Chapter 20
Chanda was a wreck as she walked into the gallery alone. Doug promised he would be there for her exhibit. It was small, but she was excited to have her work displayed. And she wanted him to be there to share in the moment. Not to mention calm her nerves.
Where was he?
Blended Family was in place under the spotlight. The caterers had set up the food and were pouring the wine as the first guests arrived. Still no sign of Doug.
Becca, the owner, took her around to greet people. She was introduced to some big art collectors. Time flew and her nerves calmed. She loved talking about art with people who knew the difference between Claude Monet and Edouard Manet.
“You sold a piece,” Becca whispered, barely containing herself. “And I think Blink is about to be sold as well. I’m so happy for you.”
“Thank you.” Chanda smiled and looked around the room, wanting to tell Doug about her sale. She pulled out her phone and texted:
Where are you?
Ten minutes later, she still hadn’t heard back. Her big night was over in twenty minutes and he was missing it.
Worry took the place of annoyance. Nothing would have stopped him from being here. Something had to be wrong. Was he hurt? Was it Lucy? He had planned to pick his daughter up and bring her to the show. Lucy had been so excited to have a place to wear her sparkly new dress.
Chanda’s breath caught when he walked through the door. She hurried through the crowd to get to him.
“Look at this turnout. I’m so proud of you, Chan. Have you sold anything?”
“Three pieces. Where have you been? Where’s Lucy?”
“There was an incident when I went to get her. She’s fine. I don’t want to talk about it now. This is your night.” He frowned at his phone. “For a little while longer anyway. I’m so sorry I’m late. And I ordered you flowers, but I didn’t have time to pick them up.”
Something about him seemed stiff. Whatever it was that kept him, it was important, but he shook it off and put a smile on his face.
* * * *
Doug was still riled up. He could feel his blood pounding in irritation. The nerve of that guy to step in. Letting out a breath, he gave Chanda another smile just as she was pulled away to go talk to someone.
He nodded that it was fine and spotted someone carrying a tray of hors d’oeuvres.
Food would calm him. He picked off a sample of each and moved around to each of her pieces, scoring a glass of wine along the way.
He was standing behind one of the bigger pieces when he heard someone whispering. Since he was hidden and didn’t want to give up his spot, he stayed, focused intently on the mini-quiche.
“I wonder what her father is paying to put this on. She probably thinks she was asked here because of her talent.” The two people laughed at the comment and Doug swallowed down the lump of quiche.
“I heard her father paid for that sculpture and donated it to the Pressroom. There’s no way anyone else would have paid forty thousand dollars for that mess.”
Doug understood how jealousy caused people to be cruel and rude. But after the night he had, he had to do something. He couldn’t stand there hiding while these two idiots tore apart the woman he loved.
The only problem was that he didn’t know if their accusations were true. Chanda hadn’t spoken about her father other than to say he was a workaholic who had no time for her.
That didn’t mean he wasn’t rich.
Being a father himself, he knew how many boxes of cookies he personally bought so Lucy could get a pin on her sash. He would have bought every box because it was important to her.
Still, he was itching for a fight, and this guy would do.
“Excuse me?” Doug said, walking around the statue to address them face-to-face. “She works damn hard on these and they’re beautiful. Forty thousand is a steal for her work.”
The man sniffed at Doug. Sniffed.
Doug felt his fist connect with warm flesh. He heard a scream. He felt two hands push his chest. His world went sideways for a second, but he reached out to brace himself and came back swinging. Though the thing he’d braced himself on gave way.
After a few seconds had passed, there was a man at his feet bleeding from the mouth and one of Chanda’s statues was on the ground in pieces.
The small orb rolled over to his foot and he realized it was the center of Blended Family. He’d destroyed it.
He looked across the chaos to see Chanda and knew he’d just destroyed them as well.
* * * *
Things felt different between Grayson and Alyssa. The feelings she experienced during their visit to Connecticut hadn’t faded; they just changed into something else. Something comfortable. And Alyssa didn’t do comfort with men.
