Good Morning Heartache (16 page)

“What the hell are you going
to do about it?”

Alexis had backed up a
little, afraid of what was going to happen, and dialed 911. She was whispering
to the operator when she heard the hard thud of skin against skin. When she
looked up, Ryan was slouched over and holding his jaw; a droplet of blood
forming at the corner of his mouth.

“Please,” Alexis begged the
operator in a whisper. “My friend has just been assaulted. I need someone here
immediately.”

“There’s one car on patrol
in your area. Officers Reynolds and Whitley should be there in a few moments.
Try to stay calm.”

Before Alexis could lay into
the woman about the difficulties of staying calm when someone was attacking the
people she cared about, Ryan looked up and swung up at Richard’s gut, but
Richard moved back a little to avoid the brunt of the blow and returned with a
quick jab to Ryan’s mouth.

“Ahhh,” Ryan cried, seeming
more frustrated than hurt. “You son of a bitch.” Ryan lowered his shoulder and
broke into a sprint, ramming his entire, massive body into Richard.

“Ugh” was the only sound
Richard made as he fell to the ground. He kicked Ryan off his body and crawled
away. Sirens sounded in the distance. The good news about a town like this was
the cops were never too busy or too far.

“They’re coming for you,”
she scolded as she moved toward him.

He moved away from the
house, stepping backward. “I’m not done with you Alexis,” Richard threatened
before turning around and sprinting to his car.

Alexis wrapped her arm
around Ryan, who looked like he would start foaming at the mouth soon, and
guided him to the nearby porch swing. “Are you okay?” she asked as she watched
blood trickle from the middle of his lip. “Can I get you anything?”

He huffed. “I really should
have had breakfast before fighting.”

Alexis gave him a gentle,
caring smile. If she ever got her hands on Richard Dunn, she’d kill him. She
ran a hand along Ryan’s jaw but pulled away when he winced.

“Sorry.” She clenched her
hands into tight fists.

He looked down at her with a
half-smile and calm blue eyes. “It’s okay; it just stung a little.”

A police car’s tires
crunched on the gravel driveway, its lights flashing and its siren ripping
apart the peaceful morning. They both stood and walked toward the welcome
discord. Alexis stepped off the porch and approached the officers lifting
themselves out of the squad car.

“Breakfast?” Ryan called
after her. She looked back and watched as he carefully lowered himself on a
porch step. She shrugged and smiled before turning back to the approaching
police offices.

Much to Ryan’s chagrin,
breakfast was delayed for an hour. The officers confirmed the protection order
and took statements from them while Alexis cleaned up Ryan’s lip and made him
an ice pack. But when the cops left, he was ready to dismiss his private nurse
in favor of something to eat.

They decided on brunch at
the Blue Heron Café in the center of town. It was a quaint, quiet place with
six tables and an eggs Benedict that Alexis would crave for weeks to come.

When she recommended the
eggs Benedict, he ordered two. Alexis enjoyed the way he ate without restraint.
His eating habits had initially bothered her, but it was one of the ways that
she could truly see him being carefree, which, she was learning, was a rarity
for him.  

At first Alexis was able to
keep the conversation about him, carefully avoiding anything that would lead to
discussion of their sleepover.

He talked about growing up
in Iowa, living with his father, and escaping to Arizona. He was fairly candid,
but she could tell that he held some things back. Ryan never mentioned his
mother, for one.

A burden weighed heavily in
his eyes. She decided that's why most of the time they seemed icy, not because
he was critical of everything around him, but because there was an unhealed
wound festering there.

She didn't mind that he was
discreet; she understood that some people liked to keep their dirty laundry out
of sight. Being in a family that was as rich as hers, people were constantly
digging through her dirty laundry, so she figured she might as well air it with
pride. Though, she didn’t mind having light conversation after a heavy,
draining morning.

 Once they were eating, Ryan
jumped into his inquiry of the morning’s events. “You really have stalkers.”

Alexis took a sip of her
orange juice and then explained. “Technically, I’ve had
stalkers
. Right
now, I just have
stalker
.”

“For how long?”

“Richard’s been around for
about a year and a half now. He was in the army, but they discharged him—I’m
light on the details—and I met him right after that.”

