The date wasn’t bad. He wasn’t fifteen minutes late… only five. He was charming and interesting to talk to and hot as hell. The food was good, as was the place he took me. But I found myself miserable and forcing down the stuff that I should’ve been savoring. The jokes I normally would have found funny had me laughing in a way that sounded fake, even to my own ears. I was putting on a terrible show because the whole time my mind was on Zane. And on Lucy’s words. “You’re a shitty liar, babe,” Clay’s throaty voice informed me, turning my chin with a gentle touch from his hand.
“Know you went through some shit,” he said, his gravelly voice somehow gentle. “Also know, even miserable, you’re fuckin’ different. Special. The kind of special I’m willing to wait for.” He paused. “So when you’re ready, call me. I’ll be waiting,” he murmured.
And before I knew it, his lips were on mine. They were soft, gentle and the kiss was nice. Nice in a way I knew I would enjoy had I not been broken in pieces. Nice in a way that I knew he’d make some woman very happy with his superior kissing skills, his manners, his hotness and his incredible perceptiveness. Not me, though. That didn’t mean I didn’t kiss him back. It was like auto kiss. I had no choice. When a hot, rough and gentle guy kisses you, your body takes over.
His mouth hovered over mine and I felt his eyes bore into me. “You need to get into the house now, babe,” he half growled. “Before I forget ‘bout being a gentleman.”
I jerked back slightly at the roughness of his tone and quickly undid my seatbelt. “Thanks for dinner,” I said quickly, hand on the door handle His hand caught my wrist before I could escape.
“Call me when you’re ready,” he ordered.
I nodded quickly. I’d never call him. No way I’d ever be ready.
He let me go, and I struggled not to sprint inside.
It had been a long day. Like marathon long. As usual, I was surviving off three hours of sleep and three hundred gallons of caffeine. My dreams were worse last night. I kept myself awake until the early hours, torturing myself over my decision. Lucy’s words echoed in my mind, convincing me I had fucked it all up and made the wrong choice. Then reason came back in and reminded me how hard I had worked to keep Lexie safe, and not to compromise it for matters of the heart. Round and round it went until I fell into an exhausted sleep. Then, I jolted awake from one of my nightmares, and I was so sure I saw him there, standing in the corner of my room, watching me. I closed my eyes again, wishing for it to be real; then when I opened them again he was gone. I was officially hallucinating. Which meant I was going insane. I just had to hold off until Lexie was old enough to look after herself, then I’d take the one way trip to crazy town. Crazy people didn’t get lonely. Down to their bones lonely like I was. They had voices to keep them company.
So, pulling into my driveway dog-tired and facing the prospect of cocktails with the girls, I completely missed the Harley in the driveway across from mine. Maybe I didn’t miss it; maybe I saw it and assumed it was one of my hallucinations. Whatever the reason, it didn’t register. I busied myself trying to position my bag and all the stupid office paperwork I had to take home while getting out of the car. Once I got to our doorstep, I stopped. Then everything—the events of today, the lack of sleep, the loneliness—everything hit me. I dropped everything at my feet and sank down onto the doorstep, replaying the meeting I had today. The one that may have just changed my life.
“Left it all to me?” I repeated, dumbstruck.
Heidi, the lawyer, glanced at her papers and shuffled through them. “Well, not technically all,” she clarified. “There are payments needed for the funeral, a couple of debts, and contributions to some charities, but after that, they’ve left it all to you,” she told me. “Their properties, both the one in DC and the one in Malibu, and the hotels, of course.”
I opened my mouth then closed it again, unsure of what to say. Steve and Ava had left me everything. I knew they didn’t have any children, only Alice, and since she died there was only me. And they didn’t have any other family apart from me and Lexie. I should have naturally come to this conclusion, but one doesn’t really think about this stuff when overcome by grief. Well, not me anyway. I was too busy wishing someone would invent a time machine so I could go back and save the two people I loved.
“And there’s an amount put away for an Alexis Spencer, in a trust for when she turns twenty-one.” She glanced at some papers. “Although there is an exception saying you can use the funds for college tuition before then.” She looked at me. “Though the amount they left to you alone could cover that anyway.”
“The amount?” I repeated, obviously unable to speak unless I was parroting everything this lawyer said.
She gave me a soft look of understanding before getting back to business. “Yes, you’ll be receiving roughly one point two million dollars.”