A bunch of tissues and two more cups of tea later, I smiled gratefully at Mrs. F. “This is going to sound weird, but thank you.”
“For what, sweetheart?”
“For listening.” I shrugged. “I feel lighter somehow, like it helped just to admit my anger out loud. I tried to talk to Grandpa about it a while ago, but he just got so mad and then he let slip Caine’s name and everything else was shoved to the side at that revelation.”
“I’m sorry you didn’t have a good shoulder to cry on at the time.” Mrs. F actually looked mad about it. “But you can come to me anytime, sweetie. Everybody needs somebody.”
“Very true. I’m glad Caine has you.”
Curiosity entered her gaze. “You really do want him to be happy, don’t you?”
The way she asked it made me wary, like my answer held more meaning than I wanted it to. Finally, though, I nodded.
“Good. Maybe with two of us on the job we’ll get it done.” She glanced over at the clock. “Oh, look at that, it’s dinnertime. And I know the number for a great Chinese. Join me? I have wine.”
I laughed. “I would love that.”
“Fabulous.” She stood up. “Oh, and, Alexa?”
“Yeah.”
“You’re allowed to be mad at your mom, sweetheart.”
Before I could swallow past the sudden lump in my throat long enough to thank her, Mrs. F strode away, caftan fluttering behind her, into the hall. I heard her on the phone before she appeared less than a minute later clutching her cell and a menu.
She thrust the menu at me. “Choose what you want. Caine’s already told me what he wants.”
Um … “Caine?”
“Yeah.” She grinned impishly. “He just finished a squash game at the gym and is hungry, so he’s going to be joining us.”
I did not have a good feeling about this.
I narrowed my eyes on Mrs. F. “He doesn’t know I’m here, does he?”
“Nope.” She pointed at the menu. “Now choose.”
Looking down at the menu, I wondered if I should choose something with peanuts in it and then fake a peanut allergy so I could escape the situation I now found myself in. Then again … it would be a chance to see Caine interact with Mrs. F. I sighed and decided to face his wrath in order to appease my curiosity. “I’ll have the moo shu pork, and a little less matchmaking from you.” I handed her the menu and she burst out laughing. “Mrs. F,” I warned, “you know with our history it’s never going to happen.”
“Call me Effie, dear. And yeah, I thought that too, about your history, I mean,” she admitted, “but you and Caine don’t get what this is all about. He thinks he gets it and you think you get it, but really that’s not why.”
I stared dumbly at her. “That made no sense.”
“It made sense to me.”
Panic transformed into nervous flutters in my stomach. “Please don’t do this.”
Effie patted my shoulder in reassurance. “I would never do anything to make either one of you uncomfortable or upset, but from what I’ve learned from both of you, you’re both dancing around each other and you haven’t really learned a thing about each other that means something. A little time together outside of work will do you both good.”
“He’s very scary,” I pointed out.
She snorted. “To you maybe. To me he’s a sweet, sweet boy.”
My jaw almost dropped at the double use of that adjective. “Sweet? Caine? No, I don’t think so.”
She smiled almost smugly to herself. “You’ll see.”
The minute I heard Effie’s door open, my pulse stopped for a second, and when it restarted it was suddenly going a hundred miles an hour. Effie grinned at me and looked over my shoulder as heavy footsteps drew into the main room from the hall.
They suddenly stopped.
“Effie?”
Huh, so it wasn’t just my name Caine used that warning tone with.
I glanced over my shoulder at him and gave him a little wave. “Hey, boss.”
I was so glad I got the words out before I took in his appearance, because my mouth went dry and my brain stopped processing actual words. Caine was wearing a white T-shirt that sculpted his body. I could see the superb strength in his shoulders and arms. To make matters worse, he was wearing a faded pair of blue-wash jeans that hung on his hips in the most delicious way.
Caine Carraway in a business suit was gorgeous. Caine Carraway out of a suit was sexy as hell.
He also seemed human and normal to me for the first time ever.
Or he would have if he’d stopped scowling at me.
“Caine, come and sit down. Alexa’s joining us for dinner.”
He looked from Effie to me and then back to Effie. “Is that right?” he muttered.
The buzzer from reception sounded in the apartment before anyone could say anything else.
“That’ll be dinner,” Effie said.
“I’ll get it.” Caine strode away, tension stiffening his shoulders.
Once he’d left, I said to Effie, “He’s not happy.”
The older woman just grinned at me.
Caine returned with the takeout, and without saying a word he walked into the kitchen and surprised me by plating up the food and serving it to us. Effie didn’t seem at all shocked by this.
As he correctly guessed that the moo shu pork was mine and placed the plate in front of me he must have felt my burning, questioning stare because he asked quietly, “What?”
“You just did something for me. Me. Another person.”
That familiar scowl returned to his face. “I put food on a plate. Shut it and eat.” He sat down and began digging in to his own sweet and sour chicken and rice.
“Caine, be nice to Alexa,” Effie said, “or you won’t get a piece of the lemon meringue pie I made earlier.”
“There’s lemon meringue pie?” Caine and I asked in unison. We shot a look of displeasure at each other.
Effie laughed.
Suddenly my moo shu pork became very interesting to me.
“How was your day?” Effie asked Caine.