“I bet I know why he was
discharged…he packs a hell of a punch.”

Alexis smiled. “I tried to
warn you.” She hesitated before saying, “He’s all gung-ho about Mixed Martial
Arts. I wouldn’t fight him again if I were you.”

Ryan glared at her, and she
thought he was going to yell at her for not disclosing that information before
he took a fist to the face, but he was concerned about something else. “Are you
safe?”

“This is the worst it’s
been. Mostly he’s creepy. Sitting outside my house, leaving dozens of messages
every day, showing up at the bars I went to. After I filed for a protection
order, he mostly disappeared; apparently this was so that he could avoid being
served. He was only sending flowers for a while, which I had been cutting up
and sending back to his house, but he popped up again the night we ran into
each other at the drugstore. Made some threats, so I called the sheriff’s
office when I got home, and they told me that the order was never served.
Apparently if he doesn’t get it, it doesn’t count.”

“Sounds like a load of crap
if you ask me.”

Alexis forced a smile and
smoothed the napkin in her lap. “I’m working on getting it fixed. Of course he
doesn’t seem to care about it, and if he continually dodges the police, there
isn’t much I can do about it. Protection order or not.”

“Maybe you should hire a
bodyguard. I’d do it, but…” Ryan pointed to his face, “I don’t think I’m
qualified in this particular case.”

The thought of a stranger watching
her constantly and staying in her home sent a shiver down her spine—or maybe it
was Ryan’s offering—all she knew was that it wasn’t an option. “I’d rather not
pay someone else to stalk me. Besides, I have a great alarm system at my house
in Maple Field. It wasn’t something I considered for this weekend, but I’ll
just have to stay away from the Cape until this all gets sorted out.”

“What about when you’re not
home?” He stopped to look at his empty plate. “When you’re trolling the bars?”

This was it. The
conversation she was actually dreading. She wouldn’t mind talking for hours
about Richard, as long as it didn’t segue into love and relationships.
Normally, Alexis would just laugh at him and his apparent jealously over the
thought of her at a bar picking up another guy, but this time it wasn’t funny.
Fear in the form of a cold sweat rose to the surface of her skin, chilling her
and giving her goose bumps in the thick, warm morning air.

“I—I’m not really doing that
right now.” What? Why would she say that? She was leading him on, even if she
was telling the truth. “Because my sister is around.” This didn’t sound right,
but it’s all she could muster.

Ryan’s blue eyes carefully
studied her, and she was sure he was searching for the hope of an “us” in her.

“Alexis, if you’re that
afraid of this guy, I can pick you up and take you on your errands. After work,
of course.”

“Wait. What?” This wasn’t
about love and marriage. It was about protecting her, which had the potential
of being worse in the long run. But at least he wasn’t negotiating the number
of children they would have.

“I’ll pick you up to go
grocery shopping. I’m not much of a fighter, but there’s strength in numbers.
If we’re in public places, I doubt he’ll punch me in the face—or stomach—again.”

Blood rushed back through
Alexis’s entire body, the goose skin subsided, and her breath was no longer
tight.

“That’s sweet, but I have
protection.” Alexis lifted her purse from its perch on the back of her chair
and slowly lifted her Taser out of her purse far enough so Ryan could see what
it was, but quickly put it back when the waitress walked by.

Ryan leaned forward on the
table and whispered, “Is that even legal here?”

Alexis shook her head. “But
I don’t plan to let that stop me if that idiot tries anything serious.”

“And today wasn’t serious
enough?” Ryan sat up and pushed his plate to the side.

A grin crossed Alexis’s
face. “It was upstairs. By the time I would have gotten it out of my purse and
back down to the porch, he would have been gone and I would have been fined by
the police officers.”

 “Sure,” Ryan said with a
smile. “Because a fine is a big deal to someone like you.”

“Someone like me?”

“You have more money than
you know what to do with. I think you could pay a small fine to prevent me from
getting sucker punched in the gut.” His smile faded. “But seriously, I’ve got a
bad feeling about this guy, and it’s not just the ache in my jaw. He’s
dangerous. You need to be really careful.”

