Jenna came over and pinched Regina on the arm. “Quit harassing Mama’s boyfriend. If I can’t do it, you can’t. I’m the one Casey came to see about dating her.”
The entire room got silent.
“Ooops—“ Jenna said, realizing what she had just announced.
“Give me a push me up off this couch, Alexa,” Casey said. “I have to go beat your daughter.”
Alexa patted Casey’s leg, narrowing her eyes at Jenna. “No, that’s okay, honey. I’ll take care of this one.”
Jenna started backing up. “Mama. No, Mama. I’m sorry. I swear. I never meant to announce it.”
Alexa jumped up from the couch and ran after her daughter, chasing her around the air hockey table while Jenna squealed and screamed.
Paul and Sydney started taking bets, and to Casey’s utter surprise, Lauren wanted to put money on Jenna.
“Lauren’s going to lose her money,” Casey said to Regina, shaking his head, his eyes on Alexa, who looked like she was contemplating vaulting over the air hockey table.
Casey laughed. “Alexa is the most stubborn person I’ve ever met. Jenna’s only chance is to talk her mother down from being mad before she catches up to her,” he said.
“Boy, you sure came up to speed fast,” Regina answered, smiling at Casey. “My money’s on Alexa too. Same reasons.”
Casey laughed again. “I’d never bet against Alexa anyway. I’m in love with her,” he said to Regina, needing to try it out.
“Duh,” said Regina, laughing. “Alexa is probably the only person who doesn’t know.”
She reached over and patted his knee, a huge smile on her face. “We all approve, Casey Carter.”
Casey smiled back at Regina, sincerely hoping it was true.
“Hey,” Alexa yelled across the room, sitting on top of a wiggling, squirming, and now repentant Jenna. “I’m being a hero over here and you’re making time with Regina? What’s with you, Carter?”
“She’s the one who patted my knee. I didn’t touch her. I swear,” Casey vowed, crossing his chest with an X like Regina had done earlier.
“Come on, Alexa. You know you’re the woman I love.”
Alexa smiled and it was dazzling. She twisted Jenna’s arm a little while her daughter laughed.
“Apologize to Casey for your bad manners,” Alexa ordered, laughing herself.
“Do I have to?” Jenna asked, squealing and pounding the floor with a free hand like a losing wrestler.
Casey laughed but started feeling sorry for Jenna. Now he knew for sure Alexa could have fought back with him any number of times. Lucky for him she hadn’t. She could have seriously hurt him.
“I forgive her, Alexa. It was an honest mistake. Let her up,” Casey pleaded on Jenna’s behalf.
“See,” Jenna said plaintively, giggling against the floor. “Thank you, Casey.”
Paul walked over to look at his daughter and her mother locked in battle on the floor. He stooped down, bending one perfectly creased knee until he was almost eye level with Jenna.
“Obey your mother, Jenna. Apologize to Casey. Then you can get even and tell us all about it,” her father said, giving Alexa a wicked look.
“Gee, thanks for the support. This is why she’s so spoiled, you know,” Alexa said, disgusted.
“I know,” Paul said easily. “I love my daughter. What can I say?”
Jenna lay on the floor in surrender now, wondering how she’d let her fifty-year-old mother beat her in yet another physical fight. Talk about embarrassing, she thought.
“I’m sorry, Casey. Really, really sorry,” Jenna said, immensely relieved to feel her mother’s weight lifting off her hips.
“Apology accepted, “Casey said with another laugh.
Jenna stood, brushing a hand over her clothes to remove the evidence of being ground into the floor.
“I am also really sorry I ever gave Casey permission to date you, Mama. He needs to find a nice woman. Someone who doesn’t abuse her daughter,” Jenna stated, breaking into a run again when Alexa started to step toward her once more.
With Jenna in retreat, Alexa walked back to Casey, who pulled her down beside him. He could feel her vibrating. If they were alone, he would have found out what it felt like to be in the middle of that, maybe share it with her.
“You could have yanked that cane out of my hand and kicked my ass any time you wanted, couldn’t you?” Casey asked, narrowing his eyes as he studied her.
