Chapter 6 #2
She sighed. “I know it’s not easy for you. Would it help if I made a cost analysis?”
It helped her. But she was an accountant and liked looking at a spreadsheet. Watching the way that her investments would grow soothed her. It always reassured her.
He smiled at her, his real smile, and she felt the love she had for him swell inside. “No, honey, I don’t think a spreadsheet would help, but thanks. You’re so sexy I always forget what a nerd you are.”
She mock-punched his shoulder. “Hey. I’m not a nerd.”
“You are, but I love you,” he said, turning toward her and reaching out to pull her into an awkward hug because of the seat belts. “I love you more than you know, Helena. I don’t want to screw up again.”
She reached down and undid both of their seat belts and then hugged him closer before putting her hands on his jaw and looking him in the eyes.
“We are both going to screw up a million times during our life. The thing to remember is that I’m here when you do and I’m counting on you to be here when I do. ”
He kissed her then, and the passion that had always burned between them ignited. She remembered their first time, which had been in a car after the homecoming football game her senior year of high school.
Someone drove by and honked and she pulled back as Malcolm waved at the car. “Guess we should remember we aren’t in high school now,” he said, laughing.
“Guess so,” she said, as they both put their seat belts back on.
Instead of putting the car in gear, he turned to face her.
“I’m not going to give in to the impulse to gamble, honey.
It’s hard and I definitely feel the struggle every day, but I never give in because I know that if I do, it’s the path away from you.
And I don’t think my life would be anything without you. ”
She squeezed his hand. They’d get through this together, she thought.
As Alec drove back to his house after dropping Scarlet off, he heard the emptiness all around him. Normally that didn’t bother him, as he liked solitude, but as he went into his office and pulled up the files that his algorithm had compiled about Scarlet, he realized he felt lonely.
But there was no reason for that. He texted his brothers to see if they were up for a game of pool or something but they both were busy with their women.
Diego’s wife was in town and since she split her time between Texas and London, Diego wasn’t about to blow off an evening with her to hang out with his little brother.
Mo and Hadley were in that honeymoon phase of their relationship, so even though Mo had texted back that Alec was welcome to join them for dinner, the last thing he wanted was to spend an evening feeling like a third wheel.
Instead he sat down at his computer and started reading the files he’d collected on Scarlet.
It was interesting to him how much of her life was available online.
It went all the way back to her birth and childhood, as her mother had been a model and her father one of the richest men in the United States around the time she was born.
He looked at all of the pictures of her online.
She had grown up...well, in a very public way and he had to wonder if she’d come to Cole’s Hill to see if he was a private man.
She didn’t want the spotlight to follow her child around. She knew how impossible it was to grow up that way.
He couldn’t postpone his trip to Seattle.
His client needed him and one of the things that Alec prided himself on was delivering what his clients required.
But one of the main things he noticed about Scarlet was that she’d been left by herself a lot.
And now she didn’t even have her sister, who had died not that long ago.
He wasn’t the wisest man when it came to reading the opposite sex but he thought that spending a week away from her when she was feeling so vulnerable might not be the best idea.
He didn’t want to make another mistake when it came to Scarlet. They’d seemed to really connect yesterday and she was expecting his child. They needed to find common ground.
Deciding on a course of action, he got in his car and drove back to Scarlet’s house. The ride took only five minutes as they lived in the same gated community. When he rang the doorbell, he heard the sound of barking and then voices before the door opened.
Scarlet stood there with the famous singer Siobahn Murphy and Billie, who didn’t look any friendlier than she had earlier. A miniature dachshund rushed forward and Alec bent down, holding his hand out to the dog, who sniffed it, then licked him and danced around his feet as he stood back up.
“Alec, I wasn’t expecting to see you again before your trip,” Scarlet said.
“I know. I’ve just been thinking that maybe we should spend some more time together and wondered if you’d like to go with me to Seattle,” he said. “I have a private plane so that’s not an issue.”
“She has one, too,” Billie said.
“Great. Either way. I have a nice house in Bellevue...” He trailed off, not sure what else to say.
“Let me think about it. When do you need to know?” she asked.
“In the next two hours. I was planning to leave in the morning,” he said.
She nodded, then bent down to scoop up the little dog, who was standing on her back legs and looking up at Scarlet. He watched her closely, still wondering what had caused her to leave him so abruptly earlier. Had he rushed her? Was he rushing her now?
Alec just wanted to do the right thing for her.
She was pregnant, and she said the baby was his.
He was beginning to realize she wasn’t the kind of woman who would have come to see him if she wasn’t positive he was the father.
He wanted to get to know her. His online research had helped but that was her digital imprint; it wasn’t necessarily the true picture of her.
“I’ll just—”
“Oh, come in,” Siobahn said, holding her hand out to him. “I’m Siobahn.”
“Alec Velasquez,” he said, shaking her hand and stepping into the foyer. He closed the door behind him as Billie shook her head and walked away.
“Go think about if you want to go,” Siobahn said to Scarlet. “I’ll keep Mr. Velasquez company.”
“Please call me Alec,” he said.
Scarlet chewed her bottom lip. “Okay, but be nice.”
“Of course I will be,” Alec said.
“I wasn’t talking to you,” Scarlet said as she turned to walk down the hall.
“We can talk in here,” Siobahn said, leading the way into the formal living room.
Friends of Alec’s parents had previously owned this house and he noted that nothing had changed since he’d last been here. He sat on the love seat and Siobahn took the armchair adjacent to him.
“So you don’t know if you’re the dad?”
Well, she certainly got right to the point.
He wasn’t prepared to be grilled but given the fact that she was facing a lot of unknowns from him, maybe her friends were justified.
But he still hadn’t had a chance to make things right with Scarlet before he started answering questions from her friends.
“Uh... I felt like it was a legitimate question to ask. I mean there was only that one night and I hadn’t heard from her since then,” Alec said.
“But after we talked I realized that’s not the kind of woman she is. ”
Siobahn leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms over her chest. “What kind of woman is she?”
He didn’t want to talk about his feelings for Scarlet. End of story. He wasn’t that kind of chatty guy. He didn’t know how to put it into words. But for all her flashiness there was something sweet and, odd as it sounded, innocent about her.
He chose his next words carefully, aware that her friend was ready to defend Scarlet if he said anything she didn’t like.
He would be upset about this mini-grilling he was getting from Siobahn but he couldn’t fault her.
He’d do the same for his brothers. He was quickly realizing that Scarlet had created a family for herself and their bond was stronger than any she had with her blood relatives.
“She’s an enigma so I can’t even begin to say that I know her. But she seems honest to me.”
“She is. She’s got a big heart, buddy, so don’t dick around with her,” Siobahn said.
“I won’t,” he said.
“Good,” Siobahn said, then stood up. “Just because she looks tough doesn’t mean she is.”
Siobahn walked out of the room, and a few minutes later he heard Scarlet in the hall. “I’ll go with you,” she said as she entered the living room. “I’ll have Billie drive me to your house in the morning and then we can take your plane. I want to bring Lulu. Will that be okay?”
“Who’s Lulu?” he asked.
“My dog,” she said.
“That’s fine. I’ll see you then,” he said.
He left her house feeling much better this time. He didn’t overanalyze it but he knew that going to her had been the right thing for both of them. Neither of them was sure about this pregnancy or each other and they needed all the time they could find together to learn to trust each other.