Adam smiled to himself in satisfaction. “Alice Riverton. Do you have a middle name, or am I going to have to clean another property before you’ll tell me?”
She made a face and moved toward the light switch. “I don’t, actually. My mother said I’d have three names when I married, and that was enough for any girl.”
“That was awfully presumptuous of her. What if you hated your husband’s name? Or if you never got married?”
“By the time I was old enough to think of those arguments it was a little late.”
“Your dad could have said something.”
Adam knew he’d said something wrong when Alice’s eyes flashed. She didn’t say anything until the store was dark and they’d made their way to the cart out in the corridor. “My dad doesn’t do unpleasant.” Her voice was curt, and Adam knew enough to leave the subject alone.
He watched as she climbed out of the cart in front of her shop. She rested her hand on his arm momentarily, and with a murmured, “Thanks,” she disappeared into The Glass Slipper, sliding the gate closed behind her.
Adam sat in that cart for a while, staring at the window display. He wasn’t a shoe connoisseur by any stretch of the imagination, but there was something about the ones in that display… Kind of like Alice, he thought. Different. Enchanting. And intriguing.
The next morning a gift bag was waiting for him when he arrived at the security offices for his morning rounds. He would have ignored it like he had always done when the other girls sent him gifts. But Kyle, who’d been the one to send him in Alice’s direction in the first place, thrust it in his hands.
“Open it up, man. It’s safe. I know the girl that brought it.”
Adam nearly groaned. Kyle knew a lot of women. “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”
Reaching inside, he pulled out a full bottle of Windex. He laughed when he read the note, tied with a silver bow to the trigger.
‘For self-defense. Thanks again for your help. M. Riverton.’
Chapter Six
Lewis had one of the best showers in the world.
As the hot water rinsed the shampoo out of her hair, Alice thought about Adam and smiled to herself, getting a mouthful of suds in the process.
Okay, maybe she shouldn’t think about Adam while using cleaning products. It was proving to be a terrible idea. Of course, giving him that bottle of Windex might have been a bad idea, too. She had the sinking suspicion that she was leading him on, since she wasn’t really in any position to… date him.
Assuming, of course, that that was what he was after. And if he was any other normal, too-good-looking-for-his-own-good male, she’d be all starry-eyed and… well, she wouldn’t be accountable for her own actions. But he wasn’t. And it wasn’t fair to let him think that there was any point in being obliging to her.
Lewis didn’t appear until she was dressed, running a comb through her wet hair, and trying to convince herself that Adam Wentworth didn’t mean a thing to her–or she to him. Lewis pushed open the door and stared at her expectantly.
“I could have been naked!” she scolded. “Shouldn’t you have knocked first?”
“This is my bathroom,” he reminded her, and then he grinned. “Besides, how much can things have changed since the last time I saw you naked?”
“Lewis, I was five.”
“So you’re saying–not much.” He waggled his eyebrows at her and laughed when she threw a towel at him. “How was the great clean-up date last night?”
“It wasn’t a date.”
Raising his eyes heavenward, Lewis tossed the towel in the hamper so, she was sure, he’d remember to give it back to her before she left for the day. “Whatever. How’d the non-date-but-yet-I’m-alone-with-a-hot-man-for-hours go?”
Alice averted her eyes and stared at her reflection. In this light her skin actually looked like it had some color to it. “It was fine,” she said, knowing he wouldn’t let her get away with that kind of response. “Thanks for letting me crash here last night. I needed the extra sleep.”
Lewis smirked at her. “Is that so? Did Adam keep you up until the wee hours of the morning?”
Three o’clock was pretty ‘wee hours of the morning’, but… “No, it just took a while to get everything settled.” She glanced at him surreptitiously. “What did you say to him last night? He was all weird when he told me you’d called.”
Shrugging, Lewis plopped down on the toilet lid and watched her. “Nothing much. He might have taken the impression that we were seeing each other.”
“Lewis…” Alice sighed. “Enough people already assume we’re dating simply because we do everything together. Why add one more?”
