“Alyssa.” Travis’s grating voice carried through the room as he crooked a finger at her from his table. She made her way over to him, tucking her tray under her arm. “Mary is thirsty. Bring her a bowl of water please.”
“Of course,” she said, then turned to leave. She paused for a moment at the door, second guessing what she’d heard.
“He said bowl,” Kerri, the evening lead, whispered as she walked out of the room with her. “Apparently, he finds her to be bitchy today. Travis gets off on the public display, much more than she does.” Kerri rolled her eyes as they made their way to kitchen.
“Ah…well…” Alyssa shrugged. She’d known a few men like that back home and had quickly tired of them. It was one thing to have a public scene at the club, but when they started acting like manly apes pounding their chests just for the benefit of their ego, she quickly lost interest.
“Your first night went pretty well,” Kerri remarked as they entered the kitchen.
“Yeah, I think being tossed into the fire helped,” Alyssa said.
“Really? Most girls would be terrified.”
“Sometimes when things need to be done, you just do them. Don’t think, just do.” Alyssa found a shallow bowl near a drying rack. “I think she’d rather have the bottled stuff from the bar.” She held up the bowl and nodded toward the lounge.
“Alyssa.” Alex’s deep voice stilled her. He stood in the doorway, the top two buttons of his shirt undone. His hair was more tussled, as though he’d been raking his hands through it all night. The man had gotten sexier over the past few hours.
“Oh. Hi.” She tried look casual and not the melting pot of emotions she was on the inside.
“Your shift ended twenty minutes ago.” He nodded at the clock on the wall.
“I was just getting this last thing for the party.” She held up the bowl. “And since I wasn’t really scheduled, I don’t think I actually had an end time.”
“I’ll take that. You had one hell of a first night.” Kerri walked past, snatching the bowl from Alyssa’s hand, and disappeared into the lounge. Kerri turned back once behind Alex and gave Alyssa slow wink. If his tone and expression hadn’t made her flush, Keri’s insinuation did.
“Did Travis give you trouble?” Alex asked with concern, his gaze locked on hers.
“What? No. No, it was fine. Just busy.” She waved a hand through the air. “I wasn't avoiding you.” She reached behind and untied her apron. “I was busy,” she said again when he remained silent.
“Come to my office.”
She held the apron and followed him down the hall to the office next to Bradley’s. Alex held the door open for her and gestured to the corner of the room. A small sitting area took up a quarter of the office, away from the business setup. She sank into a soft leather chair and sighed loudly as her aching feet lifted from the ground. The relief only lasted a moment before a slight burn replaced it. Alex shut the door and walked over to the small bar behind his desk.
“Would you like a drink?” he asked as he poured himself one.
“Uh. No thanks.” Alcohol wasn’t her thing. A glass of wine at dinner was fine, but anything stronger than that made her nervous. Her mother lived on Captain and cokes, and she was determined never to find out how much like her mother she might be.
“Some water then.” He opened the small refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of water on his way to the sitting area.
She took the bottle from him with another thank you and twisted off the top. She hadn’t realized how thirsty she was until the first drop of cold water hit her tongue. She drank half the bottle before coming up for air.
“Brandon usually keeps a spot clear behind the bar for the waitresses to keep some water or a drink there,” Alex commented.
She nodded. “I’ll keep that in mind tomorrow night.”
“Right. You’re working tomorrow.” Alex sat in the seat across from her. Worry wrinkled his brow. “I’m not coming in tomorrow. That baseball game with the guys,” he explained.
“Yep,” she said. “You know, I’ve gotten myself to work all by myself for the past several years. I’ll be fine without you here.” Although she said the words with a lighthearted tone, he looked as though she had just insulted him. She cleared her throat. “I mean, you don’t need to worry,” she amended. “It’s not like you have any responsibility for me.”
His cell began to ring, and she was instantly in love with the caller who saved her from her own ramblings.
