sunglasses. No one would guess in a million years that this innocent-looking woman had come like an animal last night.
She swallowed hard. “You’re intimidating with those glasses on.”
“Am I?” he asked.
“Yes. I can’t see your eyes, and your mouth always looks so serious.”
He liked making her nervous, but he still slipped off his glasses. “Better?”
“Yes,” she said, but she still licked her lips and glanced down the street again. “Alex, I’m so sorry.”
“You don’t need to apologize. Unless you’re about to pretend you can’t see me again.”
“I can’t.”
“Come on. It’ll be fun.” He lowered his voice and raised an eyebrow. “Don’t you think it’ll be fun, Sophie?”
The color had begun to fade from her cheeks, but they blazed red again. Alex let his gaze sweep down her body and let her see him do it. Her pretty mouth parted as she drew in a quick breath. But she still shook her head.
“I really can’t. There’s something I didn’t tell you.”
He cocked an eyebrow. “This is a little early for ‘We need to talk,’ isn’t it?”
But the way she worried her bottom lip let him know she was serious. And just like that, he knew what it was. Why she played so coy. Why she’d met him in secret. Why she didn’t want to go out again.
She was seeing someone else. She was taken.
Alex didn’t particularly care.
“Okay,” he said. “I think I know what you’re going to say.”
“I don’t think you do.”
He shrugged. “Fine. We’ll talk. Go out with me, or invite me in, or I’ll take you for a ride. I’ll let you choose.”
That snapped her eyes up to his. “Oh, you’ll let me?”
He laughed. “Definitely. Whatever you want. You want things, don’t you?”
She shrugged and slipped off her gardening gloves. “You’re handsome when you smile,” she grumbled.
“But not when I don’t?”
“No. Handsome isn’t the word I’d use then.”
He tipped his head a little closer as if she were revealing a secret. “What word would you use?”
He’d expected a flip answer, but she seemed to take his question seriously. Her brow furrowed as she looked up at him, and a dozen heartbeats passed before she answered. “I’d say you’re...”
During her pause, he watched closely, studying her eyes, waiting for her answer. But it never came.
“Get away from her!” a woman yelled from a distance.
A strangled gasp tore from Sophie’s throat as she straightened and took two steps away from Alex. He was a little slower, checking idly over his shoulder to see what neighborhood drama was going down. An old woman was storming up the street. It took him several seconds to realize that old woman was his mom. He still wasn’t used to the change in her.
“Alex!” she screamed.
Jesus. Alex shook his head. “Whatever’s about to go down, I apologize for it.”
“Alex, I’m sorry. I meant to tell you. I swear.”
“Tell me what?” he asked. When she didn’t answer, he looked away from his charging mother to see Sophie twisting her hands together, her face tight with something like fear. “Hey. Don’t let her scare you. She’s just—”
“You get away from that whore!”
“Hey!” Alex barked, swinging toward his mother as she stormed across the lawn. “Watch your mouth.”
“I should say the same to you,” she sneered, skidding to a stop only a few feet away. Her slippers were damp and muddy around the edges. “Watch your mouth and every other part of yourself around her.”
“Jesus.” He glanced over his shoulder. “I’m sorry, Sophie.”
His mom snorted. “Don’t apologize to her.”
“I will and so will you.”
Sophie’s whisper broke through his building anger. “No. I’ll go inside. It’s fine. Just...”
“It’s not fine,” he insisted. His mom’s insanity was spilling out all over her neighbors now. “She can’t try to pull innocent people into her deranged world.”
“Innocent?” his mother scoffed. “Oh, my God. Innocent?” She barked out a laugh as Alex stepped forward, herding her toward the street. He was sick of this shit. He’d been sick of it his whole life.
“Let’s go,” he ordered.
She shook off the hand he put on her elbow. “She’s not innocent. She’s just like her mother!”
“For God’s sake, if you think I give a damn about your neighborhood gossip, you’re even crazier than I thought.” When she froze, Alex got a grip on her arm.
Her crazed gaze tore free from Sophie and rose to him. Her mouth gaped. “You don’t know,” she breathed.
“No, I don’t, and I don’t care to.”
“Ha!” She shot a grim smile at Sophie. “You’re even more devious than I thought.”
“Mrs. Bishop...” Sophie said, but then seemed at a loss for how to address the manic senior citizen in her yard.
“She’s Dorothy Heyer’s daughter,” his mom said, the words thrown out with the same tone one would declare a man guilty of murder. She’s a murderer. She’s a child abuser. She’s the daughter of...
Whoa.
His mom pointed at Sophie. “Don’t you recognize her? She looks just like her slut of a mother.”
Alex shook his head in shock. Sophie was the daughter of Dorothy Heyer. His dad’s mistress. The woman who’d disappeared with him twenty-five years ago.
Shit.
But he kept his mouth shut and his surprise to himself and tightened his hold on his mom’s elbow. “I don’t give a damn who her mother is, and who I talk to is none of your business. Let’s go.”
This time when he tugged her toward the street, his mom actually came along with him.
He glanced back toward Sophie to find her watching them, but her gaze fell before he could think what to say. The situation was way too fucked up for any kind of intelligent
