I rolled over and fell fast asleep. It was pitch black in my room the next time I woke, and I felt a million times better. Granted, I didn’t feel like running to the club and doing two hours of weights, but I at least felt well enough to sit up and flip through my phone to see what was going on.
I had a few messages from the guys checking on me and saw a couple of pictures from the night before that I knew I would never live down. It wasn’t until I clicked play on the video that real memories of the night came back to me, and I groaned like I was dying.
Wayne had videotaped me dancing on stage with one of the poles. Luckily, I had been clothed, but damn if this wasn’t the most embarrassing thing I’d ever had recorded of me. Shit—
I typed a message to him telling him he was so dead if he showed that to anyone.
I also sent a message to Ty to tell him I was alive and kicking again. He replied that he was glad to hear it. His next message made me laugh.
I’m not babysitting your ass the next time you feel sorry for yourself.
You won’t have to.
You good?
I’m good.
Better be.
I am.
Liar.
Instead of replying, I laughed and tossed my phone away. Sometimes, Ty and I shared the same mind. We could be twins we thought so much alike.
I glanced at my phone; it was a little after one. I could take a shower and get over to the club by two. I could be outside the place when Reba got off work and follow her home, find out where she lived, and then talk to her, find out what was going on.
No sooner had the thought come to mind than I was moving toward the bathroom to shower. I was dressed and out the door soon after in black jeans and a black hooded sweatshirt.
I parked down the street from the club, just out of reach of the cameras. It was a good thing I knew the security so well, or I wouldn’t have known that if I parked two car lengths closer, I would have been on the edge of the frame. It would have been small, but anyone watching the screen would have noticed the vehicle.
It was going to be sticky enough if I had to drive past the place after she pulled out. I hoped like hell she turned this direction once she pulled out of the lot. At two-thirty, three cars left the back lot, two turned right, one turned left, and I was so glad the one turning left was a dark, older-model Jeep. I waited until she passed and made sure no one else was following her and then backed my truck into the lane behind me to turn around off camera.
I stayed a few blocks behind her and had no trouble following her. She parked in a lot in the seedier part of town. She could not possibly be living here, no way.
I pulled to a stop, killed my lights, and watched her get out of her car and walk into a building beside the parking lot, stopping to unlock the front door. I could see her inside the lobby and she stopped at the community mailboxes and removed mail from one of them.
She headed toward the steps and disappeared up a flight quickly. There didn’t appear to be any other security in the building or an elevator. I waited, and a few moments later, a light blinked on in the right side of the building. I climbed out of my truck, glancing around to make sure no one was around, and crossed the street. On the third floor, Reba was standing just inside the window, reading something.
I made a beeline for the front door and wiggled the it. She had used a key to gain entrance to it, but I pulled out my wallet and within a minute had it open with the help of a credit card slipped in the crack. I took the stairs two at a time and when I got to the top floor, I glanced at the doors. There were four apartments, one on each side of the building. Well, didn’t that make it easy?
I went to the one on the right side and knocked softly. The door pulled open, and Reba jumped.
“Wallie, what are you doing here?”
“Expecting someone else?” I pushed the door open and stepped in, glancing around her tiny apartment.
“No, I wasn’t expecting anyone, especially not you. Why are you here? You shouldn’t be here.”
I glanced back at her. She looked worried, and I took her by the shoulders. “Reba, don’t worry, I’m not here to have sex with you. I came to find out what happened. I needed to make sure you were alright.”
Her expression softened, and she looked away before she turned the question back on me. “Are you okay? I heard you weren’t feeling well today.”
“I’m fine. I just needed some time off.”
She lifted her eyes to mine, and pain radiated from them, the same pain that I had felt last night when I’d heard the news. “I’m sorry, Wallie. I really am. I didn’t want to have to take the job. In fact, I was going to tell them that I wanted to quit dancing, but then something happened, and I had to take it.”
“What happened?”
She averted her gaze and bit her lip, and I cradled her face. “Reba, you have to have figured this out the other night, but I’m crazy about you, baby. I’d do anything for you, anything to help you or protect you, or I can just listen to you if you need to talk. I’m here for you.”
Her eyes misted, and it tore at my heart. I couldn’t resist pulling her into my arms and holding her. “Tell me what’s going on so I can understand, Reba. Let me help you.”
“You can’t help me, Wallie. This is my problem to deal with.”
“You don’t know that.” I pulled back and took her shoulders. I glanced around in search of a place to sit and was floored that she lived in this tiny flat while the rest of us lived in large homes. That was going to change—and fast.
I took her hand and pulled her over to her bed. When I sat down, she tried to pull her hand free. I gave her a gruff look and a command. “Sit.”
She did, but she kept as much distance between us as she could.
“Now, please, tell me what is going on.”
“After you tell me what your real name is,” she countered.
I almost laughed. “Fair enough, my real name is Leroy Walters. They call me Wall because I’m built like a wall.”
“Leroy,” she repeated, pensively, “I like that.”
