Gaming for Love (24 page)

“Are you okay, Baby
Girl? Why are you home so early? And why didn’t you call one of us
to pick you up?” I move toward her, worried.

“Stay away from me. I
kind of hate you right now.” My eyes go wide and I know that my jaw
drops.

“Alex, what is wrong
with you? Apologize to your uncle!” my dad orders her.

“I should go. Alex
asked me to bring her home because she wasn’t feeling well when she
got to the store.” Erika starts to back away and Alex grabs her
arm.

“What I am feeling is
pissed. I heard you and Yasmin talking.”

“What did you hear,
Alex? I thought you just came into the backroom when the door
slammed.”

“No, I was back there
putting my purse away when I heard you. I know I shouldn’t have
eavesdropped but since everyone treats me like a baby and won’t
tell me everything that was said the night of Uncle Scott’s party,
I had no choice.”

“Trust me, Alex, you
don’t want to know everything that was said that night.” Owen is
laughing and I glare at him.

“What did you hear,
Alex?” Erika asks her again, ignoring him. “Maybe you
misunderstood what we were saying.”

“I didn’t
misunderstand. You said that Yasmin has sold most of her furniture
and her car and that you didn’t want to take a paycheck because you
knew that she wasn’t eating and couldn’t afford groceries. You
also said that she is going to take an offer on her house that will
give her only enough money to keep the store open for another month.
And that if Uncle Scott had let her buy his program, this wouldn’t
have happened.”

“Holy shit.” I look
at Erika. “She sold her car? How is she getting to and from work?
And she’s not eating?”

“She takes the bus as
far as she can and walks the rest of the way. And, no, she doesn’t
eat unless we force her to. She has no extra money.”

“She
walks
at night, alone? Her neighborhood is nice but the surrounding area
isn’t. She can’t do that.”

“She doesn’t have a
choice, Scott.”

“I heard more,”
Alex tells us and then continues. “You said that my family should
have seen that you were surprised when you realized that Uncle Scott
was her boyfriend. Then, Yasmin said that he should have seen how
shocked she was, too and everyone should have believed her when she
said that she didn’t know that he created the software program that
she needed. You called Uncle Scott a bastard, but Yasmin said that he
was a good man and she hated the thought of him being hurt because he
thinks she used him. And that even if it’s not true, that the hurt
was real to him. She was crying really hard by then.”

“She really said
that?” I ask. “She said that I was a good man? She defended me?”

“Yeah, she did. Oh
and then you guys talked about her meeting Sean’s friend tonight
because she knows that Uncle Scott will never believe her and so she
has to move on.”

“Wow, you really did
hear it all,” Erika says, looking a little dazed.

“She really didn’t
know? How could she not know?” I am sure that I look a little
crazed right now. I grab Erika’s shoulders.

“You know that she
isn’t that computer savvy. Sean and I gave her all the details
about the program. We never told her your name because we didn’t
think it mattered. She always just called you Scott, so we didn’t
know. You have a common name. She honestly didn’t know, Scott. None
of us did.

“How could you not
know that she loves you? She flew all the way to Chicago to help you
through something that was hard for you, even though she couldn’t
afford the extra payroll it took to cover her being gone. She refused
money when you offered it to her and even insisted on paying for some
of your dates. She went way out of her comfort zone with you and from
what I hear, she threatened that bitch, Amber, when she tried to have
her lawyer accuse you of being in on things with her. And what did
you do in return? You destroyed her. I’m not just talking about the
store, either. Oh, and by the way, the fact that you told her that
she is worse than Amber was seriously not cool.”

“Wait, you said that
she was worse than Amber? How could you do that, Uncle Scott?” I am
ashamed when she asks me that. I don’t have an answer for her. She
looks to the rest of my family. “And how could all of you stand by
and let him call her a bitch and a slut? I know we have family
loyalty, but she was never anything but nice to all of us. More than
nice.”

