Blind Spot

Chapter 1

Charlyse “Charly” Aurora Morr

TEN YEARS EARLIER

Iwas so excited about my new car that I found places to go, even if it was running errands for my mom or going to the gas station.

It didn’t matter; I was on cloud nine. Although my parents were divorced, they had worked together to buy me a brand-new car for my sixteenth birthday.

It was the best present I had ever received.

My dad had started teaching me how to drive at twelve, and I had only gotten better through the years.

Whereas most of my friends had restrictions about not driving their friends around until after they had their license for a year, I didn’t have those same restrictions.

My parents trusted me, and they knew that I was skilled at driving both on the streets and on the highways.

Despite my excitement about my new car over the last twenty-four hours, I did not look forward to going on this particular trip. Somehow, I had allowed one of my best friends, Tunisia Atkins, to talk me into doing what I was about to do.

A part of me knew that it was a bad idea, but the other side said that at least I would have it off my chest once and for all. I pulled up to the large, three-story brick home with the professionally landscaped lawn and prize-winning rosebushes and begonias.

Mrs. Garcia-Strong kept a beautiful and immaculate home, and Mr. Strong made sure that she had everything she needed to keep it that way. He also gave his boys everything their hearts desired, but he didn’t take any mess off them either.

They were great parents, and while my parents were wonderful, too, I often wished they had managed to survive divorce and keep loving each other even through the storms. After three years, I still hadn’t become accustomed to not having my dad in the house full-time or going to his place, and my mama not being in the kitchen cooking.

I could tell that he was dating because there was evidence of another woman at his place, but whoever she was, she wasn’t allowed there when I was. For that, I was thankful to my dad.

I placed the car in park in the circular driveway and jogged up the steps.

Closing my eyes, I inhaled deeply for several long seconds and held it before I released it again.

I glanced across the street at the house I had fallen in love with at eight years old and had to say goodbye only five years later.

When my parents divorced, they had to sell the house because they couldn’t keep it up without both of their incomes. While it wasn’t as large as the Garcia-Strong house, it was just as nice and much bigger than either of my current homes.

I turned back to the door and inhaled and exhaled repeatedly before I opened the door. The Garcia-Strong family viewed me as another one of their kids. I never had to knock from the moment that I met them eight years ago.

A loud TV blared from somewhere in the back of the house.

The low hum of voices somewhere in the back made the house feel welcoming.

The aromatic smell of a Cuban dish cooking in the kitchen wafted to my nose, and I made my way there.

The Strongs’ middle child, Ramon, sat at the table eating his mother’s Fricase de pollo, while Gabriela Garcia-Strong was at the counter rolling out dough.

“Hola, bebé.” She greeted me cheerily with her cheek lifted for a kiss.

Ramon barely looked up from his plate to acknowledge me with a nod. Beside his plate was a book on economics. He was very studious, and he always had his nose in a book.

“Hi, Mama Gabi.” I greeted her with a kiss and a hug. She kissed my forehead as she gave me a sidearm hug.

“Did you enjoy your gift?” she asked.

Gabriela and her husband, Johnathan, had given me a gift basket with gold hoop earrings and a matching bangle, a Nastasia handbag and matching wallet, a Hello Kitty candle set, matching loungewear and slippers from the Shawni Palmer line, my favorite R&B singer, Shawni Palmer, and the newest perfume by R&B singer, Sienna.

“I loved it!” I exclaimed.

My parents had also thrown me a sweet sixteen party at an event hall, and all of my friends and family were there. Of course, the Garcia-Strong family came to represent, even Joaquin, the oldest brother, who was in his last year of college.

“Not as much as that new car, I bet.” Ramone finally spoke up as he carried his plate to the sink to rinse it.

“Oh, boy, hush. What kid wouldn’t love a car more?” his mother asked.

“I loved it, Mamá.”

“I know you did, baby. I smell the perfume on you now, and it smells lovely.”

“And I’m wearing the new earrings and bracelet,” I added, showing off the jewelry that she and her husband had purchased for me.

Her eyes twinkled with delight, and she smiled at me again. “He’s upstairs in his bedroom, honey,” she stated, referencing her youngest son, Dominic, whom I had come to visit.

“Thanks.” I ran out of the kitchen and up the stairs. My steps slowed for the first time in history as I approached his bedroom. A rock sat in the pit of my stomach, and I felt slightly queasy.

I had to get it over with, so there was no use in procrastinating. I knocked and then opened the door when I heard him call out, “Come in.”

Stepping into the bedroom, my heart raced as it always did at the sight of my male best friend, Dominic Garcia-Strong.

Only, the racing that it now did had nothing to do with my former excitement whenever he came around for bike rides, finding turtles in the creek, or battling each other on the latest video game.

No, my heart ran a different race and had a far faster speed than ever as I took in the sight before me.

That rich, bronzed sepia-colored skin that hinted at his Cuban and African American heritage, dotted with droplets of water fresh from his shower, looked delectable.

The perfectly toned body that displayed muscles from his chest down to his toned legs naturally flexed in a routine activity like drying his curly hair.

A low hum started in my belly as Dominic pulled the towel over his curly hair.

It vibrated with intensity and turned into an aggressive throb between my legs as every muscle in his body drew taut.

The throb turned into an ache that forced a whimper from me when the towel around his waist bounced happily.

And when he dragged the towel over his face, my heart beat out of sync as hooded, sexy, russet-colored eyes looked back up at me, and full lips turned up in a smile.

