CHAPTER 24 ALEXIS
So far, this break is exactly what I needed.
It’s hard to put into words what this means to me. To be with a normal family like Danny’s rather than the weird dynamic I live with every day at my own house feels magical.
They have their own challenges—Anna as she goes through a divorce and raises two kids on her own. Tracy as she raised two kids on her own, too. Danny’s absent father.
But these hardships drew them together beautifully, and seeing the easy way Danny and Anna joke with each other makes me wish I had a sibling.
The doorbell rings as Danny’s nephews beg me to sing more, and Danny makes a face at Anna.
“What’s that face for?” she demands, and he just shrugs and smirks at her.
“Why don’t you go answer the door?” he suggests.
“What did you do?” she asks.
“Maybe it’s the pizzas.”
She glares at him but runs down the stairs to answer the door, and I glance at Danny.
“Who is it?” I ask.
“I invited Rush over for dinner.”
I giggle as I recall him telling me Rush is interested in Anna. This is going to be one hell of an interesting pizza party between Danny and me, Rush and Anna, and whatever that little look Tracy shot toward Gregory was.
It was nothing.
But Gregory deserves some happiness, too. What if it’s with Danny’s mom?
I’m not against the idea, or maybe I’m just floating on a cloud right now—a cloud that will be ripped out from under me at some point, more than likely, but one I’d like to revel in while I can.
“I don’t want to miss this,” I say, and I dart down the stairs after Anna. Danny rounds up the boys and comes down a beat later, and Anna’s cheeks are flushed, and she seems flustered as she stands by the open door and Rush stands on the porch.
He’s tall—taller than Danny, and I’d guess him to be around six-six, and he’s been voted one of baseball’s hottest bachelors for five years running…
just like his bestie, Danny Brewer. He’s incredibly attractive, even though my sights lean more toward the blue-eyed man currently carrying a four-year-old down his stairs.
“Anna, how nice to see you again,” he says as he walks into the house and hugs her.
It’s not just a hug, though.
It’s kind of…hot.
He wraps himself around her, and she links her arms around his waist and leans into his chest as she eats up every second of the greeting, but she pulls back quickly—almost too quickly, and a sudden thought springs to mind.
Do they know each other more than they’re letting on?
Nah…it’s way too crazy to even consider.
“You too,” she says. She glances at her kids. “Oh, Lucas and Leo, you remember Rush Ross, the pitcher on Uncle Danny’s team, right?”
I’m not sure why hearing him called Uncle Danny as I watch him carry his nephew makes my ovaries explode, but there you have it.
Okay, so it’s not exclusively the moniker nor how good he is with his nephews, but the idea that he’d be such a good dad hits me sideways along with the thought that I want him to be the father of my babies.
I didn’t really even want babies up until maybe a year ago when I started getting these unfamiliar urges. It’s what started to spark the thought that maybe I need to redesign my contract with my father. Maybe I need a personal life of my own rather than one run for the benefit of the media.
And then Danny dropped into my life a few months later, as if he was the very answer to all those thoughts. Now I’m at a place where I’m not sure how I’ll ever let him go.
But I’m also not sure how I get out of the marriage to Brooks.
I push the thought away. I won’t let that drag me down this weekend. Instead, I’ll enjoy the time I have here with every single part of my being.
I’ve met Rush before, and he gives me a hug, too—almost to cover up the fact that he hugged Anna the way he did.
“Nice to see you again,” he says warmly.
We make our way into the kitchen as Danny’s nephews run circles around Rush’s legs. They’ve met him before, too—probably when they visited Uncle Danny’s clubhouse—and it’s clear how much they adore him.
The pizzas arrive shortly after Rush does, and Danny spreads them out on the kitchen counter for everyone to grab a slice.
My eyes meet Danny’s when I see he ordered a bacon pizza, and I can’t help my smile as I shake my head and grab the two biggest slices in the box.
We all take our plates to the table, and I can’t help but remember the brunch I had here when it was just Danny and me when he ordered donuts for me while I sat here, and I found myself wanting to get to know everything about him.
I still do. Even though we’re months into this now, I keep discovering new sides to this man. And every single side I’m introduced to makes me fall a little deeper for him.
Anna has Rush engaged in a tale about Lucas’s teacher, and Danny glances at Gregory, who’s seated beside his mother.
“So, muscleman, tell us about yourself,” Danny says.
Muscleman? I giggle as I take a rather unladylike bite of the bacon pizza. My eyes nearly roll to the back of my head at how delicious it tastes.
Rather than offering a single thing about himself, he says, “What do you want to know?”
“What’s your background?” he asks.
“Military. Ex-SF.”
“SF?” I ask.
“Special Forces,” he clarifies.
I really don’t know much about what that means.
“How long have you been working with Alexis?”
“A decade next May,” he says, and I guess I didn’t realize Gregory has been with me an entire decade. Maybe I should plan some sort of celebration for him.
“Wow, that’s a long time,” Tracy gushes. “Do you like it?”
It’s not like he can say no when I’m sitting right here.
“Yes. There’s travel and excitement,” he says. Excitement? I’ve never seen Gregory get excited about a damn thing…like ever.
What about having a personal life? Doesn’t he want one of those?
He never speaks about his family or friends, and I’ve picked up bits and pieces about him over the years. I know he had a wife who passed away, and I think he and my father bonded over their losses.
I know he thinks of me as a daughter, and I know he had one once. She died with her mother. Gregory has never mentioned how, but one time I took to the internet to figure it out.
They were killed. The whole thing is so tragic, but it happened while Gregory was deployed. He was a few weeks away from returning home, and he retired immediately after that and got into personal security.
He worked for other celebrities before he landed on the short list my father put together, and he’s been with us ever since.
His daughter would have turned twenty-one this year.
He and his wife would have been celebrating twenty-five years of marriage.
Instead, he has dedicated his life to protecting mine.
“Do you ever get to see the sights when you’re traveling?” Tracy asks.
“Depends on Ms. Bodega’s schedule. Sometimes.”
“What’s the best city you’ve been to?” she presses.
I’m curious about this answer, and I glance over at Danny to see he’s also enthralled by this conversation.
“Rio de Janeiro. I’m particularly fond of South America.”
“I’ve never been.” Tracy definitely has hearts in her eyes as she keeps trying to pull details from the strong, silent guy whose eyes are usually surveying the room. Tonight, though, he looks almost…relaxed. I’ve never seen him look relaxed in my entire life.
Does he…have a thing for Danny’s mom?
Now that would be something.
Either way, I feel like I’ve learned more about Gregory in the last hour than I learned about him over the last ten years.
And whatever happens, all I know is that I can’t lose him.
Not now…not when he’s the only one in my business circle who I can trust.
I glance at Danny again as I realize he’s the only person in the world I might trust even more than Gregory.
And that’s pretty damn terrifying.