“Thanks,” his mom said softly.
After Jen left, he pulled the curtain all the way shut for privacy, though there were plenty of nearby patients and there was no real privacy.
He pulled the chair close, took a seat, and held his mom’s hand. “What happened?”
Her voice was whispery soft like she was shrinking into herself. “I want to go home.”
“What did the doctor say?”
She pulled the cover up to her chin and whispered some more. He had to lean down to make out the words. “I might have a concussion,” she whispered. “They were talking about an X-ray in case I broke my cheekbone.”
“How did this happen?”
“It’s so noisy in here, Marcus. The lights are too bright. Can you take me home?”
“Let me check with the doctor.” He stood to go, and she grabbed his arm.
“Don’t leave me alone.” Her eyes shifted nervously around.
He sat down again, his chest aching. She must be out of her mind with anxiety after being shut up in her safe little house for the past two and a half months. He brushed her hair back and kissed her forehead. “As soon as I talk to the doctor, I’ll find out how soon we can get you out of here.” He pulled out his phone and tapped on an app for a solitaire game. “Focus on this. It’ll help you stay calm.”
She started playing, her fingers clutching the phone so tightly they were white.
He went in search of a doctor. A nurse told him one would be with them shortly. Not good enough. He methodically worked through the ward in search of whoever had admitted his mom so he could get answers. Finally he found the right nurse and got the full story. His mom had attempted to take a walk around the block. She’d had a panic attack on the front porch, got dizzy, and fell down the steps. A passing jogger, Jen, had found her like that, bleeding and unconscious, and had called for an ambulance. Jen had been nice enough to stay with her. His mom had basically shut down, whispering her answers to the paramedics’ questions and begging them to call him so she could go home again.
Why hadn’t she called him for her first venture out? He’d purposely been living near home half the week just for her. Why wouldn’t she let him be there for her? He wasn’t enough. His love wasn’t enough.
His mom wouldn’t let him fix things.
Lexi wouldn’t let him fix things either.
He was beyond aggravated. He was done. What was the point in trying when he couldn’t make anything work out?
He returned to his mom, who was trembling, her teeth chattering despite the blanket.
“It’s so cold in here,” she whispered.
It wasn’t cold. She was scared. It broke his heart. He took off his leather jacket and draped it over her like a blanket.
She relaxed a little. “I wanted to be brave. Lexi invited me to visit her anytime. She even offered me a job.” Her voice cracked. “I tried just a small first step to go out, but I couldn’t do it.”
What the hell? He sat next to her and spoke as calmly as possible. “This is because of Lexi?”
“We’re friends, and I think she really needed me to help with her new job. She said I was the first person who came to mind. She knew I was an experienced secretary, and we get along so well.”
This was Lexi’s fault. She should’ve run the idea by him first. He could’ve told her his mom wasn’t ready to go out. At the very least Lexi should’ve been with his mom when she ventured out for the first time.
“You were very brave,” he told his mom. “Baby steps. This is why I wanted you to call that doctor who specializes in issues like yours. You start with phone sessions and then work up to more.”
“But I don’t know the doctor. I know Lexi.”
He ground his teeth, more furious with Lexi with every word out of his mom’s mouth. “What was your plan? Walk around the block and then what?”
“I was thinking of driving to her apartment for lunch tomorrow. She works from home.”
He closed his eyes for a moment at the terrifying idea of his mom driving and then having a panic attack, crashing her car. She hadn’t driven in months. He leaned close, his voice urgent. “Mom, please get in touch with me when you’re ready to go out again. I can drive you, walk with you, anything you need.”
“I didn’t want to bother you. You’re so busy.”
He straightened. “I told you I was living in town half the week. I made myself available to you.”
“Lexi says you live just down the hall. I know she’s the real reason you moved here part-time. That’s okay. I’m thrilled. I hope by the time you get married I’ll be up to dancing at your wedding.”
