Chapter 19 Aiding Him
AIDING HIM
“Wow,” Brennan said on Friday when he picked Alana up for the work Christmas party.
The office closed at two today for everyone to go home and relax, get ready and not feel rushed for dinner at Duke’s.
He wasn’t surprised it was being held at Kelsey’s twin brother’s restaurant.
He’d heard nothing but great things about the place, but it wasn’t where he’d take Becca.
“Do you like it?” she asked. Alana stopped in front of him in her emerald dress. He hadn’t expected her to be this fancy. He wasn’t wearing anything more than dress pants and a button-down shirt he’d worn to work several times.
“Very much so,” he said. “Can you spin for me or is that being too sexist?”
“Not sexist in the least if you like it,” she said. She turned for him to see how the dress fit around her hips and ass in the back was just as lovely as it did her breasts.
He had to admit he wasn’t expecting this.
He wouldn’t call the dress tight or clingy, just made for her body.
Nothing fancy about it either. No bling attached, not even a belt. One color that fit her like a dream.
A wet dream he’d woken up to last night thinking about this dinner tonight.
It wasn’t just the dress, it was the whole look.
The black heeled boots that climbed to her knees.
The dress, hitting just above them, modest with long sleeves and a scooped neckline that hinted without revealing.
And resting at her collarbone, a delicate gold chain that somehow pulled it all together, subtle and striking at once.
No one other than Kelsey was aware they were dating. He wasn’t sure if Alana would want to be picked up for the night, but she’d said she was fine with it.
To him, it just meant they could continue with their night after dinner.
Did he hope it’d be with more than a kiss?
Yep, he did. He wouldn’t ask though.
He’d let her take that next step knowing she was burning as much as he was with their parting kiss two days ago.
“I more than like it,” he said. “Are you ready to go?”
“I am,” she said, grabbing a long black jacket. “I can’t wait for a glass of wine. It’s been a long week.”
“It has,” he said. “And I had to play catch-up for two days, but thankfully it’s slow this time of year.”
“When I got out of work today, I ran to help put together gifts for the drive.”
“I hadn’t realized you did that,” he said.
“I volunteered and told them I would. I hadn’t realized at the time our Christmas dinner was this night, so if Kelsey hadn’t closed the office early, I wouldn’t have been able to do it. But I got almost two hours in, then came home to get ready.”
“Are you going to help hand them all out tomorrow?” he asked.
They had made no plans for the weekend. He didn’t want to push things too fast with Becca, let alone Alana.
“I told them I would but not when I’d get there. It starts at nine.”
The shy way her head dipped down told him that maybe there was some hope their night would extend into the morning.
He put his hand on her waist to usher her out the door that he was holding open, then she turned and locked it behind him.
“Are you picking up Becca after?” she asked.
“No. She’s staying with my mother tonight,” he said. “I didn’t think she’d want to after staying two days earlier, but my mother told her she had Christmas movies lined up.”
He’d thanked his mother for stepping in, even though he hadn’t technically asked her to keep Becca overnight. He’d just mentioned he’d try to be home before bedtime, assuming she’d watch Becca at his place. But she must’ve picked up on more than he said because she offered, and he hadn’t argued.
It was his mother who changed the narrative to a sleepover again.
But he also knew his mother had plans all weekend. Holiday activities at the retirement community, so regardless of how the night went, he’d be getting his daughter early.
“That’s nice that your mother is taking her again.”
“I rarely ask for it,” he said. “But my mother has always been willing, knowing how hard it is to date being a single father.”
It wasn’t about having the night for him to get laid but just not rushing home to his daughter and not being able to extend the effort into finding a woman.
He’d been lacking in the effort department for years.
He’d try, but after a date or so, know right away it wouldn’t work.
It wasn’t that the women weren’t nice, they were. But they were in a different stage of life. They wanted nights out at clubs or spontaneous vacations, and that just wasn’t his reality. It wasn’t what he wanted… and honestly, it wasn’t even something he could do.
Or they wanted children of their own and he felt they wouldn’t accept Becca as part of a mixed family.
