Borrowing Alex Read online

  Santos moaned. While he barfed onto the floor, Nikki fetched a small garbage bag and the roll of paper towels. She returned to find her pet lying on his side, a short distance from the vomit. During the past few minutes, Bernie had escaped from the cat. Whining, the little dog nosed Santos’s head.

  Nikki petted and cooed to the Saint Bernard. “Feeling better, boy?” On her knees, she cleaned up the doggy vomit with the paper towel, and her hand hit a sharp object. Bones always made Santos barf, but where had he found one?

  She picked up the bone with a fresh chunk of toweling. Through the dripping muck, a familiar diamond glittered.

  “My ring?” Eyes wide, she looked at the dog. “Santos, you ate my ring! Poor baby, no wonder you’re sick!” She laughed, although it wasn’t funny. Thank heaven the ring had emerged from Santos’s... front end.

  She carried the dripping ring to the sink. She rinsed and dried the ring, then tossed it into a cupboard for safekeeping. Tears burned her eyes.

  Damn it, she couldn’t chase after Alex now. Santos might puke again. Considering the huge amount of deli meat the old dog had consumed, she couldn’t guarantee he’d continue using his front end. She’d spend the afternoon caring for the ailing animal outdoors.

  She returned to the dogs and resumed cleaning the barf.

  Minutes later, she found her jeans under a bed. As she tugged them on, a knock sounded at the back door, and her heart leapt. Had Alex realized his mistake and returned?

  Zipping the jeans, she ran to the door and opened it. Violet stood on the other side, holding a pan of brownies. The rich, moist scent of decadent chocolate wafted from the treat, and an understanding smile graced Violet’s face. The kind woman’s visit couldn’t make up for Alex’s absence, though.

  Nikki’s shoulders drooped.

  He’d really left.

  Violet’s gaze traveled over Nikki’s hot cheeks. “Oh dear,” the old woman murmured. “It’s as I feared. Alex has upset you, hasn’t he?”

  Blowing out a breath, Nikki stepped aside.

  As Violet entered, she extended the pan of brownies. Rusty hopped down from the storage boxes and wound between the woman’s legs. “Here you are, dear,” Violet said. “I baked these for Willie, then decided you might need them more. Be careful when you eat them, though. There’s a crushed Rise-All tablet in... that one.” She pointed at a square in the middle.

  “Thank you.” Closing the door, Nikki accepted the warm pan. “But you don’t have to give me Willie’s brownies.”

  “Of course I do. Friends comfort one another.”

  Nikki stared at the pan. “Violet, I love Alex. He thinks I can’t, because it happened quickly, but I do.”

  The old lady patted Nikki’s shoulder. “I know, dear. If it makes you feel better, I believe he loves you, too. He came to see Willie and me before he left, you know. He asked us to keep an eye on you. Dense as the man might be about the workings of the female heart, would he do that if he didn’t love you?”

  “I don’t know.” Alex had said he loved her. Rather, he’d practically shouted it. Had he meant it or had he been trying to placate her?

  She carried the brownies to the nightstand and set them down. A glance toward Santos revealed the dog sleeping near the kitchen, where she’d left him. Bernie napped beside his canine brother. Good, she had some time with Violet before Santos became nauseous again.

  She sat on the edge of the bed, and Violet settled beside her. Rusty jumped up and curled in a ball behind them.

  Violet said, “Willie insisted on driving Alex to town so your young man could rent a car. Alex wanted to ride that rickety kid’s bike to the highway and then hitchhike to town wearing those scraggly clothes. Can you imagine? His shirt is missing half its buttons!”

  Willie. Nikki narrowed her eyes. The turncoat.

  “Why would Willie drive him? Does he think Alex was right to leave?”

  “Well, it’s like this, dear. Aside from the fact that Alex could very well damage his baby-making capabilities by riding a too-small bike down a bumpy dirt road, Willie understands your young man believes he’s doing right by you.”

  Not that again. “Do you believe Alex is doing right by me?”

  The old woman’s gaze didn’t waver. “Perhaps. Dear, I realize you love him. I don’t think you think you love him, like he thinks. I feel with all my heart that you do. I’ve known you since you were a toddler, after all. Although we haven’t seen one another in years, I still feel close to you. In some ways, talking to you is like talking to your grandmother. And you know how highly I thought of her.”

