by Stacy Lane
But my hope was quickly dashing. It started with Ariella. She’s the acquaintance I met when I was married to Vic. Right after I came back to Tampa, she reached out to me. We began her redesign right away. Before I took on Alex’s project. When I finished last week, I didn’t even get paid in full. The whole fiasco resembled a snobby, Overboard Goldie Hawn moment. I did exactly as she asked, despite my better judgment, and in the end, she refused to pay. I had a signed contract. But I’m worried about the legal fees it will take to go after what money I was promised.
I met with four other women in that time. At least they didn’t hire me and refused to pay. No, they just didn’t hire me at all.
Then there was this morning. Leon. A soccer player who heard about my work with Alex.
He thought that included I sleep with him too.
“So what do you think?” I stood by one of the high-back velvet chairs in front of the fireplace.
I had a contractor build a new mantle to match the bookshelves that lined both walls. I knew Alex was fond of the history inside this old home, so taking out the old bookshelves would have been a big mistake. Honestly, they were what I loved most about this room. The old desk matched—brown and very bulky—but I replaced that with something more modern. The walls were repainted a light color, and the drapes hanging on each side of three, nine-foot windows were a dark teal blue. In front of the fireplace, I set up a small table between the chairs. In case he wanted to work from here. He griped about that ugly table so much that I made sure to replace it.
“This is absolutely stunning. Doesn’t even feel like the same space.”
Pride swarmed my chest. “Not just saying that because you’re my boyfriend right?”
Alex raised a hand, moving his forefinger in a slow back and forth motion.
I cross the room.
Shivers trickled down my arms, crawling up my neck. No matter what new barrier I give him access to, he still causes the same reaction out of me. He knows my weaknesses, my strengths, my hope. Alex has settled into my life and braved the storm of starting anew right along with me.
“You are talented. You are working so hard to make your dreams come true. I will say and do things that no other client will because I am your boyfriend. Because I am proud. Don’t let whatever has happened this week take away from who you are.”
My God, I’m so in love with this man.
From our first introduction, the night we all went to a game and Cam let it slip Alex would be the new general manager of the Fury, I felt my world shift. Alex walked up to where I stood, gazing down at the players’ warmups before the hockey game started. He was kind and asked how Vic and I were enjoying the new town. We kept talking, I don’t even remember what about, but I remember feeling like a new person. I didn’t believe myself to be instantly in love, or even attracted to him. It was an out of body experience. A euphoric moment where I could literally feel my existence altering its path.
I met my soulmate the night of that game and didn’t even know it.
“Now I’m going to thank you for all your hard work in a way that no other client can.” Alex drops his mouth to my neck.
His words cause me to stiffen. I try covering it up, but it’s too late.
“Sunshine, you okay?” He lifts his head, looking down at me with worry.
I leaned against the glass top of his desk. I wanted nothing more than to let Alex continue. But after this morning, I was rattled by what happened with the Leon guy.
“I’m fine. It’s nothing. I think I’m going to go to the grocery store now instead of waiting for Saturday.”
Alex and I were having a cookout Saturday. I had been itching to throw a get-together, but my place wasn’t big enough to hold my family and the Labelles.
I tried moving away to do as I mentioned. Alex kept me right where I was.
“Tell me what’s going on? Did Vic do something?” he asks.
“No. He doesn’t even know I’m back.”
“Chelsea, please talk to me.”
Licking my lips, I say, “I met with a new client this morning. He said he heard I was the interior designer on your home. He also heard you and I are together. But he took that as my way of a payment plan.”
“He what?” Alex’s tone always dropped lethally low when he was truly angry. “What is his name?”
I shook my head. “I handled it, Alex. You’re not going to do something stupid over this.”
“You say that like he knocked over a paint can on brand new floors and not sexual harassment.”
“I walked out of his house unharmed.”
“Did he touch you?”
“He flirted, which I noticed. I don’t want to sound conceited, but that’s normal for me. Men flirt all the time. This guy just took it too far. I walked out right after he said that.”
I couldn’t tell Alex the exact facts. Leon did touch me. He kept placing his hand at my lower back as he walked me around his house. He stood far too close and would glide one finger down my arm when I jotted notes on my iPad. I asked him to stop, and he did. But then he followed up with the proposition to pay me the same way Alex Labelle is paying—with sex.
I called him an asshole and walked out of there.
“He used my name as a reference?” Alex asks.
“Yes.”
“I want to know who he is, Chelsea. Have there been others? Is this why you’ve been so on edge all week.”
“I’m on edge because I don’t have as many projects lined up as I would have liked. I moved to Tampa with my visa for work. I need work in order to stay.”
“You’ll find work,” he says, cupping my cheek. “I’ll never let you leave again. Not without me, anyway.”