A big assumption there, but his mom had always wanted him settled down. It occurred to him that Lexi was both the cause and the solution to the problem with his mom. Lexi had given his mom a reason to leave the house, even if she’d gone about it completely wrong. What was he supposed to do now? Lexi was done with him, and maybe he was done with her too. He didn’t need this kind of aggravation. She’d really screwed things up for his mom.
“Can you get me some Tylenol?” his mom whispered. “My head hurts so much.”
Shit. What if she had some kind of head injury? She’d hit it hard enough to lose consciousness. Who knew how long his beloved mother had been lying there on the cold sidewalk bleeding and bruised?
“I’ll take care of it,” he growled. Then he stood, yanked the curtain back, and raised hell getting a doctor over to her pronto.
Two hours later, he was finally able to sign her out with a checklist of concussion symptoms to look for. The doctor thought she was okay, nothing serious. Except every time Marcus looked at his mom’s bruised face, her swollen eye, and cut lip, he wanted to howl.
The nurses settled his mom into a wheelchair—hospital policy—and he pushed her through the busy waiting room of the ER.
“Marcus!” someone called.
He turned to see Lexi rushing over to them. He scowled. She had no right to be here. This was her fault.
“Are you okay?” Lexi asked his mom.
“I’ve got a headache but otherwise fine,” his mom said, speaking in her normal voice. “I just need to get home.”
His mom was all whispers with him, but with Lexi she made a real effort. What was that about?
“I’ll go with you,” Lexi said. “Help you get settled in.” She straightened and looked at him. “Okay?”
He clenched his teeth. “Go home, Lexi. I got this.”
“Marcus,” his mom chided.
He ignored the rebuke and pushed the wheelchair past Lexi and out the door.
His mom twisted in her seat, trying to see Lexi. “Go back and apologize,” she ordered.
“No.”
Lexi appeared at his side, slightly out of breath. “Marcus, please let me help. I care about her.”
He couldn’t yell at her like he wanted to in front of his mom, but all he wanted was for her to go away. He glared at Lexi and said in an even tone, “Let me make this easy for you. We’re not a good fit, we never were, and now we’re done.”
She gasped. His mom might’ve gasped too, because it was damn loud.
He pushed his mom over to his car, leaving Lexi standing on the sidewalk staring after them.
Fuck it. He was done with Lexi.
Chapter Fifteen
Lexi gave Marcus a day to cool off, and then on Friday morning she tried to connect with him. She really wanted to fix things before she had to go to the city for the Red Arrow Marketing party. She was sure he must’ve stayed local, with his mom just getting out of the hospital.
Marcus was not making it easy—he wouldn’t return her calls, ignored her texts, and didn’t answer the door at his apartment. Finally, she decided to go visit Lia. Maybe Marcus would be there, but even if he wasn’t, she wanted to check on his mom.
She rang the bell at Lia’s house. The door opened to a scowling Marcus. His eyes were bleary, his stubble a dark shadow. Obviously he was worried about his mom,
probably hadn’t slept much either.
“Hi,” she said. “I wanted to check on your mom, and I was hoping to talk to you.”
“She’s sleeping, and I’m done talking to you.”
It was past ten a.m. His mom must be doing poorly. “Marcus, come on, don’t shut me out.”
He stepped out onto the small front porch, glowering down at her. “It’s your fault she ended up in the hospital.”
She sucked in air. “How is it my fault?”
“She says you invited her over and offered her a job, so she tried to go out on her own because she wanted to visit you. Then she had a panic attack on the front porch and fell down the steps.” He crossed his arms. “She could’ve had a concussion.”
“I had no idea. I would’ve helped her. I gave her a taxi service number and offered to drive her too. I thought visiting my place would be an easy step back into the world.”
“She hasn’t had a single session with a psychiatrist.”
“I know,” she said quietly. She’d encouraged her to make that call every week.
Marcus glared at her. “So she’s suddenly supposed to be cured just because you selfishly lure her out?”