“You’re right, Baby
Girl,” I tell her. “I messed up but I am going to fix this.” I
look around at my family and then I look at Erika. “I’m going to
need your help. And Sean’s. Can you call him and ask him to come
over here. Oh, and he can tell his friend that Yasmin isn’t
available for a date tonight
or
any other night.”

My family is made up of
great people. What happened to Yasmin, because of me, because I was
hurt, is horrible. I know that they are upset about it. I’m going
to need their help to fix this. We need to help her and I need to
show her how sorry I am and how much I love her. I just hope that
it’s not too late. I go outside to sit by the pool and think things
through while we wait for Sean to get here.

Scott

It shouldn’t have
taken my niece telling me that Yas didn’t betray me for me to
believe it. I should have known it myself. I think I
did
know it. After all, I couldn’t find those signs I was looking for.
I transferred the anger that I felt for what Amber did onto Yasmin,
because I could never yell at Amber, never protect my family from
her. But, Yas did. In that courtroom, she told Amber to stay away
from us. That she would protect me because I was hers. Even if we are
apart, Yas is
mine
.
It’s time for me to man up and take care of her. I know that under
normal circumstances, she wouldn’t take the amount of help that I’m
about to give her. She would protest. But, while I can’t take all
of the blame for her bookstore struggling, I definitely hurt it by
not letting her even
buy
my software. So, I have to hope that she won’t hate me even more
when she finds out what I’m about to set into motion. What do
people say? Ask for forgiveness instead of permission.

I have to earn her
forgiveness. What I am planning to have my family and I do will help.
But, money isn’t going to do it for her. I need to woo her again.
The things that I said to her were horrible. My woman is only a bitch
when she has to be. When she is protecting the people that she loves.
She is definitely not a slut. Yas let me tie her up because she loves
me and wanted to do that for me. I wish she hadn’t yelled that out
in front of my family and her friends, but it’s not like it’s
going to kill me. So what if my brothers tease me about being a perv
while my dad laughs? I had no right to say that she would do Owen,
that she would let him… Shit, I
am
a bastard. But, I’ll do anything I need to in order for her to
forgive me.

I’m still sitting
outside by the pool, lost in my thoughts when my mom comes out to
tell me that Sean has arrived. She tells me that whatever I have
planned, the family will support me. She also says that she is glad
that I realized that Yas loves me, because she already knew that. I
kiss her on the cheek and we walk inside. It’s time to lay out my
plans and get everyone started on what I need them to do.

“Thanks for coming,
Sean,” I tell him holding out my hand. He looks to Erika, who nods
and only then does he take it.

“If this will help
Yasmin, I’m happy to be here. What’s the plan?”

“The most pressing
things that we need to take care of are getting her food and making
sure that she is not walking alone at night. Erika, do you know if
Yas changed the locks on her house?” When she shakes her head no, I
continue. “Mom, can you go grocery shopping for her? I can meet you
at her house to take everything inside. She gave me a key the day of
the party.”

“Of course, I would
love to fill her house with food for her. Let me go grab my purse.”
She hugs me as she walks by.

“Next is the car
situation. I can’t just buy her a car yet. She wouldn’t take it.
She’s closing every night, Erika?” I ask, even though I know the
answer.

“She works open to
close every day and just has us one of work for a few hours during
the busy times. She can’t afford to have us there anymore than
that. I’ve offered to work for free but she won’t let me.”

Fuck. It’s even worse
than I thought. I take a deep breath and it comes to me. “She won’t
let you work for free, but she will let Alex volunteer as much as she
wants. Dad, if Alex took her homework there and promised to do it,
could she stay in the store until 9:30? Then, when one of you picks
her up, you could insist on driving Yas home. If she protests, Alex
could ask her. She can’t say no to our girl.”

“If it’s okay with
Alex, then yes, we can do that.” He looks at Alex. “But, you
don’t have to do this, honey. I know you’ve made friends and they
may want you to go out sometimes.”