“Hey, girl. What took you so long?”

“My mom wanted me to clean the kitchen first.”

He bobbed his head and tossed his towel into the clothes hamper as he made his way to the drawer. My eyes dropped to that tight behind of his, those powerful-looking legs, and his broad back that rippled with more muscles.

When he turned around with his underwear in his hands, I clenched my thighs tight.

Dominic had been my best friend since we were both eight, but these days, he had me thinking thoughts that I should not think.

I couldn’t tell you when my thoughts of him being the big brother I never had turned to wanting him as my boyfriend.

His manhood swung happily between his legs, and I found myself watching its slightly crooked curve.

“So wassup? What did you need to holler at me about?”

We saw each other almost daily, but we hadn’t had plans to visit each other today. I’d been with him all day yesterday, even before my birthday celebration.

When he pulled his underwear up and covered his third leg, it broke the trance that I was in.

“I uhm . . . I. Well, never mind,” I replied, licking my upper lip.

Dominic sat down on the bed in front of me, gripped my chin, and held my head up. “Hey, this is me. You know that we can talk to each other about anything. Don’t hold back, a’ight?”

I lowered my gaze and inhaled deeply.

“Okay?” he repeated.

“Yeah.”

“So spit it out.”

I fiddled with my hands and stared down at them as I spoke. Dominic got up and moved around the room, grabbing clothes from his massive walk-in closet and a pair of the latest Nikaj gym shoes.

“We’ve been best friends for years.”

“Right.”

“And you’ve always had my back through the roughest points of my life, including my parents’ divorce.”

“And I always will, baby girl,” he replied, pulling on a pair of sweatpants.

“You’ve told me repeatedly how some of these dummies out here aren’t good enough for me, and you didn’t want me getting caught up with some of these knuckleheads who try to get with me.”

“And they ain’t,” he replied, turning that coppery, warm gaze on me.

“But I’ve never really wanted to be with them anyway. Not like that. I don’t . . . don’t have feelings for the boys like they have for me.”

He paused from tying his shoe and looked up at me. I chewed my bottom lip, trying to figure out how to say the next words, but then he spoke. “You like girls, Charly?”

“What?”

“Are you gay? I mean, it’s cool if that’s what you’re feeling, then I promise not to judge you. I might not understand that shit, but—”

“No! I don’t get down like that, Dom.” The conversation wasn’t going the way that I intended at all. I wasn’t sure how to get it back on track.

“I’m not judging if you are. I mean, I know that you’re still a virgin, and that’s a great thing, but if you—”

I shoved his shoulder and mean-mugged him. “I said that I don’t! I don’t like girls! I don’t like the boys who flirt with me! I like you, Dom! Okay? It’s you who I want to be my boyfriend. You, who I want to share my first kiss with. You, who I want to take my virginity. I love you, Dom.”

The last sentence came out much softer and less aggressive than everything else that I’d spoken until that point. It came out like a whine and was filled with exasperation.

The room was so silent that you could hear a penny drop on the thick, plush, Berber carpet on his floor.

Dominic stared at me with his mouth wide open and something in his eyes that I could not read. My heart squeezed in my chest as I tried and failed for the first time in the history of our friendship to read my friend. I couldn’t interpret his closed-off expression, but the silence was condemning.

“Dom, please say something. Don’t be quiet on me like this now.”

“What do you want me to say, Char? You just dropped something like that in my lap,” he replied and dragged his hand down his face.

“Say something. Anything. You’re the one who said I could talk to you about anything.”

“And you can. I just don’t know how to respond to that.”

“What do you feel, Dom?”

He shrugged and shook his head. “I’on know, man. You threw me for a loop. It’s like Karter coming and telling me he wanna get with me.”

“What?”

“Charly, you know what I mean. You’re you . . . and I’m me,” he stated, waving his hand up and down at me.

My heart squeezed so tightly that I could feel the blood dripping onto the floor. “Oh,” I whispered.

“I mean, man, don’t be mad at me. But we can’t ever be a thing, Char.

I’m honored, hell, even humbled that you’d want me to be the one to take your virginity, but I can’t do that shit.

I see you like I see Ramon and Joaquin. You’re the fourth sibling in this family. My feelings don’t run like that.”

“You always said you loved me,” I replied softly as tears fell down my cheeks.

“And I do love you, Char, but I love you the way I love my brothers. Baby girl, I’m not trying to hurt your feelings, but it’s like . . . you’re the little sister we never had,” he explained, reaching out to wipe my tears.

I leaned back. “Don’t.”

“Come on, Char. Don’t be mad at me.”

“I’m not. I just need a minute,” I declared, bouncing off his bed.

“Charlyse Morr,” he stated firmly, getting up and grabbing my upper arm.

I pulled away from him and then demanded, “Give me some time, Dom. I just need a minute to breathe.”

He took a couple of steps back, and I walked out of his bedroom. I jogged back down the steps, praying that no one was in front of the house.

“Hey, Char!” Mr. Strong greeted me from the living room.

“Hey, Papa Strong!” I called out in a false cheery voice as I plowed through the front door. I jumped into my car and pulled out so fast that no one could catch me if they wanted to. One glance in the rearview mirror, and I could see Dominic standing in the upstairs hallway window watching me.

Once I pulled out of the subdivision, I broke. I sobbed all the way back home, hating that I’d made a fool of myself, and hating that I’d listened to Tunisia. I had no idea that it would be the last time I saw my best friend for a year because he would ghost me.