Alexis waved her hand at
him. “I’ll be fine. I’ve been taking care of myself for quite some time now.
Besides it’s only a matter of time before he’s in prison.”

Ryan started to say
something but stopped himself. “Ready to go?”

Alexis lay her napkin on the
table and stood. “My restful weekend ended a few hours ago. Let’s head home.”

As they exited the
restaurant, Alexis’s phone rang. She hesitated when she saw that it was Riley
calling. She took a deep breath and answered.

Riley was screaming. “You
need to get home right now.”

Suddenly home was no longer appealing.
Safer than the beach house—yes—but not better for her sanity. She looked up at
Ryan, who gave her a half smile.

 In her head she knew that
she had made a mistake the night before, but as he smiled at her, her body
ached to hold him against her again. She considered bringing him back to the
beach house and having her way with him all day. A naked day. She would run her
fingers—and tongue—along the length of his body. If he would agree to just sex
and a secondary friendship, which seemed more likely as each minute passed,
Alexis could certainly find a way to enjoy him. That wouldn't be hard at all.

Her clouded judgment was
cleared when Riley continued her rant. “The damn dog puked in the living room!
It’s all over my clothes.”

Alexis smiled in satisfaction.
Served her right for leaving her clothes all over the floor.

“We’re just leaving now,”
Alexis said without raising her voice or acknowledging anything that Riley was
saying. “I’ll be home in a few hours.” She hung up the phone without another
word, though she could hear Riley shrieking until she hit the “end” button.

“Problem at home?” Ryan
asked as they sat in the car.

“Not mine.”

Alexis started the car, put
it into gear, and headed in the direction of Maple Field. Not once on the drive
was the sex mentioned. With each exhalation, Alexis released some of her
anxiety. With each inhalation of his scent, the desire for more of him settled
in, starting at her inner thighs and eventually working its way up across her
chest and to her lips.

As she pulled into Michael
and Caitlyn's driveway, she was suddenly struck with an idea. “Do you eat hot
dogs?”

Ryan gave her a look that
seemed to question her sanity. “First baseball and now hot dogs. Who doesn't
eat hot dogs? I think it may be treason in this country not to like hot dogs.”

She breathed out a chuckle. “We
should eat hot dogs tomorrow.” She stopped the car and pulled the brake. Ryan
stared at her as though she was speaking a foreign language, so she added, “At
my house.” And then,” For Memorial Day.”

His eyes narrowed on her. “You're
not sick of me yet?”

Alexis bit her bottom lip to
get the tingling feeling out before saying, “Not yet, but I’m hoping to grow
weary of you before you go back to New York.”

He leaned in close. His hot
breath on her lips sending a reminder of the orgasms that had pulsed through
her body the night before. “How are you going to do it?”

More than anything she
wanted to grabbed his head and put his mouth on hers or unbuckle her seatbelt
and straddle him, but she didn't. Alexis bit her lip again and then slowly
freed it from her teeth. “I'm pretty creative.”

Ryan reached down and just
as she expected to feel the warmth of his hand on her thigh, she heard the
click of his seatbelt being unfastened. He pulled his face away from hers and
opened the car door. “I guess I'll see you tomorrow then.”

“Put ice on your face. Check
the freezer for veggies,” she called after him. “Oh and bring me more food for
Sam!”

As Ryan walked toward the
front door, Alexis's eyes took a moment to fully appreciate his hard butt in a
pair of well-fitting jeans.

After Alexis got home and
cleaned up dog “vomit,” which amounted to nothing more than a slobbery,
well-chewed rawhide, she went downstairs to her writing room. She examined all
the “once upon a times” wallpapering the one side of the room, and within a
half hour she had removed every page, piece of tape, and tack from the wall.

Alexis sat down at her
computer, her notebook in hand, and began typing. She made some revisions as
she went and added a scene near the end, but overall she was shocked with how
little she thought it needed.

Alexis pulled a box of tacks
out of her desk drawer and tore the pages of her draft out of the spiral
notebook. She took a few moments and pinned the pages to the empty wall. Then
she scanned her bookshelf for one of the anthologies that printed her other
story. After ripping the pages out of that book, she put them on the wall as
well. From now on she was going to focus on what she had written, not what she
couldn't write.