  “Aw, Violet.” Nikki squeezed her friend’s hand.

  “Hush, let me finish. I remember falling in love with my Willie... the spark, the confusion, then the knowing. Oh, child, the joyful knowing. However, from what you’ve told me about your engagement to that Royce person, I also believe that perhaps you’ve only recently discovered what true love is. And you’ve found it with Alex.”

  Nikki’s heart lifted. Violet understood!

  “But you have to give the poor man time, dear. Consider things from his point of view. You’ve turned his life topsy-turvy. Remember, he’s just a man. A wonderful specimen, yes, but at the mercy of his maleness. The poor boy’s head is spinning. He needs to collect himself. To gather his reserves, so to speak. He has to believe he’s in some sort of control, even though we both realize he isn’t.”

  A smile tugged Nikki’s mouth. “Violet... are you saying I don’t need time, but that Alex does?”

  “Frankly, you both could benefit from a little breather.” Violet chuckled. “Nikki, you might know what you want, but your young man still has to accept that you do. So, let him.”

  Let him. What a novel concept.

  “How?”

  “Well, first you have to give him what he thinks you need...”

  Time. Nikki grinned. “And then I knock his socks off.”

  Chapter 11

  Making a New Bed

  “NIKKI, ARE YOU sure about this?” Karin asked from behind the wheel of the van idling at the curb of Royce’s upscale condo complex. “Confronting Royce seems a bit risky.”

  Nikki arched her eyebrows. Karin was her family, her best friend, and, in tonight’s case, her get-away driver. However, sometimes Nikki’s cousin required... persuading. “Kare, what do you think will happen? That my knees will soften like pudding at the first sight of the carbuncle and I’ll fall for him again?”

  “It hasn’t been very long—”

  “Since I dumped his sorry butt? It’s been a week.” People and their relationship schedules! What about the only one of importance?

  Seven tortuous days had passed since Alex had walked out on her at Lake Eden, and that hurt more than anything Royce had ever done. One hundred sixty-eight-and-counting hours had elapsed in excruciating slow-motion since Violet had counseled her over and over... since Nikki had drawn on every drop of patience at her disposal not to race back to Seattle and deal with Royce and Alex lickety-split.

  “Besides, I’m not confronting Royce, per se,” she assured her cousin. “I have to see him tonight, whether I want to or not—” and she most assuredly did not wish to see him “—so Alex will believe me when I explain, yet again, that Royce and I are through.” Totally trashed. Face-to-face finished. No wimping out with cell phone calls or social network status updates or a scribbled note shoved beneath her former fiancé’s door.

  “But he’s such a jerk.” Karin’s eyes flashed. “I can say that now. I couldn’t bear to disillusion you before.” She paused as the old van rumbled and shook the seats. “Although maybe I should have. Nikki, if I’d told you how I felt about Royce from the start...”

  “Would I have listened?” Nikki sighed. “I was a different person when he and I met. My entire life revolved around what others thought of me and what they wanted for me.” And from her. “Not anymore.”

  “But you and Alex happened so fast.”

  Yeah, yeah. “That
’s why I’m slowing it down.” In the end, she’d still get what she wanted—she hoped. Alex Hart, beside her, for the rest of her life. “Now, where are those brownies?” She fetched her purse off the floor mat.

  Karin reached behind the driver’s seat and passed Nikki the pan of brownies Violet had baked at Lake Eden last Wednesday. The pan had sat on Nikki’s cabin counter for two days before she’d stashed the treat in the tiny refrigerator freezer. Without Alex to share them with, Violet’s gift had nearly gone to waste. However, half an hour ago, Nikki had reheated the brownies in her oven at home, and they once more smelled as fresh and delicious as if Violet had baked them this morning.

  Royce would love them. Especially the middle one.

  “Thanks for supporting me tonight.” Leaning across the seats with the brownies in hand, Nikki hugged her cousin. “Circle the block until I return. The doorman is zapping us the hairy eyeball.”

  Karin smiled. “We are in a no-parking zone.”

