Chapter Seventeen
It was just after six when Davin arrived back after work. He sat in his truck for a moment staring at the house. It was hard to believe how much had changed over the last couple of weeks.
It hit him that if Zoe had accepted his offer to come and visit him for the weekend, none of those changes would have happened. He couldn’t be more grateful that she’d turned him down. Instead of pursuing a relationship that he knew had no real future with a girl who lived a couple hundred miles away, here he was staying with Alexis. Not only were they playing house – it was too early to say that they were living together, even though that was how it felt – but they’d taken Booker in and were doing their best to help him find his way in life.
He smiled to himself. When he first met Alexis, he’d told her that he envied Cal a little bit because he’d walked into a ready-made family. Just this morning Cal had told him that he and Alexis were cobbling together a little family of their own. With that thought, he jumped out of the truck and hurried to the front door, looking forward to seeing them both and hearing about their day. Alexis had texted him earlier to say that she was taking Booker to the mall.
He let himself in and went to the kitchen when he heard Alexis in there.
“Hey.” He greeted her with a smile but held back from going to kiss her like he’d intended to. “What’s wrong?”
She smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “Nothing. I could ask you the same thing.”
“What do you mean?” She was giving off a weird vibe, and he didn’t like it.
She closed her eyes briefly, then blew out a sigh and gave him a more genuine smile. “Sorry, that’s not the kind of atmosphere anyone wants to come home to, is it?”
“No, but I’m more concerned about what caused it. Why would you think that there’s something wrong with me?”
She came to him and rested her hands on his shoulders as she looked up into his eyes. “You don’t have to do this, you know. Booker and I are just fine. If this is more than you bargained for …”
“Why would you think that? This whole situation is more than I bargained for – and I couldn’t be happier about it.”
She pursed her lips. “Can we talk it through, please?”
“I’d love to.” Her frosty reception had caught him off stride; he was relieved that she wasn’t going to shut down on him. “What happened?”
She rolled her eyes. “Nothing happened. Nothing other than me jumping to a conclusion. I saw you pull up outside a few minutes ago and then you just sat there in your truck. It made me think that you don’t really want to be here, that you were psyching yourself up to come in. That’s why I said what I did. You’re under no obligation here – to either of us.”
He ran his fingers down her cheek. “You jumped to the wrong conclusion. I was sitting out there taking it all in. If you want to know the truth, I was thanking my lucky stars that Zoe turned me down. A couple of weeks ago, I didn’t know that you existed – or Booker. Now, here we are, all staying together like this. Getting to know each other and …” He hesitated but if they were being honest with each other, he might as well say it. “More than just getting to know each other we’re … cobbling together a little family. That’s how Cal put it this morning, and I love that description.”
She inhaled sharply, and he raised his eyebrows.
“Now it’s my turn to ask – is that more than you bargained for?”
She nodded slowly. “It is – but …” She met his gaze. “I’d love to think that’s what we’re doing.”
He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her to his chest. Relief flooded through him when she hugged him back and rested her head on his shoulder.
“Sorry I was so sharp with you when you came in.”
“Not a problem.” He chuckled. “It might have become a problem if you’d kept it up and refused to tell me what was going on with you. I should warn you, when I was married, that was my ex’s MO. She’d give the cold shoulder, the silent treatment, the wounded martyr act, and make me work my ass off to get her to tell me what was wrong. She’d treat me like shit because she’d jumped to the wrong conclusion and wanted to punish me accordingly.” He shuddered. “I don’t deal well with that.”
She hugged him tighter. “I want to say that I would never do that – but I just did. I’m sorry.”
He laughed. “It really isn’t a problem. You did it for less than 30 seconds before you leveled with me. My ex could drag that shit out for 30 days. I couldn’t handle that again.”
“You won’t have to. I might react badly when I assume the worst, but I can assure you that I won’t drag it out. I’m an investigator by nature. I need to get to the facts.” She smiled. “I might interrogate you, but I most definitely won’t give you the silent treatment – I’m not capable. I operate on facts.”
He chuckled. “You know that I’m trained to resist interrogation, right?”
She laughed. “Of course. We should probably try to avoid getting into that kind of situation. It’d be a case of an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object.”
He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I think we’ll be fine. I want this to work, I’ll do what I can to make sure it does.”
