“Are you patronizing me? This morning is getting weirder and weirder. First, the kids let me sleep in, now you’re being sarcastic and laughing, I don’t know what to expect next.”
With false hurt, Cliff holds a hand to his chest as he said, “I joke.”
“No, you don’t,” Logan chimed in as he steered the stroller toward the booth where Sydney and Dylan had set up in front of her bakery selling coffee and her legendary donuts.
As they reached the booth, Cliff waved off and continued toward his shop another block down the way. Logan and Dylan followed in line, leaving the women at the stand.
The bustling crowd of people seemed to part like the Red Sea as the trio made their way on the path. As they approached the shop, Cliff took in the vendor parked in front of his store. Shirley and Temple Fitzgerald sat in their chairs pretending to sell flowers as they sip on glasses of lemonade. And if Cliff were a betting man, he would put his life savings on those two women having a little something extra mixed in with their beverage.
Snagging his keys from his pockets, Cliff unlocked the door and gestured for his friends to enter the shop before turning the deadbolt to lock it again. One time he came into the shop during the Farmer’s Market
and a group of college-aged assholes swarmed his place. It was not a scenario he wanted to repeat, especially since they were rowdy and didn’t end up getting any ink. They were mainly there for the cool air.
“What kind of art were you thinking?” Cliff asked Logan as he stepped behind the front desk and took a peek at his calendar. He had a few appointments today, but the remainder of his week was pretty clear as his shift worker was set to start.
“I was thinking of getting a chest piece. I love the phoenix on my back and the thumb prints you just did for the kids, but I want to get something that represents Avery, you know?”
Nodding, Cliff pulled put a few designs he has been working on and showed them to his friend. They talked about different elements that Logan liked from each piece and together they decided to put them all together.
After they set up Logan’s appointment for later in the week, Cliff turned to Dylan, and the man sheepishly told him that he was there to invite Cliff to the Connelly dinner the next evening.
“Dude, please. Sydney was threatening to deny me.”
“Deny you what?” Cliff asked, enjoying watching his friend squirm in the hot seat. If Cliff was going to endure being set up at a family dinner, then his friend could stew for a few minutes.
“She has my cock and balls on a leash man. Do this for me and I’ll get any intel that I can on Alexis.”
That immediately had Cliff straightening his spine. Only a select few knew about his curiosity toward the raven-haired beauty.
“How do you. . .?” Cliff let the question hang in the air. His breath came in shallow pants as the terror that one of his secrets had come to light.
“You’re not the only one that still has a government job on the down-low. And we all saw the way you looked at her.”
Cliff hadn’t been given a chance to meet Alexis like the rest of the Connelly’s. He was rewarded with a meeting and a handshake as Dylan gave a low down on how they had planned to find Sydney when she was kidnapped. When their hands touched, Cliff felt like he had known her already, knew all of her deepest desires and secrets. It wasn’t just an operative meeting for him and he had wanted nothing more than to steal her away, strip her bare, and make her his.
But Alexis had pulled her hand away and stayed focused on the mission at hand. To anyone else, she appeared like the consummate professional that she was. But he had seen the dilation of her eyes when their palms brushed. And when she had tripped over her own feet as they exited the meeting behind Dylan, he was the one that felt her grip on his arm last a beat too long.
She had buried herself under his skin.
Trying to brush off his friend’s declaration, Cliff began to pull out items he’d need for his first appointment. “Not sure how since I can count on one hand how many times I’ve been in the same room as her.”
“Doesn’t mean we didn’t see the look,” Logan chimed in.
Curious, Cliff made the mistake of asking, “What look?”
“You know the one. Where your eyes get big and a dopey grin settles on your face. Don’t worry, we’ve all had it,” Dylan explains.
“Hell, I still have it,” Logan added, perfectly executing the expression in question as if he were thinking of his wife.
“You both are full of shit.”
“You keep telling yourself that.” Dylan stepped closer and leaned toward him. A few inches separated their face. “But, I’m the one that knows how many times you’ve pinged her name in the last two years on the computer in your not-so-secret lair upstairs.”
As his friend returned to his full height, Cliff wondered what else Dylan knew about him and considered cornering his friend to learn the details, but decided against it.
The prospect of learning more, or anything, about Alexis was too high. She’d had this magnetic pull on him since they first met over three years ago and the force was just as strong today as it was then – for him anyway. She was one of the only people he couldn’t get a good read on.
“Fine, I’ll be there tomorrow. Do not let Mrs. Connelly try to set me up, or I’ll leave.”