CHAPTER
TWENTY
____________________
Calder
Something came up that I have to take care of. Not sure when I'll be back to the office.
I sent the vague text to Gwen and sighed, wondering what the hell I was doing skipping out on work like this. I'd never done it before, and Gwen probably thought I was having a nervous breakdown or something. This was the first time I'd responded to her texts and calls since I stormed out of the office earlier today. I shook my head as I slid my phone back into my pants pocket and picked up the two glasses of iced tea I'd just poured off the dark-gray granite counter top in my kitchen. I turned and headed toward the open doors that led out onto the patio. I could see Ella sitting at the large outdoor table facing away from me with sunlight gleaming off the pale spun gold of her hair. She'd swept it to the side, exposing the slender column of her neck and the soft fair skin there. I wanted to nibble and kiss my way down it and sink my teeth into her shoulder. Desire began to unfurl inside me, and I pushed it down firmly yet again. This was not the time.
I stepped outside and approached her, following her line of sight down to the small lap pool on the lower level that was easily seen through the glass railing. Violet was leaping off the edge of the pool, pulling her knees in tight for a cannonball and sending a huge splash high into the air as she hit the water. She came up for air with a wide happy grin, then doggie paddled over to the stairs to do it all over again. I couldn't help smiling at that kid's infectious enthusiasm for life. Was I ever like that as a child? If I was, I couldn't remember.
I took a seat at the head of the table to Ella's left as I set our drinks down. She glanced at me and smiled softly, and my heart fluttered in my chest. I had to fight the urge to grab her and kiss her senseless. My dick awoke at that thought, and I already had a semi pushing against the zipper of my pants. Thank God I was sitting at the table now.
"I hope you know you've created a monster," Ella said with a smirk.
"I what?" I blurted out, thinking the monster she was referring to was the one growing between my legs.
She nodded toward Violet. "She's got you wrapped around her finger now, and you only have yourself to blame."
The truth was I didn't bring them here for Violet. That was just a happy byproduct. I'd done it for Ella. When Violet asked me if she could swim in my pool, it hadn't just been the kid's sweet and adorable pleading that had swayed me. It had been Ella's hopeful expression that had me agreeing to it. She wanted this for her daughter, needed it, and the joyous smile on her face when I said yes and insisted they come over to my house today had made all of this insanity worthwhile. Something told me Ella hadn't smiled like that in a very long time.
Yet again, I wondered what the hell I was doing. Why did I want to make this woman smile when she'd caused me so much pain in the past? Why did I invite her into my home, into my sanctuary? Was I a glutton for punishment? Did I want her to hurt me again? Why couldn't I resist her, and why did sitting here with her feel so natural, so right?
I shrugged nonchalantly and grinned at her, choosing to ignore the discord inside my head. "What can I say? I find a lot of blonds hard to resist," I said in a slightly suggestive tone as I eyed Ella pointedly with a heated gaze.
She looked away quickly and smiled again as her cheeks reddened a little at my flirtation. And now my dick was completely hard and throbbing insistently. I picked up my glass and took a long swallow, hoping she didn't notice as I shifted in my chair to try to ease my discomfort.
Ella glanced back curiously toward the massive house then swept her eyes out toward the huge yard and back over to the pool next to it where Violet was now doing a hand stand with her feet sticking up out of the water.
"How did you end up with all of this?" she asked, and I was grateful for the subject change, especially since the subject of my business success was one of the few things about myself that I was proud of.
"Rex Landis," I answered succinctly. It was a simplistic answer, but accurate. If not for Rex, I wouldn't be where I was today. Hell, I wouldn't even be alive.
Her eyes suddenly shot over to mine as they widened in surprise. "Your boss from Rexy's Bar?" she asked incredulously.
"He gave a recovering addict a chance when no one else would." I snorted in amusement. "Turns out I have a knack for running a business and a natural talent for making money off the stock market. It benefited us both."
Her face softened. "That's why you gave Gwen a chance."
I nodded. "With Rex's encouragement, Scott and I started R&C LTD five years ago."
"Who's Scott?" she asked curiously.
"Scott Conrad," I replied. "He's my silent business partner and my best friend. We met in rehab ten years ago." I smiled. "He took a chance on me too, and invested his own money, so we could open our first club, The Indigo Room. It turned into a success, and we've been expanding, and doing really well ever since. Well enough, that I could buy this house three years ago," I added proudly.
A sorrowful expression suddenly fell over her face, and she looked down to stare at her lap with a deep frown. I didn't like it. I wanted her smile back. Without thinking, I reached over to put my hand on hers where it was resting on the table. Her eyes flicked toward the pool, and she moved her hand away from mine.
"What's wrong, Ella?" I asked worriedly as I pulled my hand back with my own frown.
