Chapter 14
“SHE’S BEAUTIFUL, CASS.” AHRI ACCEPTED the little bundle and inhaled the sweet, freshly-bathed baby smell. She glanced around the pretty little backyard where Cass's husband Jax was chatting with Rafe’s other assistant, Kris, by the grill. “It’s nice of you to have us over.”
“Oh, we love doing this kind of thing. Jax has already had two barbecues for his coworkers since the baby was born. When it’s his party, I make him do all the work.” She grinned. “With my mother gone back home, I needed to be around some people again.”
“It must be hard having your mother so far away.”
“I love having her—for short visits. She’s a bit of a control freak and can be too much of a good thing.
” Cass gave a dark chuckle, her tone going sarcastic.
“Funny, but in my own home I kind of think I should be the boss, so you can imagine the tug-of-wars we have. Jax spends a lot of time in his workshop when she’s visiting. ”
“I can’t imagine it.” Ahri’s mother had always been happy letting someone else be in charge. Ahri would never have to worry about ‘who’s the boss wars’ when she ever remarried and started a family. If she did.
“How's the Midsummer’s Eve event coming?” Cass studied her. “You haven’t called to ask as many questions the last couple of weeks.”
“No, your early suggestions really helped. I think I’m getting the hang of how Rafe likes things.
I’m so glad he’s not a micromanager. I had one of those on my first job, and he killed all my desire to do well.
” She shook her head in disgust at the memory.
It hadn’t been long before she’d been job hunting again after that experience.
“How are you settling in outside of work?” Cass asked.
“I’m almost finished with my graphic design class.” Ahri’s excitement had raised her volume, and the baby stirred. She lowered her voice. “I’ve been dabbling at book cover design. My instructor said I have a knack for it.”
“Kris said something about you dragging him to a food kitchen?”
“He has a gift for exaggeration, that one,” Ahri said. “It’s a food pantry, and he helped me stock shelves with donations from local grocery stores one afternoon. You know, dented cans and stuff they can’t sell but is still edible.”
“He told me he enjoyed it and signed up to help again.” Cass glanced over at the guys, a small curve to her mouth. “He’s from a well-to-do family, and I think it was an eye-opening experience for him.”
Ahri didn’t mention that Bill had been uncomfortable with it and had insisted on doing a background search on everyone on the payroll.
He’d only agreed to her going the one time and had only allowed her to work in the back.
Since the hacking attempts on the security of the New York penthouse had continued, he thought the transient nature of the place would make it easier for someone who was looking for her to go unnoticed.
He hadn’t said it outright, but that made Ahri think he was worried they might not only be focusing on New York.
That had given her a sleepless night which made her angry that these people she didn’t even know could control her life without even being there.
She was determined to live as normal a life as possible.
“Are you making friends?” Cass asked, pulling Ahri from her thoughts. Cass arched a brow and gave her a tell me all, girl look. “Are you dating anyone?”
“I’ve been out a couple of times with groups, once with people from work and another with the members of my community ed class. And, yes,” Ahri said before her friend could press, “I’ve been on a couple of dates, but I’m not looking for a boyfriend.”
How could she tell her that the high point of her life came on Friday nights when she played REKD with the guys?
She’d learned not to schedule a Friday night date for that very reason.
They took turns hosting at their apartments and supplying the treats.
Ezreal still wouldn’t talk to her except during a game, but he did occasionally look at her.
Darius had provided some great feedback on her graphics class project too.
“So you’re settling in.”
“I am.” It surprised Ahri how quickly she’d come to feel at home in this place and with these people, much more so than she had in recent years in Arizona.
She and Taliyah were drifting apart. She was expecting again—her last one, she insisted—and pregnancy never agreed with her.
It made her sick and cranky. Their last phone call had been a little terse.
Ahri might have to wait until after the baby was born to talk to her friend more.
“How many children do you think you’ll have?” Ahri asked, and Cass laughed.
