Chapter 11
ELEVEN
ALEX
Since the good weather had held, I’d finally gotten my way, and we’d opened up the west wall to prepare for installing the rolling garage door. As I took measurements for the framing, Finn and Callum discussed some of the sites they’d scouted on their weekend trip.
“That cliff face would be perfect for abseiling,” Finn insisted.
“It would, but I think we need to stick with easier fare to start. The liability insurance for that sort of excursion is bound to be through the roof.” That was Callum, always thinking about the practical and the consequences. It was part of what made him a good leader. “We have to consider the level of expertise—or lack thereof—of the clientele we’re likely to attract.”
As he went off on a tangent about what he considered more appropriate starter offerings, I let my mind drift. Of course, it ended up back on Ciara. She was never far from my thoughts to start, and after that kiss, she’d taken over. I kept replaying that blissed look on her face before her brain kicked back on. She still wanted me as much as I wanted her. But maybe that was simple biology. Maybe what her body wanted didn’t matter if her heart was still bruised. If I’d known I’d had such power, I’d have been more careful with it.
“Hello, lads.”
I was hallucinating. I would’ve sworn I just heard?—
“Ciara. What are you doing here?”
At Finn’s voice, I turned to see the woman herself standing in the doorway to the lobby, Havoc on a leash beside her.
“Sorry, I let myself in. I wanted to pop by and see what all you’d done to the place.” She glanced around, taking in the demolition. “Looks like you’ve made a lot of progress.”
“We’re in the ‘it’s worse before it’s better’ phase,” Finn explained.
Her gaze fell on me where I stood in the gaping maw that would eventually be a door. Could it be we were in the ‘worse before it’s better’ phase?
“You seem to have a hole in your wall.”
Finn, who’d apparently appointed himself official speaker for the group, moved toward her. “Aye, well, we’re going to be installing a rolling door.”
He and Callum had been gone all weekend, and it was only Monday. Clearly, neither of them had heard any gossip about my having kissed Ciara. But there’d been other people out on the street that day, so I figured it was only a matter of time. In between creating scenarios for winning her back, I’d been considering damage control and what the bloody hell I was going to say when Ewan, or God forbid, their parents, said something about it.
Was that why she was here? She was faking casual really well, but I recognized nerves in the way her fingers tightened around the leash.
“We’d offer you a tour, but, well, you’ve already more or less seen it now.” I tried to think of an excuse to speak with her alone. Since we’d been avoiding each other like the plague, nothing came to mind. We weren’t supposed to actually know each other.
“Right.” She squared her shoulders. “Can I speak to you for a moment?”
Straight to the point, then.
“Sure.”
I felt my friends’ eyes follow me as I crossed the room. They’d be asking me all the questions when I got back, and I needed to be prepared to deflect.
We walked back through the lobby and out front. The building was set far enough back from the road that we shouldn’t be overheard by any foot traffic going by.
The moment we were out of earshot, I asked the question that had been niggling. “Are you okay? Is that guy hassling you again?”
Ciara’s shoulders lifted and fell in a huge sigh. “No. But he will be.” She finally met my gaze. “We have a problem. Rumors are already circulating about you and me. If I correct people’s perceptions, it’ll inevitably get back to Brodie, and everything will just start back up again.”
I didn’t like the sound of any of this. “What do you mean, everything will start back up again? What exactly has been going on?”
She fidgeted, her hand reaching to stroke Havoc’s ears. “Brodie is my ex. I broke up with him about four months ago, and he’s been having some trouble accepting that. In the beginning, it started with small things. Him sending gifts or messages about how much he missed me. He made it very clear he wanted me back. But it just kept… happening. He showed up everywhere. So I got firmer, making it very clear that we aren’t getting back together. But I dinna think it’s sinking in. He’s not accepting the truth of it, and that’s why I made the play I did over the weekend. He’s the sort who won’t leave it alone unless he knows I’m off the market, as it were. But now I’m stuck in this situation where, if I tell the truth about us, it’ll either get back to Brodie and start things up again, or all the men in my life are going to try to take care of this for me, which I dinna want.”
She wasn’t wrong about that. I’d already thought of a multitude of ways to get the point across that it wasn’t ever appropriate to harass a woman. If she said no, it meant no. But clearly that wasn’t what Ciara wanted. I forced my fists to relax and pointed out the next most logical option.
“Then don’t correct everybody.”
Her eyes snapped back to mine. “I dinna want to date you, Alex. I just want to make that clear.”
Her hesitation left a massive gap for interpretation.
“But?” I prompted.
“But, if you truly want to help make up to me some of what you did three years ago, then yes, I would appreciate if you would pose as my fake boyfriend for just a little while, so I can get him off my back.”
Somewhere, for some reason, the universe was smiling on me. I couldn’t have orchestrated this better if I’d tried. I wanted another chance with this woman. What better way to show her how good we could be for each other than acting as her real boyfriend?
“Done.”
“Hopefully, this will be resolved before Isobel and Ewan get back, and they’ll never know. And if they do find out, then we’ll just explain that it’s all for show, for purposes of getting rid of Brodie without my brother going to prison for murder.”
“Oh, if Ewan murdered anybody, we’d all help him dispose of the body. No one would ever find it to even bring charges, let alone convict him.”
The look of utter horror on her face made me remember that she’d never really thought about what the hell any of us had actually done for the Royal Marines.
“Kidding.” I wasn’t, but she didn’t need to know that.
“Right, well, I know you need to get back to work, and so do I. We’ll sort out the details later. I—do you need my phone number?”
“Has it changed?”
“No.”
The silence spun out as the implication that I’d had her number all these years and hadn’t used it settled over us. She was already looking as if maybe she was going to regret this. But this wasn’t just about me. She’d never have asked this if she wasn’t legitimately worried about what this guy would do.
I reached out but stopped just short of touching her. “Everything’s going to be okay.”
“I really hope you’re right.”