Chapter Thirty-Five
Hawk drove down the streets of Beverly Hills on the familiar path to Stone Enterprises.
Alex had been unusually quiet most of the weekend. With the exception of the day she spent with Nick doing the spa thing, he’d been around.
Truth was, he hadn’t seen the inside of his apartment in weeks.
He didn’t miss it.
Not that he thought the Stone Estate was where he needed to be, but he didn’t see himself in a one-bedroom space with people living above and below him.
Helping Alex pack up her place drove him to consider what his next moves were when it came to the two of them. While they had been together at the hip out of necessity, Hawk wasn’t sure he wanted it any other way going forward.
Maybe not every moment of every day. That seemed to be the space they’d been in since they met. But living together.
They had started to sleep in the same bed. Alex insisted that they try to make it through the night.
Hawk placed a biometric safe holding his weapon beside their bed. A step he felt was needed to make sure he was fully awake before reaching for a gun.
But something had happened after he’d opened up about Guatemala. Yes, he still had nightmares, but they didn’t feel as real, and he’d only once found himself on the floor after his memories woke him.
The first week into their new arrangement, Hawk would open his eyes to Alex softly saying his name and asking him to wake up when his nightmares came.
She assured him she was safe and that everything was okay.
They would hold each other, and Hawk would answer the questions Alex had about his dreams. The more he talked, the less his dreams consumed him.
The mornings after the nights when the dreams didn’t come were the best he’d had in his life. Hawk would watch as Alex’s eyelids fluttered open. Her body would stretch and fold over his until they were both awake.
Hawk wanted that every day ... with her.
They’d been so focused on the series of events surrounding Alex’s life that they really hadn’t had time to explore a life with just the two of them.
Well, with the exception of Colorado.
The memory of their snowball fight surfaced and put a huge smile on his face.
They needed more days like that.
And more nights like the peaceful ones they’d had in the snow. Where he could stroke her skin and tell her how beautiful she was and how she made him feel.
Hawk felt his pants tighten.
He shifted in his seat and scolded the lower half of his body to behave.
With her hair pulled back in the slick ponytail she donned for her work persona, Alex stared out the window, lost in thought.
Gripping the steering wheel, Hawk gathered the nerve to ask her a question he might not want the answer to.
“Alex?”
“Hawk?”
They both said each other’s name at the same time.
Smiling, he said, “You go first.”
“No. You go ahead.”
He pulled to a stop at a red light and looked across the car. “What do you think about moving in with me?”
Surprise shifted behind her eyes. Along with it, a smile slid over her lips.
“You know ... when all the crazy settles down and you can go back to a more normal day-to-day life?”
She bit her lower lip and tried to hide her smile.
Relief rolled down Hawk’s spine. Her eyes alone said she loved the idea.
“Good,” he said. “I’m glad we have that settled. Now, what did you want to say?”
“Excuse me. I don’t think I said yes yet.”
Yet.
The light turned green. Hawk inched forward in the morning traffic. “What are your conditions?” he asked, teasing.
She laughed and stayed quiet.
“Well?”
“I don’t know yet.”
Hawk actually snorted.
He reached for her hand and folded it in his.
“Are you going to smile like that all day?” she asked.
He nodded several times. “Pretty much.”
“I’ll have conditions.”
“I have no doubt.” He brought her fingers to his lips and kissed them before letting go. “What were you going to say?”
“I took a pregnancy test this weekend,” she said, not missing a beat.
The air rushed out of his lungs, and his foot punched down on the brakes too hard.
Alex let out a tiny noise. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have just blurted that out while you were driving.”
Pregnancy?
A baby?
He needed air.
“It was negative,” she said in a rush.
A worried smile looked back at him. “No baby?”
“No. I’m not. But I thought maybe I was. I didn’t think I should keep that to myself.”
Hawk reached for her again.
Damn.
With his eyes back on the road, Hawk’s heart rate started to return to normal. “Sweetie. I say this with all the love in the world.”
“Yes?”
He turned the corner with one hand on the wheel. “Your situational awareness skills need CPR.”
Alex moaned. “You’re right. That was—”
“Dangerous.” He kissed her hand again and went back to driving. LA traffic was a two-handed job. “The next time you tell me you think you’re pregnant, please make sure I’m sitting down and not behind the wheel of a car, where I can get us both killed.”
“I can do that.”
His brain cells returned in slow motion. “Why did you think you were pregnant?”
