Chapter 18
NOLAN
Whatever the reason Alexa had gone outside, it wasn’t to fetch something from the truck, because Nolan still had the key.
For several uncomfortable minutes, he’d been afraid she wouldn’t come back.
That she’d call a cab or Chase and disappear.
But she returned before their meal was served and sat down as though nothing had happened, and he did his best to make small talk while they ate the chef’s special—Italian dim sum.
Lasagne ravioli, meatball sub bao buns, nests of spaghetti carbonara.
The server apologised a hundred times for keeping them waiting, and at one point, she was wiping away tears.
Nolan gave her a clean bandana, and Alexa told her the delay didn’t matter, they were enjoying their date.
Their date.
She’d accepted it.
Put the past aside and accepted he was back in her life.
Nolan didn’t know what the future held, but he wanted her to be a part of his.
“How long will you stay?” he asked as she cracked the top on a miso vanilla crème br?lée, a combination that shouldn’t have worked but did.
“Stay where?”
“With me.”
“A week? Unless you plan to kick me out sooner.”
“I’d never kick you out, but I wouldn’t say no to a second date.”
“Okay, but somewhere quieter, and after Chase and I come back from Japan.”
She said yes. Nolan wanted to punch the air. “You’re going to Japan?”
“Chase trains at a dojo there, and I like the food. Plus the people are nice. Polite. Your internet is too slow.”
“Huh?”
“At the vineyard. I’ll need to fix that.”
“So you can spend more time there?”
For the first time, she looked uncertain. “Unless you don’t want me to?”
Nolan reached for her hand again. “Tell me what you need, and we’ll make it happen.”
She’d want some space of her own. An office. A Batcave. There were rooms in the older part of the house he could refurbish to free up the guest wing—his grandma’s old sewing room next to the study, or even the dusty library—and presumably Chase would come too.
“I missed you,” she whispered.
Nolan dropped his spoon and sank to his knees beside Alexa’s seat, pulling her into a tight hug. She wrapped her arms around his neck and for a moment, the noise of the restaurant melted away. It was just the two of them and a hazy future stretching out ahead, a future with one cast-iron certainty.
Alexa Stone was his.
And he was hers.
Maybe she didn’t know it yet, but she was smart—she’d work it out eventually.
“Look at that guy,” the guy in the blue golf shirt jeered. “He’s pussy whipped.”
“If he was a real man, the woman would be on her knees,” one of his friends called.
“Probably gay,” another wiseass added, and Nolan felt anger flare as he scrambled to his feet.
Alexa grabbed his hand. “Don’t.”
“I’ve had enough of his fucking mouth.”
“Revenge is a dish best served with coffee.”
“What?”
“Sit down and wait. I promise you won’t regret it.”
Slowly, Nolan did as she instructed. He waited.
He ordered coffee. He watched Alexa smiling happily as she sipped a macchiato while the asshole in the golf shirt cursed out his car in the parking lot.
It wouldn’t unlock. Not a flash, not a bleep.
It was just dead. The guy kicked a tyre and cursed some more.
“Did you do that?”
“That model is heavily reliant on electronics. The manufacturer has remote access so they can brick the vehicle if the lessee falls behind on their car payments, and the system has more than one security flaw.”
“Please don’t take this the wrong way, but I love you.”
Although she didn’t say the words back, her smile grew wider, but that could have been because her dark little heart was happiest while causing chaos. Still, Nolan was taking tonight as a win.
“Enjoy the show. I’ll get the check,” he said. Fuck it, he leaned in and kissed her hair. “Unless you want another drink?”
“I can pay.”
“I’m sure you can, but I promised I’d be a gentleman, and that includes paying for dinner.”
Her mouth set in a thin line.
Nolan crouched beside her. “I know you like to be in control, but I have a pathological need to take care of you.”
“You should probably see a therapist about that.”
He sighed. “I’ll pay for dinner, and you can cover the tip. Deal?”
“Okay, deal.”
When Nolan came back from the bathroom, the flustered server was trying to explain that there was a problem with the card machine, and Nolan caught sight of the tip line. Five thousand bucks. Hot damn.
“Alexa, wait…”
“We had a deal.” She sauntered toward the door. “You think you can out-control-freak me? Think again, sucker.”
He caught up with her as she pulled an exaggerated sad face at the guy in the golf shirt.
“Oh, your car won’t start? A real man would know how to fix an engine.”
The man’s face was turning red as Nolan bundled her into his pickup. Fucking Alexa. Life with her was an adventure, he could say that much.