"You've done so well for yourself, and here I haven't accomplished anything," she confessed quietly.
"That's not true," I said, then glanced at Violet, who was doing laps in the pool now. "Look at her. You've raised a good kid, and that's pretty amazing considering..." I trailed off, realizing that I really didn't want to mention her dead husband since I knew it was a touchy subject for her.
"Considering I was stupid enough to get involved with her asshole father?" she asked bitterly. "I think that every day."
"No," I replied softly. "I was going to say, considering her father was an abusive bastard."
"He was never like that with Violet, just me," she said sadly. "And never in front of her. He was always very careful about that."
"That's because he knew she'd hate him if he did," I replied.
She nodded at my comment, but didn't say anything else. I watched her and the pained and broken look in her eyes. It wrecked me and pissed me off. I wished I could go back in time and kill the bastard myself.
"What did he do to you?" I asked with a distinct husky growl to my voice as anger roiled through me.
"I don't want to talk about this," she whispered as she stared down at her hands.
Her reticence to talk frustrated me. She was in so much pain, and I couldn't stand it. I desperately wanted to help her. I took in a breath to try to push her into talking, but I was interrupted by the doorbell ringing inside the house. I glanced toward the house with a frown. I didn't usually get unexpected visitors since I basically lived out in the middle of nowhere. I feared I knew who it was, and I really wished and hoped I was wrong.
"Excuse me while I get that," I said as I stood up from the table.
I walked inside and crossed the house to the front door. I peered through the peephole and let out a heavy resigned sigh. Well, fuck. I was half tempted to ignore my visitor, but my black Tesla Model S was sitting in the driveway instead of the garage. There was no pretending I wasn't home. I clenched my jaw and pulled open the door to find Scott standing there with a frown, wearing a faded blue T-shirt and a pair of well-worn jeans.
"Hey," I said nonchalantly.
"Hey, yourself," he replied.
"What are you doing here?"
"I stopped by the office to ask you to lunch," he said with a worried frown. "Gwen told me you flew out of there like a bat out of hell this morning and disappeared. She hadn't heard from you since, and I figured I needed to check on you."
His eyes flicked down to my bare elbows. Today I'd worn a T-shirt under the suit jacket I'd left in my office earlier. He was looking for fresh needle tracks, wondering if I'd shot up.
"I didn't use, Scott," I said firmly with an edge of irritation I couldn't hide. I knew he cared and worried about me, but Jesus, just because I went AWOL for a few hours, didn't automatically mean I was out scoring heroin again. I'd been clean for eight years for fuck's sake.
He narrowed his eyes at me, and crossly said, "Well, considering how much of control freak you are and how you schedule your life down to the goddamn minute, forgive me for worrying when you fall off the fucking rails."
I crossed my arms and shot a glare at him that he shot right back, arching one of his brows challengingly as we stared each other down. A moment later, I huffed out a breath in defeat. "Fine," I snapped out, grudgingly admitting that he had a point. I'd check up on him too if he acted this out of character.
"Can I come in?" he asked, already stepping forward.
"Now is not a good time," I answered, throwing an arm across the doorway, blocking his path inside.
"Why?" he asked with narrowed eyes. "Wait?" He smirked as he peered over my shoulder. "Are you having a nooner with some random hottie?" He looked at me and grinned. "Good for you. I keep telling you those sex contracts you make with those subs at Désir Dangereux are a real boner killer. Sucks the spontaneity right out of it."
Scott's disdain for the BDSM lifestyle was annoying since he used to be into it himself not that long ago. He abandoned the lifestyle several years ago after what I'd gathered was a bad experience with a sub that he refused to talk about to this day. I never pried or pushed him for details, but whatever it was must have been bad.
"Shut up," I warned him with a glare, not wanting Ella to hear him.
God only knew how she'd respond to my unconventional sex life. She'd probably run for the hills. Shit, why was I even thinking things like that? Shouldn't I want her to leave? None of this made any sense to me, so I pushed those thoughts away.
"I don't do spontaneous, Scott," I grumbled. "You know that."
Just then Violet's laugh echoed loudly from inside the house, and Scott's brows practically disappeared up into his hairline. Well, fuck. He wasn't going to let this go now. So much for getting rid of him quickly before he saw Ella and found out that instead of firing her, I invited her and her kid to my house. Who knew what he'd make of it if he found out I'd fucked her twice already too.
He darted forward under my arm into the house before I realized what he was doing. Damn him and his ninja martial arts bullshit. I growled under my breath and hurried after him.
