33. Chapter 33
Chapter 33
I heard a knock on my door and could literally feel my face brighten. It was probably Cruz stopping by before I left for Kassie’s, and his presence always made me positively giddy.
We spent most nights together, alternating between my apartment and his. Both felt equally like home to me.
After he’d told me about his paternity secret a month ago, it seemed like we’d grown closer than ever. I loved the trust we had in each other. And, well, I loved him .
Not even checking the peephole, I swung the door open and grinned. “Hey, sexy!” But it wasn’t my hunky Cuban on the other side of the door.
No, it was Dwight.
Fuck.
My former fiancé’s eyes flashed with surprise at my enthusiastic greeting that hadn’t been meant for him. At all.
“Well hey, beautiful.” He pulled me into a hug, and I gave him a little pat on the back before quickly extracting myself from his arms.
Doing my best to keep my tone neutral, I asked, “What are you doing here?”
He grinned winningly. “I worked some things out and got transferred to New York.”
What in the fucking fuck?
“Oh. Well. That’s… something,” I hedged, unable to think of anything else to say.
“Great, right?” he asked, face beaming.
Not exactly the adjective I was thinking of.
I stared at the man I’d been prepared to marry and felt… nothing. So much nothing. How was that even possible?
How was it that the feelings I’d had for Dwight seemed like strings while my feelings for Cruz were like strong ropes? The kind sailors used on ships, hardy and powerful and all-binding.
“Lehhhhraaaa,” Dwight sang, waving a hand in front of my face with a chuckle. “Big surprise, right?”
“The biggest,” I muttered. “So what are you doing here?”
His brow creased at my less-than-thrilled tone. “I just told you, I got transferred to New York.”
“Yes, but what are you doing here , specifically?” I pointed at the floor. “At my apartment?”
“You’d put me on your visitor’s list, so the concierge let me up. I came to see you,” he returned, like I was mentally challenged for even asking. “So we can give this another shot.”
“No.” The word wasn’t shouted, but it was no less emphatic, and he took a step back.
“What do you mean no?”
“It’s a two-letter word, Dwight. It’s not that difficult.”
He managed to widen his eyes and scrunch his eyebrows at the same time, a hybrid expression of shock and hurt.
“But I-I moved here for you.”
I let out a sigh, showing a hint of the exasperation I was feeling. “That wasn’t a very smart thing to do Dwight, you moved here without even talking to me first?”
“But I was trying to do one of those…” he circled his hand a few times trying to think of the phrase, “one of those grand gesture things.”
Jesus help me.
Putting on my most patient smile, I said, “I don’t need grand gestures, Dwight. I need the small things. The daily things that tell a person you care.” My mind went to Cruz, the king of the small but sweet gestures. “I need a man who cools my coffee off before he brings it to me because he knows I don’t like it super-hot. I need a man who rubs my feet after I wear heels. I need a man who tells me every day with his actions and his words that I am his priority.”
Dwight rubbed the lines between his eyebrows. “But I can do that, Lehra. I want to try again with us. I promise you’ll be my number one priority from now on.”
I shook my head slowly from side to side. “It’s too late for that, and to be honest, I’m not sure we were ever right for each other.”
He tossed his hands up and let them fall to his sides. “What am I supposed to do now?”
“You’re supposed to get on with your life just like I have.”
“But—”
My voice was firm when I interrupted him. “No, Dwight, it’s not going to happen.”
His shoulders deflated like a popped balloon. “Can I at least stay here until I figure out what I want to do?”
“There are plenty of hotels in New York.”
He stared at me for a long moment and shook his head. “Are you sure about this?”
I had never been more sure about anything in my life, and I gave him a slow nod. I almost felt a little bit sorry for him, the big dummy, so I had a modicum of pity on him.
“I have to leave in a few minutes, but I’ll let you come inside so you can find a hotel room. Where’s your luggage?”
He pouted like a big baby and mumbled, “I left it downstairs with your concierge. They said they would bring it up for me.”
“I’ll call down and tell them to hold onto it.” His face fell almost to his feet, and I stepped back, gesturing for him to come in and settle on the couch. I spouted off the names of a few hotels, and he opened the browser on his phone and began tapping away, his face forming an irritated scowl.