She tried to keep her voice calm, knowing he was lashing out because he was worried about his mom. “I wasn’t trying to do anything but help her.”
His eyes were hard, his expression stone. “She doesn’t need your kind of help. So…don’t come around here anymore. She’s not your responsibility.”
“Marcus, I’m really sorry this happened. There were no bad intentions on my part. Honest.”
His lip curled. “As I learned with you, sometimes it doesn’t matter what your intentions are. What matters is the outcome. Now she’s battered and bruised, and it’s set her back. She thinks this was all a sign she should’ve stayed inside.”
That was an excuse. “She needs professional help.”
He turned and went inside, shutting the door behind him.
She stared at the door. Now what?
She sat on the porch steps. Her only thought was that she should apologize to Lia. She hadn’t meant to cause harm. She wanted to make sure Lia knew that. Maybe she could leave a note, but would Marcus let his mom see it? He might just throw it away. Maybe if she waited for a bit, Lia would wake up, and then she could text her to let her know she was here—
The door opened again suddenly and Marcus barked, “Go home!”
She jumped, her heart pounding. “What is your problem? I apologized.”
He set his jaw. “Apologies mean nothing.” His words were harsh, but his dark eyes reflected pain. He was hurting for his mom and probably hurting over her too.
She stood and took a deep breath. “I’m really sorry about your mom. And I-I want to work things out with you. I think if we could just talk, sort of clear the air…” She trailed off at the expression on his face, immovable, closed to her. She gulped and summoned every ounce of courage to put her heart out there. “Marcus, I love you.”
“Love isn’t enough,” he muttered. “Not your love and definitely not mine. Pointless words.” He went back inside.
Her jaw went slack. A thousand daggers couldn’t have hurt more than those words. She whirled, tears blurring her vision, and rushed back to her car. Her eyes stung; her chest was tight, all of her cold, so cold.
She sat in the driver’s seat, rested her head on her arms against the steering wheel, and broke down in tears. Time seemed to slow down as sobs racked her body, her heart breaking, hopeless despair swamping her. He’d turned against her. The one man she’d risked opening her heart to completely. Gone.
Finally, she had nothing left. No more tears, no energy, no heart.
~ ~ ~
Somewhere between her breakdown and her trip to the city for the Red Arrow Marketing event, Lexi drew on her last reserve of sheer grit and told herself there had to be a solution to the problem with Marcus. She was a problem solver. She just had to find a way to get through to him. That thin thread of hope was the only thing that kept her going.
The event went very well. Mostly because it was a party full of creatives looking to let off steam at the end of the work week. They were all pumped about their company’s one-year anniversary too. There had been one embarrassing incident when she’d accidentally walked in on the female CFO giving a guy a blow job in the men’s room, but Lexi had handled it very professionally, if she did say so herself.
The gender signs on the restrooms had been confusing or Lexi never would’ve stepped into the men’s room. One had a unicorn sign and the other had a stick figure wearing a cape. Lexi had assumed the unicorn’s horn was a phallic symbol and the other was likely Wonder Woman. Major tactical error. The CFO, Gina, approached Lexi later, asking for her discretion. Lexi swore up and down she could count on it. She was never one to spread gossip. Hell, it was a party. What went on behind closed doors between consenting adults was no concern of hers, and she made sure Gina knew that.
She stopped by Nate’s office at the end of the party, where he was seated at his desk. “Hi, Nate, where would you like the decorations? You could probably use them for another party.” The decorations were mostly large laminated red arrows on the walls and shiny metallic squiggles hanging from the ceiling.
He smiled. “Leave ’em up. It’s festive.”
“Okay, well, I cleaned up all the food and drink stuff. There’s leftovers in the staff refrigerator.”
“Excellent. I couldn’t be happier with your work.”
She smiled warmly. “Thank you so much. It was a pleasure working with you.”
He took an envelope from his desk drawer and handed it over. “Here you go.”
She reached for it, and he held on. She met his eyes in question.
