expect me to fly coach,” Lola complained to Stephanie.
They briskly walked through the cold night air to the party her boyfriend, Brent, warned them not to miss.
“Isn’t coach like for poor people or something? I mean is he trying to torture you or what?” Stephanie wasn’t helping Lola’s mood.
“I guess I’m going to find out.” Lola reached in her bag to re-examine the information on the ticket. She dug down to the bottom. “Oh, no, where is it?”
“Where is what?” Stephanie asked as she applied yet another layer of lip gloss onto her already over-glossed lips.
“My ticket. It’s not here.” Lola panicked. Her stomach rippled with flutters of distress.
There was no way she could call her parents and tell them she’d lost it. It would only prove their point about her lack of responsibility. They would never give her back her trust fund. “It has to be here somewhere.”
“Where did you have it last?”
Lola let her bag hang to the ground and thought about the afternoon. She’d been so preoccupied with her parents, she hadn’t thought of much else all day. “I had it when we were talking at lunch. I left you in the café before going to—” Suddenly, she remembered the collision with the gorgeous guy she resigned herself to believing was gay.