He kept his eyes glued to her as he pulled the phone from his back pocket.
“Hello? Hey, Dad...yes, she’s here...we did...yes, she did…no…Dad…yes…”
Alyssa watched his conversation with Paul with an internal grin. Many of her conversations with Paul had gone the same way. A firing squad of questions with only short periods of time given for answers. Which usually meant Paul was on a mission—there was a specific goal for the call. Then again, it was almost midnight—an odd time for a leisurely chat.
“Okay, Dad...yes...I got it...three o’clock on Sunday. Yes, we will be there…okay, I will...bye.” Alex clicked off the call and took a deep breath.
“He’s up kind of late,” Alyssa remarked when Alex continued to stare at her silently.
“A night owl in his old age,” Alex said lightly. “He’s invited us to a barbeque on Sunday.” He slid the phone onto the coffee table and sat back in his chair, stretching his arms over his head before locking his fingers behind his head. He gave the impression of a relaxed, carefree guy, but something in his eyes told her otherwise—something that warned her not to cross him. “He also said he expects a phone call from you tomorrow. He’s not happy you didn’t call him today.”
“I was really busy today and forgot all about calling him back. I’ll call first thing tomorrow.” She sipped more of her water.
“What would you have done if Bradley hadn’t hired you yesterday?” he asked.
“Well, I would have kept looking for a job.” She picked at the label on the water bottle. Truth was, if Bradley hadn’t hired her, she wasn’t sure what she would have done. The apartment she rented was completely contingent on employment. Without the job, she would have lost the apartment.
“What about an apartment?” He sounded more like Paul as the conversation continued.
“I found one. I move in on Tuesday, once the landlord confirms my employment. What about you?” She sipped her water. “This isn’t your day job. You do something else...advertising? Is that it?” She knew damn well he was a VP at an advertising firm. Paul boasted of it often.
“Yes.” Alex nodded.
“So, why the double life?” she asked, balancing the water on her knee. His eyes moved from her face to the bottle. A drop of water slid down the side of the plastic and dripped onto her knee, running down her bare leg.
“Your dad doesn’t know about this place,” she continued when he didn’t say anything else.
“He wouldn’t understand. Did you tell your mother about your lifestyle preferences?” She straightened in her seat at the mention of her mother.
“My mother wasn’t like most.” She hadn’t meant to whisper, but she didn’t want to give too much voice to her past.
“I’m sorry—” He dropped his hands to his lap and began to lean forward. She shook her head to ward him off.
“No, it’s all right. She was who she was.” Alyssa downed the rest of her water and stood from the chair. “I’m really beat.” She looked around for a trashcan.
Alex stood from his seat and stepped toward her. “Hey. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have pried.” His voice was barely audible, his breath warm against her skin. When her gaze met his, a shot of electricity ran through her.
“It’s fine. I’m fine. I am pretty tired, though. I can catch a cab back.” His hand wrapped around her arm as she started for the door.
“Give me a minute and we’ll head down.” The command was softer this time, but just as firm.
“It’s
going to look weird—the boss taking me home. No thanks. I’m a big girl. I can get home well enough on my own.” She pulled free of him and headed to the door.
After dropping her apron at the bar and grabbing her purse, she went straight to the elevator. Alex called after her, but she ignored him. Once inside the elevator, she swiped her card, pressed the button for the lobby, and leaned against the side wall. She needed to put distance between Alex Tribelli and herself before the heat spreading through her chest ignited a fire she couldn’t contain.
Chapter 7
Alex leaned against the buffet table staring at his phone. The humid afternoon had his shirt sticking to his skin, even in the air-conditioned viewing room. Royce and Kendrick stood at the railing watching the pitcher warm up before the second inning.
“Hey, Alex. I thought Jonathan was meeting us?” Royce called over to him.
“What? Oh...no. He texted me this morning. Something came up.”
