“I saw the footage of the fight last night.”
“I got it done, didn’t I? Everybody was so worried that it was going to end like last time, but I proved you all wrong,” I said. “Even Maury was impressed.”
“It’s not the fight that concerns me. I believe you went a bit off-script with your comments after the fight.”
Shit. It had been the heat of the moment and the rush of the victory that caused me to completely lose my head when I gave Lex the shout-out. I hadn’t expected that slip would make it to my dad’s ears. “I’m not sure what you mean.” Sometimes it was better to play dumb when it came to my dad just to suss out what direction his rant was going to go before trying to assume anything.
“Keep your hands off Alexa, Shayne. I don’t want you to ruin what I have with Maxine.”
“My hands aren’t on Alexa, Calvin, and even if they were, who gives a shit? Why would that ruin anything with my new step-monster?”
“I would appreciate you not talking about Maxine like that considering you haven’t even met her yet. For the first time since what happened with your mother, I’m happy,” my dad said. “You wouldn’t know to do with a girl of Alexa’s caliber even there was even the slightest chance that she was interested in you. She’s smart and talented. She’s got her head screwed on straight.”
“As opposed to me who has a screw loose, right?” His words hit me in the gut like a sucker punch.
“You have your choice of an endless buffet of pussy out there, Shayne.” I was shocked. I’d never heard my dad be that crude before. “Keep your hands off your future step-sister. She’s there to a do a job, not do you. I didn’t give her the job thinking that I’d have to worry about you fucking around with her.”
“Yeah, of course. Because she’s far too classy to be interested in a lowlife like me,” I growled.
“She’s a girl who is going places. You’re maximizing your five minutes of fame. It wouldn’t hurt for you to think of someone other than yourself for once.”
My dad was letting the punches fly today. And I was tired of it. I was tired of feeling second-class and second best. “I’m hanging up now, Calvin.”
“Hands off, Shayne. I mean it.”
I hung up the call and tossed my phone down on the bench in front of me in frustration. He was right, of course. Nobody knew the truth about what happened the night my mom died. My dad had done a neat job of cleaning it all up. I had a front row view of what the right amount of money and influence could do. From that moment on, he expected me to bow down and kiss his boots for protecting me. I was supposed to be grateful, but instead, I was fed up.
But no matter how much I disagreed with my dad on most things, I knew he was right about Lex. I wasn’t the kind of guy that Lex should be with, so as tempted as I was to call her, I didn’t.
Instead, I hit the bags. I tried to wipe it all away. Every memory of Lex’s body. The smell of her perfume. Every expression on her face when I said something that made her laugh or annoyed the shit out of her. I felt the sweat pouring down my body, and it spurred me on.
If it was the last thing I did, I would get Lex Carroll out of my head. We had nothing in common. We barely had a semblance of a friendship. There was no way in hell that I wanted anything else from her.
Except deep down, I knew that wasn’t the truth. Not by a long shot, and that was the part that scared me the most. Because in reality, I wanted everything from her. All of it.
CHAPTER TWENTY - ALEXA
I finally settled into a regular routine with my job, and time started to fly by. Mostly that was because I didn’t need to avoid Shayne. It was pretty obvious after we returned from St. Louis that Shayne was avoiding me. I guessed that his outburst must have embarrassed him. It had been the equivalent of an inside joke. A really hot, steamy, panty-melting inside joke. But then he went out and slept with someone else. So really, the joke was on me. I thought we might have had a connection, but he had gotten what he wanted from me and moved on.
I should have been fine with that. It’s what I said I wanted after all. But I grew crankier with each passing day. I’d even tried going out with Stacey a few times, but she said she wasn’t inviting me out again until I got laid because I was ruining her mojo.