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She offered directions as they got closer to her apartment. “I got lucky after Mark and I split,” she explained. “My cousin, Lacy, had just officially moved in with Logan, though God knew they’d been shacking up together way before that. I told Mark to keep our apartment since it was an easy thing for me to step in and take over Lacy’s lease.”
Logan played in Ty’s Collective, a popular local band, with Tyson, Caleb, and Harley. Xander had always liked the quiet carpenter, the two of them often meeting up for happy hour whenever Xander was in town. He and Logan were similar souls with similar interests—particularly in the bedroom—and he found himself wondering how much of her sex life Lacy had shared with Gia…if any.
“This is me,” she said, pointing to a tall three-story brick building that, according to her, had two apartments on each floor.
Xander parallel parked across the street, then turned off the car.
“You don’t have to walk me,” she said, opening her door and climbing out before he could get around the vehicle to help her.
“You didn’t wait for me,” he murmured, crowding her against the car.
“I’m perfectly capable of opening a car door.”
Xander tipped her chin up with a firm finger. “That’s not the point, Brat.”
Her brow furrowed. “Then what is the point?”
“When you’re with me, I’m going to take care of you,” he said.
Her expression cleared, her eyes twinkling. “That’s sweet.”
He could tell by the easygoing tone in her voice, she didn’t understand exactly what he meant, but that was okay. Now that he’d turned this corner, there would be no looking back. And for the first time ever, he felt this overwhelming sense of excitement. Time was something he’d never had enough of, so he rushed through everything, always feeling behind.
Now, as he looked toward the future, he saw the days and months and years unfolding slowly, and he wanted to savor every single second.
Sure, he still had a lot of wheels to put into motion, selling the company and his penthouse apartment in Dallas, finding a house here in Maris, but none of that felt like work when he considered his end goal.
All he had to do was convince the woman staring up at him now, her soft smile equal parts mischief and seduction.
He grasped her hand, guiding her across the street to her building.
“There’s no security,” he said, frowning when she flung open the unlocked front door, which led directly to a foyer. The doors to the first-floor apartments were on their immediate left and right, the staircase that led to the upper floors in front of them.
“This is Maris, Xander.” Gia walked inside. “Not Dallas.”
He followed her into the building. “I don’t care. It’s not secure and you’re a single woman living alone.”
Xander had spent as much time living in the big city as he had Maris, which meant he’d lost a lot of his small-town sense of security. Regardless, he didn’t like the idea of his woman being so unprotected. The two of them climbed the stairs to the next floor and Gia led him to her door.
“This is me,” she said again. As she spoke, she bent over, retrieving a key from under the welcome mat.
“What’s that?” he asked, more hotly than he’d intended.
“My key. I didn’t feel like fooling with a purse tonight.” She held up her phone, showing him the holder affixed to the back where she’d stashed her ID and a credit card. “This was all I needed since I wasn’t driving.”
His temper flared. “You left the key to your apartment right out here, where anyone could use it to gain entrance to your place?”
Gia was clearly taken aback by his sudden anger. “Xander,” she started, but he cut her off, well aware of what she was planning to say.
He lifted his hand, pointing a finger at her. “Don’t you dare spout that small-towns-are-safe bullshit again.”
She closed her mouth because clearly that had been her intended response.
Xander’s ex-girlfriend list had two women on it. Just two. His college girlfriend, Jessica, whom he’d dated for close to two years, and then his longest relationship—in his late twenties, early thirties—with Melanie had lasted nearly three.
Both splits had been amicable—mostly. He and Jessica had broken up shortly before graduation, as they’d always known they would, simply because his career path was taking him to Dallas, hers to New York. Neither of them had gotten their hearts broken because they’d known the end date going in.
Melanie had initially felt like his perfect match. A successful real estate lawyer, Melanie worked the same long hours Xander did. Like him, she was still young and trying to make a name for herself.