“Me too. I give you my word.”
They both turned at the sound of Booker coming downstairs. He stopped at the bottom when he saw them.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to intrude.”
“You’re not,” Alexis told him. “Come on in, I was going to see if you wanted to come down.” She started to move away from Davin, but he tightened his arms around her.
“You’re not intruding,” he told Booker with a smile. “We’re just saying our hellos at the end of the workday.”
He kept hold of Alexis with one arm and held his other out to Booker. The kid hesitated for a moment, but then leaned in.
Davin closed his eyes as he hugged the kid. He was just skin and bone. Alexis met his gaze, and he knew that she was thinking the same thing.
Booker stepped back after a moment, looking sheepish.
“Sorry if I embarrassed you with the hugging,” Davin told him.
“Nah. It’s good.” Booker met his gaze briefly before looking quickly away. “I miss that kind of thing. My mom was a hugger. I …” He gave them a wry smile. “It’s not cool to admit that in a group home.”
Davin nodded. “You’ll have to forgive me if I go overboard with it. My mom was a hugger, too, and my brothers were still small when she died. I put myself in charge of making sure that they still got hugs – so that they didn’t miss out. I was a bit older, so I felt like I’d gotten more than my fair share. It’s funny how you think things work when you’re a kid, isn’t it? I thought I could pass some of her hugs onto them.”
Alexis tightened her arm around his waist, but he hadn’t said it for her benefit.
Booker met his gaze. “They were lucky they had you. I bet you were an awesome big brother.”
“I did my best.” He chuckled. “I wasn’t an angel though. When you meet them, you’ll have to ask them how they saw it.”
Booker gave him a puzzled look. “Are they coming to visit?”
“I don’t know. I mean, sure, they’ll come at some point. Or we’ll go to visit them. Maybe around the holidays or for some family gathering or another.”
Booker stared at him, and he reached out and grasped the kid’s shoulder. “I know it’s early days yet, but we’re going to be in your life for as long as you want us.”
Booker’s eyes darted between him and Alexis. “How can you say that? You don’t know me yet. Hell, you hardly even know each other. I don’t … shit … I’m sorry. I’m grateful but …”
“It’s okay,” Alexis reassured him. “You don’t have to believe it.” She gave him a smile that Davin didn’t understand. “Just remember what we talked about – test it and see.”
Booker nodded. “Okay. I do like the idea of it.”
Davin grinned at him. “I’m glad, but don’t feel obligated either. Once you’re on your feet, if you discover that we’re not your kind of people or … whatever, just say so. You don’t owe us a damn thing.”
“Okay.”
“Anyway. I don’t know how we got into all these heavy conversations. When I got here, I was going to ask what your plans are for the evening.”
“I need to get to the restaurant in a bit.”
Davin turned to Alexis. She shrugged. “I don’t have any plans – what are you thinking?”
“Well, Adam and Evie would like to hang out; I thought we could maybe stop by the restaurant so that you can meet them, Booker. Adam’s my old teammate who I’ve told you about, and Evie is his fiancée.”
Booker grinned. “I can’t get over their names – Adam and Evie! And yeah, I’m cool if you guys want to come in, but I won’t be able to hang out with you much.”
“That’s okay. I wouldn’t expect you to – you’re working. I thought this way might be best because you have a built-in excuse to just say hi and not have to stick around and sit through a long boring conversation.”
“I wouldn’t mind that. Listening to you guys wouldn’t be boring – you were freaking Deltas.”
Alexis laughed, and he turned to her. “And you’re a badass too, I know it, but you can’t talk about your stuff.”
“No, I let the men claim all the glory.”
Davin poked her in the ribs, making her laugh. “That’s about right. Let us think we were the ones who saved the day, while we couldn’t have done any of it without your clever masterminding to set it all up.”
She grinned at Booker. “See, this is why I keep him around – he gets it.”
Booker laughed. “You two are awesome.”
Davin grasped his shoulder. “That makes us three of a kind.”
~ ~ ~
Alexis was glad that Davin had suggested that they should come early and get to Giuseppe’s before Adam and Evie. He squeezed her hand as they walked across the parking lot. “You okay?”
“I am. I’m looking forward to getting to know them.”
He gave her a puzzled look. “You’re not all that sociable, are you?”
