Glass Hearts (12 page)

“What makes you think that?” I ask.

“I was getting ready to go to dinner with him after work tonight, and when I walked into the bedroom he was whispering into his phone. The moment he saw me, he ended the call and placed his phone into his pocket. He’s up to something, Alex, I know it,” she wails. I wish I could comfort her and tell her that she misunderstood, but I think she’s probably right.

“What are you going to do?” I ask, biting my nail.

“I don’t know. We’re married, I can’t just walk out,” she says, sounding like she’s trying to convince herself more than me. I hate that she feels obligated to stay in an unhealthy marriage.

“You deserve more,” I say softly into the phone.

“I know,” she whispers.

I think back to earlier at the bar and wonder if she knows Reid Murphy. They’re close in age so if our families know each other, Gwen would know. “Hey, do you now anyone with the last name Murphy?” I ask. The other end of the phone is dead silent as I wait for her to say something. “Gwen?”

“I’m sorry, Murphy is a common name. W-what’s the first name?” she stutters.

“My new boss, his name is Reid. He seemed to know our family somehow,” I say, biting my lip.

I hear her crying on the other end of the phone again. “I have to go. I’ll talk to you later,” she says, hanging up on me. I need to find out what this is all about, but I know her well enough to know she won’t pick up the phone if I try to call her. She’s probably got her head buried in a pillow, trying to avoid that husband of hers.

I’ve always had this feeling that Gwen has experienced true love and knows what it feels like. Maybe she does. Maybe someday she will find it again.

“Alex, are you ready to go?” I yell toward the bedroom. She’s been in there getting ready for almost an hour and we need to be leaving soon, or we’ll both be late. Having her start at the bar tonight has me on edge, and she’s been fidgety all day, asking me tons of questions about my co-workers and how she should wear her hair. I’m a guy and could care less how she does her hair. I keep telling her to just throw it up in a ponytail, but she’s determined to look her best for her first day. She doesn’t realize how beautiful she is without all that crap in her hair and on her face. And I swear to God, if David even thinks about giving her one of the way too tight t-shirts he likes to give all the waitresses, I’ll ring his chubby neck. I called him out on it one time, and he gave me this whole rundown about how they make more tips that way. Bullshit. They can bat their eyes and have the same result.

“Will you quit yelling at me? It doesn’t make me get ready any faster,” she says, storming out of the bedroom. Her hair is perfectly curled, falling down the middle of her back, and she has way too much goddamn makeup on. I open my mouth to tell her to go wash some of it off before all the college age assholes get the wrong idea, but stop, reminding myself that I’ll be there with her the whole time.

“I don’t want you to be late for your first day,” I say, grabbing her hand and pulling her out the door with me. It’s almost June and the air is warm and humid…the kind of night I want to jump on my bike and ride until the sun goes down. “It would be a great night to take the bike out. Actually, I’ve always wanted to pack a bag and just ride for a few days. No plans and no purpose other than to relax and let go.”

She glances sideways in my direction, showing me her perfect teeth. “I’ve never done anything like that before. It sounds really nice actually.”

“We might have to sleep outside…in a tent,” I add, smiling down at her.

She laughs. “That will also be a first for me. I always wanted to go camping as a kid and sleep under the stars, but it never happened. My parents never stayed in anything that was rated less than five stars. I don’t think a tent even qualifies as one star.”

“When Jenna was still alive, and everything was normal, my dad used to set up a tent in the back yard. We’d throw some wood in the fire pit and roast hot dogs and marshmallows.” I stop, smiling at the memory. “My dad would lay out our sleeping bags side by side and open the top of the tent so we could glare at the sky. He told us stories as we gazed up at the stars until we finally fell asleep.”

My life wasn’t always hard. I’ve never been able to decide if it was better that I lived the good life and at least knew what life could be like, or if knowing the good just made the bad times even worse. I like to use the good memories to bring me back to Jenna, to remind me what I want my life to be like now that I have total control of it, and to reinforce every day how I got to where I am now.