Alexa was pretending to be fascinated with her manicure, refusing to answer him. Casey recognized the stalling tactic. It made him remember their limo ride and that she was a woman who told the truth.
“Thank you for defending my honor,” Casey said softly and sincerely, watching her reaction. He wasn’t disappointed. For all the attention she got, Alexa was starved for genuine praise.
Alexa blushed both at what Casey said and the way he looked at her so proudly.
Then surprising everyone, including herself, she turned around, grabbed Casey’s shirtfront, and kissed him hard while she hung on.
“Hero’s reward,” Alexa said roughly, when she let him go.
Regina was snickering. Casey was smiling.
“So, Alexa,” Regina began. “Are you allowed to kiss Casey that way? I never quite got if Jenna gave him permission to date you or not.”
“Wait. I want to hear this too,” Lauren said, squeezing down on the other side of Alexa.
Casey patted Alexa’s knee, feeling the vibration. “This is my fault,” Casey said. “I’ll tell the story.”
For the next twenty minutes, Casey had to listen to everyone laughing at what he’d done. He ended up arguing with Jenna, who—naturally—wanted to make herself seem to be the angelic daughter, rather than the blackmailer who had forced him to confess.
After the laughter died down, Jenna was still laughing about Casey coming to see her.
Eventually, Sydney couldn’t stand hearing Jenna brag about it anymore. “Oh, grow up little girl. You weren’t the only one Casey asked about dating your mother. He talked to me first.”
Jenna froze, her eyes widening in shock. She looked at Sydney, and then put a hand over her mouth, only half managing to stifle her gasp.
Across the room, Alexa turned her gaze to a now full-out blushing Casey.
“Oh, hell,” Casey said, feeling Alexa’s hand tighten painfully on his leg.
“Ooops,” Sydney said, wincing at what he’d done.
Paul crossed his arms and bent his head so Alexa wouldn’t see him laughing and get mad at him too.
“Is there anybody you haven’t asked?” Alexa demanded, wishing the fire from her eyes could burn holes in Casey.
Lauren and Paul both raised their hands.
Casey looked at Regina strangely, wondering why she hadn’t raised her hand too.
“I’m counting our little talk,” Regina told him around a grin.
“Traitor,” Casey said, admiring her balls and grinning in return.
Casey looked at Alexa, trying to gauge if she was a little mad, a lot mad, or furious again. There were no signs of blushing embarrassment this time. He took that as a good sign.
“On a scale of 1–10, how mad are you?” Casey asked at last.
“Eleven,” Alexa said, crossing her arms.
Casey sighed. “Fine. Looks like we’re having makeup sex again. You’re wearing me out, Alexa.”
Lauren didn’t know what Casey was insinuating, but it didn’t sound flattering to Alexa. So she passed Alexa a small throw pillow, which Alexa promptly started using to smack Casey repeatedly across the face, chest, and anywhere else he didn’t have his hands.
Lauren and Regina rose and crossed the room out of the line of fire.
Everyone laughed as they watched Alexa pulverize Casey with a pillow while he apologized over and over.
Lauren smiled. “Casey’s more than a boy-toy, isn’t he?” she asked.
“He’s probably the love of her life,” Regina said softly. Then s
he turned to Paul and Sydney. “You’re going to be demoted to Man #2 and Man #3. It looks like Mr. Carter is taking the Man #1 position.”
“Yes,” yelled Paul and Sydney in unison, which brought on a high-five for saying it together.
Regina rolled her eyes. Then she looked at Jenna. “So how do you feel about this?”
Jenna watched fascinated as Casey gritted his teeth, took the pillow beating for a while, and then wrestled the pillow from her mother, only to give it back after a short period. And every time he gave it back, her mother used it to beat him more. Was the man crazy?
“I feel sorry for him,” Jenna said. “I think I even want to intervene right now. Are we one crazy family or what?”
She put her hands on her hips and looked at the rest of them. “Well, are you going to help me save Casey?” Jenna asked.
Four heads shook slowly from side-to-side.
