Chapter Thirteen
“Boss, you gotta stop with the whistling. You can’t carry a tune to save your life.” Belinda was in a cranky mood when he walked into the dealership.
“Too much tequila last night?” he asked as he passed the front desk. He hadn’t even realized he’d been whistling. He’d started his morning by making love to his wife in the shower, and it had put him in a pretty damn good mood.
And he liked thinking of her as his. Scared the hell out of him, but there it was. He liked it so much, he’d been thinking about maybe talking about extending their arrangement. She had to go to Paris, he understood that. But he was busy with work. And he wasn’t averse to flying out to see her every few months.
For sex.
Yep. Just sex.
“Vodka. Devil’s brew. You don’t taste it, and then you’re shit-faced in the toilet.”
“Take the morning off. Go sleep it off.”
She waved him away. “Nah, it’ll pass. Headache’s not going to be any better lying down. Oh, you’ve got a couple of messages from a credit card company. Sounded kind of urgent.”
He frowned. Why would they be calling work instead of his cell?
The only card that was for work was his black—crap. He dialed the number and gave them the information they’d requested.
“Sir, there’s been suspicious activity on your card.”
“My wife has been shopping a lot,” he said.
“Sir, in the last two days, there have been over thirty-thousand dollars in charges.”
Thirty thousand?
How much was that stuff she bought from the store the other day? It couldn’t have been more than a thousand bucks.
“Plane tickets. And there were hotel reservations made for Cancun.”
Cancun?
What was she up to?
Something wasn’t right.
…
After parking her motorcycle outside the restaurant, she grabbed her backpack from the small case on the back of her bike.
Before she went in, she slipped her wedding band into her pocket. If her stepbrother hadn’t heard she’d gotten married, she didn’t want to have to explain. At least, not right now. She only had a short time before she was back in Paris and her time with Hawke would end.
Her stomach churned. She didn’t like to think about leaving. Even though she was working hard and dancing like a maniac now, the idea of leaving him was tough.
Dammit. She’d promised herself she wouldn’t get too attached. But how could she not? He was a sex god, and so damn sweet. He tried to act all tough and mean, but he was the biggest softie she’d ever met.
She checked in at the hostess stand and was told her brother had a table in the back.
He wore a suit and was dashing as ever. Maybe his face was a little thinner.
“Hey,” she said as she leaned in and kissed his cheek.
“I’m glad to see you.” He kissed her back. The two of them had been through a lot together with her mom and his dad’s marriage. It had not been a happy time, but they’d been close in age and become friends. They’d looked out for one another through the years. More than once, he’d helped scoop her drunken mom off the floor of the penthouse and put her to bed. Then he’d sit with Amy and watch television so she could forget how badly her life sucked. It was why she’d left for the ballet school when she was fourteen. As hard as that life was, she didn’t have to watch her mom kill herself, or deal with the men she brought home.
Bo was her shoulder to lean on, and she was his. Last year, he’d needed to borrow money. She didn’t have much, but she’d given him the ten-thousand dollars she’d had in savings. Two months later, he’d paid her back with interest.
When she’d been short on rent, he’d spotted her more than once. And she’d never paid him back. She owed him, big.
It wasn’t his fault his business partners in Florida had stolen the company’s money and taken off to Haiti.
He had investors in his real estate business, and he was up against a wall.
“It kills me to ask you for this,” he said.
She believed him. His normally smiling face was a grim line of sadness.
She held his hands tightly in hers.
“It’s okay. I’m glad I could get it for you. And you’ll pay me back when you get back on your feet.”
He kissed her fingers. “I will. I gotta say, it’s been the worst fucking year of my life. I thought we were gonna ride the tide, and then two of my investors got wind of what my partners had done and pulled out of the development at the same time. We’re so close, but I realized I couldn’t make payroll next month, and the project is almost done. It’s been rough.
“But I’ve got a new guy coming in. He’s golden. A couple of months and I should be able to pay you back with interest. And I’m sorry you had to ask her.”
Bo understood what Amy had gone through more than anyone. His father had been abusive, which was one of the reasons her mom had left. Mom had even taken Bo with her and fought for his grandma to get custody of him so he didn’t have to stay where he wasn’t loved. That was the thing about her mom. When she was sober, she had a good heart.
But that didn’t keep her from flitting from one man to the next, whoever paid her the most attention. Even though they’d moved out of the house, Amy and Bo had made a point of staying close, looking out for each other as their parents continued to make one bad choice after another.
It had taken years of therapy and pounding the dance floor with her pointe shoes before Amy had come to terms with the fact that her mother wasn’t a very good mom. And when she was drinking, everything was one big drama.
And she drank a lot.
“I heard she’s been sober the last two years,” Bo said. “Maybe things will get better for her.”
“She’s been sober before.” Those were the few bright spots in Amy’s life. Even though her mother drank heavily and sucked at relationships, she was good when it came to making money. Amy had never wanted for anything—until she’d moved to New York to study dance at fourteen. Her mother had seen it as some kind of abandonment. Amy had seen it as a way out. Thank goodness for scholarships.
Her mother had let her have whatever she wanted when she was home, but when Amy had moved out, she’d cut her off. There was a codicil in her dad’s will that said she couldn’t touch her trust fund until she was twenty-seven.
But Amy had been able to survive without the money, making a living dancing. It wasn’t easy, but she did it. “I don’t know. Maybe you’re right. She wasn’t drinking in Vegas. I went to her wedding, and the new guy is actually really nice. So is his family.”
She thought of Hawke and grinned. He did that to her. Just the mere thought of him sent a shiver of pleasure through her body.
Crap. This is not the time.
“What’s that smile about?” her brother asked, obviously curious.
“Oh, his family. They’re a bunch of characters, but they’re really nice people. So, will you be heading back tonight?”
He nodded. “Yep, I’ve got to stay on top of everything. I swear, after this job, the only person I will ever count on in the future is me. I know you have trust issues, but I think mine might be worse at this point.”
It was weird. A few months ago, she would have disagreed with him. “I guess we both have to learn who to trust. That’s the tough part.” And she did trust Hawke. That was strange but true. Even though their relationship was weirder than weird, Hawke had her back. She knew that with every part of her.
She handed him the check. “I’m glad to get rid of this. I’ve been worried I’d lose it.”
He stuck it in his wallet. “Crazy girl. You could have been mugged. I would have met you at the bank.”
She shrugged. “No big.” The waitress came to take their order. After she left, Amy asked, “So tell me what you’ve been up to?”
As they were finishing their dinner, a text came up on her phone.
“Where are you?” Hawke asked.
“At dinner with a friend, remember? I’ll be home soon.” She typed back. Earlier, she’d texted him to remind him. Maybe he’d missed it.
She turned her attention back to her stepbrother.
Hawke probably thought it was weird that she suddenly had a friend that wasn’t him or one of his family members. She hadn’t really hung out with anyone else, except when she was working out in Gelsey’s studio. Crap. She hadn’t thought about that. He was going to have a few questions for her when she got home. And she wasn’t at all sure how she would answer them.
Next week, she left for her auditions. The idea made her nauseous again. She kind of loved her life here.
And she kind of loved Hawke.
But she didn’t know what to do about it.