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“I wouldn’t mind one bit. Well … If I’m completely honest, I’d rather help you during the day, too. Not just wait until the evening. But I don’t know what your plans are, I don’t know if you have movers or friends helping or …”
She let out a short laugh. “I have Two Guys and a Van.”
“Friends?”
“No. It’s a company, that’s the name of the company; Two Guys and a Van. They’ll come Saturday morning and collect the boxes, drive them over to my new place, and drop them inside. Other than that, it’s just me.”
“In that case, how would you feel if I come on Friday night? I can help you get everything ready for when they arrive, and I can be your box carrier in the new place.”
Alyssa had to blink away the tears that pricked behind her eyes. “I’d love that. But only if you don’t mind. I…” She had to stop and swallow. It was probably better that she didn’t tell him what she was thinking, anyway.
“You what? I feel like I’m upsetting you, but I don’t understand why.”
She let out a short laugh. “You’re not upsetting me. I am getting a little emotional, but in a good way. It’s just … I’m not going to say that we barely know each other because I feel like we know each other quite well. But we’ve known each other for less than a week, and here you are offering to help me move. It’s just not something I’m used to. I like it,” she added hurriedly. “I appreciate it. It’s just that I’m more used to handling things by myself.”
Bentley was quiet for a long few moments before he said, “I know that you can handle things by yourself. But I’d like to help if you want me.”
Alyssa nodded happily, and then realized that he wouldn’t be able to see that. “I want you.” She laughed when she heard the words come out. “And we both know how that sounds, and yes, I mean that, too.”
She loved the sound of his laugh. “So do I, in every sense.”
~ ~ ~
“Greetings, big brother,” Willow said when Bentley walked into her office on Friday lunchtime. “How was the city that never sleeps? Did you sleep? Please tell me that Reaves and Ollie managed to drag you out to have some fun.”
Bentley made a face at her. Willow was always after him, telling him that he needed to loosen up and get a life outside of the company.
“I always have fun.”
She laughed. “I mean normal people-type fun. I know you think it’s fun to negotiate deals and do good for the company, but you’re a young man.” She laughed again. “Although, you’re not that young anymore, and you’re not getting any younger. Mom’s out of the picture now, and she’s so loved up I don’t think she’d give you grief about anything at this point. You need to get a life and you’ve got no excuses anymore.”
Bentley blew out a sigh. “I know.”
Willow’s eyes widened and she got up from her desk and came around to rest the back of her hand on his forehead as if testing his temperature. “Are you sick? Did you just agree with me?”
He batted her hand away with a short laugh. “I’ve never disagreed with you. It just hasn’t been that easy. He pulled up a seat on this side of the desk. It felt strange to him; up until a few months ago this had been his office. He had spent almost every day of his life in here for years, sitting on the other side of this desk.
Willow gave him an odd look as she walked back around to what used to be his chair and sat down opposite him. “Want to tell me what’s going on?”
Bentley drummed his fingers on the desk. Did he want to tell her? Yes, he did, but it wasn’t that easy.
She rested her elbows on the table and propped her chin up with her hands as she leaned toward him. “Come on, I know that I give you grief, but you can talk to me.” She pursed her lips. “You do know that, don’t you?”
He had to smile. “Of course I know that.” It was true. He and Willow were very different people, and she’d been gone for several years. They hadn’t been around each other much since he left for college, but that hadn’t made any difference. They’d been close as kids and they were still close now.
She grinned at him. “So, tell me already! What’s going on with you? I know there’s something.”
What the hell, why not? If he trusted anyone enough to tell them about the situation with Alyssa, he trusted his sister. “You just said that you give me grief. Well, I don’t want you to give me any grief about this. I want you to listen and then …” He smiled through pursed lips. “Then, I’d like to hear your opinion. I’m not saying that I’ll take any notice of it, but I would like to hear it.”
“Fire away, and I promise I’ll be good. I won’t intentionally give you any grief.” She chuckled. “We both know that I won’t be able to stop myself from giving you my opinion but even if that sounds like grief, I don’t mean it that way, okay?”
“I’ll take that. It’s as good as I’m going to get, and I know it.” He took a deep breath and launched into telling her all about Alyssa and how they’d met. He knew that Willow wouldn’t judge him, he didn’t have a problem there. He was curious as to what her take on the whole stepsister thing would be. He’d thought about that a lot over the course of the week. He’d reached the conclusion that it was a non-issue. It wasn’t as though they’d grown up together as siblings, and that was the only reasonhe could see that there might be an issue about stepsiblings entering into a relationship.
He told Willow how he and Alyssa had met. He didn’t have any issues telling his sister that he’d gone out and hooked up with a woman. They didn’t talk about it, and he didn’t like to think about it, but he knew that she’d lived her life that way for a few years.
She didn’t bat an eyelid over that part; she was more interested in how things had gone with their mom and Russ. He told her that he and Alyssa had played dumb, that they’d acted as though they were meeting each other for the first time, even though they’d both been blindsided when they realized what was going on.
Willow laughed at that. “Oh my God! I can’t even imagine. I would’ve wanted the ground to open up and swallow me. And after that, it wasn’t as though you could just tell them, was it?”
