Chapter 4 #2
Lately, he’d been the one to pick Callie up from school, always just so happening to be on his way back around that time.
Callie, Amanda knew, loved it. She had a beaming smile each time he lifted her down from the truck just before she’d run to tell Amanda all about her day.
Then Mr. Montgomery and his brother would adjourn to the living room, kitchen, or terrace to discuss work before they all had dinner together.
Amanda thought back to one of the first times she’d come upon him after he and Stephen had finished an afternoon meeting. She’d just come downstairs to find him sitting at the bar, and found she liked that he was so comfortable at her house.
Jeez, there were times when she thought he was more comfortable in her home than she was.
And again, she’d noted how much she was drawn to him—it was more than just that he was incredibly handsome, though she couldn’t exactly put her finger on it.
Yet. She’d watched him then for a moment before he sensed her standing there.
He always caught her when she was looking.
“Rough day at work?” she’d asked casually in an attempt to hide her embarrassment.
He’d smiled and fingered the files in front of him. “It’s not the work. It’s the contracts I seem to have a problem with.”
He’d rubbed his eyes and motioned to the stool next to him in invitation. She’d needed no further prodding, happy for his company, and sat to take a look at the documents. She’d flipped through the first of what had to be twelve three-inch-thick document bundles.
“Alex,” she’d ventured, only the second time she’d called him by his first name, “you have a whole staff of attorneys.”
“I do. But Chris advised me that Montgomery Enterprises should be our parent company and Calder Defense one of our holdings,” he’d said wearily.
That he shared something so significant made her feel a part of it too. Which really was how being under the protection of the brothers Montgomery made her feel anyway.
“And you’re reading these,” she’d said, holding one up to clarify, “from cover to cover?”
“It’s our family business, Amanda. Are you telling me that’s not what I’m supposed to do?”
“I realize you’re British,” she said, patting his hand as she used his heritage as a silly explanation of his behavior, “but do you have a law degree?”
“No.”
“Look,” she’d said, leveling with him. “Anytime I have to sign a legal document, my attorney explains what I’m signing. Informs me if any changes were made to the original contract, and if so, what they were. Then I sign it. That’s why I hire an attorney. They’re liable.”
“Shouldn’t I know exactly what I’m signing my name to?”
“Well, yeah, but that’s why you have Chris and a staff of attorneys. I have to tell you, what’s written in twelve lengthy paragraphs, they can sum up in a sentence or two.”
“You’re remarkably smart,” he’d said, which had made her blush.
“You always surprise me,” she’d said, feeling suddenly self-conscious as his fingers had skimmed the side of her face to move an errant wisp of hair behind her ear.
“How?” he’d asked, his voice quiet, fingers still in her hair.
She’d caught herself a moment too late leaning into his touch. She’d been so comfortable with him in that moment that she’d answered his question honestly. “I expect you to be arrogant. You’re so not.”
Zander’s cry jarred her from her thoughts and Amanda excused herself from the pool party to take him upstairs for an early evening feeding. While he rested, she showered and changed, eager to rejoin everyone for dinner.
She smiled as they started back outside, hearing voices, one in particular. She had to admit, she was becoming more than fascinated with the man. Odd that it happened to be another Alexander Montgomery who held her interest.
“I smell meat,” Amanda announced as she walked out onto the stone patio, closed her eyes, and inhaled deeply. “Mmm.”
Alexander smiled at the display. She was wearing one of her favorite cashmere lounge pants and hoodie sets.
Her hair was pulled back, her face freshly scrubbed, and she was barefoot.
Helen was on her heels, Zander in her arms. It had been three weeks since he’d brought her home.
Despite her memory loss, exhaustion, and the rigors of their very demanding son, she seemed to have acquiesced to the new order of things without much of a fight.
Just as he’d hoped, she’d accepted his presence easily given that Stephen was assigned as her full-time security detail.
Amanda assumed Alexander came over early to go over schedules and paperwork with his brother, and by the time she realized he’d been taking Callie to school each morning on his way to the office, a week had already passed.
He’d started to explain he was just as capable as Stan or Stephen, when she’d actually stopped him midsentence, stood right in front of him, and said, “You travel with fifteen men, a five-truck convoy, you’re all armed, and you”—she’d reached out and touched his arm—“I trust you, Alex.” He knew she’d been about to say, “And you brought me home,” but “I trust you, Alex” was better and also the first time she had called him by his name.
Most afternoons—at least until today when Amanda resumed fetching their daughter from school—he’d timed his return to pick Callie up on the way home as well.
Then a couple hours later he’d come back for dinner.
Amanda liked how close he and Stephen were.
She actually encouraged him to come and stay. It was brilliant.
“What’s for dinner?” Amanda asked.
He rolled his eyes at her. “Really?” If he was grilling, it was steak and she knew it.
Thank God she’d slept through his first attempt a few days after he’d brought her home.
