AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Alana smiled back, wishing she could go to him and give him a scalding kiss. Not a good idea, though, considering that at least half a dozen people would witness it. No need to give anyone visuals to go along with the gossip.
“I didn’t think you’d be back from the base this soon,” she said.
“I just had to do some paperwork.” He kept his gaze on her, making her think that he was having the same “scalding kiss” thoughts.
They stood there until Alana snapped herself out of the fantasy she was having about him, and she remembered his dad. “I just finished up with your dad, and he said he was going back upstairs to rest.”
That clearly snapped Egan out of fantasyland, too. “Is he okay?”
Not wanting to go the sugarcoat route, Alana shrugged. “Maybell said he was happy that Blue is here, but he’s clearly worried about you. Maybe worried about us, too,” she tacked on to that.
Yes, there was anus. And yes, that would give Derek some concern since he’d know that would take jabs at their old painful wounds along with having to deal with the pesky gossip.
“I’ll check on him,” Egan said, giving her hand a quick squeeze. “And if you’re not busy, maybe I can come to your place later?”
She nodded, smiled. Fantasized. “I’m free the rest of the morning,” she said. That was sort of true. She didn’t have any appointments until the afternoon and had planned on devoting the next few hours to paperwork and scheduling, but she could play hooky with Egan.
“See you in about an hour, then,” he said. Another hand squeeze. Another smile. Then, he seemed to say to heck with it, and he brushed a quick kiss on her mouth before he muttered a goodbye.
Alana thought maybe she floated to her car. It’d been so long since she’d had feelings like this, and it was exciting and magical. Scary, too, but she wasn’t going to focus on that. She was going to take this “us” status one day at a time and see where Egan and she ended up. If they ended up apart... She stopped stomping on the magic and excitement and repeated that “one day” vow.
She was still floating and buzzing on the drive home, and thankfully there was no one outside her house to tamp down her giddiness. Alana practically danced her way inside and saw something that had her smile widening.
Egan’s boxers.
They were peeking out from the edge of the sofa where they’d apparently landed during their frantic undressing. She picked them up just as her phone rang. And her giddiness and joy went south when she saw Tilly’s name on the screen.
Crud.
She considered not answering it, but if Tilly truly wanted to speak to her, she only lived two blocks away and would probably just come over. Alana decided a phone call was better than a face-to-face.
“Tilly,” Alana said, trying to keep her voice as neutral as possible and hoping that Tilly would do the same.
“Alana,” Tilly greeted right back, and while it wasn’t a totally neutral tone, it wasn’t exactly hostile, either. Not yet, anyway. “I was wondering if you had time for me to come over so we can chat.”
Alana thought of Egan. He had said he would be over in about an hour, and while that was still forty or so minutes away, Alana definitely didn’t want Tilly there when he arrived.
“I’m sorry but I can’t,” Alana told her. “I have some free time this afternoon after four o’clock.”
“I can’t make that,” Tilly insisted. “I still have a lot of details to finalize for the life celebration.” The woman paused. “Actually, you’re one of those details.”
Of course, she was, and that caused Alana to sigh. “What exactly do you want?” Alana came out and asked.
Tilly didn’t hesitate to come out and answer that, either. “I want you to stop seeing Egan. I want everyone’s focus on Jack, not on Egan and you. And the best way to shift that focus is for you to stop seeing him.”
Alana muttered another mental but equally derogatory,Of course. Why else would Tilly have been calling?
“No,” Alana said, and she purposely didn’t add any other words to that because she didn’t want Tilly to get confused over her answer.
The sound Tilly made was plenty derogatory, too. “If you won’t do this for me, then do it for Jack.”
Alana nearly blurted out “Jack’s dead,” but there was no reason to hit the woman over the head with that particular sledgehammer.
“All right,” Tilly went on, her tone turning to a full-blown snarl. “Then, just stop seeing Egan until after the celebration. That’s only five days. Surely, you can do the right thing for that short period of time.”
Oh, that did not sit well with Alana, and she had to bite her tongue again to stop herself from bringing up that Jack sure as hell hadn’t done the right thing when he’d screwed around with another woman while he’d been married. Instead, Alana took her riled response in another direction.
“I’ll abstain if you’ll apologize to Egan for slapping him,” Alana threw out there.