Whether it was opening up about Leon or Alex’s last words, in the end, he got that special client treatment only he can get. He washed away my lousy morning and revived me with all of him.
• • •
IF THERE WAS one thing I missed about the house I shared with my ex, it was the convenience of hosting parties. Large gatherings where the food was still cooking when people began to arrive. Handing out beer and pouring sangria. Styling a charcuterie board because it was the one item I did not order in. Blowing up floats for my nieces and nephews.
I had a lot of those moments before the divorce. My world was full of family time.
Then we moved after the trade and I realized how much of my life was unfilled without the shield of my family. It opened my eyes to a marriage that had been lost long ago.
I was homesick for a long time. I made friends here, and when I went back to Vancouver a couple months ago, I felt torn between the two places. That’s how I knew Tampa had become my new home. I was no longer longing for Canada. I missed my family, but I had one of my own here too.
My sisters and their families were in Orlando for summer vacation. The kids went to Disney World for the first time. They were heading home Monday, and it was Alex that asked if I wanted to have the cookout with both of our families.
He stole my heart even more when I came over this morning to find his backyard decked out with floats and a brand new slide that he had installed.
“I wanted to make sure the kids had plenty to play with,” he said.
And in Labelle fashion, one brother had to top the other.
They weren’t vocal about it, but I would bet every one of the extravagant items in Alex’s yard, those guys were ready to fill the world with more little Labelles.
Brooks heard about the slide and brought over a giant Jenga set, and everything to play field hockey. Saturday morning, we answered the door to find a leather-skinned man holding a clipboard and asking where he was to set up.
“I think you have the wrong house,” Alex said.
“Are you Cameron Labelle?”
Alex sighed and showed the guy where to set up the bounce house.
By the time everyone started to arrive, his yard looked like it was set up for a field tournament.
I was crawli
ng out of a kid sandwich my nieces and nephews piled me under when they jumped out of the van when I caught Mel and Lill watching me with peculiar expressions.
“You’re smiling,” Mel commented.
“I always smile.” Chuckling, I link my arms with theirs as we climb the steps to the door.
“But now it’s real,” Lill says. “I feel like shit for not seeing it before. But your smiles were missing the happiness that is in them now.”
“My family is here. Of course, I’m happy.”
“It’s the job,” Mel says. “It’s given you an identity.”
“And the man. I bet he knows just how to please that new identity.”
“That he does. But the job is a little rocky at the moment.”
“Anything you need a lawyer for?” Mel asks, squeezing my arm in jest.
“Actually, I might.” Mel pulls me to a stop, which jerks Lill along with me. “I didn’t want to ask you for help, but Alex says I should. A client refused to pay the full amount we agreed upon.”
“Well, Alex is right. That little twat is going to pay for gypping my baby sister.”
“Can you not make me sound like an adolescent when you go after her?”
I give them a tour of Alex’s house, but it’s mainly centered around all my decorating. Somehow his place has been looped in with my work as a live-action slideshow. Even Betty and Jo walked around like they were seeing it for the first time.
I apologize to him once everyone was out of earshot. I thought all the attention on my work and not the fact that it was his home would have hurt his pride. He gladly reminded me I wasn’t dating someone with a selfish ego by adding time to the O clock. It was a game he created to teach me to apologize less. If I said “I’m sorry” for things that were not my fault, he withheld my orgasms in bed.
I may have apologized on purpose in some scenarios. Teasing in the bedroom made for an unforgettable finish.
Everyone drifted outside early on. I had a pitcher of sangria gripped in one hand when the doorbell rang. As far as I knew, we weren’t expecting anyone else.
I opened the front door to find the captain of the Fury and his wife.
Stunned, and freaking out in silence, I smacked a welcoming smile on my face.
“Hey, Chelsea. Brooks invited us last minute, so I don’t know if he told Alex we were coming.” Ryan sat a hand on top of his son’s head. The little cutie was the spitting image of his dad. He was also not to be trusted with markers.
“It’s so good seeing you.” Kate wrapped me in a hug as they stepped inside.
“You too. Hey, Owen. How’re you liking your playroom?” One of the rooms I designed at Ryan and Kate’s was for their five-year-old son.
“It’s super really cool.” His bright blue eyes twinkle. “I want to move my bed to the pirate ship, but Mommy won’t let me.”
Kate passes me a look. Moms are always the bad guys when they have to put their foot down.
I smile back at Owen, ready to tag team with Kate. But in that cool, I’m-not-your-mom-so-maybe-you’ll-listen-to-me way.
“Well, the captain of the ship should sleep where his shipmates can’t roam about. You wouldn’t want to sleep where a bunch of smelly seamen trample, would you?”
“Ew. No.” His nose twitches.
“Did you bring your swim trunks? There are some kids already in the pool if you want to get in.”
