Stay

Willow giggled.

Alexi looked over at Mia to judge her response. She recognized his too innocent expression.

Mia rolled her eyes. He’d just imitated her dressing room Swedish accent. If Alexi said the line about shoes, she’d kill him. No. He’s family, he’s family. Well, not really, but he will be. He can flirt if he wants to.

“Hey.” Jake, her ex, walked over. He wore his football jersey and a pair of jeans.

Typical weekend. Everyone at the mall. “Jake. This is Alexi. Alexi. This is Jake.” Take that, Jake. You’re no longer the hottest guy at the mall. The hottest guy is Alexi and was there with her. Jake shook Alexi’s hand then moved to Mia’s side. “I’m here with Joseph. Joseph’s exchanging a shirt he picked out. He jumped on it and then regretted his choice. Regrets suck.” He moved closer.

No way, buddy. She stepped back.

Alexi took Mia’s arm, edging her in his direction. “We should leave now. Mia and I have plans.”

What plans? “We’ll see ya’ll tomorrow.” She waved to her friends as Alexi led her toward the parking lot via the food court. The smell of fried food circled the area. Alexi peered at the menus with interest but didn’t stop until they reached the door.

He texted the driver, asking him to pull the car around then said, “You shouldn’t encourage that boy. He’ll get the wrong idea about you.” He sounded like Dad.

The mall carousel revolved in time to a show tune, and Mia turned her gaze away from the seahorse rising on a golden pole to follow Alexi outside into the sunlight. “What encouragement?”

He didn’t answer, but moved toward the street. The car stood ready at the edge of the curb, the engine giving off only a quiet hum. Alexi stopped in front of the door and waited for the driver to open it. Mia rolled her eyes and reached for the door handle herself. Alexi’s hand stilled her arm. He nodded his thanks to Vincent, who opened it, and he passed the shopping bags to him.

“Thanks.” Mia climbed in. Inside, she bounced on the cushy leather seat. “I can’t get used to this car. You’re so spoiled.”

Alexi slid in right beside her, even though there was room for ten in the car. “You stand too close to him. Do you wear the short skirts for him?”

Was he going on about Jake? She was not into Jake. She was so over Jake. “What do you mean stand too close?” Mia shot a pointed look at his proximity. “You Dutch have no sense of space, and what did you mean by short skirt? I’m wearing shorts.”

“I’m not Dutch. Number 8a. It’s a subset on the poster you made me. The shorter the skirt, the better.”

Mia’s eyes widened. She stared hard at him. The poster.

“Some American girls have loose reputations. You should guard yours better. Especially while you’re living with my family.”

Mia covered her mouth with her hand. She wanted to address the smear against her gender and her fellow Americans, but she couldn’t escape the more horrible realization that if he could quote the poster, then he’d read the poster.

Chapter 9

The horror. Mia wanted to throw herself to the other end of the limo. She held onto the edge of the seat so she wouldn’t. “What do you know about the poster?”

Alexi raised his chin. “It is a plan for me, so I took a photo of it. It was mine to do.”

“It wasn’t your poster. It was Sacha’s. You read it?”

“I’m Sacha, so the poster is mine. You can explain it to me.” He tilted his head and his gray-blue eyes met hers. “I do have questions.”

Ugh. That poster—she hadn’t destroyed it soon enough. Mia squirmed, looking out the window. There’s no way out of this. How could she put an innocent spin on it? She pressed her sweaty palms into her thighs, and half-lied, “Hope worried you wouldn’t fit in, so I made the plan, mostly for a laugh.”

“Why would Hope worry?”

“She wants you to be happy, so Niko will be happy. That’s why the new clothes. It’ll be better if you blend in.” Was he going to stay? Did he want to blend in?

“You mean Niko’s credit card bought the clothes.” Alexi corrected her as if she didn’t know what kind of credit card she carried.

She needed to clear this up for him. Mia shook her head. “I don’t have a credit card from Niko. He doesn’t pay for us.”

“Just your food, housing, utilities, driver and gasoline.”

He was kind of right when he put it that way. She just hadn’t thought of the household stuff before now. The limo delivered them to the front door. Mia reached for the doorknob. “Time to choose an outfit for your first day, pretty boy.” She went around to the trunk.