“What came up?” Kendrick asked, plucking a chip from the bowl. “He’s bailed the last two times we’ve tried to get him out.”
“He didn’t say.” Alex jammed his phone back into his pocket.
Alyssa hadn’t answered any of his calls or texts since she left Top Floor the night before. Her mom was a tender spot for her. Alyssa had withdrawn at the mention of her. But that didn’t warrant ignoring him.
“You okay, man?” Kendrick asked, stuffing another salsa covered tortilla chip into his mouth.
“Yeah.” Alex shook his head and refocused. Alyssa would have to wait. He couldn’t force her to answer her phone or respond to his texts, but he would find out why she darted off so damn fast. And he’d make sure she knew he didn’t appreciate being blown off.
Damn. His obsession with her took over fast. The moment he’d seen her at the hotel, his attraction cut his brain off from any real common sense. He shouldn’t have been thinking about her so much. He shouldn’t have been irritated that she wasn’t responding to him. But there it was. He couldn’t force her from his mind any more than he could make her answer her damn phone.
“No. I’ve seen that look before.” Royce laughed. “The girl from last night, she’s avoiding you. What did you do?”
“Nothing. I don’t think. I don’t know. Hell, I’ve never chased a woman before—chased them away, begged them to leave, avoided my apartment for days at a time to be sure they’d left, but never chased them down.”
Kendrick laughed and grabbed the bowl of chips as he made his way to his seat to watch the game. “I don’t know, man, you looked real comfy with her last night. I had to hear about it all the way home.”
“Kelly’s an impossible romantic, don’t listen to her.”
“Nah, Jessica was going on about it too,” Royce added.
“Jessica? The editor for the romance division at her publishing house?” Alex threw him a glare and sat in his own seat. “This box is nice, but the view kinda sucks,” he complained as he looked out over the first base line.
“Since when do you follow baseball?” Kendrick asked.
“Since it means we don’t have to talk about women.” Alex pulled out his phone to check once more that no messages had come in.
* * *
The game hadn’t been a distraction at all. He’d spent most of it thinking about Alyssa, which led to him thinking about his father. How did he actually know Alyssa? He couldn’t remember his father ever once mentioning her or her mother over the years. If he was such good friends with Alyssa’s mom, wouldn’t he have said something? Wouldn’t Alex have gone down with him and met her?
Something didn’t sit right.
He didn’t bother calling, he just drove straight from Wrigley to Elgin. Alex found Paul sitting in the backyard on his porch.
“Hey, Dad.” He walked through the gate.
“Hey!” Paul got up from the porch steps. “I wasn’t expecting you.”
“Yeah, sorry for just dropping in.” Alex hugged his dad.
“No, no, drop in whenever, you know that,” Paul grunted as he sat back on the steps. “You want a beer?” He started to get back up again, but Alex put his hand out.
“No thanks. Just came from the game. Had enough beer.”
“Cubs? They blew it in the eighth.” Paul shook his head. The bug zapper buzzed in the corner of the yard.
“Yeah.” He’d left in the seventh inning but had heard they’d lost while driving. Alex gestured to Paul’s garden. “You growing any tomatoes this year?”
Paul’s eyes narrowed. “Yeah, just like every year.” He leaned forward a little. “What’s wrong, Alex? You never just show up out of the blue, and you don’t give a rat’s ass about tomatoes.”
Paul was never one to enjoy smoke being blown up his ass. Alex would have to jump right into it.
“Alyssa…you said you were friends with her mom. But…well, it doesn’t seem right. Something’s off. I want to know how exactly you knew her mother.”
Paul stared at him for a heavy moment. Shame leaked into his expression. His shoulders dropped. The idealistic mold Alex had set for his father since childhood was about to crack.
“It’s not what you think,” Paul insisted. Alex stuffed his hands into his pockets and rested one foot on the steps, trying to look casual and not all wound up with nerves.