“I haven’t felt right for a few weeks. Tired, borderline nauseous, when I’m not at the office my brain is in a fog. I’ve convinced myself that it’s stress, and it may be ... but I needed to rule out the most obvious possible cause before I cry wolf to a doctor.”
“You’ve been under a lot of pressure. But I’d feel better if you saw someone.”
Alex smiled and looked in her lap and got quiet.
Hawk took a deep breath. “Were you disappointed?”
“What?”
“That the test was negative?”
“No. Of course not.” Her words were rushed, and Alex turned to look out the window when she said them.
Hawk would have a whole lot of trouble with a daughter as beautiful as Alex. The boys would show up in droves.
The image of chastity belts and towers too tall to climb filled his head.
And the negotiations?
Holy hell. They’d have to have a son just to balance it out.
“Are you?” Alex broke his thoughts with her question.
He smiled and shook his head. “Would it freak you out if I said yes?”
“What?”
Hawk blew out a breath. “Yeah. I am. That’s crazy, right?”
“Uhm . . .”
“I’ve never given it a lot of thought. Other than to try and avoid it.
But ... you’re different. I literally just imagined what our daughter would look like and how I’d have to sit at the door with a shotgun to keep the boys away.
And how you would both spend hours negotiating if she was too young to date.
And how a son would have to balance the estrogen and keep an eye on our daughter when she was at school .
.. so yes, Alex. I’m disappointed but at the same time looking forward to that life. ”
Alex was staring at him with moisture in her eyes.
“Are you good with that?” Hawk asked her. “That I’m thinking like that about us?”
Her quiet was starting to worry him.
“I wasn’t expecting that answer,” she finally said.
“That makes two of us.”
Alex reached for his hand.
And the world felt right.
Dee fidgeted behind her laptop during their morning meeting, her eyes kept looking at the door.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes, but ... it’s strange with them here. I’m afraid to delete an email or put something in the shredder pile.”
“I can understand that. It won’t be forever. If you’re concerned about deleting or shredding things, ask them.”
“And they ask a lot of personal questions.”
Alex sat back, finished the rest of her second cup of coffee. Caffeine was a habit she might need to curb if and when she and Hawk had those babies he’d so vividly seen on the ride in.
“That will get worse before it gets better, I’m afraid. I do wish there was a way around that.”
Dee nodded and returned to their work at hand.
The entire day was filled with phone calls and Zoom meetings, all in an effort to ease the concerns of the management in the many regions where their hotels lived.
She and Chase had divided the work and were basically living on coffee and willpower.
Before Dee left the office, Alex handed her the phone number of her doctor. “I need you to make an appointment for me with my doctor. I wouldn’t ask, but with my schedule as crazy as it is, you’d know best when I can squeeze it in.”
Dee blinked a few times. “Okay. What do you want me to tell them is wrong?”
“Just a checkup. But one I’d like to not wait a month to have.”
Dee spotted the empty coffee cup, picked it up. “More?”
“Please, and keep them coming.”
“Of course, Ms. Stone.”
Hawk leaned against the counter in the executive break room lounge with Piper and Julia.
“I’m surprised they haven’t reminded me who I had sex with on prom night,” Julia complained.
The FBI agents were conducting background checks on and interviewing everyone who had direct daily contact with Floyd. As well as those in close proximity to Aaron before his death.
Which meant Piper was in the office to answer questions.
“I didn’t go to prom,” Hawk chimed in.
“I didn’t either, but I had a date, and we did have sex,” Julia admitted.
The three of them laughed.
“The people on this floor that will have it the hardest will be Arthur and his team. The accountants are expected to find discrepancies,” Piper suggested.
“Not when the CEO is approving the reports,” Hawk said.
Both of the women nodded in agreement.
“Maybe they’ll find an account that Robert is hiding from me and I can go after more child support.”
“Keep living the fantasy, Julia. I’ll be here when you get back to Earth.”
The time on her computer said eleven thirty. Alex had yawned no less than five times on her last call and purposely cut the conversation short.
Her office couch was inviting her to take a break.
The kind with her feet up and her head on a pillow.
She squinted her eyes to see the names on her schedule for the remainder of the day. Too many names.
Alex buzzed Dee and asked her to come in.
“Yes, Ms. Stone?”
“I thought I had an eleven thirty.”
“They canceled while you were on your last call. Something about a computer glitch.”
Alex slumped in her chair. “Thank God. I can’t keep my eyes open.”