Comfort meant trust. It meant letting down her guard. It meant not paying attention to the details. All things she now realized she had with Gray.
Originally, their relationship had mostly revolved around sex and fun. Now there was something else in the way Grayson stroked her hair while she fell asleep, or the way he smiled when they passed each other in the office. Like he was doing now.
“You want to grab some lunch?” he asked, looking over his shoulder to make sure no one was listening. She was the only person who knew he wasn’t actually asking her to lunch.
“I can’t. I have a meeting with Mr. Hasher.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. He wouldn’t fire me, right? I mean he’d have someone else do it, like a henchman?”
“He wouldn’t fire you or have henchman do it. You’ve been working your ass off. Maybe you’re getting a raise.”
“That would be great.” She could use the extra money.
Years ago, when she believed in things like trust, she’d taken cash advances from her credit cards to buy Donnie a real lawyer. He’d convinced her that the public defender was lazy. It turned out that the public defender was faced with a client who refused to plead insanity even though he was obviously insane.
Unfortunately, it had taken a few more weeks and eighteen thousand dollars for Alyssa to figure it out.
She was down to the last sixteen hundred she owed. Soon it would all be over and she’d be able to put it behind her forever.
Alyssa’s meeting was moved from eleven to two and then from two to three because Mr. Hasher had other things come up. Did bigwigs just move stuff around to make themselves feel important, or did they do it to toy with people’s nerves?
“I’m not getting fired. Just breathe. The last time it was a good thing. This is a good thing.” She muttered to herself as she walked to his corner of the floor.
She waited the normal twenty minutes, and then went into his office when his assistant gave the nod. She was moving, though she couldn’t really feel her legs.
He gave her a warm smile and gestured to the chair in front of him.
“Hi Alyssa. Have a seat.”
“Thanks.”
“I’ve been talking with the team and everyone was impressed with the presentation you gave for the Pinecrest parking complex.”
“Thank you.”
“We’re always looking to expand, but just because we have the clients, expansion isn’t possible if you don’t have the team in place to give the clients what they expect from Hasher Borne.”
“Yes.”
“You’ve done so well with the Pinecrest account that we would like to give you their other accounts as well. They run a number of companies and they requested you specifically. Of course, your salary will be increased to compensate you for the extra workload. For now, I’d like you to run everything through Melanie and Grayson.”
“Grayson?” she blurted without thinking.
“Yes, he’s the financial lead on this account. And Melanie was the previous account manager.”
“I see. Okay.”
“If you have any issues, please let us know. It’s a sizable account.”
“Thank you for this opportunity.”
“Everyone sees big things for you.”
She nodded and left his office, anger and excitement battling for top emotion.
She smiled at everyone on her way to Grayson’s office, and then went in and shut the door behind her.
He looked up, a smile breaking over his face as he leaned back in his chair.
“Hey. How did it go?”
“You never told me you were the financial manager on the Pinecrest account.” It came out as an accusation as she moved closer.
The smile fell from his face and he sat up in his chair.
“I am?” He looked confused as he hands moved over the keyboard in front of him.
“Yes. You are. Is this why I was given the account? Are you helping me? I don’t want your help.”
“I have thirty-seven accounts, Liss. I don’t remember seeing Pinecrest.”
He sat back in his chair and nodded at the screen.
“I have them under Leedom Enterprises. There are four businesses under them. Pinecrest is one. I didn’t realize it.”
“We talked about them being part of Leedom when I was working on my presentation. It didn’t ring any bells?”
“You’re accusing me of getting you a promotion? Even if I could do that, wouldn’t it be a good thing?” he asked.
“I’ve just been given all the accounts for Leedom. I wanted to get ahead on my own merits not because some guy is trying to get me into his bed.”
“You are already in my bed, so that motivation hardly makes sense.” He swallowed and stopped talking when she leveled him with her look of fury.
“I don’t need your help. Why do you insist on trying to fix my life? I’m not one of your projects.”
