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When Chi called them, she broke that spell, and he wanted to take the time back so he could just look at Clara and figure things out between them.
In a business sense, he added hastily in his mind. Nothing else. Right?
Chapter 6
“Is this okay?” Claraasked as she led Alexander to the spot in her mom’s backyard that she loved the most. The house was deserted. Her mom was probably still down at the festival with her grandkids, enjoying herself. While the bed-and-breakfast was most likely booked solid, the guests must have been down at the festival as well, since no one moved around the yard or house.
“This is your mom’s place?” Alexander asked as he nodded, indicating the spot was just fine.
“It is. It’s where I grew up. I... I’m sorry I don’t have a blanket or anything to sit on.” She bit her lip. She doubted that Alexander had ever sat on the ground before. He actually looked very out of place, not just in her small town, but in her mom’s backyard. She was used to seeing him in the impersonal confines of his office, under fluorescent lights, wearing a suit and tie and a serious expression on his face as he stared at his laptop or tablet or phone, or whatever it was he was working on at the time. As he was always working on something.
She laughed a little at that thought. Regular people thought that folks who were millionaires, or billionaires, just sat around and counted their money all the time, but in her experience, the more successful someone was, the harder they had worked to attain it.
Unless of course they had inherited it. That was completely different. She supposed also perhaps actors and actresses, who came into a lot of money in a short amount of time, might be slightly different as well.
Successful businesspeople, in her experience, worked hard for what they got, and once they had a lot, they still continued to work. Mostly because they enjoyed it.
That was what she thought about Alexander. That he loved his work, and he lived and breathed it, not because he had a driving desire to be successful, but just because he had a driving desire to...do something. She wasn’t sure.
At any rate, to her surprise, he settled down on the ground beside her.
“I guess they have everything stuck in here together,” he said as he looked in the package he carried. She had their drinks, one in each hand, and she handed one to him.
“Thanks. I...” He looked around. “We just set this on the ground?”
“Yeah. I... I guess this wasn’t the best idea I’ve ever had.” She didn’t mind at all. She ate on the ground all the time. One of her favorite things to do was to head down to the lake and eat a sandwich and just watch the waves roll in. She loved doing it beside the pasture where the horses grazed. Just so she could watch them. There was something so relaxing about horses and the beach that made her want to sit and stay and enjoy.
“No. It was my idea. There was a table that was cleared up in the diner, and I said I wanted to leave. I just... I don’t think I’ve ever done this before.”
She laughed a little. “That does not surprise me at all. However, the fact that you’re a little unsettled does surprise me.” And it made her nervous as well, although she felt like she was doing a good job of covering it.
She was more comfortable in the diner surrounded by her family and friends, with a steady stream of people coming in, people whom she knew and loved. This quiet seclusion, even though it was in the backyard of her mom’s house, a place where she was familiar and loved, made her less confident. Because it was just her, and while she was comfortable in Alexander’s presence, having worked for him for seven years, there was still something about him that...maybe just made her wish that she was someone she wasn’t, someone who would catch his eye, and that crazy feeling she had of wanting to be more with him was attainable instead of a major pipe dream.
“Why are you laughing? Seeing me sit on the ground?”
“Well, that is something I don’t think I’ve ever seen before,” she said, refusing to wipe the grin off her face.
