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“Whoa! The Netherlands! That’s so cool.”
“It was pretty damn cool.”
They all settled in to talk about Texas, where Alex had worked and Merry had grown up. By the time he realized it was full dark outside, Alex had spent two hours catching up with his brother. It had been surprisingly good. Shane hadn’t brought up their mother once, and when she’d called, Shane had let it go to voice mail.
Maybe Shane had been telling the truth. Maybe he really had distanced himself. Shane hadn’t been a mama’s boy or anything, but he’d let their mom get into his head when they were young. He’d let her give him hope and she’d poured her sickness in there with it. Shane had been desperate for their dad to return. Alex had only hated the man. Hated him for leaving. And hated him for being a decent dad before he’d left. If he’d been awful, it would have been so much easier to live without him.
“I’d better get going,” Alex finally said.
“You can stay here if you want. The couch is damn comfortable.”
“No, thanks.” He wanted to be alone. He always did.
“Listen, I hate to ask, but could you do me a favor if you’re headed back to town? I’ve got the paper samples for the program. Can you drop them at Mom’s?”
“Shit,” he cursed, but even he could see it wasn’t a big favor to ask. He held out his hand for the samples and smiled at Shane. He wasn’t too immature to stop by his mom’s house for five minutes.
Plus, a trip to his mom’s would get him close to Sophie again. He considered the idea as he drove toward town.
It wasn’t a good idea to see her after what her brother had done today, but he couldn’t exactly blame her for it. And good idea or not, he wanted to see her.
Alex tried to let the wind take his thoughts away, but he couldn’t shake them. Sophie Heyer inspired thoughts with some staying power, after all. He’d be remembering her for a long time. Especially when he jerked off like he had first thing this morning. He’d woken up thinking of her coming for him, nails biting into his skull while the taste of her wet his throat. God. That’d been fucking amazing. Almost as amazing as lifting her up and making her ride his cock.
Yeah. Fuck it. He was gonna see her.
Alex pulled into the lot of his motel and got out his phone. She hadn’t gotten in touch, but he wasn’t surprised. Things were even weirder than they had been before. But Alex liked weird just fine.
He pulled up her number and sent a text. Hey. I thought I might stop by. Are you decent?
I’m not sure how to answer that after last night.
He grinned from ear to ear before her next text came through.
But after today... I’m really sorry.
Did she mean she was sorry about her brother or sorry because she didn’t want to see Alex? Wanna talk? he asked hopefully.
Maybe.
He let out a breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding. Gimme 30?
Sure. I’ll see you soon.
Alex wasn’t the type to smile much, but fuck if he didn’t smile his way through a quick shower and a change of clothes. This girl was the nicest thing in his world right now, by far. The nicest thing that had been in his world for a really long time. Not only the sex, but just the way she was. Sweet and hot and smart and secret. The best kind of mystery.
He really did want to talk. He wanted to see her. But he had no doubt things would heat up. She liked it just as much as he did. And he’d be gone by Sunday. They both needed to get their fill before he left.
Alex pulled up to his mom’s place five minutes later and knocked hard, hoping to get this over with quickly. He heard her talking on the phone as she approached, her voice high and excited.
“Oh, Alex!” she exclaimed as she opened the door. The tiny gray kitten shot out the door and down the stairs. Apparently it belonged to his mother, as if she could take care of an animal in this clutter. “I was just talking to your brother! He was telling me about all the places you’ve been. I am so proud of you.”
“Thanks,” he said gruffly as he followed her into the kitchen. “I’m just dropping these off.”
“Oh, you’re so good to me. Do you want some coffee?” He looked around at her mess of a kitchen. It wasn’t filthy. Nothing smelled bad, but there were piles of papers and canned goods everywhere. He shook his head, then accidentally kicked something when he moved to put the manila folder full of paper samples down. The bowl he’d kicked spilled cat food everywhere.
When he bent to pick it up, he saw that tiny ants were crawling in the bowl. “Mom, there are ants all over this cat food.”
“Oh, I keep putting out traps, but they come in from the garden. But the cats don’t mind ants. Extra protein.” Cats? Multiple? That wasn’t good. Not when the place was already so cluttered.
