My Curvy Valentine: A Perfect Fit Novella (16 page)

“I don’t know,” her mother said. “She left.”

Chapter 9

She held it together for as long as she could
, Alex thought as he stepped out into the freezing night with Maggie’s coat in his hand. He didn’t know Maggie’s father as well as she did, but even he could see the change. The lightness in him. It was like a different man was sitting before them.

He had been scared of the lieutenant when he was younger. The man barely spoke, and he always studied everyone with a critical gaze. The kids in the neighborhood never played at the Calhouns’ house, too scared to anger him. The guy was the life of the party now that he wasn’t married anymore. He could understand why that bugged the hell out of Maggie.

He pulled out his cell phone to call her, but he realized he didn’t need to. He knew where she went. He walked the two houses down to his father’s. The door was unlocked and instead of seeing his father in his recliner in front of the TV he heard voices coming from the back of the house.

“She wore this when we brought Alexei home from the hospital.” Alex walked up to see his father sitting on his bed surrounded by a pile of his mother’s clothes. There was a baby-doll pink sweater in his hands. “I didn’t know she saved this. She said she never liked herself in pink. Thought it made her look like a girl, but I loved her in this sweater. It reminds me of the day we became a family.”

“Keep it.” Maggie sat cross-legged on the floor, one of his mother’s silk scarves draped across her lap. “You don’t have to get rid of it if it means so much to you. We could make it into a pillow or work it into a quilt.”

“My son says I need to move on. I shouldn’t keep this sweater. I didn’t even know it was there.”

“You do need to move on,” Alex said stepping forward. “It doesn’t mean you are dishonoring her.” He sat on the floor next to Maggie. “She would want you to be happy.”

“Take over my company and I will be happier than a gold digger with a rich man’s credit card.”

“Don’t start,” he softly scolded, trying to suppress a smile.

“Okay.” Ambrose flashed him a quick grin before he sobered. “I know it’s time. It makes me mad that I couldn’t figure that out on my own.”

“You’re pigheaded.”

“Me?” He pointed to himself. “I’m perfectly pleasing. Your name is in the dictionary next to the word.”

“I learned it from the best.”

“You got it from your mother! I could not win an argument with that woman with the whole Supreme Court on my side. If the sky was blue she’d tell me it was yellow and fuss till I agreed.”

“She was something, wasn’t she?”

“She was everything.” He nodded. “Maggie is going help me with this.”

“You are?” He looked at her.

“Yeah.” She slipped her hand in his. “I like your family way more than mine at the moment.”

“I can tell. You forgot your coat.”

“I just needed to get out of there. This seemed like the perfect place to escape to.” She looked up at Ambrose. “You really won’t mind if I keep this scarf, Mr. Sanna?”

“Take whatever you want, Maggie.” He looked around him. “I knew how much your mother loved to shop, son, but I didn’t realize how much until I starting pulling clothes out of the closet. We’re going to need a Mack truck. Maybe two. Is there anything you wanted to take?”

“Yeah, I’ll come back for it later.”

*

“You okay?” Maggie asked him as they walked up the stairs to their apartments. “You’ve been quiet.”

“I could ask you the same question. You ditched me at your father’s house.”

“My parents were talking about going on vacation together. I had a moment.”

“Vacation?”

“Yeah. An extended double date, so to speak. I don’t really want to talk about it right now. I asked about you first.”

He was quiet for a moment as he let them in to the door that separated their apartments from the rest of the building. There had been a lot running though his head in the past couple of
hours. His surprise over seeing his father finally moving on. His heated discussion with Clayton. But the thing he really couldn’t stop thinking about was standing right behind him.

He let her in, following her to her door, knowing he didn’t want to go to bed alone tonight. He didn’t give her the chance to pull her keys out before he spun her around, pushed her against the door and kissed her. He’d felt like a balloon for the past couple of days, filling with pressure, with need. Setting his lips to her mouth was a release. It was the way she kissed, with her whole body, wrapping her arms around him, rubbing her body against him. The act of kissing brought two people physically closer, but kissing her was more than just physical and every time he did it, it made him not want to let her go.