“Okay,” he finally said, “I booked a room for the next two nights until I can figure out if I want to stay here or go back to Michigan.” His jaw muscles tightened. “I mean, I already took the job, but now I don’t know if I want to stay here.”
“I’m sure you’ll figure it out. I have somewhere I have to be, so…” I bobbed my head toward the door.”
Dwight’s eyes widened. “You’re kicking me out? But I can’t check into the hotel until two. It’s not even noon. I have seven suitcases and nowhere to go.”
I puffed out a sigh and gritted my teeth. I had to get to Kassie’s and didn’t have time to stay here and babysit his dumb ass.
“Fine. You can stay here until 1:30. Like I said, I have somewhere to be, so just close the door behind you. It’s self-locking.”
Grabbing my purse, I hooked it over my shoulder, and Dwight's forehead crinkled once again. He was going to have major wrinkles if he kept this up. “You’re leaving right now?” he asked, seeming offended that I wasn’t going to stay here and entertain him.
God, how did I ever tolerate this big man-baby?
“I am,” I said, backing away when he rose and tried to hug me, instead offering him a sad smile. “I hope you find what you’re looking for Dwight.”
His eyes filled with tears. “I already did, but I lost her.”
I wanted to tell him that he’d had ample chance to fix things, and he chose to put me second every single time. But he already knew that, even if he wasn’t quite ready to admit it to himself.
On my way upstairs, I called the building’s concierge and informed them I’d be at Monty Bouvier’s apartment and that my “guest” would be gone by two. And to remove him from my approved visitors list.
Dwight Jones was a manipulative prick, and I didn’t trust him as far as I could throw him.
“Thank you for coming over and helping me today,” Kassie said. “Doing wedding stuff is so much more fun with friends here.”
“And champagne,” Gianna said, lifting her glass in a salute before going back to tying little ribbons around party favors.
Kassie and Monty‘s wedding was six weeks away, but Kassie had a big case coming up and was trying to get as much done early as possible.
The bride nudged me with her shoulder. “How are things going with you and Cruz?” she sang.
I couldn’t help the smile that broke across my face. “So good. He’s just the perfect man.”
“He’s a sweetheart,” Gianna agreed. “So much better than the last one.”
I laughed. “Speaking of him, you'll never guess who showed up at my apartment today.”
“No!” Gianna practically shouted. “Did you punch him in the face?”
Taking a sip of my champagne, I shook my head. “No. I should have though. He said he moved here so we could try again.”
“Oh, puh-leeze,” Gianna groaned, scrunching her nose up. “Like you would give up a man like Cruz Estrada for the titty-sucking mama’s boy. I mean, Cruz absolutely adores you.”
That made my heart so happy. “He does,” I agree.
“He has for a while, obviously.”
“You think?”
“Oh, for sure,” Gia replied, tugging at a very crooked bow before untying it and trying again. “I’ve known ever since he arranged for Auburn to help you out with the apartment.”
Hold on… he…
“What?” I screeched.
Kassie’s eyes were as big as bowling balls and bounced between us.
Gianna bit her bottom lip and muttered, “Um, oops. You didn’t know that?”
“No,” I said weakly, pressing my hand against my chest as I thought back. That had been right around the time I had told Cruz that I was being kicked out of my apartment. “You have to tell me everything right now, Gianna Bouvier.”
She rolled her pretty green eyes. “Fine, but you didn’t hear this from me. Cruz called Auburn and told him that you were having housing issues and needed a new place. He wanted to see if there was any availability here in our building. He even offered to pay for it.”
“He did not!” I exclaimed before downing a big slug of champagne.
“Oh yes, ma’am, he did,” Gia drawled. “Auburn had already decided to offer you a raise so he thought he would see if you wanted the apartment as part of your salary. But Cruz was definitely the catalyst behind it. Auburn never would have known you needed a place if he hadn’t told him.”
“Awww,” Kassie cooed, “that’s really sweet.”
“Well, now I feel bad,” I lamented. “Did Auburn just give me the apartment because he felt sorry for me?”
“Not at all,” Gianna said, shaking her head vehemently. “I swear he had already talked to me about giving you a raise. He wanted to make sure I was okay with you being his assistant after my dad retired.”