“Wimps,” Jenna scowled, and pushed up her sleeves. “I’m not afraid of her. Casey has his cane. Surely, between the two of us, we can tame one measly fifty-year-old woman.”
She walked across the room. Moments later she was squealing and running as her mother was once again in hot pursuit. Casey just seemed to be laughing and enjoying the show.
Regina looked at Lauren. “You might get to arrange a wedding soon.”
“Goody,” Lauren said, clapping her hands. “I wish it were mine.”
Regina put an arm around Lauren’s waist.
“Well, you never know. If Alexa can find love after all this time, maybe it can happen for us, too,” she told Lauren.
“You’re next then,” Lauren told Regina. “I’m still not ready.”
Lauren couldn’t feel ready for love, she thought, when the only men that ever attracted her were womanizing cheaters. It may have started with her cheating ex-husband, but her bad luck spanned all the way to the weird thing she currently had for self-professed married womanizer, James Gallagher.
“Of course you’re ready—you’re just scared to trust yourself. But thanks for thinking of me,” Regina said to Lauren. She knew it would take an absolute miracle for her to find a man willing to get involved in her crazy life.
“Come on,” Regina said to Lauren. “Let’s go help. If we sit on either side of Casey, Alexa will get jealous and come run us off. That will give Jenna time to escape. Maybe Alexa’s jealousy over us will balance out that nasty temper of hers.”
Lauren had to work hard not to stare at Regina with her mouth open in shock. Regina thought Alexa had a bad temper? That was the pot calling the kettle black, Lauren mused, smiling. In her opinion, it was a toss-up who was more high-strung, the former model or the notorious sex therapist.
When the two women lined up cozily on either side of Casey, he just looked at them strangely.
“We’re saving Jenna,” Regina told him. “Play along.”
Casey stretched his arms out and hooked one around the shoulders of each woman.
“Hey, Mama,” Jenna called. “Regina and Lauren are flirting with Casey.”
Alexa stopped stalking her daughter and turned her attention to the women on the couch. She walked back and stood in front of the three of them.
“Move it, girls,” she ordered, plopping herself down beside Casey again when room was made for her. “I swear I can’t leave you alone for a second, Carter. You have no right to ever accuse me of flirting again.”
Regina pointed to the now abandoned air hockey table. Lauren nodded, and they both left.
“Now you know how I feel when you flirt,” Casey told her when they were alone. “Except I wasn’t flirting. I was just making friendly conversation.”
Alexa reached, got the pillow, and smacked Casey again. “Oh, shut up.”
“If only you were this bossy in bed. A man can dream,” Casey said wistfully, thinking of her midnight ride. There probably would be nothing like that tonight. Pity.
“If only you were—oh, my god, I can’t even think of an insult bad enough,” Alexa fumed. “You drive me crazy.”
“I live to please,” Casey said easily, his hand coming to rest on Alexa’s knee. “I love your crazy life, by the way.”
“Thanks,” Alexa replied, smiling at everyone in the room. “I like it, too.”
Another wave of tiredness hit her. Alexa kicked off her shoes, curled up on her end of the couch, and put her head in Casey’s lap, using the pillow she’d previously pelted him with. She felt him laugh under her cheek and didn’t mind.
“Now I really need a nap,” Alexa told him. “Guard me. I love them, but these people are nuts.”
“Okay,” Casey said. “I’ll guard you.”
Casey stroked Alexa’s face until she relaxed and marveled at how she actually fell asleep while the family chaos went on without them.
When he sighed this time, it was in happiness and gratitude, wondering how he’d managed to get so lucky with a woman one more time in his life.
Chapter 20
Two weeks later, Casey was again sitting at Alexa’s kitchen table watching her cook and listening to the results of the marketing tests for Lauren’s natural line of scents. He had so much admiration for how Alexa handled every creative endeavor, every opportunity for growth with the same enthusiasm. The longer he knew her, the more he liked her.
“So Desire was the complete favorite among the male test group. Lauren said you can mix vanilla with anything and please men. Revelation was second with its ginger and peaches scent. Pleasure’s citrus tones came in last in both the male and female focus groups. Still, I can see Jenna wearing that one over the others. Maybe it needs to be marketed to younger women.”
