It’d been five days since she’d cooked dinner for Cade. He’d spent the night like she figured he really wanted to. She was fine with it, all the while trying to tell herself to not get too used to it or him.
She understood that he wanted to know what was going on between them, but what was she supposed to say? That she wanted a real relationship with him? The guy everyone wanted to sleep with in college? The guy that got set up by three girls to prove just what a playboy he was?
Yeah, she’d heard that story. Or variations of it while she was at Duke. Years later it was still making the rounds. That he was dating several girls at once and they all found out, cornering him at a sorority house one night and all but clawing his eyes out.
It was said he barely escaped before they scalped him, then went on his way and started dating even more women several weeks later.
Then there were stories how he really wasn’t dating any of those girls that set him up, at least not all at once, but that they concocted a plan all along to see if they could make an example of him.
She was guessing the truth was somewhere in the middle.
Another thing she’d heard of was that he dated a lot, that he got around. He even admitted it himself that he didn’t take relationships seriously.
But for some reason, he wanted to know where she saw things going with them. It made no sense at all.
In the past five days, she had been in contact with him though. They hadn’t seen each other but they talked or texted daily. She wouldn’t do what she did before. She wouldn’t purposely avoid him. It was wrong on her part, she knew, but when she was unsure of things, she kept her distance until she could figure it out. Or that was how she’d always dealt with things in her life.
Staying away seemed to work. Either stuff resolved itself or she had enough time to make an informed decision on how to proceed. Too many years of being on the defensive made her extremely cautious.
What she figured out was that Cade Fierce was someone she could easily fall in love with if she only let herself go. She wasn’t going to. At least not any time soon. Not until she knew for sure where his interests lay. Why? Because she’d been hurt enough in life.
“Alex, please report to the front office. Alex, the front office.”
She heard her name over the intercom and waved Ralph over to the embroidery machine she’d just finished programming. “This is all set to go, can you just watch and keep loading the shirts in?”
“Will do, boss,” Ralph said, tipping his hat that he always had on his head.
She walked up front to see what was going on and noticed Ella Fierce standing there elegant as always. That girl never had a hair out of place or a wrinkle on any article of clothing.
“How do you do it?” she asked before she could stop herself.
“Do what?” Ella asked.
“Look so perfect all the time.”
Ella laughed. “I can assure you I’m far from perfect. Why would you say that?”
“Because you never look anything but. Cade told me I should ask you how you manage to be so feminine and still have so much authority all the time.”
“He really said that?” Ella asked, her face softening. “What a sweet thing to say. He might be my favorite again.”
Alex laughed. “It just came up one day when we were talking about why I always dress like this at work and not like when we’ve gone out.”
“So you are seeing Cade?” Ella asked, her head tilted.
Crap. That slipped. “I don’t know what we’ve got. More than friends.” There that wasn’t so hard to admit to his sister.
“Well, Cade has a bad habit of blurting things out without thought around those he feels really comfortable with. I’m going to assume that is what happened with you because any idiot would know that in your line of work, you wouldn’t be wearing heels and skirts.”
“Exactly!”
“But I do know you look pretty nice all spiffed up in gowns and makeup.”
Her shoulders dropped. “Those stupid pageants.”
“There’s nothing stupid about them.” Ella looked around, making sure there wasn’t anyone within hearing distance. “If the truth is told, I might have wanted to do one or two myself growing up, but I had no talent. Aside from that, the boys wouldn’t let me live it down. For years I was trying to best them in everything. It’s hard to do that in a dress.”
“What changed?” Alex asked.
“Puberty. I realized the more I looked like a girl, the more it drove them insane. Watching them warn all the guys off was kind of funny.”
“Really?” she asked. “I’m not sure I’d find it funny having one brother doing that to me, let alone four.”
“It was funny in the beginning, but you’re right. I painted myself into a corner and it’s never really stopped. The thing is, I like looking like a girl surrounded by the four guys. I guess we all know what works for us and what feels comfortable and this is it for me,” Ella said looking down at the purple and black dress she had on with purple heels.
“You’re right. So, what do I owe this visit to? Did you want to see the glass for the shadow boxes?”
“I do if you’ve got time. It seems my brother got to see them before me.”
“Damn, Cade. He told me he wouldn’t tell you that he weaseled it out. He trapped me into it. I swear. I never said a word about it. First he made it sound like he knew all along what you wanted, then admitted he didn’t when I answered him. I brought one home to look it over more and somehow he managed to find it in my drawer.”
“Cade is sneaky that way,” Ella said, and Alex got the double meaning there. That Cade had been able to wiggle things out of her that she’d had no intention of saying several times now. “Though I’m not sure I’ve known him to look through drawers for things. That’s kind of more my thing.”
“What?” Alex asked.
“Long story and has to do with presents and trying to find them. But now that I think about it, it was Cade that tricked me into doing that as a kid the first time. Then it was just so much fun to continue and see if I could do it without my parents knowing.”
She shook her head. “I can’t imagine what it was like growing up in your house.”
“You don’t want to know.”
“Why don’t you hang on for a second and I’ll run back and grab the box and the glass for you. It’s not really safe to have you walking back there wearing your shoes, no matter how lovely they are.”
“Not a problem,” Ella said.
Alex ran back through the shop and to her office. She should probably move her office closer to the front so that customers could meet with her there, but she liked being closer to the shop where she spent most of her time.
“Here you go,” she said, carrying the box back with the red glass in it. She had a red light bulb and a clear glass block in the other hand. “We can try them both out and see what you think. Personally, I like the red bulb with the clear glass with this black box. If you did the boxes a lighter color maybe the red glass would look different.”
“Yeah. I think the red glass is just too dark. Especially if it’s on the wall and the lights are dimmed at night anyway.”
“I’ll switch them out quick,” Alex said.
“Much better,” Ella said. “This is perfect. Do you mind if I take them both for our meeting next week? Did Cade see it all set up?”
“No. Just the one clear glass block that I brought home to look over. He has no clue what the finished product will look like.”
“Good.”
“Alex?” She turned to her secretary, Alena, behind the glass. “There’s a reporter on line one. He’s calling to talk to you about Keith Stevens?”
Just great. Talk about horrible timing too. “Tell him I’m unavailable for comment.”
“Everything okay?” Ella asked.
“Yes. Not a big deal.”
“Alex?” Alena said, sticking her head out further. “He says it’s urgent and he needs to speak to you right away.”
“Tell him I’m not here. I’m not sure what unavailable means to him.”
“Will do.”
“Are you sure everything is okay?” Ella asked again.
“Trust me. It’s nothing.”
“Okay. I’ll let you return to work then. I’ll get back to you soon on how this all works at the next meeting.”
“Sounds great,” Alex said, watching Ella walk out.
She turned to walk back to her office, but her secretary stopped her. “He left his name and number and asked you to call right away.”
“Thanks.” She took the piece of paper and started to crinkle it up without looking at it. She had no intention of letting Keith know she got the call. She didn’t take it and she wouldn’t return it.