His phone rang, vibrating in his pocket, making the most insistent annoying sound, but he ignored it.

She giggled as she broke their kiss. “It vibrates. I like that. It could come in handy later.”

He opened her coat and slid his hands down her body, over her hips and around to her behind. His dick grew hard, pressing against his fly and screaming for freedom. “Unlock the door, Mags. I want you naked.”

She bit her lower lip, suppressing a grin. “What’s wrong with doing it right here?” She rubbed him through his pants causing his dick to jump.

“You’re adventurous.” He grabbed one of her long legs and wrapped it around his waist as he licked across her mouth. “I like that about you.” His phone rang again. “Ignore it,” he growled and kissed her once more. He reached under her dress, touching her tights, liking the way the fabric felt against his hands. She looked so sexy in them. Black boots and tights. He
wondered if she would wear them in bed. Just them. He would love to see her booted legs wrapped around his waist as he pushed inside her.

His damn phone buzzed again. This time a text message. She broke the kiss. “Just see who it is. It could be important.”

“It’d better be or I’m going to choke them.” He reached for his phone as Maggie fished her keys out of her pocket to unlock her door. He froze when he saw the screen.

I haven’t heard from you. Are you okay? I miss you
.

“Are you okay? Who is it?”

“It’s nothing. It’s Roya.” He put the phone back in his pocket.

“Oh.” The word was heavy coming from her lips. There was disappointment in her face “You should call her back.” She stepped inside. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Alex,” she said and closed the door before he could object.

*

Maggie walked down the stairs tempted to just head out the back to avoid Alex. She knew it was stupid. Alex wasn’t someone she could get away from. He was as much a part of her world as the sun or the air. It was probably why she shouldn’t have gone down this road with him. Everything came to an end and she knew that this wasn’t going to end well.

“You trying to avoid me?” Alex stood in the doorway that led to his bakery. She could tell by the hard set of his jaw that he wasn’t happy with her.

Part of her felt guilty, but a bigger part of her was just as mad at him as he was at her. “Why would I do that?”

“Cause you’re a chickenshit?” He stepped away from the door, coming toward her with a predatory look in his eye. He didn’t stop until he was nearly on top of her. He grabbed her braid, wrapped it around his thick fingers and pulled her face closer to his. “I’m kind of pissed at you.” He kissed her hard then. She shut her eyes, letting him do what he wanted to her mouth. It didn’t matter if his kisses were hard or painfully sweet, they always made her feel the same way. They always made her want more.

“I’m a chickenshit?” She broke the kiss.

“You’re scared of this. Scared of us.”

“I’m not.” She was though. There was no future for them. He still had somebody in love with him and she… She didn’t know what the hell she wanted. “You’re just mad because you left with an epic set of blue balls last night. You could have gone out and found somebody to ease them for you if you didn’t want to handle the job yourself.”

“I’m not mad that I didn’t have sex last night. I’m mad because I didn’t get to be with you and I’m madder because this morning I want you even more.”

“Why, Alex? Why do you want me now? Because I’m here? Because I’m available?”

“Because you are beautiful and because I can’t get you out of my mind.” He kissed her again, not as rough as he did before but it was no less intense. He let go of her hair and smoothed his hands down her back. He reached under her coat and clothes and his hands were on her bare skin. “What happened last night?”

“Damn it, Alex. Not even you could be so thick headed. You know what happened. Your ex called. I don’t do this. I don’t give my body away a lot, but when I do I don’t want that man’s beautiful ex calling. So excuse me if it puts me out of the mood.”

“I didn’t ask her to call. We aren’t communicating and even if we were, I’m not sure why it would bother you. She’s in England. She’s gone.”

“And I’m here and I’m easy. Is that what you’re trying to say?”

“No!” He shook his head in frustration. “I’ve known you forever. You’re my friend. You’ll always be there.”

“Good old dependable Maggie. There to lend a hand or be a body to use when you’re horny.”

“Stop it.” He took her face in his hands. “Why are you saying that?”

“If she were here things would be different. You wouldn’t want me. You would still be together.”

“But she’s not here. And things are not different. And we’re not together. And I want you. You sound like a jealous girlfriend. I didn’t do anything wrong.”