“I don’t see you as a project. I see you as a friend. Ask Doug or Trent. I will do anything I can to help my friends. But I didn’t get you this promotion. I swear. You’re going to have to trust me.”
She glared and he nodded.
“Right. You don’t do that.” He sighed and stood to come closer.
The adrenaline from her rage had abandoned her.
“While you might not believe me, I really didn’t know. I’m happy for you.”
He was trying to cheer her up. She shouldn’t have been so angry in the first place. Maybe he wasn’t lying. Maybe he really hadn’t remembered the Pinecrest name on the account. It seemed reasonable.
He let out a breath and let his hands fall down to his side.
“I honestly didn’t realize it was my account. But had I known, I would have suggested you because you’re qualified.”
“I want to get it—”
“On your own merits. I know. But I know your merits too. And if I had suggested you—which I didn’t—it would have been because of said merits at work and not because of any other merits I might be privy to.”
“Fine. I’m sorry I overreacted.” Why couldn’t she just be normal?
“Now that we both agree you’re crazy, do you want to go out tonight to celebrate?”
“No, thanks. I have a lot of work to do.” With that she left his office. Her earlier frustrations were now turned inward. Why did she have to assume all men had some other agenda? That they had a hidden life.
She shook it off and went to her own office to get started.
A few hours later, she received a call from Doug.
“Hello?”
“Hi, Alyssa. I was just given the Leedom account. I understand you’re managing that account. Would you be able to send me a copy of the file so I can review it?”
“You’re taking over the account?”
“Grayson offered a trade and I couldn’t turn it down. I hope that’s not a problem.” She wondered if Gray had taken on the notorious Knott account in exchange for Doug taking the Leedom account.
“No problem.”
“Good.”
Doug didn’t sound like his normal fun-loving self. She might have thought this was his business persona, but she’d seen him in too many meetings.
“Okay. I’ll send it right over.”
“Thanks.” He hung up without another word.
Alyssa didn’t put the phone down; instead, she keyed in Gray’s extension.
“If you’re going to yell at me, I’m going to hang up,” he threatened.
“Why did you do that? I didn’t ask you to give up the account.” She made sure not to yell.
“It was the right thing to do. I don’t ever want it to become an issue or for your promotion to be questioned. Especially by you.”
“Thank you.”
“I get that you don’t trust me, so until you do, I’m going to do my best to convince you I’m safe.”
“Did you trade Doug for a crappy account?” she worried.
“I can’t talk about my client’s profile. And since you’re not on the account, I’m going to have to officially say, ‘none of your beeswax.’”
She laughed at his official announcement, and then let out a sigh. From his reaction, she was positive he’d gotten the bad end of the deal with Doug, just so she would be more comfortable.
“Thank you, Gray.”
“No problem. Now get to work.”
Her client seemed to like what she’d done so far, but she still needed to tweak the project into perfection. She packed up her laptop to work from home. She didn’t mind putting in the extra time to find a way to save her client money.
Gray made her put her laptop away by eight so they could have dinner together and snuggle on the sofa.
Since her outburst, she’d been thinking about her relationship with Gray—because it was obvious it was now a relationship. They were too close. It was apparent he cared about her. She knew she cared about him. Way more than she ever wanted to.
In fact, she was pretty sure she was in love with him.
This wasn’t supposed to happen. She’d had rules to save herself from this.
Sure it felt great to see his face light up when he saw her, but how long would that last? How long before the pain? At any moment, she might learn some horrible truth that would break her heart and send her life into a tailspin.
She needed to get things back to where they were safe.
By Friday, she’d convinced herself it was possible to go back to the way things had been when they were just roommates. They only needed a little distance.
No sex, no snuggling, no emotions. She could do this.
“Don’t get attached,” she told her reflection as she changed to go out. She didn’t allow herself to dwell on how she’d much rather slip on a pair of shorts and spend the evening on the sofa with Gray. She needed to do this.
Distance was the first step in getting control of her life, and her heart.
As if intent on demolishing her resolve, Gray came home.
“Honey, I’m home!” he called through the apartment with a happy tone. “It’s Friday!”