“You are not allowed to use that in public. Now, tell me what’s going on.”
Air sputtered from between her lips as she exhaled quickly. “I was in college and my father found out he had cancer, stage four colon cancer. He passed away last year, it happened really quickly.”
I sighed in sympathy.
“Anyway, I dropped out of school to take care of him, and because I did, I had to start paying my loans back right away, and I didn’t have a job. I went through every penny of my savings and my father’s before he died. Once he passed, the bills took everything that was left of the estate, like the house I grew up in, and sold it all off. That’s why I live here,” she held her hands out, “and why I drive a piece of crap, because every penny goes to my debt. I expected to graduate from college and at least have a decent job where I could start paying my loans back and have my father around to help me, but of course that didn’t happen.” Her eyes dropped to the floor and her voice lowered. “The other day, I received a notice that I had ninety days to pay the balance or I was going to collections. I’m too young to have that bad strike against me. It would screw me for years, so I had to take the dancing job so I could pay as much of it back as possible in the time they gave me. I swear it had nothing to do with you, Wallie. I was going to quit dancing because I wanted to be with you.”
I listened to every word she said, and my heart broke for her. She’d lost her father and then she had been working herself to death to pay off a debt that would have been hard for anyone to pay under normal circumstances. She hadn’t complained or said how unfair it was, and now she was apologizing to me for having to do what she felt was necessary. I possibly just completely fell in love with this woman. No, I was pretty sure I did.
“Wallie? Are you mad at me? I’m sorry. I swear I was going to find a way to explain it to you.”
I pressed my fingers over her lips and hushed her. “Reba,
I’m not mad. I was just thinking about how incredible you are.”
Her eyes widened. “What?” she mumbled from behind my fingers.
“You’re amazing.”
She dislodged her lips by pulling back slightly. “I just told you that I’m in debt up to my eyeballs, and you think I’m amazing?”
I laughed. “You have integrity. You put aside what you wanted, and as much as I hate that what you want is me that you have to put aside, you are doing what you think is the right thing to do. You have obligatory bills that need to be paid back, and I get that, and I am so very sorry about the loss of your father. Were you close to him?”
She blinked rapidly for a moment and then wiped at an errant tear that rolled down her cheek. “We were close. My mom passed away when I was only fifteen, so it was only the two of us after that.”
I pulled her into my arms and kissed her forehead, holding her tightly for a moment. “You have no idea how much I want to lay you on your bed right now and make love to you, but I think we have some more important things to discuss right now.”
“Yeah, like what?”
“Like, when are you going to move in with me?”
Chapter Eleven
Reba
“Say what?”
“When are you going to move in with me?” He pulled back enough to look into my face.
I jumped back abruptly and almost fell off the bed. “I’m not going to move in with you, Wallie.”
“Yes, you are.” He remained calm.
What the hell? I spun away and hustled to the other side of the room as if putting space between us would make his crazy suggestion disappear. “Did you not hear what I said? I have obligations. I need this job—now more than ever. I can’t afford to get fired because I want to be in a relationship with you, Wallie.”
“Relax, Reba. That’s not what I’m talking about.”
I was at a loss. “Then what on earth are you talking about?”
“I want you to move in with me as a roommate, nothing romantic. If you need to dance for three months, then we put us on hold for three months. I’ve been waiting a year; I think I can wait three more months.”
“I can’t just move in with you,” I blurted.
He shrugged. “Why not? I have four other bedrooms, all with their own bathrooms. It’s closer to the club and a hell of a lot safer than this place, too. We can be roommates, and it will save you the money you are paying to live in this dump.” He threw a look around and shivered in revulsion.
“This place is not that bad.”
“I’ll take your word for it. I’m still not letting you stay here. Pack a bag; you’re coming home with me.”
“I’m not coming home with you, Wallie. If anyone saw me there, we would both be fired. I swore to Monroe that we would not sleep together again while I was dancing.”
“And we won’t. I promise you, Reba. I will be the perfect gentleman while you are working as a dancer. In fact, I’ll be your personal bodyguard. I can even drive you to and from work to save you on gas money. You don’t have to pay me a cent. You put every penny you make into paying back the college loans.”
I stared at him, completely dumbfounded at what he was suggesting. Could we do it? Could I do it? “What if I don’t have the money at the end of the ninety days? What if they won’t cut me a deal, or I can’t get a loan? What am I supposed to do then?”
“I know this is personal, Reba, but can you tell me how much you owe?”
“Just over a hundred grand.” I’d said it enough tonight that it just rolled right off my tongue.
He gave me a lopsided grin. “Easy, whatever you don’t make in the next ninety days, I’ll cover. I have that much in savings now, I can easily cover it.” He held his hand up when I went to interrupt. “You can call it a loan, and you can pay it back with interest. We can even have something drawn up in writing, if you wish, but know that whatever you need, I will cover.”
My knees weakened as I stood across the room from him, and I slipped to the floor, leaning against the wall as I did. “You would do that for me?”