I walked into the vaulted great room right on Scott's heels and nearly plowed into him as he jerked to a stop. Ella was kneeling on the floor near my gray sectional sofa with her back to us as she rooted through the tote bag she'd brought with her. Violet stood next to her wrapped up in one of my big white fluffy towels with a happy contented expression, and her damp blond hair slicked back on her head. The kid saw us first, and her green eyes lit up as she saw Scott.
"Hi," she said brightly. "I'm Violet. I'm," -she glanced at her mother sheepishly- "almost eleven." It would appear that Ella had a talk with her daughter about honesty at some point today. Ella's head popped up and widened when she saw Scott. She stood with a distinctly uncomfortable expression with what I assumed was Violet's clothes in her hands.
"Hi, Violet," Scott replied with a wide grin. "I'm Scott." He stepped forward and reached a hand out to her. "I usually act like I'm almost eleven," he added wryly.
Violet giggled at Scott's comment and took his hand. He made a show out of shaking her hand with ridiculous exaggeration, making her giggle even more. Scott turned to look at Ella. His eyes widened almost infinitesimally, but his smile never faltered. If I didn't know him well, I wouldn't have noticed the slight change in his expression that gave away his surprise. No one had a better poker face than Scott. It made him one hell of a P.I., and a man I made a point of never playing cards with.
"I'm Ella," she said. "Violet's mom."
"Good to meet you," Scott said as he shook Ella's hand.
"You too," Ella replied, then shot an uneasy expression my way. "I...um...I need to get Violet home soon."
"Aw, Mom," Violet whined. "I wanted to swim some more."
"You can come back another time," I suddenly blurted out, inexplicably not wanting them to leave anymore than Violet did. If Scott hadn't shown up, I'd have asked them to stay longer. "I have Mondays off." I could feel Scott's eyes boring into me, but I ignored him for now.
Violet turned hopeful pleading eyes on her mother. "Can we Mom?" she asked in a desperate tone.
Ella pressed her lips together with a pained uncomfortable expression.
"Please." Violet's eyes turned big and sad. The kid was good.
"I can pick you up again," I suggested, trying to sound nonchalant, but from the side-eye Scott was giving me, it wasn't working.
Ella sighed. "We'll see, Violet," she hedged noncommittally. "Let's go get your clothes back on. Okay?"
"Alright," Violet replied in drawn out and over-dramatic resignation.
I directed them to the powder room near the stairs and watched them leave the room. Then I steeled myself before turning back to face my best friend.
He arched a brow at me. "So..." he said calmly. "You didn't fire her."
I glared at him, not bothering to reply to the obviousness of his comment. I walked away toward the patio doors as he followed.
"You brought her to your house," he continued as I picked up the iced tea glasses off the outdoor table.
"So," I said as I breezed past him back into the house. I went into the kitchen with him still following me.
"You invited her and her kid over for a play date next week."
I sighed as I set the glasses down on the kitchen counter with a hard thump. "What's your point, Scott?" I asked irritably as I turned to confront him.
"You tell me," came his leading reply. "I'm not the one spending time with the woman who broke my heart twelve years ago. I'm not the one acting out of character."
"It's nothing," I said sternly. "They've both had a rough time, and I'm just trying to help them out."
Scott's expression turned skeptical, but before he could say anything else, Ella and Violet came back into the room.
"You ready to go?" I asked as I hurried away from Scott, eager to escape his pointed stare. I picked up Ella's tote and brought it over to her.
"Yeah," she replied and took it from me. I brushed my fingers across hers without thinking. She jerked her hand away as her eyes darted toward Violet.
I sighed and ushered them toward the front door, feeling Scott's perceptive gaze on me as he trailed behind us. He had to have seen that touch, and I knew this wouldn't be the end of the conversation we'd started. At least for now, I had an excuse to avoid it for the time being.
"Mom," Violet announced as I opened the door for them to walk through ahead of me. "I'm hungry."
"We'll get something at home, baby," Ella replied.
"Can't we stop somewhere?" Violet asked. "I'm sick of eating at home all the time."
"I can take you out to lunch if you want," I suggested, wondering yet again what the hell I was doing and why. "I haven't eaten yet either."
Ella grimaced, and I knew what she was going to say next, that she couldn't afford it.
"My treat," I added before she could speak.
"Can we Mom?" Violet asked, backing me up with bright and pleading eyes. "Please, please, please."
She pressed her lips together as she looked back and forth between Violet and me. She huffed out a breath in defeat.
"Fine," she said in a clipped tone as she avoided my gaze.
"Yes," Violet said in triumph, then shot a radiant smile up at me. She turned and raced down the sidewalk toward my car with Ella hurrying to catch up.
I felt Scott come up next to me.
"So..." he began in a smug drawn-out voice, "you don't do spontaneous, huh?" he asked.
"Shut up, fucker," I growled out quietly, ignoring the amused smirk on his goddamn face as I walked away.