That’s right. She was taking it personally, acting like there was something more to this relationship than friendship and attraction. She wasn’t his girlfriend. It was something she would never be. “She sent you a card. She’s called. She’s texted. She misses you. You’ve got some unfinished business with her and I don’t want you to use me as her stand-in.”

“Good God, Maggie.” He rested his forehead against hers. “You’re not a stand-in. You’re a pain in my ass and you cause me more grief than anybody, but I still want you. And I’m a pain in your ass and I know half the time you can’t stand me, but you still want me too.”

That wasn’t true. She could stand him. As the days went by she’d started to realize that she liked being around him, that she wanted to be around him more and more. Why did these feelings have to sneak up now, when she least expected and didn’t need them?

“Tell me you want to do this.” He kissed the underside of her chin, then down her throat, finding that spot that seemed to connect right to her lady parts. “I’ll back off if you tell me no.”

“No.”

“I lied,” he said without taking his lips from her skin. “I’m not backing off. I can’t, Mags, I—” His phone rang.

“See?” She pushed him away. “It’s like fate. Like God is warning me to stay the hell away from you.”

She turned to go out the back door, but he grabbed her. “It can’t be Roya. She’s on a flight to Australia right now.”

“You spoke to her?”

“Yeah.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket. “I thought if I talked to her she would stop contacting me so I could get some from my cute next door neighbor.”

“You’re a pig.”

“It’s my father. He never calls this early.” He answered it and she saw his face fall. “Okay. I’ll get Fernando to cover. I’ll be there.”

“What?” she asked him.

“It’s my grandmother. She fell last night at the nursing home and my father left town this morning and can’t get to her till this afternoon.”

“Give me a few minutes to see if someone can cover me at work. I’ll go with you.”

*

He hadn’t seen his grandmother in a long time even though she lived twenty minutes away. It had been over a month and he felt like a heel, like the lowest form of shit. She was getting old. Her memory was fading. He had less and less time to spend with her and the only excuse he had was that he was busy. Busy with his business, busy being tired, busy avoiding the woman who reminded him so much of his mother.

“She’s okay.” Maggie took his hand as they walked down the long hallway to his grandmother’s room. “The nurse said she was lucky. She fell on her bottom.”

“She’s eighty-two. I don’t think she’ll survive a broken hip.”

“Stop thinking about that. She didn’t break her hip. The nurse said we can take her out for the day if we want. I think we should. We took my grandmother to a male revue for her eightieth birthday last year. She had a blast. Spent her whole social security check. I’m sure your grandmother would like that too.”

He paused just outside of his grandmother’s door and looked at her. “Tell me that’s not true.”

“It is.” She nodded. “We’re going to make it a tradition in my family. If you live to eighty you get to eat cake off a semi-naked man’s body.”

“My grandmother is not eating cake off of anybody’s body.”

“Not today,” she agreed. “I’ll come back without you. I don’t think they let men in those male revues anyway.”

He shook his head, wanting to kiss the little half smile that clung to her lips. Maggie thought she was a stand-in for Roya. There was no way that was possible. Maggie was too much, too special to be a replacement for anyone. “Let’s keep the whole stripper thing to ourselves today.”

“Buzzkill,” she muttered as they walked in.

Yaya was sitting in a chair by the window in her lovely little room. If there was one thing his father had done right it was take care of his mother-in-law. She had the best. This place didn’t feel like a nursing home and Alex knew that if his mother couldn’t be here to take care of her herself, this was the next best thing.

“Ambrose?” she called. She placed her thin hand above her eyes and squinted.

“No, Yaya. It’s Alexei.”

“Alexei? Alexei? Who is that?” she said in Greek. His heart sank for a moment. He knew that her memory faded in the evenings or when she was tired. It was like this the last time he saw her. She had been sick with a bad cold then. The doctor had told him that her memory loss was probably just temporary. He was seeing now that it was not.

“I’m your grandson,” he responded to her in Greek as he stepped closer. “Damara’s son.”

“My daughter had a son? I had nearly forgotten he existed. He doesn’t come see me anymore. I couldn’t remember what he looked like.”