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Alex, visibly concerned, interjected, “Get back out there. I need to talk to Madison, and if you’re gone too long, Stassi will come looking.”
Jordan smirked mischievously. “Relax, Alex. I told her I was in desperate need of a ménage à trois.”
His face contorted in a mix of shock and rage, his head, ready to explode.
Before he could even utter a single word, Jordan burst into laughter. “Just kidding. I told her I’d be back in a jiff...” Jordan swigged again, “and promised I’d return so she and I could have a little chat and share all yourpetits secrets sales.”
Madison’s brow wrinkled. “His what?”
“My dirty, little secrets.” Alex answered, translating.
Jordan shook her head. “If I have to hear one more at her stories about how you practically bit off her nipple all those years ago…”
Madison gasped, disgusted. “Ewww.”
A mixture of amusement and disbelief played on Jordan’s face. “Hey, I’m just as traumatized by it.” Jordan emptied the flask and tossed it aside. “Time for more Stassi and Alex stories.”
Before Jordan walked out the door, Alex grabbed her arm. “Do me a favor. Don’t eat the dessert.”
Jordan scoffed, waving a hand over her body. “Do I look like I eat carbs?”
The door shut. They were once again alone. Madison’s fury bubbled over. Her eyes widened, mouth gaping like a fish before she could muster the words. “Even if I can’t understand a word of what you’re saying, between French and Italian and Russian—which I didn’t even know you spoke—you can’t seriously expect me to sit through one more conversation about you, and her, andnipples!”
Alex blinked. “Huh?”
“Even I have my limits when it comes to the eternal conga line of Alex Drake exes, and I assure you, this is it.”
Stunned silent, Alex stared before bursting into a full-blown laugh. It was a hearty laugh that echoed off the walls, the kind that he hadn’t had in a while. It was infuriating. And a little contagious.
Madison bit her lip as Alex held his stomach, shoulders shaking, gasping for breath, with a hand on the wall to steady himself. All while Madison’s blushing face stared back at him, a perfect picture of confusion and surprise.
He laughed again, wiping a tear from his eye. “Madison,” he began, fighting to keep the laughter out of his voice, “Stassi isn’t my ex.” His laughter died down. “She’s my mother.”
CHAPTER26
ALEX
“She’s your…mother?” Madison asked slowly, skepticism light in her eyes.
Alex nodded slowly. He drew in a deep breath, his gaze settling on Madison. “And AJ is my brother.”
Alex held his breath. Madison was his wife. She’d seen every inch of him—scars and all. Where others sees scars, she sees survival. Where others find a villain, she sees a hero. He gazed in her eyes. Would she see one now?
She cupped his cheek in steadfast encouragement. “But, you don’t call her mom.”
“You’re right. I don’t.” It prompted him to open an old chapter of his life—one he hated revisiting. “You know how I mentioned that when I was around AJ’s age, I’d become emancipated.”
He watched as Madison nodded, the quiet compassion in her eyes silently urging him on. This was his wife, offering him a space to unravel this piece of his childhood that was tangled and knotted hard.
“Stassi had her struggles,” he continued, his voice steady but soft. “She had a unique perception of the world...which started with fixating over me, then over all the things I loved.”
He ran a hand through his hair, a sad smile playing on his lips as he continued. “It’s strange to say, but she believed she was protecting me. In reality, it was the opposite. She’d destroy toys, clothes, books…. But I believe with my entire being that she thought she was in her own twisted way keeping me safe. Making me strong.”
A rueful chuckle escaped him as he added, “And if she saw anyone getting too close to me, she could…get intense. Fiercely protective. A woman once offered me a sample at a grocery store. Stassi pulled a knife on her.”
“A knife?”
“Granted, it was a small pocket knife and the woman’s acrylic nails were more deadly, but she pressed charges. It was the first of many to come. But in Stassi’s mind, it was all done out of love. Her unique brand of it, anyway.”