He crossed the room and joined me on the floor. “Yes, I would do that for you.”
“Why?”
“Because I care about you, and I believe in you, and I feel it inside of myself that this, between us, is more than anything I have ever felt before, so I’m willing to be patient, and I’m willing to do whatever I can do to help you, so that we can build this into something incredible.”
I tried to blink back the tears, but it was no use. I was so tired and stressed and emotional, and Wallie was being way too nice. “I don’t know how to thank you, Wallie.”
“How about you thank me by saying you’ll pack a bag?”
“But what are we going to tell work?”
“The truth,” he answered and pulled out his cellphone. “In fact, I’m going to send Ty a text right now and tell him you are coming to my place to stay the night, in the guest room, and that we will explain it all tomorrow.”
“Do you think he will believe you?”
“If we were going to sneak around, do you honestly think I would send him a text? Even he knows I’m not that stupid. I could have snuck over here, made you scream my name a few dozen times, and then slipped back into the shadows and no one would have been the wiser.”
“True.”
I took a moment to study the features of his round face. His nose was a little crooked, and I realized that I’d never noticed that before. He’d probably broken it a time or two, and his eyes were set deep in the sockets, giving him a mysterious look and making the blue of his eyes look darker in the muted light of my apartment.
“Thank you, Leroy.”
He winced. “If you are going to use my first name, can you just call me Lee?”
“May I?”
He reached forward and caressed my cheek. “You may, if I may steal one kiss from you.”
“Deal,” I replied as I leaned forward.
The kiss held the promise of a future, and felt almost like a seal on a deal, too. It was sweet, with a hint of hidden passion, and I wondered how we would be able to last a few months without succumbing to the passion that bubbled under the surface between us—especially if I was living under the same roof with him.
I packed a bag while Wall—no, Lee—remained seated against the wall, texting with Ty for a few minutes. I was just about finished when he stood. “Ty wants to talk to both of us, so he’s going to meet us at my house.”
I furrowed my brows. “Do you sometimes feel like a child around them?”
He laughed. “All the time, but I know that both Quinn and Ty are trying to protect us. Ty’s like a brother to me, and he’s had my back so many times, I wouldn’t know where to even start repaying him.”
“Okay, fine,” I muttered as we prepared to leave.
Wallie grabbed my arm before I reached the door and spun me around, pulling me into his arms and kissing me again.
“I thought we weren’t going to do that anymore,” I said breathlessly when we finished.
“I needed one more before we walked out the door. Once we’re out that door, then we’re roommates. Right now things haven’t changed, but once we step out that door—things change.”
I shook my head as I laughed and turned away. “You and things changing at the doorways.”
Ty was leaning against his Viper staring at the stars in the clear night sky when Wallie pulled his truck into the driveway. I pulled my Jeep in beside Wallie’s truck, and Ty was shaking his head wearily when I glanced back in my rearview mirror.
“I have a really bad feeling about this,” he said as I climbed out of my vehicle.
“Now, cut that shit out, Ty,” Wallie said. “We got this. I’m trying to help Reba out. This is going to save her a ton of money. Do you think I can’t keep my dick in my pants for three months?”
“No,” he shook his head, “I don’t.”
I laughed. “It’s a good thing I know how t
o sew. I’m going to stitch all of his zippers closed.”
Ty actually cracked a smile at that one.
“Seriously, Ty, I think we are adult enough to do this. Wallie offered to help me. Living here and giving up my apartment is going to save me about seven grand in three months. I figured it out on the way over here. That’s almost a tenth of what I owe. That’s a huge help. We both know the stakes in this, and neither of us is going to screw it up. He knows how important this is for me. This is going to get me so much closer to my goal.”
“Would you two be willing to sign an agreement?” Ty asked.
I turned to Wallie who shrugged and nodded.
“I don’t have a problem with it,” I told him.
“Okay, I’ll speak to Quinn tomorrow and let him know what’s going on.” Ty turned to get back in his car. “For both your sakes, I hope you can keep your promises. I don’t want to lose either of you.”
“Thanks, Ty,” I called out as I began to walk to the front door.
Wallie handed me his keys and told me the alarm code so he could speak with Ty for a moment. When he came into the house a few minutes later, I was standing in the foyer staring at the wall where we’d first had sex. I was suddenly wondering if Ty was right. Would we be able to do this?
“Yeah, let’s not think about that.” He took my bag from my hand, “Let me show you to the room you can use for now. We can start moving your stuff over from your apartment as soon as you’re ready. I have two rooms that have nothing in them. One of them is bigger than the other and you will probably want that one, or you can have the room that has the bed in it now, whichever room you want.”
“Any of them will be fine. You saw what I was living in. I’m not very picky and I don’t need much room.”
“Well, you will have the run of the house. I’ll just ask that you stay out of my room, and I’ll stay out of yours, and we have to promise to remain clothed while we are walking around the rest of the house.”
Whispers of Winter: A Limited Edition Collection of Winter Romances Page 110
