I shook my head quickly and ran a hand through my hair. What was I thinking? I was acting like a teenager with no control over her hormones. It was completely unlike me, and I mentally chastised myself for it. I couldn’t understand what had gotten into me, and although I was known to be attracted to the strong ones, current relationship included, I felt like this was pushing it a little too far. I blamed it on the erotica-ghostwriting state of mind I was currently in, but that didn’t make me feel any better.
Stop it! You keep acting like this, and he’ll get the wrong idea.
Still, I couldn’t help thinking there was something about him. Sure, he was hot, and his physique left little doubt as to what was under the shirt he was wearing. But I was definitely not the kind of girl who just threw herself at every man she thought was attractive. Besides, the girl in the truck could only be his daughter, which probably meant that there was a Mrs. Logan in the picture.
And there’s a Garth Liston in yours.
Fuck.
“I think we’re good here,” Alex said, shooting me a quick glance before checking the chains a second time. He got up, stretched, and I noticed how one hand was massaging his right thigh. Samuel gave us a thumbs-up, and Alex gestured to the truck. “Get in,” he said.
“That’s okay, I can ride in the car,” I said quickly.
“Why?” he asked. “There’s enough space in the truck. And besides, Sam will probably send me home walking if I didn’t insist.”
I looked at the car, then at Samuel as he waved me over, then shrugged. Alex led me to the back of the truck, opened the door and helped me up. I felt a slight burst of electricity race up my arm at his touch, and again found myself thanking the darkness for hiding whatever my face would have given away.
Alex climbed into the front just as I settled myself in my seat. The girl had forgotten about her phone and was now watching me closely.
“Hi,” I smiled.
The girl only looked at me and didn’t reply.
“Be nice, Kelly,” Alex said as he put his seatbelt on and Samuel slowly pulled away from the curb.
“I didn’t say anything,” Kelly complained.
“Exactly.”
Kelly looked at me, and I rolled my eyes, quickly trying to take her side on this. Kelly smiled, rolled her eyes as well and shrugged.
“She seems nice,” she said.
“She’s sitting right there,” Alex replied while Samuel chuckled.
“I know,” Kelly retorted, looking at me over her shoulder. “That’s why I said it.”
Chapter 7: Alex
Jenni Wright. Wow, had she grown up to be a looker and a half.
It was all I could to not turn around and look at her.
For years since Janice died, there were only two things that had occupied my head. The first was Kelly, the little girl that had to do with only her father when what she really needed was a mother. And the second was the job.
I never really had any time for relationships. I had never even toyed with the idea of maybe bringing someone into my life. For years, my whole world had revolved around Janice. We had met during a particularly dark period of my life, when nothing was going to way I had planned and I was ready to just throw it all away and head back to Kent with my tail between my legs.
We met at the carnival, a run-down assortment of crap rides at a pier where the only good thing that could possibly come out of it was a good fix. And that was exactly why I had been there. I had started working at the DEA a year before, and one of the first assignments was cracking down on a distribution channel coming out of the carnival.
The job had been easy enough, the dealers too comfortable in their turf, and the carnival attracting nothing more than the low-life of the city. It was one of the reasons why I had been a little surprised that Janice was there to start with.
She had been taking her nephew out, showing him around the city, and had found herself caught in the middle of an arrest when we cracked down on a couple of dealers by the Ferris wheel. She had been shell-shocked, and I had felt the need to make sure she was okay. Had even driven her and her nephew home.
And from then on, well, the rest is just history. Several dates led to her moving in with me, and eventually I was on one knee by the same pier where we had first met, asking her to be my wife.
I had flown my father in for the wedding, and it was the only time I had actually seen him cry. I couldn’t even remember him shedding a tear at my mother’s funeral. And if he had, then he’d done a pretty good job at hiding it from me. He didn’t do that on my wedding day, though. The man was practically bawling his eyes out, and it had scared me just a little.
Kelly came a couple of years later, and for me, it had been the happiest day of my life. I had looked into my daughter’s eyes, and knew that I would do anything I could to keep her safe. The two of them were my world, and everything revolved around them.