  Saying goodbye to her cousin, Nikki climbed out of the passenger side and stared at the fourteen-story building. Royce lived on the twelfth floor—as close to the top as his bank account permitted. He’d promised that after the wedding they would move to a townhouse which accepted pets. And she, like a patsy, had believed him. She’d pored over the real estate listings for months, but nothing she liked had matched Royce’s taste.

  And she’d believed that, too. What a dunce.

  Minutes later, after chatting up the doorman, she rode the elevator and disembarked. She carried the brownies down the hall and knocked on El Carbuncle’s door. “Royce? It’s me.” Right on time. When she’d called this afternoon to arrange to see him, he’d sounded delighted. Positively gleeful. The five-foot-nine-inch twerp.

  “One minute!” his twerpish voice announced from inside.

  Nikki’s stomach cramped. She closed her eyes. You can do this. You have to. Without barfing all over his carpet.

  He opened the door in the midst of tucking in his shirt. “I took a shower,” he said in a suggestive tone. A crooked smile tilted his lips, and his eyebrows waggled: Carbuncle code for You’re Finally Going to Get Lucky Again. He ran a hand through his damp hair.

  Nikki snorted. “Not gonna happen.”

  “But you asked to see me. Haven’t you come to your senses?”

  “Ohhh, yes.”

  “I thought so.” His gaze softened. “Nikki, come in. We’ll talk this out.” He opened the door wide, but she stood her ground.

  “We can talk here.”

  “Come on, Nikki.” He ran a thumb along his lower lip.

  Was this his new sexy look? It sucked.

  “I said no.”

  He grunted. “Why bring me brownies then?”

  “They’re a goodbye gift.” His favorite snack. He’d gobble them the minute she left. “It’s a new recipe. The center square is the chewiest.” She shoved the pan into his hands.

  He glanced at the brownies. “But you have to come back to me. We were great together—”

  “‘In every way but one,’” she quoted from his encounter with Karin.

  He glowered at her. “Your cousin was lying.”

  “Don’t give me that.”

  Holding the pan in one hand, he lifted the other. “Okay, forget I said a word to her. I was upset.”

  Nikki batted her eyelashes. “I don’t care.”

  “Yes, you do.” The glower returned. “Your father will never accept the kind of guy who’d be into you, Nikki. Who’d fall for your ditzy hot blonde routine only to discover you’re frigid.”

  Red-hot fury boiled inside her. She slapped his face. Hard.

  “Ow!” He rubbed his cheek. “What was that for?”

  “Figure it out.”

  “You made your bed with me, Nicole—”

  “That doesn’t mean I have to sleep in it!” She dug into her purse. The glitzy engagement ring she hadn’t worn in a week cut into her palm. “What happens between me and my parents is no longer your business. Neither are my orgasms.” She jammed the ring into the middle brownie. Now he’d have to dig it out. He’d probably lick it off.

  Excellent. With luck, a side effect would kick in and he’d suffer a ten-hour boner.

  He poked the brownie. “I’ll still make partner.”

  “Bully for you.” Gripping her purse, she hurried to the elevator. The clever carbuncle didn’t follow.

  Inside, she watched the numbers as the compartment whisked her back to the lobby. Her heart beat like she’d mainlined forty lattes, and her spirit soared like a young swallow frolicking on a spring breeze.

  She was her own woman now. Really her own woman, for the first time ever. No matter what happened with Alex over the next few weeks, she was in charge of her future.

  Starting tonight.

  Alex checked behind the huge rhododendron bush like he had every soul-eroding day in the five weeks since he’d left Nikki at Lake Eden. And, as on each of those dreary afternoons, his mood deflated at what he found: zilch. No kooky blonde waiting to ambush him. No ropes, no toy ray gun, no fake-teenage-boy voice issuing crazy threats.

  No Nikki.

  What else had he expected after the shitty way he’d treated her?

  Unlocking his apartment door, he entered the kitchen and placed his laptop case on the dinette table. His first day teaching PU’s second summer session had proceeded smoothly. The Early American History seminar boasted a handful of students, although a couple were playing catch-up with undergrad programs. The rest appeared eager to learn, which would render his ivory-tower swan song easier to endure.