“You’re upset because you want him to like you.” Lewis rested his ankle on his knee and nodded knowingly. “He’s quite the catch, from what I can see. The fact that he was willing to clean for you should say a lot.”
“I don’t have time for a relationship.” Alice’s reply was quick and automatic. “And anyway, I can’t see him again. Can you imagine what Mimi would do to me if she found out I’d been to dinner with Brittany’s soul mate. And that he’d voluntarily scrubbed her new property with me? She’d kill me for sure.”
He snorted. “Killing would be the least of it. She’d probably start by ripping your fingernails off and gluing them to her own fingers to make the rest of us squirm. Have you seen the nails on that woman? Under all those years of acrylics is a fingernail graveyard.” He paused, unconsciously tapping his own fingers against his chin. “So you don’t care if Adam thinks you’re unavailable.”
Alice opened her mouth to say that there was no reason for her to mind, or even for Adam to wonder about it. But for some reason she couldn’t get the words out.
“Ha!” Lewis said triumphantly. “You do care. Well, you’ll just have to tell him that you and I are friends, nothing more, and that he can take you to all the fancy dinners and parties he wants. As long as he does it behind Mimi’s back.”
“Are you suggesting that I sneak around and lie, Lewis?” She looked at him sternly, and after a few seconds he squirmed and avoided her gaze. “Don’t you remember the last time I lied? I was so horrible at it that I was grounded before Mom and Dad even knew what I was lying about it.”
“That was back in the sixth grade,” Lewis protested. “And it’s not like you’re exactly telling a fib. Mimi’s not likely to ask you if you’re seeing Adam.”
He had a point, Alice thought. Mimi was so sure Adam would end up with Brittany that she couldn’t see anything else. Maybe that was the real problem. Mimi was unable to think outside her own version of reality. “It doesn’t matter,” she said, a final note in her voice. “I already told you. I don’t have time, and even if I did, I don’t dare tick off Mimi.”
Lewis sat in silence while she dried her hair–using his hair dryer, which he tactfully didn’t mention–and applied her mascara. “I just think you’re making this a lot harder than it has to be,” he said as he followed her to the back door. “I think Adam likes you. He just hasn’t accepted it yet.”
“If that’s the case, it doesn’t matter whether or not I ever see him again.” Alice reached up to kiss his cheek. “Thanks again for letting me crash on your couch. And for letting me keep a spare change of clothes in your office.”
Sighing heavily, Lewis ruffled her hair; not caring that he’d just mussed her ponytail. “Any time. Oh, and Alice?”
“Yeah?”
“Be sweet to Whitney today. She looks even less thrilled to be here than you do.” With that Lewis turned and went back inside, leaving Alice in the parking lot to watch as Whitney paid the cab driver and trudged toward the shop.
The two of them opened The Glass Slipper and sat at the counter, keeping an eye out for customers. “I had some ideas last night,” Whitney said in her quiet voice, pulling several sheets of paper from her purse. “I didn’t think you’d have time last night, and we only have a week, so…”
Alice let out an appreciative
breath. “Thank goodness you’re helping,” she exclaimed, making Whitney turn bright red and hide her face. “I’ve never planned a party this big, and I had no idea where to start.”
Staring at the pages intently, Whitney shrugged. “I’ve had to organize a few gatherings for my mother,” she said. “I’ve learned what she likes and what she doesn’t. You don’t mind, do you? I mean about this.” She gestured to her close-written notes. “Mimi told you to do it, and if you really want to–”
Laughing incredulously, Alice batted her hands away from the pages and started to read them. “Didn’t you hear what I just said? I’m good at taking orders, not planning parties. Tell me what to do and I’ll get it done. Even if I have to stay late to do it.”
Whitney regarded her for a long time before she smiled hesitantly. “I can see why Adam likes you,” she said, and her smile turned into a grin. “Maybe you could convince him to man a kissing booth. I’m sure he’d love that. Especially when Brittany buys all the tickets.”
For some reason that didn’t seem like such a good idea. “I don’t know,” she said, trying to think of a way to say no without hurting Whitney’s fragile feelings. “I’m not sure he’d go for that.”
“Who’d go for what?”