“Awww,” Kassie said again. “That was really thoughtful of him to consider your feelings about it, Gia.”
“It was, but of course I told him I had no problem with it, even though Lehra is freaking gorgeous.”
“Well, thank you,” I told her, “but trust me. The man only has eyes for you.”
Her green eyes sparkled with mischief. “His eyes and every other part of him belong to me. Including his big—”
She stopped talking when three little ones entered the room.
“Mommy, we’re done with the menu for the wedding,” Kassie’s son, Sully, said, handing her a sheet of paper with boxes check marked in blue crayon. Gianna and Auburn’s twins, Jaxon and Jane, followed with proud smiles on their faces.
“She let the kids pick the menu for the wedding?” I asked Gianna from the corner of my mouth.
“Just the kid food,” she whispered back.
“Let’s see what we’ve got,” Kassie said, feigning shock at the first item. “Oh, big surprise. Pigs in a blanket.”
The kids all giggled. “That was Sully‘s choice,” Jane said, pointing a finger at her cousin. “I picked the sliders.”
“But with fancy cheese,” Jaxon added with a wise nod of his little head.
“Fancy cheese, huh?” Kassie asked with a smile.
“Yeah, Buddha cheese,” he informed us, and Gianna and I had to cover our mouths to hide our snickers.
Janie sighed and rolled her eyes like a teenager. “It’s called gouda cheese, Jaxon. Not Buddha cheese.”
“Well, that’s weird,” Jaxon said before poking at the paper. “I wrote mine at the bottom.”
“Oh, um.” Kassie tilted her head and squinted at the scrawled words. “Does this say pickle… dar?”
“Pickle bar ,” Jaxon corrected. “Mom and Dad took us to a pickle store and they had like one million different kinds of pickles or something like that. I thought it would be really cool if we had a pickle bar at yours and Uncle Monty’s wedding. That way people could choose which kind they want on their sliders, or they could just eat ’em because pickles are awesome.”
“Soooo, you didn’t like the mini pizza idea?” she cajoled.
Jaxon’s adorable nose crinkled. “Aunt Kassie, mini pizzas would be okay, but they’re a little basic. A pickle bar would be freaking epic.”
Gianna let out a snort, and I elbowed her.
Kassie's lips twitched at the corners, but she gave each kid a hug and a kiss on the head. “I think these are all great ideas. Thank you all for helping. I’ll talk to Uncle Monty about the pickle bar since that wasn’t on the caterer’s list.”
Jaxon wiggled on the spot. “He’ll definitely say yes.”
“I’m sure he will,” I whispered to Gia. “Monty would have a petting zoo at the wedding if his son or his niece and nephew requested it.”
She widened her eyes at me and hissed, “Don’t give them any more ideas.”
“Why don’t you guys go play for a while,” Kassie told the little ones. Both boys took Jane’s hands and walked slowly since she was still adjusting after her surgery. They were so freaking sweet I wanted to cry.
“Well,” Kass said, settling back on the eggplant-colored couch. “This is shaping up to be quite the classy affair.”
Gianna and I were unable to hold in our laughter for another second, falling over and holding our stomachs. “Oh my god, I almost busted a gut when Jaxon said he wanted a pickle bar,” Gia gasped.
Kassie caught the giggles too. “You know, maybe we can make it work. Put the pickles in pretty little bowls, and maybe add in some olives too. Then we can put meats, cheeses, and fruits nearby, and everyone will think it’s a charcuterie table.”
“That’s not a bad idea, but don’t think you have to do it, Kass. I’ll get Auburn to explain to Jax that maybe a pickle bar isn’t appropriate for a wedding reception.”
“And end up with something basic like mini pizzas?” Kassie scoffed with a big grin on her face.
As I continued filling the small white bags, my mind drifted to the metaphorical ropes analogy from earlier, the ropes binding me to Cruz, and I finally understood. He had woven those ropes for me, first with his friendship and then with his… love . Realization hit me, not like a ton of bricks but like a gentle rainfall.
Cruz Estrada loves me .
As I took the elevator down to my floor a few hours later, I decided I was ready to hear him say it, and a plan developed.
When Cruz got home from work with the SWAT team tonight, I was going to ride that man until he admitted it.