He’d nearly lost his hair and blew up the house.
Callie thought it was hysterical. Michael and Trevor too.
Despite his training and understanding of present day life and gadgets, there were obviously still some intricacies he had yet to learn.
Amanda smiled at his sarcasm then sat down on the sofa overlooking the pool deck.
She held her hands out for Zander. “Hi, baby. Mama’s here.
” Helen fussed with the pillows behind her and pushed her down so she was reclining.
“Seriously, Helen?” Her nurse only smirked, loving her job—one, Alexander had to admit, she excelled at.
He had to keep from laughing when she actually told him so in French, then Stephen joined in their conversation.
Alexander watched as Sam and Callie walked back from the pool and headed toward Amanda on the sofa.
Callie ran over, gave her a kiss, and placed a big wet one on her brother before skipping over to Alexander and latching on to his thigh.
Out of the corner of his eye, Alexander saw Amanda notice and smile to herself.
Sam gave Amanda a look as she grabbed a drink from the cart. “They are so rude.”
“Tell me about it.”
Probably to show how annoyed she was to be left out of the conversation en francais, Amanda took that moment to turn up her music—loud.
Alexander bristled. “If I Die Young” by, if he remembered correctly, The Band Perry. Beautiful music but he hated the lyrics.
His wife’s love of music had spurred his own, and a soundtrack of her favorite artists always played in his mind now.
One of the first things he’d done in the twenty-first century (after figuring out what a computer even was, let alone how to turn it on and download music) was seek out all the artists he’d remembered her telling him about as they sat by the fire, or that she’d played for him on the piano.
He nudged Callie, who was still barnacled to his leg, and motioned with his head. She grinned and skipped over to her mother. Amanda snaked an arm around her as Callie bent to kiss her again, snatching her phone at the same time.
“Callesandra Eleanor!” Amanda undoubtedly knew what she was up to, and knew he’d put her up to it. She faked being angry for a moment before dissolving into laughter.
Alexander loved seeing her so happy, so lighthearted.
It was like they were a whole family again.
Well, almost. He had to admit, life was better here—now—in this time.
There was a freedom, a difference on every level of what could be.
Simplicity of their former life aside, there was this inexplicable sense of ease now.
Which seemed a little ridiculous considering he ran a multimillion-dollar conglomerate in this life.
But where his family was concerned, they were beginning to display a carefree-ness that he’d not experienced before, even when Amanda became his wife in the past. And it was nothing like the grim notion of family he’d been brought up with.
Callie trotted over and brought the phone back to him at the same time Rosa came and grabbed the platter of steaks he’d just finished grilling.
As Amanda watched him, he winked at Callie and hit the song he wanted to play.
“Anytime” by Journey. Amanda snorted. Loud.
Alexander laughed, picked up Callie, and danced her back over to her mother.
“How can you be cross with such an adorable child?”
“Oh, she knows,” Amanda teased. “I’d run if I were you, Callie. You know Mama means business when you break the rules.”
“I think her mama’s the rule breaker,” he muttered in response.
“Oh, tomato…tomahto…” Amanda said with a casual wave of her hand.
“Is that your answer for everything?”
“Listen, Mr. I-Know-What’s-Best-for-You-and-Your-Family…I have a very sound parenting plan.”
Alexander knew the look on his face conveyed just how ridiculous he found that statement. “Just so we’re clear, sweetheart—you think chasing your daughter and tickling her until she cries mercy is a brilliant discipline technique?”
Amanda grinned, obviously ignoring his sarcasm. “Of course.”
“Bloody hell.”
Callie yelled for the swear jar as he put her down. He chased her and tickled her ’til she cried mercy, then nudged her toward the supper table.
“See?” Amanda told him.
He grinned in response and approached her to pluck Zander off her chest so he could help her up. As he did, she stepped on his foot and thumped right into him. Brilliant. He wrapped his free arm around her, pulling her in tight to steady her. “Alright?” he asked.
Amanda nodded, gripping his shirt for balance, but didn’t attempt to move. Her head tilted ever so slightly as her eyes closed and she inhaled deeply. The gesture seemed reflexive on her part. A deep primitive instinct triggered by having your mate in your arms. He felt exactly the same.
She remained completely still, making him wonder if there was something there—some memory, perhaps?
His nostrils flared as his body responded to her.
She smelled amazing. It felt so good to have her pressed up against him again after all this time.
He was loath to remove his arms from around her back.
“Are we going to eat, Montgomery?” she asked after another moment, finally looking up at him from beneath her lashes.
He smiled. “Yeah, Marceau, there’s a porterhouse with your name on it.
” He nudged her toward the table, thinking that maybe it really was better for now to not say anything.
He could feel the connection between them; it was alive and strong.
Option two, most definitely. Still, he worried that if she found out in the wrong way, this game they were playing could blow up in all of their faces.