His attraction to her was growing as well, Casey thought, admiring the stretch of her jeans over her backside, feeling an answering response in his own body.
They’d been inseparable for nearly two weeks. He’d seen Alexa now in every way possible, and he liked them all. A future with an aging Alexa Ranger did not intimidate him. Not only did Casey want to watch the lines beside her eyes deepen over time, he wanted a matching set. He thought with her sense of humor and as often as they laughed, Alexa would probably give them to him.
Unaware of Casey’s study, Alexa set two heaping plates of pasta covered in marinara on the table before jogging back to the counter to retrieve the shredded parmesan and pepper flakes.
She slid into the chair next to Casey and attacked her food. It took a few moments for her to realize Casey wasn’t eating.
“Something wrong with the pasta?” she asked between bites.
Casey shook his head no. He badly wanted to lick the pasta sauce from the corner of her mouth and taste it on her tongue. Instead, he made himself settle for wiping it away with his thumb.
He’d done all he could to sate himself, but desire for her still grabbed him with an iron fist. But even that was dwarfed now by the emotion rolling through him like a wave each time he thought about his relationship to her. The tightness in his throat was constricting as he tried to talk.
“I have to tell you something, Alexa,” he said quietly. “I’m not going to be able to wait any longer.”
“What’s wrong?” Alexa asked, pausing mid-bite, suddenly concerned that Casey was being so mysterious. Casey was not mysterious by nature. He was plain-spoken to a fault, a trait she both admired and hated.
Her instant worry made Casey laugh. “No one’s dead or dying,” he said, picking up a fork and taking a bite. “This is very good. I’m afraid all I have to offer in culinary skills is excellent French toast.”
Alexa waved her fork over her plate. “I took cooking lessons when Jenna was in middle school. She was gaining weight from eating junk food. It was a result of responding to heavy mother guilt at the time, but I’ve been very glad ever since. I like cooking, but it’s not fun to cook for just yourself,” she said, drifting off and taking another bite.
“I promise to be properly appreciative if you want to cook for me for the rest of your life,” Casey said, keeping his eyes on
his plate. He was too nervous to look at Alexa, and it didn’t improve when he saw her fork come to rest on her plate out of the corner of his eye.
Alexa took a deep breath, her heart pounding. She wasn’t really ready for this conversation, but it wasn’t like she hadn’t seen it coming. And with Casey, she had learned there was no avoiding something he wanted to get clear.
“I believe this is one of those times I would rather you just rip the band-aid off quickly,” she said, using their code for brutal honesty.
Casey made himself raise his gaze to hers. “I love you, Alexa.”
Alexa was already shaking her head from side-to-side before Casey had finished saying the words.
“You can’t. You hardly know me,” Alexa protested. “It’s only been a few weeks.”
“I knew you were going to say that,” Casey said sadly, wanting to hear she loved him in return and knowing it wasn’t going to happen. “I guess—I guess you’re right. It’s too soon, but I needed to tell you. It was weighing on me to feel it and not say it.”
“Maybe you’re just—“ Alexa stopped when his gaze met hers again. There was nothing but honest emotion in it.
What could she say? Deny it was true?
Maybe it was. Casey had known love before. He knew what it was like to love and be loved in return.
Alexa was the one who didn’t know what it was like. “I don’t know what to say to you,” Alexa said finally, sadly.
Casey reached out a hand and rubbed her arm to comfort her. “You don’t have to say anything. I just needed to say the words out loud so they wouldn’t drive me insane. I won’t beat you up with it or make you feel guilty for not returning the sentiment.”
Her answer was a giant sigh.
“I’m not just using you, Casey. I do care about you,” Alexa said in her defense. There was a slight burning in her eyes and a flutter of nerves in her stomach.
“Yeah,” Casey said easily, “I know that, honey.”
Casey also knew Alexa loved him back on some level, or at least he strongly suspected it was the case. Because he ultimately wanted to marry her, he hoped it wouldn’t take Alexa too long to figure it out.
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