Chapter 13
Alex
I’mnervous about letting her see my place. I don’t typically have a lot of people over here. I like my privacy. So despite the fact that I’d been to her and Drew’s place a million times, she’s never been over to mine. Drew had come by plenty over the years alone to hang out or bring something by, but he’d never brought her with him.
When I turn on the light and she steps inside, she looks around, taking in the surroundings.
“Your place is nice. And that view is stunning.” She nods to the window.
I have a partial view of the water, but the city spreads out in front of the glass lit up with the evening glow of lights and reflects in the beads of water forming as it starts to rain.
“Did you have a decorator or is this you?” She steps out of her shoes and takes a turn in the living room, looking at the artwork and the furniture.
“A decorator. I don’t have the patience for all the matching and coordination. I just picked a few things I liked and let them run with it.”
“It looks good.”
“I’m glad you approve, Saint.”
The use of her nickname has her eyes flickering over to meet mine, and I raise a brow in question.
“Feels weird to be in your space if I’m honest.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. You’re usually pretty closed off about things. I guess I feel like I’m getting an inside look that I shouldn’t.” She frowns a little.
“You’re more than welcome to snoop around if you want. I don’t have anything to hide.”
“No secret wife hidden away or a secret action figure collection? That’s boring. I was hoping I’d at least get some juicy gossip or something to tease you about, but as usual, everything about you is perfect.”
My heart skips a beat at her statement. I know she doesn’t mean it that way, but I can’t stop the stupid part of me from wishing that she did.
“What do you mean?”
She blinks for a second like she didn’t realize what she was saying.
“You just always have everything together. At least appearance wise. Obviously, things get a little messy for you or I wouldn’t be here… But just your car always looks like it’s just been detailed, your clothes are tailored to within an inch of their life, now I expect a semi-messy bachelor pad and instead, it looks like this.”
“I’m not here a lot, and I have someone who comes in and cleans, and my trainer stocks food and groceries. I have a team, so it’s not really something I can take credit for.”
“The clothes? The car?”
“I mean those, yes. But you remember who my father is, Saint. I always had to look and act a certain way because there was always a reporter or a political opponent dying to get a piece of information they could print about me.”
“Like you don’t give them plenty.” She winces when she says the words. “I’m sorry that was out of line. I don’t know why I said that.”
“Because it’s true and you had a front-row seat to a lot of it I’d guess, thanks to Drew.”
“He used it as an excuse pretty frequently to not be home or have time to pay attention to what I was doing. So I guess it made me bitter. Of course now, thinking back, I’m pretty sure that’s exactly what it was—an excuse.” She crosses her arms over her chest, shaking her head.
“Yeah, well, I’m glad you’re free of all that shit. You didn’t deserve it.”
“And you didn’t deserve all the judgment. I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine. Hopefully, you’ll see I’m not as awful as the track record would make it seem.”
“I don’t think you’re awful, Alex. I know you’re a good person underneath it all. You just have problems like we all do.”
“Most people don’t try to put their fist through someone’s face to solve it.”
“No, but I mean… You punching him was kind of hot, honestly.”
“What?” She’s in a strange mood tonight. Saying all sorts of things I’m surprised to hear come out of her mouth.
“I’ll never admit that to anyone else, and I do not condone it.” She points at me with a serious look on her face before she shrugs. “But I mean, Drew would never have punched someone over me. So it was kind of nice… very white knight-ish of you.”
I raise an eyebrow at her.
“Don’t start,” she warns, and then starts unloading the groceries.
I keep my mouth shut, but I was definitely going to tuck that piece of information away for later.