“That’s probably not the best thing to ask a woman who just gave birth a few weeks ago and whose newborn just slept through the night for the first time.
” She sighed. “Six solid hours. When I woke this morning, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven.
I’m such a boring person now, appreciating simple things like sleep. ”
“They’re so much work, such a responsibility.” Ahri brushed aside a curl of dark hair from the baby’s forehead.
“I never dreamed I’d feel this way.” Cass’s eyes shone. “My mother used to tell me that a baby was proof that your heart could live outside of your body, and I thought she was exaggerating. Now I completely understand.”
As Ahri drove home later after promising to come again, she thought about her friend’s words. Cass could say things like that from the safety of a loving, secure relationship. How could Ahri ever find one if she couldn’t get over her fixation with Rafe?
Ahri had been thinking about that when she drove to work on Monday. It was still on her mind during a rare lull at the office when she glanced out her window and saw Kayn outside. His outdoor meeting had just ended and his team scattered, but he continued to sit on a bench by himself.
“I’m taking a break, Kris.”
“I’ll be here,” he said without looking up from his work.
Ahri made her way to her brother and sat beside him.
“Hey.” He took one look at her face and closed his laptop. “You look like you need to talk. Want to go to my apartment?”
“This should be fine.”
“What’s bothering you? Zed?”
“Am I that obvious?” She rubbed her forehead.
“You’ve been through a lot.” Kayn shot her a sympathetic glance.
“It’s so much more than that. I feel like I’m making progress but . . .”
“But what?”
“I used to think I was a good judge of character.”
“You know I never liked Zed. I thought he was too much into money and status, but I honestly thought you’d help him get over that since you’re not.”
“How much has Bill told you?” she asked.
“Everything he’s told you. I know they’ve had to up security at the penthouse several times.”
“Not that.” She straightened, not wanting to think of Sona sitting there playing the decoy.
“About the money laundering?”
“Yeah.”
“I can believe it. Zed told me once when you two first started dating that he was going to make it big. He had plans.” Kayn snorted in disgust. “More than anything, he wanted to impress his family.”
“I remember those dreams. I kept telling him that those weren’t things I was interested in. I thought he’d given up on them.” Ahri gave a soft, disgusted huh. “My confidence is trashed. How can I ever trust myself to believe in someone again?”
“You sound like Rafe now.”
“What do you mean?” She tried not to sound too interested.
“He used to date a lot, even had a couple of girlfriends during college. Nothing really serious. Until he met Tess.” It was Kayn’s turn to sound disgusted. “None of us liked her, including his roommate Ethan. But Rafe was so into her.”
“Like I was with Zed?”
“Exactly, and she didn’t like us any better than we liked her. We realized pretty soon that if we said anything against her that he’d drop us—friends he’d had for years.”
Ahri sighed in sympathy. She’d once told Kayn that if he said one more bad thing against Zed that she’d delete her brother’s phone number. Guilt flooded her that he’d gone through that with two people.
“I’m sorry I was a brat about Zed.”
Kayn patted her back. “The school of hard knocks can be brutal.”
“Too right.”
“In the end, it was Zed who chose his path. You had no control of that.”
She accepted the truth in her brother’s statement.
“What happened with Tess?” she asked.
“She waited to dump him until he proposed.”
Ahri felt sick to her stomach. For everything that Zed might have messed up, she believed he’d loved her. At least in the beginning.
“It happened not long before our sale went public. Like with you, it totally ruined his self-confidence. He hasn’t dated anyone since.”
Something in the tone of Kayn’s voice made her peer at him more closely.
He was watching her, the corner of his mouth quirking up.
What else did he know? She recalled that time in the garden when she’d been sure Rafe was about to kiss her.
The memory made her heart thud hard, and she had to force her breath to slow down.
If she was right and her brother thought Rafe was interested in her, then she wasn’t imagining it. The thought almost made her smile.