14. Spencer
14
SPENCER
I only had a few minutes to talk to Alyssa before it was time for dinner. Raphael was cooking, and the kids were doing the worksheets the third-grade teachers mistakenly thought were educational. I knocked on the door frame, giving Lyss the chance to turn me away if she was too tired, but she told me to come on in.
“Can we talk?” I asked.
Alyssa looked like a puppy who’d dug up the geraniums. “I feel like I’ve been called into the principal’s office.”
I bit back a smile. “Well, you’re still recovering, so the principal had to come to you.” I sat in my usual spot at the end of the bed. She had on a scoop-neck t-shirt and one of the pairs of sweatpants we’d cut up to accommodate her cast. Her straight hair grazed the tops of her shoulders and shone in the fading light from the window. She looked fresh-faced and pretty—but not as pretty as she’d looked in my button-down shirt the other day. That was a sight I wouldn’t soon forget.
But that wasn’t why I was here. “Charlotte told me that you got a grown-up nightgown.”
Her cheeks, her throat, and even the skin of her chest flushed. “I’m so sorry,” she said immediately. “I had no idea Sierra was going to send me lingerie, or I never would’ve opened it in front of Charlotte.”
“Sierra. Is she your girlfriend?” I said that in a casual tone—or at least I hoped I did.
“No, just a friend.”
That struck me as odd. “Do your friends usually send you lingerie?”
“No, but Sierra is kind of a girlie girl. She likes pretty things. I think she thought it would cheer me up.”
“And did it?” My eyebrows raised, and I saw her legs move under the blanket.
“I don’t know. Once I saw what it was, I shoved it back in the box. I’m sorry I wasn’t faster.”
That part made me grin, and I patted her foot. “No one here expects you to be speedy in your condition. May I see it?”
Her jaw dropped, and I realized how my words had sounded. “I mean, I’d like to know what Charlotte saw. ‘Grown-up nightgown’ can mean so many things.” This time, I was pretty sure my face was the red one.
Alyssa didn’t meet my eyes as she lifted up the covers and pulled out some wadded-up material. The first item was clearly a teddy, a short, flirty, slip-like garment held up by spaghetti straps. She held it up in front of her. The color was a satiny peach, with lace lining the bra cups and the lower hem. It wasn’t very long to begin with, but there was a slit up the front over her left thigh.
I couldn’t stop staring. She was holding it up in the air, but it was right in front of her torso. It didn’t take much imagination to visualize what it would look like on her. The color would suit her pale skin, and though she was slender, I had no doubt her curves would fill the teddy quite nicely.
Suddenly, I wished there was a blanket over my lap, too.
Alyssa flushed, seeming to realize that she was holding the lingerie up against her chest. She tossed it aside and pulled out the next piece. “There’s a robe, too.”
Except the robe didn’t come alone. As she pulled it out from under the covers, lacy panties somehow tumbled out of the robe and landed on the bed between us.
Holy shit. They were hardly more than a triangle in front and a triangle in back, held together by little lace ties on the sides. Any man in the world—any straight man, that is—would give at least a year’s paycheck to see her in them.
Shit, I needed to adjust myself in the worst way, but instead I angled my legs away from her, trying not to make her uncomfortable. I needed to get my mind onto something more wholesome ASAP.
I cleared his throat. “That’s quite a gift. Are you sure she's just a friend?”
“Positive.”
“Men don’t give each other sexy undies,” I said, trying not to look at the panties, but the image was seared in my brain.
“Maybe they should,” she said with a straight face. Though clearly embarrassed, she also seemed a little amused.
“Perhaps.” I shook my head, trying to clear it. “So if your female friends send you something like that, what do your male friends get you?”
“I don’t have any.” My understanding was that she was saying she didn’t have any male friends who would give her something like that. I doubted very much that she didn’t have any male friends at all. Not unless every man she knew was an idiot.
Unable to help myself, I reached out and touched the corner of the robe, feeling the silkiness of the fabric. “How come?”
That wasn’t an easy question, but I couldn’t help asking. Alyssa contemplated for a while, and it was almost like I could see the thoughts filtering through her brain as she mulled it over. But when she spoke, she kept it simple. “No time.”
That wasn’t hard to believe, especially since in the span of a month or two, she’d finished her degree, landed a job, and moved across the country—not to mention, saved my son. Still, when I opened my mouth to acknowledge that, something entirely different came out. “You’ve got time now.”
Her rosy lips parted as she stared at me.
Shit. “I didn’t mean that the way it sounded. I just?—”
“It’s okay.”
I shook my head. “No, it’s not. Guess you can see why I don’t have a girlfriend.”
“Not really,” she said, with a straightforwardness that was kind of flattering.
“Well, in the first place, what little game I used to have is long gone, as my brother frequently points out. Then there’s a matter of time for me, too. Even with Rafe and Flynn helping, being a parent is a full-time job. And at my actual full-time job, I’m surrounded by married women and children.”
Clearly, I was protesting too much. All of that was true, but I’d left the most important reason out.
Alyssa, though, nodded with understanding. “Not many dating opportunities at the local elementary school?”
“Nope.” Deciding it was finally safe to uncross my legs, I put my hands on the mattress behind me and leaned back. “Truth is, dating hasn’t been a high priority for a long time.”
“Since Corrine?”
As always, it hurt to hear her name. But paradoxically, it also hurt when I didn’t hear or say her name for a while. “Yeah.” It was a struggle to keep my tone light. “I’ve had some offers over the years, but none that caught my interest.”
Time to wipe that concerned look off of poor Lyss’s face. She had enough to deal with without worrying about me. “Anyway, I don’t think Charlotte’s scarred for life.”
“I hope not.” Her gaze dropped to her lap. “I liked having her in here. Nana, too. It can get a bit… lonely.” She admitted it like she was confessing to a crime. “Don’t get me wrong, you all have done so much for me. It’s just… I spend a lot of time by myself in here.”
My heart went out to her. When I was a boy, I’d hated spending even one day sick in bed, and she’d spent the better part of a week here. “You’re getting stronger every day. That means more time out of this room soon.”
“I know,” she said quickly. “It’s just, everyone has other things to do during the day except me.”
My stomach hurt every time I reflected on exactly why she wasn’t at her job and living the life she’d planned to when she moved down here. But I tried to keep my voice light. “Well, we’ll have to see what we can do to get you more company, like today with Nana and Charlotte.”
Hope filled her face, making her look absurdly young. “I’d like that.”
An idea struck, though I wasn’t sure if it was a good one. “Are you a morning person?”
“Yes. Why?”
I gave her a smile. “You’ll see—and you might regret saying that.”
She looked confused but intrigued.
I stood up. “Dinner will be ready in twenty. Are you up for joining us on the deck?”
Her smile brightened the entire room. “Wouldn’t miss it.”
As I helped the twins finish their homework and set the table, it was the image of her smile, rather than the thought of her in that sexy lingerie, that stuck with me.