“Dane,” Alex says, shaking my arm. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I was just thinking,” I shrug. It’s amazing how one little thought can blow the past open.

“I think I lost you there for a minute,” she says, gently wrapping her hand around my arm. She’ll never lose me, but that doesn’t mean my mind doesn’t take a vacation every now and then.

“I’m fine. Things just randomly pop up in my head sometimes, you know?”

“Yeah, I get it. I talked to Gwen last night and it reminded me of my parents. They still haven’t tried to contact me and it bothers me a little. I guess I thought I was making a stand and they would change for me, but I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

“I’m sorry, baby,” I say, bringing her hand to my mouth. I know exactly what she means. I hoped for years that my mom would change. I took care of my brother, and waited for her to get better and take care of us for a change, but it didn’t happen. Not until it was too late for Nolan and me.

We walk the rest of the way to work without muttering a word to each other. As soon as we walk through the door, I notice the bouncer’s eyes on Alex and dread washes over me. I want to glue her to my side for the evening, but I don’t think David would approve. I used to get into fights on a regular basis, but I’ve mellowed out a lot since I’ve been clean. Without the chemicals in my body, I can talk myself down and control my temper, but that doesn’t mean it can’t boil to the top sometimes...especially when I see other guys drinking in my girl’s insanely hot body.

I place my hand on the small of her back and lead her to David’s office to claim her official Loft 10 t-shirt. She’s an adult and could go by herself, but I need to make sure he gives her the right size. I’m not going to let him play his games with my girl.

She’s rubbing her hands together so furiously that I think she could ignite a fire. It’s cute, but she needs to calm down. “Hey, look at me,” I say, gently grabbing her chin between my fingers. “You’re going to be fine. I’ll be here for you if you need anything.”

I watch her close her eyes and take a deep breath. “I know. I have no freaking clue what I’m doing, though.”

“That’s what training is for,” I say, quickly brushing her lips with mine.

She closes her eyes and takes one more deep breath. “Okay, let’s do this.” She knocks on the door and we stand there, quietly waiting for David to let us in. “You don’t have to wait with me, you know,” she says, never taking her eyes from the door.

“Yeah, I do,” I say, grabbing one of her hands in mine in an attempt to calm her.

“Can I help you guys with something?” a deep voice says from behind us. Fucking Reid. He’s rarely here, and two days in a row is pretty much unheard of.

I let go of Alex’s hand just long enough to turn around and catch a glimpse of him. The guy always wears a freaking suit, but tonight he’s wearing jeans and a Loft 10 t-shirt. The only difference between us is our shoes. His are black Italian leather and probably cost more than one month of my rent. “We’re waiting for David. He’s supposed to have Alex’s t-shirt.”

“Yeah, well David’s still sick. Let me grab you one and you can get changed, then I’ll get you started with orientation, Alex,” he says, never taking his attention off her. I don’t like the way he looks at her, and I can’t think of any other employee that Reid Murphy has ever trained. “Dane you can get behind the bar. We have a large party coming in tonight, so you need to make sure the coolers are fully stocked,” he adds, looking down at his watch.

Alex tugs on my arm and nods her head, letting me know she’s okay. I lean in to give her a kiss, but she turns, forcing me to kiss her cheek instead. When I pull back to say goodbye, her eyes are narrowed at me. She doesn’t want to have a kissing session in front of our boss. I get it, but the asshole needs to know she belongs to me. I know him well enough to know he’s used to getting what he wants, but Alex is going to be the exception.

I glare at Reid as I walk by. If he’s at all scared of me, he doesn’t show it. This is going to be a long night, I think, as I go to work stocking the coolers. I can feel the tension in my arms and shoulders as I carry box after box. Alex and Reid disappeared into his office as soon as I left them, and they haven’t come out since. It’s not that I don’t trust her, but Reid is another story.

