Page 15

The bank manager stood too, slowly extending his hand toward me. “I’m sorry, Ms. Nettles. I wish there was something else we could do.”

I shook with him, trying desperately to fight the tidal wave of emotion thrashing around inside, and nodded. “Thank you, sir.”

Having reached the end of my rope in keeping this inside, I dropped his hand as soon as I could and spun toward the door, leaving his office before I fell apart. I’m going to have to sell the house. Oh, God. I’m really, actually going to lose it. I’m so sorry, Mommy. I’m sorry, Dad. I tried. I really did.

Silent tears started streaming down my face as I pushed at the glass panel of the revolving doors and stumbled onto the sidewalk. Heartbroken and keeping my head down so no one would see the rivers running down my cheeks, I tried to process that I was about to put my parents’ house on the market when I smacked into something hard.

Solid enough that I bounced backward.

A hand caught my arm before I could embarrass myself further by falling down on the sidewalk. “Whoa. Hey, are you okay?”

When I looked up, I found myself staring into the semi-familiar blue eyes of Alex Westwood. Naturally, the multi-billionaire was the person I had literally run into seconds after finding out that I would never have enough money to pay the taxes on my house.

“Alica?” Alex frowned, doing a slow double-take as his gaze swept across my face. “Shit, I’m so sorry. Did I hurt you?”

“No, and it wasn’t your fault. I wasn’t watching where I was going, so I’m sorry.” I pulled myself upright and adjusted the strap of my purse on my shoulder. “I should get going. Send my love to Jane.”

As I made to move past him, he gave me a decidedly fatherly look. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“You really aren’t.”

“I’m just having a bad day.”

Alex made a soft sound, like a tsk, then checked his watch and took my arm again. “There’s a coffee shop across the street. Let’s go.”

“Excuse me?”

“Coffee, Alicia. It must be a really bad day if you don’t even recognize that word.” He gave me a soft smile, already leading me toward the intersection. “Jane would never forgive me if she found out I ran into you looking like this and just left you, so I’m getting you a cup of coffee.”

It sounded more like an instruction than an invitation, and while I wanted to just go home so I could fall apart in private while I still had a house to do it in, I followed. “Coffee isn’t going to fix this, Alex. You really don’t have to.”

“I know I don’t, but I do lots of things I don’t have to,” he said. “In fact, I find the things I don’t have to do are those I enjoy doing most. It might come as a surprise, but the things I have to do are honestly pretty boring most of the time.”

It turned out the coffee shop he led me to really was directly across the street from the bank. He hadn’t lied about that, but he’d neglected to mention that it was at the base of the massive Westwood & Sons corporate tower.

I glanced up at his name on the fancy wall across the lobby and felt my heart squeeze again. “Alex, it’s fine. I’m fine. Really.”

“Coffee, Alicia,” he insisted gently, veering toward the interior entrance of the shop, but then bypassing it.

Through the windows, I saw the line inside, people working on laptops, and even a pastry selection I would give my teeth for but would never be able to afford. But instead of even slowing, Alex just kept right on walking.

“I thought you said we were going to the coffee shop.”

“No. I mentioned there was a coffee shop and there is one. That’s not where we’re going, though.”

“It’s not?”

“No.” He approached a private elevator, pulled a badge from the inside pocket of his jacket, and scanned it across a reader mounted next to the polished silver doors. They opened a fraction of a second later and Alex strode into the car. “The coffee upstairs is better anyway.”

I frowned, but at least he’d let go of my arm, which meant that while he was already on the elevator, I was still outside of it. As I stared back at him, waiting for me to join him with a patient expression on his face, I wondered if I should be panicking right now.

Alex had never given me a reason to be scared of him, but I’d also never been alone with him before and he was a powerful man. Those are usually the type we’re supposed to be wary of, right?

“It’s about the house, isn’t it?” he asked a moment later, keeping the doors open with one finger on the button in the interior. “That’s why you came out of the bank crying.”

I stepped into the elevator immediately but not because I was suddenly, magically sure of him. This was simply a survival instinct.