“No, he said he was running late.”
Rose took her mother’s hand. “Well, come sit with us then.”
Her mother tried in vain to protest that she didn’t want to be a bother, but Rose insisted she wasn’t.
“Where did Vince go?” she asked after she introduced her mom to Romero’s uncles and Aida.
“He’s in the restroom,” Manny said.
Rose didn’t bother looking at the menu anymore. It was the same as the La Jolla Shores restaurant, and she practically had it memorized. When Vince wasn’t back after more than a few minutes, she began to worry. That noise his stomach had made earlier sounded just awful. Maybe he was coming down with something. Come to think of it, he did seem a little tense.
“Maybe I should go check on him,” she said to no one in particular glancing back in the direction of the men’s room to see if he was on his way back.
“No, no he’s fine,” Romero said.
“Yeah, maybe he just had to drop a good one before dinner.” Max said. “Sometimes it’s good—”
Rose turned to face Max, disgusted, just as Romero nudged him. “Are you f**king kidding me right now?” Romero glared at his uncle then glanced back at Rose and smiled. “I’m sure Vince’s is fine.”
She wouldn’t say what she was thinking, but how would Romero know? Vince had been gone a while, and there was no sign of him anywhere. Turning back to her mom, she saw her whispering something to Sarah, who Rose hadn’t even noticed was there. She tapped her on the leg. “I’m gonna go see about Vincent.”
Her mother pushed out her own chair. “I’ll go with you. I need you to help me with something in the ladies’ room.”
Her mom convinced her they should go into the ladies’ room first before looking for Vincent. After adjusting her mother’s bra strap for like the sixth time, Rose asked if it finally felt right. Her mother looked at her watch then smiled. “Yes, that’s perfect.”
Rose stared at her confused. She didn’t even look at it or scrutinize it in the mirror like she had the first five times and always found something wrong. Her mom grabbed her hand. “Let’s go.”
Rose heard it as soon as they walked out of the ladies’ room—music. A guitar to be exact, strumming softly. It was being played over the sound system. A slow piece, soft but pretty, and Rose thought she recognized the song but was distracted when they came to the men’s room, and she slowed wondering if she should knock.
“He’s over here,” her mom said, walking ahead of her into the dining room.
Relieved Rose followed her but stopped when she realized the lights had been dimmed, and everyone was gone.
“What’s going on? Where did everyone go?” She glanced around then back at her mom who was on her way toward the front door. “Where did you see Vincent?” Her mother didn’t answer she just kept walking. “Where you going?”
A little spooked and not sure why, Rose hurried after her mom who simply waved at her to follow her. She hadn’t wanted to admit it earlier, but this had officially turned into a weird evening. As she stepped outside with her mom onto the boardwalk where everyone stood looking at her with big smiles, she was stunned. The entire family was there even the kids. The music she’d heard inside was playing out there, too. She recognized the song just as the crowd opened up and revealed a guy sitting on a stool with a guitar, two speakers, and a microphone in front of him. He sang a very soulful version of NSync’s This I promise you, but it was still very pretty.
Not exactly sure what was going on yet and already feeling emotional, Rose was sure it had something to do with Vincent. Obviously everyone but Rose had been in on it. Then she saw the boat: one of the dinner cruise boats like the ones Angel and Sarah’s restaurant offered brunch cruises on, on Sundays, only right now it was all lit up with what looked like Christmas lights. As it got closer and she realized Vincent was on it, she brought her hand to her mouth. “What in the world?”
This close she could now see that the lights on the boat spelled something out. When she was able to make out what it said, she choked up.