He wanted any woman in his life to know Becca wouldn’t be treated as an outcast. That she would get the same love and care from his wife that other kids of his would get.
Maybe it was a hard ask for a lot of women, but it was where he stood.
He had high hopes for Alana in that department, but knew it was too soon to tell.
They drove to Duke’s, parked, and were lucky enough that no one was arriving the same time as them to see them getting out of his SUV.
If someone did, they’d have to figure out how to reply to it.
He held the door for Alana. “Hi,” he said. “We are here for the Raymond Christmas party.”
“It’s in the back,” the hostess said. “I’ll bring you.” The place was hopping. There were a lot of large tables set up and he expected more work dinners were happening, if not family gatherings.
They moved through the tables to one in the far corner closer to the kitchen. There was no private room for events here that he was aware of.
Kelsey and Karen were already there. He’d met Kyle Raymond before, but both stood up to shake his hand. The look Karen gave the two of them when they entered together told him that Kelsey must have filled her mother in.
“Van, this is Brennan Austin. Brennan, my fiancé, Van Harlowe. I’ll soon be Kelsey Harlowe. Can’t wait.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” he said, shaking hands with the big man. Not a smile on his face either, as if he’d like to be anywhere other than here.
“The same,” Van said.
“Loosen up,” Kelsey said, bumping his shoulder. “Tomorrow night’s Boston office party will be more uptight than this one.”
“I remember,” Van said.
“Me too,” he said. “The bigger the crowd doesn’t mean it’s more enjoyable.”
Karen laughed. “It doesn’t matter what I do, no one loosens up enough with that group. I can’t figure it out. Kyle and Van spent last year at the bar for most of it.”
“I missed it last year,” Brennan said. Or he was positive he would have met Van then. As a partner he would have been introduced. “Becca had a cold.”
“How are you feeling now?” Karen said. “I heard you had a touch of the flu.”
“Much better,” he said. His gaze dropped to Alana. “I had a wonderful nurse bringing me back.”
Alana rolled her eyes at him, Kelsey saying, “Nudge, nudge, wink, wink. And here comes some more of the staff. No more talk of that unless you want it known.”
“We’re good,” she said and took her jacket off to put behind her chair.
“Damn, girl,” Kelsey said, then leaned in to whisper in his girlfriend’s ear. He was thinking of her that way too.
“I’ve worn this dress before,” she said.
“Not with those boots,” Kelsey said. “I’m not sure I’ve seen them before. I might need to see if I’ve got anything like that for Van.”
Alana’s cheeks flushed bright red. Even in the dim lights of the restaurant he could see it.
She sat quickly so no one else saw it and he took a seat next to her, putting him across from Van. No one would think anything of it, he was positive.
“I’ve worn them before but under pants,” she said.
He’d have to pay attention to that in the future, but he was positive that he would have remembered spiky heels like that.
“Yeah,” Kelsey said. “I don’t think so, but you can tell yourself that.”
“Leave Alana alone,” Karen said.
The table quickly filled with the rest of the staff that came. Some brought significant others, but most came alone.
In ninety minutes they were out the door, the restaurant needing the table for another party. He hadn’t felt rushed, but he hadn’t intended it as a night out on the town either.
Leaving together was going to be tricky if someone saw them, but some of the staff went to the bar, others left right away, Kelsey talking to Alana and Van with him, that they ended up being the last four to leave.
“Do you think Kelsey planned it that way so no one saw us together?” she asked when they were in his SUV.
“It felt that way. Do you have a problem with it?”
“No,” she said. “I wasn’t sure how we were going to handle it and it’s nice not to worry. Not that I’m keeping this a secret. Don’t think that.”
“I’m not,” he said. “But we work together.”
“That’s it more than anything else.”
“Where to?” he asked. “Home or did you want to go get a drink?”
“I want to get a drink at my house,” she said, staring him in the eyes.
“We can do that,” he said, smiling.
She reached her hand over and laid it on his lap. “Good. I want to do a lot of things tonight.”
Oh, thank God!