“No. I’m not antisocial but …” She chuckled. “Humans aren’t my favorite creatures, but I am looking forward to getting to know your friends.”
“I think you’ll like them. And you’re sure you won’t mind being left with Evie?”
“No, I don’t mind, it’ll be good to hang out with her and not have you and Adam around. Although, I’m glad that you checked and didn’t expect me to be the meek little woman who gets left behind while you guys get to do the fun stuff.”
“I wouldn’t do that to you. And it’s not exactly fun stuff – more of a recon mission. We want to make sure that same guy isn’t hanging around the gym again while Shayna teaches her class.”
She frowned. “And make sure that he doesn’t follow her home.”
“Yeah, but she’ll be in her car this time; she’s not risking walking around town anymore.”
“Good. And if you find this guy, I hope you’re going to make him understand that it’ll be in his own best interest to leave Shayna alone?”
Davin chuckled. “Yup. Although, I kind of wish that you’d be there for that. I think you’d put the fear of God into him more effectively than we can.”
She laughed with him. “I’d like to think so.”
Booker seemed pleased to see them when they went inside, greeting them with a big smile. “I saved you a corner table,” he told them.
Alexis loved that he’d picked up on the detail that they both liked to sit with their backs to the wall.
“Thank you,” she told him.
He led them over to a corner booth, and Davin grinned. “This is great – we’ll all be comfortable.”
Booker gave him a puzzled look. “Oh! Your friend – he served with you – he’ll want his back to the wall, too?”
“He will.” He jerked his head to the door where Adam and Evie had just come in. “There they are now.”
“I’ll go bring them over,” said Booker. He glanced around. “I won’t be able to hang out much, but I’ll come and chat when I can.”
“Don’t stress about it,” Alexis told him. “You’re here to do your job. We understand that. If you have a free minute and want to come over, that’d be great, but don’t put yourself under any pressure.”
“Thanks. I’ll go bring your friends.”
Alexis was surprised by how quickly the evening flew by. She enjoyed seeing Davin and Adam together. It was easy to tell that they’d served together; like so many of the Special Forces guys she’d worked with, they were more like brothers than teammates.
Evie was lovely. Alexis hadn’t known what to expect of her. It was obvious that Davin adored her from the way he’d spoken about her. But since he’d described her as a widow, and an interior designer, Alexis wasn’t inclined to think that they’d have anything in common. She was happy to discover that she was wrong. Well, they didn’t have much in common, but they got along well.
She took a sip of her wine and caught Davin’s gaze. He smiled and reached for her hand under the table.
The way Adam smiled at her made her think that he could see through the table and knew somehow.
“You’re good for him,” he told her.
Evie nodded enthusiastically. “I was a bit worried when I heard that the two of you had moved in together so quickly, but I get it now.”
Davin turned to her with a smile, and she raised her eyebrows in question.
“What?” she asked. “What’s that look for?”
“I just wanted to see how you reacted to hearing that I’ve moved in with you. I never said that – I’ve only said that I’m staying with you.”
“Semantics,” she said with a chuckle. “Whatever words we use, we both knew what we meant when we first talked about it. If things went sour, we could say that you’d just been staying with me for a while.”
He squeezed her hand again. “Or we can look back when we’re old and gray and say it was when we first started living together.”
A rush of warmth filled her chest. She loved the idea of still being with him when they were old and gray. She was aware of Adam and Evie grinning at each other, but she didn’t tear her gaze away from Davin’s. She didn’t speak, she didn’t need to – it turned out that they didn’t even need kisses to speak without words – their eyes could say it all.
After he and Adam left to check up on Shayna, Booker came over to the table. “Can I get you ladies anything?” he asked.
“I’d love a coffee,” Evie said. “Decaf, though.”
“I’ll have one of those as well. How was your night?”
Booker nodded happily. He seemed a lot more relaxed. Perhaps it was just because here at work, he had to be upbeat around the customers.
“It’s been good. It’s not as busy as the weekend will be, but it’s not dead, either.”
“Do you know what time you’ll be finishing?”
He grinned. “Tino said I can go at ten-thirty. I told him about my job at the barn and he said I need to get a good night’s sleep.”
“That’s good of him.”
“Isn’t it? I told him I’ll come in half an hour earlier and help with setup instead. He says I don’t need to but I’m going to anyway.”