  September would find him teaching at a small college. Thanks to Nikki telling him to examine his own life, he’d been short-listed by two Eastern Washington schools.

  The move would allow him to focus on teaching while situating him closer to his parents and sisters in Idaho. But hundreds of miles from Nikki, man.

  Shit. He paced back and forth for several moments. He hated putting almost an entire state between them, but he needed the distance. Remaining in Seattle would prove too great a temptation. He’d already dropped into Dr. Green’s vet clinic—after borrowing his landlords’ iguana and calling ahead with a fake name to ensure Nikki had the day off—to soak up some wood-nymph ambience. And what about the night he’d sat in his car outside her rental house for three hours, hoping to catch a glimpse of her through the blinds... and feeling like a borderline stalker?

  Resolved not to confuse her again by barging back into her life and taking over—like Royce and her parents had always done, like he’d done more than once with his sisters, hell, like he’d done with Nikki before abandoning her at the cabin—he hadn’t knocked on her door.

  Over the last five weeks, he hadn’t contacted her.

  And she hadn’t contacted him.

  Her message rang loud and clear. She’d realized she didn’t love him—and she never had.

  A hollow sensation gaped inside him.

  After toeing off his shoes, he retrieved two cartons of Thai take-out from the fridge. Sitting at the table, he plunged a fork into the cold noodles. He couldn’t avoid Nikki forever. Much as it would kill him to witness her change of I-love-Alex-Hart, he needed to see her before he left Seattle.

  Hopefully, in a crowded, noisy coffee shop, she wouldn’t feel pressured or patronized by his presence. Or by the desire showing in his eyes, his voice, and every gesture.

  He crunched a peanut, then stabbed another forkful of noodles. A coward might choose not to see her at all. But he couldn’t—and didn’t want to—do that. On top of the burning urgency to be near her just one more time, he had a lot to thank her for. As feeble as that sounded.

  A mere six days with Nikki had opened his mind to the unfulfilling path his life had taken. All these years, he’d driven himself ceaselessly toward tenure—for what? Yeah, he wanted job security as much as the next guy. However, he would rather connect with his students on a daily basis. Who needed the energy-draining politics o
f achieving tenure at warp speed ?

  What surprised him most was his candid phone call to his parents about his epiphany—and their reaction. They preferred that he teach at a small college! So he could “get a life” outside academia, his mother had remarked.

  He’d been so wrong to assume his family wanted him to reach for the brass ring. Just like you assumed what Nikki needed. And then had forced it upon her, despite her protests.

  You’re an idiot, Hart.

  Maybe, if he went to her right now and begged forgiveness for acting the schlep, she’d give him another chance. Grabbing his car keys, he leapt off his chair.

  A knock rapped on the door.

  What now?

  He pocketed the keys and opened the door to a carrot-haired delivery guy hefting a huge parcel.

  “Alex Hart?” the young man inquired. “Sign here.” He extended a digital gadget.

  As Alex scrawled his signature, a Siamese cat winding around the delivery guy’s legs gazed up at him and meowed.

  Alex shook his head. “Rusty?”

  The cat yawned, exposing toothless gums. “Meowrr!”

  “Cat yours?” The guy retrieved the device. “’Cause it followed me from the sidewalk.” He handed over the parcel and hustled off.

  Alex stared at the cat. “Rusty, what are you doing here?” Glancing around the corner of the house, he peered toward the parking area. No white van.

  He looked at the cat again. Was he dealing with a Rusty clone wandering the neighborhood, or the real thing? But if the cat was Rusty, how had he gotten here? Had he stowed away in the delivery van?

  Which then begged the question, was the parcel from Nikki?

  The Rusty look-alike meowed again and sauntered into the apartment. Alex scanned the parcel label. The big package was from Nikki. What had she sent him?

  “Wrrr-ooof! Yip, yip, yip-yip-yap!”

  Bernie—the real enchilada, there couldn’t be two of the Rambo wannabes—zipped through the open door, the late June air riffling in his wake. Something was definitely up.

  “Woof!” A baritone bark preceded Santos’s entrance. Saint Bernard drool splattered the linoleum before Santos joined Rusty and Bernie in the living room. The Untrainable Trio variously sat or stood on Alex’s wood-laminate floor and watched him.