Alyssa stepped out of the bathroom in her heels.
“Holy shit!” he stammered as he looked her over. A smile took over his face as his gaze moved up and down her body.
“Guess what?” she said with a huge smile.
“What?”
“Leedom liked my budget proposal. They signed off on it today.”
“That’s awesome! I knew they’d like it. Let me change and I’ll be ready to go out—”
“Actually, I’m going out with Mia to celebrate.”
“Oh.” The disappointment on his face almost made her backtrack. She couldn’t. “Well, have fun.”
“I will. I need to get going.”
“Sure. Maybe we could go out tomorrow night?” he asked, his blue eyes searching her face.
“Yes. Tomorrow should work.” He only seemed slightly relieved.
“See you when I get home.”
Twice on the way down in the elevator, Alyssa almost went back up.
She shook her head and continued on to meet Mia.
She needed distance. This was healthy.
* * * *
Gray watched Alyssa walk out of the apartment as his chest tightened uncomfortably.
What could he do? He couldn’t chase her down and beg her to stay with him. Actually, he could have done that, but then he was certain she would have kept on going and not looked back.
Damn it! He wanted them to be close. It didn’t have to be such a horrible thing.
He understood why she was scared. The asshole to whom she’d been engaged had devastated her, but it didn’t mean Grayson would too. He didn’t know how to get out of Donnie’s shadow. Unless…
What if the whole just friends thing was her way of keeping him from pushing her into something she really didn’t want with him? Doubts flooded his mind, calling up those old insecurities as he went to change. Mandy hadn’t been satisfied with him.
He tossed his work clothes in the direction of the hamper and pulled out a T-shirt and sweatpants. He was planning to order in some Chinese and spend the night on the sofa in front of the television until Alyssa came home.
But then what? No matter what he did, he didn’t see a way to get out of this labyrinth of doubt and suspicion. He couldn’t prove he wouldn’t hurt her until she trusted him enough to get close and see he wouldn’t hurt her. It just went round and round with no way to get any further.
“Fuck this,” he said as he dug around in his closet for a dress shirt and the skinny jeans Alyssa had dared him to buy. She said they were hot, and it was time to put them to the test.
His conviction only lasted until he got down to the sidewalk. He realized he wasn’t up for the club scene. Instead, he walked down the street to MacGregor’s. It was still fairly early, so he sat at the bar and ordered his usual fish and chips.
Shirley, the early bartender was still there. She was a large woman who called everyone Sugar. He and Alyssa had picked up the habit one evening when she was working. They had called each other Sugar for a few days after. Gray liked it more than he should have. He realized he liked everything about Alyssa more than he should have.
He needed to get over her before she broke his heart.
A few hours later, he was still sitting in the same spot, trying to figure out how to manage moving on and putting Alyssa back in the friend box.
“You look like someone stole your best friend,” Mac said as he put a second beer down in front of Gray.
“Kind of.”
“You’re here without your sexy little sidekick?”
“Yeah. Looks like it.” He couldn’t argue. Alyssa was sexy, and she had been with him every time he came into the bar lately.
“I thought the two of ya were joined at da hip. You have a fight?”
“No.” He shook his head.
“I see.” Mac nodded and went about making a drink for another customer. “Why don’t you check out the blonde at the end of the bar? She looks to be your type.”
“No thanks.”
“Come on, man. Don’t be like that. At least take a look.”
Reluctantly, Gray looked up. The bar had filled while he’d sat there feeling sorry for himself. He leaned over so he could see down the length of the bar, and his eyes shot wide open.
“Right?” Mac said with a grin. “I told ya.”
“I want to buy her a drink,” Gray said with a slow nod.
“Aye, I thought you might come around.” He mixed the drink and carried it over while Gray watched.
She shook her head, refusing the drink at first. Then Mac pointed down at Gray. He gave a little wave when her gaze met his. He watched as her eyes widened in surprise. She smiled at him. His chest tightened at her reaction as he got off the stool to go meet her.
His night was looking up.