His blue eyes bored into hers. “Would you like to have dinner tonight?”
She tensed, sure that the only reason Nate was asking her out was revenge against Marcus. Nate had been pleasant toward her at the party, but she hadn’t gotten the sense that he was interested in her at all. Plus he seemed a little unstable.
She gave the envelope a tug, and he let go. She tucked it into her small purse. “Thanks, but I’m with someone.” At least she wanted to be with Marcus.
Nate appeared at her side, surprising her with the quick move. “Marcus?” he spat.
She eased back a step. “Yes.”
He grabbed her by the arms. “You defied me! I said it was him or me!”
She tried to wrench herself from his grip, but he held her tight. “Get off me!”
He dropped his hold and shoved both hands in his hair. “Don’t you know what he’ll do to you? He’ll destroy you just like he destroyed Grace.”
“Nate, listen to me. Marcus feels terrible about what happened. He honestly thought Grace was fine. She said she was seeing another guy at the same time.”
He leaned back against his desk, his shoulders slumping. “That guy was me.”
“What? I thought you were her brother.”
“Stepbrother.” His blue eyes gleamed bright. “I love her.”
Lexi’s mind whirled, putting the pieces together. Grace must’ve had a different last name than Nate, which was why Marcus hadn’t made the connection earlier. Well, this was all kinds of fucked up. She had no idea what to say, so she turned to go.
Nate called out to her, “You can forget about a recommendation to McCann-Thomas. I can’t recommend someone who’s with that monster.”
She bit back what she wanted to say, You’re the monster screwing your stepsister, and went with the far more professional, “Sorry to hear that.” She booked it out of there. Like Nate’s recommendation would be worth much anyway. Clearly the man had issues.
She burst out of the office’s front door into the cool early evening air and headed down the sidewalk at a brisk pace. She mentally reviewed the entire event, especially her interactions with Nate, and had to conclude there were no obvious signs that things were off with him for most of it. Not until the
end. She couldn’t be faulted for choosing to work with him, but she certainly wouldn’t again.
By the time she got to her train, only one thing was on her mind—getting through to Marcus. The fact was she loved him. He wasn’t perfect, he fucked up sometimes, but so did she. So did everyone. And the important thing was that he’d tried to correct course, really tried to reach out to her and fix it. The past three days fighting with Marcus had been rough. He was everything she’d ever wanted in a man and never thought she’d find—honest, generous, kind, loving, smart, sexy, fun. Her eyes got hot, the lump in her throat painful. She sniffled and looked out the window as the train zipped along toward home, the familiar city scenery a blur.
She was sure Marcus would still be camped out at his mom’s house. She’d text Lia before ringing the doorbell so Lia would know she was there. Surely his mom would let her in, even if Marcus wouldn’t. She’d check in with Lia, ask Marcus to step outside for a private conversation, and then she’d spill her guts, telling him all the things she loved about him that made him the best man she’d ever met. She’d make sure he knew how deeply her feelings went. This was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of love, and you couldn’t just throw that away. She wiped away the tears that leaked out and took a steadying breath. She just hoped she could get all the words out before breaking down. It was so hard to open up, especially after his earlier rejection, but she had to reach past his hurt to his heart.
His harsh words came back to her: Love isn’t enough. Not your love and definitely not mine. But it was. Their love was worth saving.
Unless he didn’t love her back.
Was that what he’d meant? She crossed her arms, hugging herself, her skin clammy, her stomach rolling. Only one way to find out.
~ ~ ~
Marcus returned to work on Friday night mostly because his mom had kicked him out of her house. She’d said she couldn’t stand him prowling around like a caged animal anymore. No one appreciated him. All he’d wanted was to take care of her, and she’d pushed him away. His love was not enough, never enough.
His staff stayed clear of him, except for Ellie, who found him in his office and reported on the goings-on in his absence. He listened, thanked her, and sent her away.
Wicked Flirt Page 15