“You’re a good man, Booker.”
His cheeks turned pink, and he straightened up. “Thanks. I’ll get you those coffees and then I’d better get back to it. Tino said I could take some time to check on you.”
“Isn’t he a sweetheart?” Evie asked as they watched him walk away.
“He is. I know there’s a whole debate about nature versus nurture, but I believe that most of us are a mixture of both. I’d say that he’s a good kid at heart, and I’d guess that his parents did a good job of raising him while they were around. No kid has the kind of manners and respectfulness that he does unless someone taught them.”
“And you don’t have children of your own?” Evie asked.
“No. Never wanted them,” she said with a smile. “In fact, now I come to think about it, I recall telling people when I was younger that if I could have a child who arrived fully trained at around eighteen then I might consider having one.”
Evie laughed. “Looks like your wish came true.”
“It does.” She watched Booker return, walking carefully, carrying a tray with their coffees on it. “He’s not mine – he’s too old to need parenting now, but I’m hopeful that I – that we’ll – be able to give him some useful guidance as he finds his way.”
“Thank you,” Evie told him when he reached the table. “You’re good at this. Are you going to start working as a server as well as hosting?”
He shrugged. “I’ll do anything Tino wants me to do.” He glanced back over his shoulder. “And I should get back in the kitchen and see what he wants me to do now. I don’t reckon there’ll be anyone else coming in who I need to seat at this time.”
“Do you know what his plans are?” Evie asked after he’d gone.
“Not a clue. He’s working here because Tino was kind enough to give him a chance. He’s starting at the barn in the morning because Lily did the same. Honestly, I don’t think he’s even considered what he might like to do. It was more a case of figuring out what he had to do just to survive.”
“Yes, but now – thanks to you and Davin – his options are opening up.”
She nodded happily. “They are. I guess we’ll see. Anyway, what about you? It sounds as though you made quite a change when you moved here. Davin told me all about what happened. You’ve had to start from scratch here at the lake. What are you doing with yourself?”
Evie laughed. “I hope he told you that I was in the same situation that Booker was when I first arrived. Well, I had the luxury of being able to sleep in my car, so there was that. But like Booker, I discovered that Summer Lake was the best place I could have landed. Russ and Ria helped me out, then Adam offered me his place.”
“Oh, so you two moved in together straight away as well? I didn’t realize that.”
“No. He let me stay at his house, but he was still living at Clay’s. I wouldn’t have accepted the offer if it meant sharing space with him. Oh, I can tell you’re wondering what I mean by that. It was nothing against Adam; I would have loved to have him around, but I was convinced that I had to keep everyone at arm’s length because I didn’t want them getting involved in my troubles and maybe getting hurt.”
She wasn’t the kind of person who Alexis would expect to get along with, but she was wrong about that; not only could she see Evie becoming a friend, but she admired her …
Evie smiled. “You probably think I’m pathetic. Obviously, I don’t know what you used to do, but from the little I’ve heard from the guys, you can take care of any kind of trouble that might find you.”
“I don’t think that – you couldn’t be further from the truth. I was just thinking that you did well to survive on your own the way you did.”
Evie made a face.
“Seriously. Not many people have lived to tell the tale when Anatoly Petrov had them in his sights. You did.”
“Only because Adam and Davin and the others took him down.”
“No, Cal, Manny, Ryan and many more before them tried to take that man down and never succeeded. You’re the reason that they got him in the end.”
Evie chuckled. “I suppose, but none of that matters anymore, it’s the past. I’m more interested in the future – and I hope that we’re going to be friends.”
“I’d like that, too. I should warn you that I don’t really know how to be a girlfriend – you might have to cut me some slack if I’m not good at it.”
“You’ll get the hang of it. You strike me as a fast learner. And don’t worry, I won’t drag you into any social commitments that you don’t want. There is a big group of us if you want to join in but …”
Alexis shuddered. “I don’t do well with groups of women.”
Evie laughed. “I had a feeling you might say that. I was the same, but I hope you’ll give them a chance. There’s no bitchiness or gossip. I don’t know if we’re just lucky to have a great group of women, or if things have changed over the years and women are more willing to support each other these days, but …” She shrugged. “I’m not going to try to sell you on the idea, I’m just going to encourage you to see for yourself.”
“Okay.”