“Hey, man, what are you so wound up about tonight? I would hate to be one of those boxes. You do realize those bottles are breakable, right?” Jay jokes, leaning against the bar with his arms folded over his chest.

“Shut up. You would be too if your girlfriend was in Reid Murphy’s fucking office with the door shut,” I spit, feeling my nostrils flare.

“Dane, have you seen the way that girl looks at you? If a girl ever looks at me that way, I’m skipping past the whole relationship thing and proposing marriage. You’re wrapped all the way around her heart, man, and no one else is getting in,” Jay says, patting me on the back. I’m not blind; I see the way she looks at me, but her incident with Mason put a little hole in my confidence. We were broken up then, I get that, but she said I owned her heart then, too. Some days I just can’t get past it.

“And how many relationships have you been in, Jay?” I ask, turning to empty the last box.

“Not as many as you,” he smiles, turning to wipe down the bar.

It’s a little after nine, and the place will start filling up any minute. I like working here. It’s not my dream job by any means, but I make good money and time goes by fast because we’re so busy. I just don’t know if this is the place for Alex.

The door to Reid’s office finally opens just as the place starts to come alive. I’m eager to get a peek at Alex, and I swear to God if he did anything to upset her, I’ll lose my shit. She surprises me by coming through the door with a huge smile on her face. My jaw clenches when Reid exits wearing a similar expression. This is going to be a long fucking night if he thinks he’s in charge of entertaining her and following her around like he owns her.

“Hey guys, I’m going to pair Alex with Kara to learn the ropes. If anyone needs help with anything, I’ll be in my office,” Reid announces before shooting Alex one more smile and turning to go back to his office.

“How’s it going?” I ask Alex, trying to hide my displeasure.

“Good, I think I’m going to like it here,” she says, resting her elbows on the bar.

“Nice shirt, Alex,” Jay says, appearing beside me. I was so caught up in the expression on her face when she walked out of his office that I didn’t see the t-shirt. It’s tight. Way too tight. I’m in so much trouble, I think, as I go take an order at the end of the bar.

I watch Alex follow Kara to the VIP section to take drink orders and at least a dozen eyes turn to look at her retreating ass. I keep myself busy and the next couple hours fly by. Kara and Alex are so busy running around from table to table that I haven’t had a chance to talk to her.

Things finally start to slow down a little bit, so I run to the cooler in the back room to get some things to restock before it starts to pick back up again. I open the door to find Alex standing in the corner of the cooler with her eyes closed. I slowly walk toward her, careful not to ruin her moment. “Hey, what are you doing in here?” I ask, resting my hands on her hips.

She doesn’t startle or open her eyes. It’s like she can sense me. “It’s so hot out there. I’m going to need another shower after work,” she replies, reaching back to pull her hair over her shoulder. I notice the way her nipples perk up under her shirt and my pulse instantly starts to race. I feel like I’m daydreaming, but when I slide my hands up and run my thumbs over her nipples, I know she’s really here.

She tilts her head back giving my lips access to her slender neck. I watched her walk around the bar for a few hours thinking about doing just this. Being able to see her, but not touch her, requires every bit of willpower I have. She moans softly as I gently pinch her nipples between my thumb and index finger. Her reaction makes me feel like I’m going to explode at any moment.

“Dane, we should stop. Someone could walk in here,” she murmurs, pulling my hair between her fingers. But I couldn’t stop even if I wanted to. She’s my temptation, and no part of me wants to fight it.

“I just want to play,” I say, capturing her lips with mine before she has a chance to argue with me anymore. I’m not in sweet mode as I attack her lips and press my tongue into her mouth to tangle with hers. I don’t know what spell she has me under, but I can’t get enough.

She curves her hips into me and I know she feels exactly what she’s doing to me. It doesn’t take much. As our mouths continue their dance, I find the hem of her shirt and run my fingers over her tone stomach. I feel her unzipping my jeans and use my hand to stop her. She pulls back, questioning me with her eyes, and I shake my head. This is about her right now.