Chapter 7 #2
Seeing red with rage, Alex pushed himself off the bar and took two steps to confront the woman, gasping when he realized it was Sharon, the manager of the retail store.
Her face went slack with shock when she saw him standing there. He could only imagine how furious he looked. “Mr. Martinez… I didn’t see you there.”
“Clearly.”
“I…um…”
“My mother is not ‘batshit crazy.’ She has dementia, which is a disease that affects her behavior and her memory.”
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.”
“Which is exactly why you should’ve kept your mouth shut.”
Her mouth fell open and then closed just as quickly.
Silence had fallen around them, and Alex was aware that everyone nearby was tuned in to what was going on. “Get your things and get out. Tonight. You’re fired.”
“You can’t fire me!”
“I just did. Now get your stuff off our property tonight, or I’ll send my friend Chief Taylor over to help you along.” As the manager, she lived in an apartment behind the store.
“You’re as crazy as she is! Who are you going to get at this point in the season to take my place?”
“I don’t care if we have to shut down the store. I’m not giving you one more red cent of my money.”
She grabbed her purse and, with her wide-eyed friend in tow, vacated the bar.
As they walked away, Alex noticed that Jenny had witnessed the entire exchange when she’d emerged from the restroom.
She stared at him with big doe eyes full of confusion and compassion.
The last thing he wanted from her was compassion.
He put his unfinished beer on the bar, dropped some cash to cover his beer, Sharon’s unpaid tab and a tip for his bartender friend, and walked out without another word to anyone.
Paul chased after him. “Alex! What the hell just happened? What did you say to Sharon? Why did she tell me I’d better have a good lawyer?”
Fueled by rage, Alex kept walking until Paul caught up to him, grabbed his arm and spun him around.
“What the fuck happened?”
“I heard her talking shit about Mom to her friend. She said she was bare-ass naked and batshit crazy, so I fired her.”
“Oh God, you fired her.”
“I fired her.”
“Okay.” Paul combed all ten fingers through his hair repeatedly, a gesture that indicated his brain was racing.
Alex could certainly relate. “I’m sorry, Paul. I know the hiring and firing decisions are yours, and this is the last fucking thing we need right now, but I refuse to pay someone who’s going to talk trash about our family in public.”
“I’m with you, brother. Hundred and ten percent.”
“But you’re freaking out.”
“Little bit.” He dropped his hands from his hair, looking wearier than Alex had ever seen him. “We’ll figure something out. Let’s go home before she has a chance to screw things up on her way out.”
Alex glanced back at the bar, wishing he had the balls to march in there and demand that Jenny come with him. But he didn’t have the balls or the right to ruin her date with a guy who probably came with a heck of a lot less emotional baggage than Alex was dragging around behind him.
Fittingly, Evan and Owen were playing “Let Her Go” by Passenger. Jenny was a nice girl who had a nice guy interested in her. He would leave well enough alone, but damn, he wished he had the balls…
After witnessing angry Alex, Jenny was more attracted than ever and devastated to learn his mother was suffering from dementia.
With sons in their mid-thirties, Mrs. Martinez couldn’t be that old.
Jenny’s grandmother had had dementia as an older woman, so she was familiar with how difficult it could be to manage and how devastating it was to family members.
She was proud of him for standing up to his rude employee and firing her on the spot, even if Jenny had noticed the hint of panic in his eyes when he’d calmly told the woman off.
As she rejoined Linc at the table, Jenny’s brain whirled with everything she’d learned about Alex during the brief confrontation with his employee.
He was loyal—fiercely so—to his family, willing to stand up on their behalf, unwilling to tolerate anyone making fun of his mother’s infirmity and sexy as all hell when he was pissed.
But the agonizing pain she’d sensed in him overrode all the other thoughts that filed through her busy mind.
“Everything okay?” Linc asked.
Jenny started to assure him that she was fine, but she wasn’t.
Her skin was prickling with awareness and the need to do something, anything to ease the pain of a man she barely knew.
“My stomach is a bit upset. Would you mind terribly if we called it a night?” She hated herself for lying to him, but she needed to get out of there.
Immediately. Before she gave in to the urge to run after Alex.
“Not at all.” Linc handed a twenty to Mac to cover their portion of the tab and stood.
“See you all,” Jenny said.
Tiffany winked and gave her a thumbs-up.
Jenny rolled her eyes at her irascible friend.
Linc placed a proprietary hand on the small of her back that made Jenny feel uncomfortable. She didn’t belong to him and didn’t want anyone to think she did, especially a certain dark-eyed man who’d turned her whole life upside down in the span of two days.
He was just outside the marina gates, talking intently to his brother, when Jenny and Linc walked past on the other side of the street.
She glanced at him, and his gaze smacked into hers, nearly making her gasp with the yearning she felt coming from him. Like shards of metal drawn to a high-powered magnet, Jenny felt the pull from twenty feet away and had to fight her way through it when all she wanted was to run to him.
“Are you okay?” Linc asked, thankfully oblivious to the sizzling connection with Alex that she finally broke when she looked away.
“Yes, thank you.” No, she wasn’t okay. While on a date with one man, her mind was full of thoughts about another. That was certainly unprecedented. “Sorry to cut our evening short.”
“It’s okay. I have PT at zero-six-thirty anyway.”
After a silent ride through town, they arrived at the lighthouse. Jenny hadn’t locked the gate for the night yet, so Linc headed down the long, dark driveway. “It’s kind of creepy out here at night. Are you ever afraid?”