Adam walked slowly toward them, hands stuck in his pockets. He looked rather pleased with himself. “Hey, Adam. This is Whitney.”
He shook her hand and flashed his smile at her. Whitney blushed and leaned unconsciously toward Alice. “Mimi told us to plan a block party for the mall tenants,” Alice explained, “and Whitney thinks it’d be a good idea for you to run a kissing booth.”
“You mean people pay me to kiss them?” His eyebrows rose and he shook his head. “No thanks. The last thing I need is for a bunch of overly excited girls to throw themselves at me. I got over that in high school.”
Alice’s eyes flashed. “I can’t believe you just said that.”
“If I was ever into it at all,” he amended hastily. “Which I wasn’t.”
Alice’s eyes traveled over his easy, self-assured stance. “Right.”
“I’m not!”
“I still think it’d be a good idea,” Whitney interrupted, looking over her pages of ideas. “I mean, besides Brittany, who else around here is madly in lust with you?”
Adam’s eyes flickered to Alice and back to focus on Whitney. “Beats me. I’d really rather not find out.”
“Would you do it if each person only got one kiss?”
Adam was shaking his head when the phone rang. Alice reached over and grabbed it before Whitney could. “Hello, The Glass Slipper.”
“I thought this was a shoe store.”
Alice leaned her head against her hand. From the sound of it, this was the same man who’d called incessantly a few weeks before. She’d nearly forgotten about him. “It is, sir. Are you calling for Marilyn again?”
“Marilyn who? I want Pam.”
Taking a deep breath, Alice tried to be patient. After all, the poor guy probably had a hard time keeping things straight. He was eighty. Make that ninety, she thought as she listened to him wheeze into the receiver. Eighty might be a very conservative estimate. “There isn’t a Pam here, I’m afraid.”
“Yes, there is! Pam Anderson! I saw her just yesterday, and she told me she got all her shoes at this store with her discount!”
Alice had a sneaking suspicion that he’d seen some sort of buxom nursing home-type candy striper and had developed a crush on her–or her assets. “Well, if you see Pamela Anderson again, tell her we’re glad she frequents our shop,” she told him kindly. Adam snickered and grinned when she glared at him. “I’ll be sure to give her the message if she comes in.”
“When she comes in, young lady. Good-bye.” And he was gone.
Even Whitney was laughing when she replaced the receiver. “Pamela Anderson, huh?” she asked, her eyes lit up with amusement. “I didn’t know you had an alias.”
Scowling at her, Alice grabbed her notepad and scribbled the message on it. “Stop it, both of you,” she scolded. “It’s not that man’s fault that he thinks he’s friendly with a… with a…”
“Sex symbol?” Adam was openly laughing now. “I guess it’s good that I’m not in that category.”
Alice wasn’t sure what category he was talking about, but she didn’t ask.
“So you won’t do the booth?” Whitney asked, disappointment seeping into her voice. For someone who’d rarely said three words together in the past year, Alice thought, she was being awfully persistent. Maybe Brittany wasn’t the only Walker sister after Adam.
“Sorry, but no. I prefer to get my kisses the old fashioned way.” He winked down at Alice, who blushed and then frowned back at him. He certainly wasn’t making it easy for her to stand by her decision to send him packing.
Whitney glanced between the two of them and smiled slightly. “Okay, I guess I wouldn’t want to either if I were in your position, Mr. Wentworth.”
Adam’s eyebrows shot up. “Please, call me Adam. Mr. Wentworth is my father. I’m just his lackey.”
Alice tilted forward, her eyes crinkling with amusement. “You, a lackey? Can I get that in writing?”
“No, but you can have a date.”
Alice froze, knowing she’d just outright flirted with him and scorned herself for it. Why did it feel so natural to tease Adam? “Are you giving it to me?”
Grinning, Adam leaned even closer to her. She could see the chip in his front tooth. On him, unfortunately, it looked natural. “I am.”
“I can’t.” She pushed back from the counter and looked away from him.
“You don’t even know when it is.” Adam’s voice was chiding.
“It doesn’t matter,” she said, sitting back on her stool and crossing her legs and then her arms. “I just can’t.”
