In the evening, as she sat out on the back patio, her phone rang.

"Hey," she heard Angel's voice on the other side of the line.

"How was the trip to Arizona?"

"Good. We're staying for the night before coming back. I heard about your car trouble. Glad Bishop was there to help."

"I hope you don't mind me reaching out to him. You weren't here and I couldn't get a tow for a few hours."

"No, I just didn't know you had his number."

Isabella closed her eyes and bit her lower lip. "He gave it to me the night of the barbecue after we ran into each other. I guess he figured with you being out of town, I might need it. It came in handy."

"Yeah. Look, I need to go but I'll call or stop by when I get back."

"Sure. I'm not going anywhere. Goodnight, Angel and drive safely tomorrow."

"I will," he answered before ending the call.

He looked out at the skyline from the hotel room terrace and exhaled.

"Everything cool?" asked Coco as he stepped out and lit a cigarette.

Angel nodded.

"Then what's bothering you, hermano?"

"Did Bishop mention anything about Bella?" He watched as Coco thought for a few seconds.

"Nah man, not that I can recall. Why do you ask?"

"Just curious as to what he thought about her."

"We all like her, at least from the little time we spent with her, and she brought cake and churros."

Angel laughed. "And we all know the way to a man's heart is through his stomach."

"Maybe but she scored points is all I'm saying. If Bishop likes her, I think it's because she's not like the other girls that around the club. She's smart and so is he. That might be a reason why they connected."

"I guess you're right."

"You still like her, huh?"

"I don't think I ever stopped. I had all our future planned out in my head. You know?"

"Why did she leave?"

"Overall, Bella was always bigger than Santo Padre, it's just who she was. She wanted to travel and see the world. She wanted to go to college and be the first in her family to get a degree, but she always mentioned doing it close by. After her father died, she changed. She couldn't cope with the loss nor her mother's grief. She started applying to college's further out and when she got accepted in an Ivy across the country, she didn't think twice."

"Life takes us to unknown destinations, brother. I never thought I'd go to war. But I came back and now she's back, even if it's only for a short time."

"I don't know if we can pick up where we left off."

"Don't. You've both changed. Don't pick up where you left off. Start something fresh."

Even though Angel said nothing didn't mean that Coco's words didn't echo in his mind. Maybe that had been where he had been wrong. He needed to wipe clean their past slate and start a new chapter that hopefully would get them on the right path.

Upon hearing the engine of the bike, Isabella looked out the living room window before heading to the kitchen.

"Mama, Bishop is here to take me to see the car. Don't forget you've got your first chemo session this afternoon at 2. I'll be back by then."

"Would you quit worrying about me. Samuel and I are going to do a little gardening this morning, you go get the car sorted out."

She bent over and kissed her mom. "Don't overexert yourself in the backyard."

"No lo haré. Ahora ve," said Maggie as she waved off Isabella toward the door.

"Good morning," said Bishop smiling at her as she reached him.

"Hi," she replied feeling the heat rise to her cheeks from the way he was smiling and looking at her.

"Riz has been working on the car since early this morning. He found the problem and headed to Las Madrilenas to pick up the part. He said it should be ready in two hours."

"That's great news." She then cocked her head to the side. "You could have told me that by phone."

"True," replied Bishop grinning. "I was hoping I could take you out to breakfast. Unless you've already had breakfast."

"I haven't. I'd like that."

He handed her the helmet and then they both mounted the bike before heading into town.

They followed the hostess as she led them to one of the available booths of the diner. Once she had looked at the menu and decided what she wanted, she looked around the diner.

"They removed the table jukeboxes," she said, "and the place looks so different then I remember it to."

"The owner died a couple of years ago. Those who bought it renovated it. Although I agree those little jukeboxes were great. What was one of your favorite songs?"

"Growing up my mom used to listen to Mi Tesoro by Cornelio Reyna. Every time the song would come on the radio, or my father played it on the record player, they would stop what they were doing and would dance. It was beautiful to see them locked in each other's arms. When I got older, I liked Luis Miguel's Sabor A Mi."

"Ah, two very beautiful love songs," replied Bishop, "even if from very different decades."

"Hi, can I get take your order?" asked the girl as she reached their table. "Oh, I'm sorry Bishop, I didn't see it was you."

"That's alright Letty. This is Isabella, a friend of Angel and EZ."

"Hi," said the young girl. "I'm Leticia, Coco's daughter. It's nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too," replied Isabella smiling at the young girl.

"Do you know what you want?"

"I'll have 2 sunny side up with a side of bacon and a coffee."

Letty wrote down Bishop's order than looked at Isabella.

"I'll have the same."

"That was easy. I'll send that to the kitchen right away and come back with the coffee."

"No rush, Letty," replied Bishop.

She nodded and walked away.

"I didn't know Coco had a daughter."

Bishop nodded. "It's a long story. She must be around Samuel's age. I got her this job when she realized she wasn't going to make it in school. Coco was worried about her working the streets."

"You really are there for one another."

"We look out for one another, it's important. I know Coco wants to make things right with her, I'm just making sure he gets a chance."

"It's nice of you."

After Letty returned with their coffees, he looked at her as her phone vibrated. She looked at the message then frowned.

"Everything OK?"

"Yeah, sorry. It's my boss. He's not too happy with me right now. Initially I had said I'd work from here, but my mom's condition changing makes it so that I can't focus on that right now. I took a couple week's off and he's giving me hell about it."

"May I ask about your mom?"

"She has breast cancer. Initially it was stage 2 which meant surgery and some chemo after. Yesterday we found out it progressed to stage 3 meaning she needs to do chemo also before the surgery."

He instinctively put his hand out, placing it over hers lying flat on the tabletop. "I'm sorry. How are you taking it?"

"Honestly, I don't know. One minute I feel my entire world is coming apart and the other minute I'm trying to be the eternal optimist I am."

"That's normal. And you need to be optimistic. If you are then she'll be and she'll find the strength to fight this monster head on."

"I just don't need my boss' attitude right now. It's not like I'm Cancun sipping Pina Colada's and getting a tan."

"Let him rant, focus on you and your family."

"How do you do that?" she asked.

"Do what?"

"Always seem to find the right words to comfort me."

"It's what I would say to anyone, but if you find comfort in them, then good."

She looked down at his hand on hers, realizing that his thumb was stroking the back of it. He noticed and started to move his hand away.

"I'm sorry," he said.

"Don't be," she said placing her other hand over his, keeping it in place between hers. They locked eyes and smiled as she removed her hand and instead of leaving his hand over hers, he took it in his.

"Here you go," said Letty as she reached the table. Seeing they were in a different time zone; she smiled and placed the plates in front of them. "Enjoy your breakfast."

After a few minutes, Bishop smiled. "I think we should eat."

"Probably."

He let go of her hand and they started to eat.