I answer before she
can. “If her friends ask her to do something, she should go with
them instead. We can come up with some reason why one of you happens
to be near the store when it closes and sees her waiting for the bus.
Does that work for everyone?” They all nod and I continue.

“On to her house. Do
you know who her realtor is?” Sean nods and then gives me the name
of his friend who he says is her realtor. “You know the guy?
Perfect. Can you call him and tell him that I want to make an offer
today?”

“You’re buying her
house? She is
not
going to be okay with you giving it to her.” Erika looks worried.

“I’m not planning
on giving it to her.” When I see the startled looks on everyone’s
faces, I chuckle. “I’m planning on asking her to live there with
me once I win her back. I love that house.” They all visibly relax
and smile.

Sean gets out his phone
and after speaking to his friend for a couple of minutes, hands it to
me. “Hi Tony. I would like to make an offer for twice the asking
price on the house.” I pause while he lets out a string of curses.
His commission on the sale is going to be really good. “I want to
close immediately but you can’t tell her that I’m the one buying
it. Also, I want you to tell her that the buyer can’t move in right
away so I want to let her stay in the house for sixty days to watch
it for me because I don’t want it sitting vacant. Can you do that?”
He agrees and I hang up.

“You’re pretty good
at this planning stuff, bro. We could have been using your talents at
the company all along. I’m impressed,” Ryan tells me shaking his
head.

“I am perfectly happy
with my computer, Ry. I can’t work at the office. But thanks for
saying that. It means a lot to me.” I tell him what I need from
him. “Can you find out if the owners of the strip mall where I
Heart Books is located are willing to sell?”

“You want to buy the
strip mall?”

“Yeah, I do. You know
that I have the money and that way I could lower the rent.”

My dad steps in then.
“The company can buy the strip mall if it’s for sale. We can use
a good tax write off and lowering the rent for all of the businesses
in the center would be something that we can do to help them out as
well. I have visited many of them when dropping off or picking up
Alex and there are some great people struggling there.” He turns to
Ryan. “Do your thing and find out what they can’t refuse and then
make the offer.”

Ry nods. “I’m on
it.” He pulls out his phone and starts dialing. My brother is a
genius when it comes to architecture and commercial real estate.

“Thanks, Dad.” I
hug him too. Damn, I’m turning into a Hallmark movie. But, it feels
good to have my family helping me. I knew they would.

“I am obviously going
to give you guys the program. Sean can you install it on the website
without Yas knowing?”

“I should be able to
get it past her. She doesn’t know how to code and I don’t think
she has looked at the site itself lately. She just checks the
orders.”

“Good. I’ll get you
it before you go. I would love to put it in the store system but I
don’t think we could hide it there. Erika, is there anything else
that we can do to get people in the store right away?”

“Do you know anyone
at any of the Big Five publishers? Yasmin was trying to get a big
author in to do a signing, hoping that it would bring new customers
in. They all turned her down.”

I smile and look at my
dad, who nods. “Actually we do know people. The publishing houses
have been after my dad to write his life story for years. After what
happened with Amber, they want my story, too. I think that we can
leverage that to get some authors in.”

I look at Owen and
Luke. “Now, for you two. Don’t think that you are going to get
out of helping. I need your help too.”

“Anything, bro, you
know that.” Luke looks excited.

I smirk at my little
brother. “I need you to get some of those chicks that you hook up
with to the bookstore. I know at least some of them have to read. I
don’t care what you have to do—buy them books with my credit card
if that’s what it takes. We just need to get more people into the
store.”

“Blaine has
blacklisted me from the fraternities and sororities since the pool
party, but I think I can find some girls who are willing to let me
buy them some books. And I mean
me
not you. I want to help Yasmin too. She was always cool to me and I
know what she’s done for Alex.”

“Do you have anything
for me to do or are you afraid that Yasmin might
want
to help me live out my teenage fantasy?” Owen asks me before
ducking behind my dad.