“Alice, come on. Didn’t you have a good time last night?”
An image of a Windex-sprayed Adam appeared in her mind, and she smiled involuntarily.
“You did.”
“I was smiling because I was remembering you with window cleaner streaming down your face. Besides, cleaning is hardly amusing.”
“Then why won’t you let me take you somewhere great, so you can see how much fun you can have in a good setting? I promise I’ll behave myself.”
It would be nice, she thought wistfully. And she’d have no problem agreeing if it weren’t for Mimi and Brittany. “I just can’t. Please don’t ask me again.” Adam opened his mouth like he was going to say something she didn’t want to hear, so she turned to Whitney, trying to ignore Adam’s flapping jaws. “I think I hear Dave at the back door,” she said tightly. “I’ll be back there for a while.”
She slid off her stool and almost ran through the store, knowing that Dave wasn’t there with the delivery. She knew she’d probably just hurt Adam’s feelings, but was unable to do anything about it.
“Who’s Dave?” she heard him ask before she closed the door behind her.
***
Alice didn’t see Adam until the day of the party, and that was only across the parking lot as she carried yet another load of supplies to the food tent she and Whitney had set up that morning. He nodded once in her direction and continued on his way, leaving her to feel a strange sense of loss. She didn’t want to think about why she felt that way–especially since it wouldn’t change anything anyway.
“What’s up with you?” Lewis dumped his box of hot dogs on the table.
“What do you mean?” Alice tried to keep her voice cheerful, but from the way Lewis was looking at her, she knew she hadn’t convinced him.
“Spill, Alice. You’ve been moping around all week. I’m tired of having a basset hound for a best friend.”
“I’m fine.” Alice refused to look him in the eye–just in case he wasn’t joking about the basset hound thing.
Lewis turned to Whitney, who was laying out buns and Coney sauce, and jerked his head in Alice’s direction. “What happened last week?” he
demanded. He snagged a hot dog bun from her and shredded it for the seagull that had been staring dolefully at Alice since she’d first opened her box. “It has to be something big.”
Eyes darting from Alice to Lewis, Whitney swallowed and focused her attention on the table. “I–I–”
“Oh, leave Whitney alone,” Alice snapped. “The only thing she can tell you is that I told Adam to leave me alone, and now I’m feeling a little sorry about it.”
Lewis let out a low whistle. “I knew it was boy trouble,” he said sombrely. “You had that look. You know, like the one you get when your heart has been wounded.”
Alice snorted. “That’s quite the exaggeration. My heart’s perfectly fine.”
“Besides,” Whitney said, surprising the other two, “I think Adam’s got it worse. He doesn’t know why she won’t go out with him again, and she’s been avoiding him like the plague ever since… What?” she asked, finally catching Lewis’s incredulous look. “It’s true. Look at the poor guy.”
Three sets of eyes turned toward Adam, who was talking, somewhat heatedly, with Kyle. “Who’s that guy?” Whitney asked, breaking the silence.
“Kyle. He’s the head of security,” Alice answered absently. She was more interested in the man standing next to him. Even from here he looked tired.
“He does,” Lewis said, squinting. “I wonder who he’s been losing sleep over.” He winked at Whitney, who giggled nervously.
It took Alice a second to realize that she’d spoken the last bit of her thoughts aloud. “He looked tired when we went out for dinner,” she mused, ignoring Lewis’s pointed look. “I think he’s just stressed, that’s all. And this party of Mimi’s can’t have helped his security woes much.”
“Alice Riverton!”
All three of them jumped at the sound of Mimi’s voice. Lewis pushed away from the table hastily, throwing his half-shredded bun at Alice. “That’s my cue to get back to work. See you later tonight.” He grinned at Whitney and jogged off.
“Alice Riverton! What are you doing?”
Slowly turning to face Mimi, Alice forced a smile on her face. It was ridiculously false, but she knew Mimi would neither notice nor care. “Helping Whitney with the food,” she told her, unnecessarily, she thought; it was fairly obvious what she was doing.
Alice in Glass Slippers Page 9
