“Alex doesn’t do love, Star Sign. She’s very practical and levelheaded. Gets it from her dull-as-dirt mother.”
“Romantic love is gross, Grams. It makes people dumb.”
Lexi rolled her eyes. Alex had certainly missed the drama genes from her grandmother. “That’s because you’ve never let yourself fall in love.” If Alex didn’t stop this right now, Lexi would float over to the baby grand and break into song.
“Are you really surprised that I’ve eschewed romance?” Alex didn’t mean for her words to sound so sharp, but they did prompt Star Sign to pack up her cards and stand up to leave.
“What about the future?” Lexi asked.
The other woman made a strange face. “Still to be determined.”
“But what did the cards say?” Alex genuinely wanted to know, if only so she could mock the whole exercise. Cards did not tell the future. They were pieces of card stock with pictures and words and symbols. Sure, they had meaning for some people. But not Alex. She saw the world as it was and made decisions with cold, hard facts.
Star Sign looked at Alex. “You honestly don’t want to know.”
And though she didn’t believe in woo-woo shit, that made her stomach turn. Part of her wished that she could know the future. If it were predetermined, then she wouldn’t have to work so hard trying not to fuck hers up. But she couldn’t press the other woman, because she hurried out of the room.
“You really need to learn to have more fun, Alex,” Lexi said as she finished her drink. “I was going to have her do a reading on the whole world next.”
“I can tell you what’s happening in the world. It’s going to hell in a handbasket.”
Lexi laughed at that. As she finished laughing, it looked as though she was about to say something serious, but whatever sentiment she’d been about to express died on the vine when Will Harkness walked into the room.
THREE
Will Harkness was the last person Alex Turner wanted to see. Pretty much ever, but especially tonight. Every time she saw him, she had to take a deep breath, mutter “Not today, Satan” three times, and count to ten. He’d pushed her buttons since the day they’d met, with his perfect jaw and permanent smirk.
He was too much. Every time he walked into a room, he sucked up all the air. And it wasn’t because he was loud or flashy or needed to fill every moment with conversation. It was definitely the opposite. He’d had this stern quality, ever since Alex had known him, that made people want to please him. The less he said, the more people reacted to him.
In another time, Will Harkness would have been a king or warlord. He conquered everything he set his gaze on. He mastered everything he ever tried. Intellectually, Alex knew he was fallible. But she’d never figured out how.
He bent and gave Lexi a kiss on the cheek. “My sweet boy.” Only her grandmother would take a look at this man and call him sweet. He hadn’t been sweet when he was a teen and moved in along with his father, Lexi’s fifth husband—a British shipping magnate. And he hadn’t been sweet when Lexi had thrown over his father for her sixth husband. But not being sweet had nothing to do with Lexi. Her grandmother hadn’t cut Will off like she had his father. Will had the infuriating habit of showing up when he was least expected. Or wanted.
“What are you doing here?” Alex was deeply irritated by Will, and she wasn’t about to hide it. If she let on for just one moment that she didn’t completely hate Will Harkness, he would jump all over it. They had always sparked off each other like flint and steel. It was sort of exhilarating, but she would never let him know that.
Will hadn’t even looked at her until she spoke. He treated her like furniture because he knew it annoyed her. But when he did finally clap eyes on her, Alex almost wished he hadn’t. He had piercing green eyes that couldn’t be described as anything but menacing. They contrasted with the slight tan of his skin courtesy of his Italian mother. And she had the eerie feeling that they saw right through her. “Visiting my stepmother.”
“Your ex-stepmother.” Alex’s words had no bite because he’d called Lexi his stepmother knowing how Alex would respond.
Will had the audacity to grin at her, and Alex could barely keep herself from snarling at him. “What are you doing here?” he asked. “It’s Friday night, and I would have thought you’d be off feasting on the heart of whatever loser you were seeing.”
His words burned her. She had to keep herself from responding with something that would tell him how much his words affected her. She couldn’t afford to let her guard down with any man, and Will Harkness was not any man. When he’d shown up shortly after her fifteenth birthday, he’d been everything she’d ever dreamed of. He was a one-man boy band.
Even now, she could almost smell the Drakkar Noir that he used to wear too much of wafting through the air. Despite herself, she could still look at him and feel seduced by his beautiful features and the easy charm that draped over him and got him anything he wanted.
“She saw the last loser on some show about weddings, and it sent her into a tailspin.” Of course Lexi was going to tell Will everything. As much as Alex usually appreciated her grandmother’s honesty, she wished it wasn’t quite so indiscriminate.
Alex turned to Lexi. “Can’t we talk about something more fun?” She looked over at Will and tried to find something about his appearance that Lexi would object to. “Like how Will should shave his beard?”
Will grunted, and Alex wished he hadn’t. When he did things like grunt and lean in doorways, it made her forget how much she hated him, and that was the last thing she could afford to do under her current circumstances. Despite her silly feelings about Jason being on some dumb show about wedding dresses, the events of the evening had put her on edge.
“Aw, you let one frog escape and he turned into a prince for someone else?” Will’s words were laced with derision, and it made Alex want to slap him. It was fine that he’d rejected her on her birthday—it would be very immature to still be punishing him for that now—but it was not fine that he still teased her like this.
One would have thought that Alex would be accustomed to Will’s teasing, given that he’d been doing it for half her life. But it was like an irritant that kept coming up. He was like eczema in human form.
“We’re not going to talk about this.” Maybe if Alex was declarative enough about it, both Lexi and Will would let it drop. “And you still haven’t said what you’re doing here.”
That’s when Will held up a paper bag. That’s also when Alex noticed that the enticing smell that had entered the room with him was actually food. Will was doing one of the only things riskier in Alex’s mind than getting married—opening a new restaurant. She hated him but was willing to admit that his food was very good. It was so good that she might stick around to see if he’d brought enough for her to eat. She’d lost interest in dinner during her mini existential crisis, and now the sounds coming from her stomach were menacing.