“Her mom…how did you really know her?” Alex asked, still unsure if he wanted the truth.
“At the conference, like I said.”
“Dad—”
“Hold on, I’ll tell you.” Paul worked his jaw closed several times, then began. “It was late, I’d had a few to drink, and your mother and I weren’t in the best place. She was angry at me for I don’t even remember now, and when I’d left for the trip, we weren’t even talking.”
“You cheated on Mom,” Alex accused, and Paul shot up from his seat and came eye to eye with his son.
“I did not!” His lips thinned and cheeks flushed. “I won’t lie and say it didn’t come close.” He sank back down to the steps, holding onto the railing for help. “Alyssa’s mom had a way about her. A sixth sense about a man drowning his sorrow in whiskey at the bar.”
“So, she didn't work with you.” Alex pushed forward. The sick sensation rolling through his stomach wouldn’t let up until he had all the information.
“Hell no. That woman didn’t have a job anywhere. She worked the bars, she worked the conventions, but she didn’t work anywhere that gave a paycheck.” The disgust in Paul’s voice mirrored what he had seen in Alyssa’s eyes the night before.
“She was a prostitute?” Alex gripped the bridge of his nose, trying to calm himself. Anger rose in his chest, but this was still his father, he wouldn’t go off on him…yet.
“No. That would have been a step up. She was just a gold digger, I guess you’d call her. Liked to live as a mistress.”
“What happened?” Alex let out a long breath. The sick feeling in his stomach hadn’t subsided, and he was getting tired of the buildup.
“I went home with her, like a fucking idiot. I was sitting on her couch, half in the bag, and she went off to her room to put on ‘something comfortable.’ While she was gone, this little girl, a year or so younger than you, walked into the living room. Her hair was all messy, a smudge of chocolate on her face, dragging a torn blanket. She was looking for her mama.”
Paul looked away and blew out a hard breath. “Her mama was in the bedroom getting dolled up for me. I felt like shit. Reality punched me right in the throat. Never have I sobered up so quick. I started talking to her. She’d had a nightmare. I managed to get her back into bed, and, Alex, when I tell you she lived in a shithole, I’m not exaggerating. Her room was the oversized linen closet. There wasn’t even a fucking window! I got her tucked in and went back to the living room. That mother of hers was livid that she had gotten up and was about to go give her hell before I stopped her. I stuck around long enough to be sure that little girl was sound asleep, and her mom was calm. I didn’t touch her, much to her
annoyance.”
“Alyssa was the girl,” Alex provided.
“Yeah. I told your mother everything when I got home. Everything. It was the worst and best thing that happened to us. We got our heads on straight, stopped bickering so damn much, and put our marriage back together. I almost lost her and you over some tramp. I was grateful for Alyssa walking into that room.”
“Why’d you keep in touch if it was just a one-night thing?” Alex pushed off the steps and walked in a circle on the patio. So much to take in, to sort out.
“I didn’t give a damn about that woman. But Alyssa…that little girl deserved a hell of a lot more. Your mother, being the kind woman she was, agreed with me. Every year I went down to the conference, I checked in on her.”
“She didn’t care for her mother.” Alex sighed. He’d seen that much written on her expression the night before.
“Care for her? Hell, that’s all Alyssa did was care for her. That woman was a drunk and no one gave a crap about her. Alyssa took care of her until the day she died. But not out of love, you’re right about that.”
“Why didn't you just tell me this?” Alex faced his father.
“Because it’s not something I enjoy rehashing.” Paul pointed a finger at him. “And you aren’t going to tell that girl you know anything. She’s always felt ashamed about her mother. Ashamed taking the little bit I could give her. You aren’t going bring that up.”
“Of course I have to tell her I know! She has nothing to be ashamed of. I’m not going to talk to her about the details, but I don't want her to feel like she still needs to hide this.”
Paul cracked a smile. “You like her.”
“Dad—”
Indebted Heart Page 5