Owen raises his face to his parents. Ryan tousles his straight blonde hair, steering him across the house and toward the backyard.
“Is that the sangria you made at your housewarming party last year?” Kate points to the glass pitcher in my hand.
“It is. Let me grab one more glass for you and then we can join the others.”
We stop in the kitchen, Kate lingering by the island while I reach for a cup.
“I heard around town Alex hired you. It looks amazing in here.”
Kate faced the dining room straight ahead of the open kitchen space. The walls were a navy blue, and the accents had a lot of modern touches of white and silver. Alex liked bright areas, and he tried arguing against the dark walls when he saw the paint cans. In the end, he learned to let me do the styling as I saw fit.
He was my favorite client. I got to tell him to shut up whenever I wanted.
“Thanks. I really had the chance to explore my passion with this house.”
“We have to catch up. WAGs is just the group. Doesn’t mean we aren’t friends anymore. The other girls miss you too.”
I smile and nod, sliding the patio door open.
I wanted that. But WAGs were a group, nonetheless. They worked at events together, organized charities, attended games. During the season they were a unit, and beyond that sometimes it faded. It did with the group of women I was friends with on Vic’s old team.
This could be different though. I lived here and would be attending the games next season. I could still relate to the guys’ grueling schedules. But from the view as the general manager’s girlfriend.
Very different, indeed.
I caught Alex’s stare across the wide patio.
He stood near the bar slash grilling corner. A small grin lifted one side of his mouth. Most wouldn’t recognize it. He’s always so stern. But I see the smiles because I feel the rush of warmth and excitement they shoot through me.
Being a part of the WAGs circle used to be a big deal. Pressure came more so from my ex. He forced me to fit in. I was a people pleaser, and it was exhausting. I’m still like that in ways, not all of me has changed. Turns out I didn’t require change. I needed acceptance.
With most of the Fury roster out of town for the off-season, no one beyond his brother knew about us dating. Brooks invited Ryan, but whether or not he told him anything was up in the air. Alex could not care less about what others speculated when it was inevitable. I was concerned if there was any backlash, how would it affect his relationship with the players. He liked to allude to just how much this job, a way back into hockey, really meant to him. I only hope being with me doesn’t disturb that.
I served drinks and chatted with my sisters and my girlfriends. We watched and laughed as Cam joined the kids in the bounce house. Brooks piled in, and he and Cam almost popped the damn thing. Betty had to kick them out.
When everyone was out of the pool and drying off, we served the food. Alex stopped next to me, wrapped a firm arm around my waist and kissed a spot on my jaw near my ear. It sent waves of goosebumps down my neck. An innocent touch with underlying indecency.
We pulled apart and found two comical stares aimed right at us.
They weren’t laughing, but I almost did. Kate flatout stared, and Ryan couldn’t find one area to focus on for more than a second. He was the definition of a polite noisy person.
“Problem?” Alex asked. His tone indicated he really didn’t care one way or another.
“Um, yeah. Chels, we really need to catch up,” Kate replied, cheeks cracking into a stunned smile.
“Kept you in the dark too, huh,” Earl muttered with a huff.
He’s been sour since Cam mentioned Alex and I were seeing each other. Oh, he was happy about the news, but “he’s the matchmaker behind the pairing” and should have been told sooner.
“Quit your pouting,” Betty fussed. “We’ll likely have a grandchild within the next year.”
Earl beamed.
Brooks fist pumped.
Jo choked on sangria, coughing uncontrollably.
I hid behind my own drink but sneaked a quick glance at Alex.
We were a ways from having that talk, but I wasn’t mad at the thought of it. The idea of finding someone so soon after my divorce seemed unlikely. And moving too fast in a relationship was a giant red flag. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt.
But when you know…you know. Send me back three months ago, and I wouldn’t stop the onslaught of feelings for Alex that crashed into my universe.
I found my favorite set of gray eyes glued on me. A moment passed
between us. More meaningful than the talk. From the first time he kissed me, I’ve always felt the most intense, palpable passion sit between us. And I saw everything he wanted to say just then. We had plenty of days to spend together as we climbed toward that someday in the future.
My nieces and nephews and Owen plowed through lunch, ready to play with the rest of the activities set up. Jo and I spray painted the colored dots of Twister on the lawn. It was her contribution, and we all found out why. Daily yoga workouts made her super bendy. She beat us every round.
Mel strutted out onto the field where the hockey nets were set up. She bent and grabbed a stick. “How ‘bout it Labelles? Lewis girls against you three.”
Mel played hockey all throughout grade school. She had almost a decade in age on the brothers, but that would never stop her.
It’s not every day someone can say they played hockey with all three Labelle brothers. Even if there’s no rink.
Sticks in hand, Alex and I stand center for the face off. He bends his knees, hovering above the white ball, and blinding me with his panty-melting smile.
“Hey there, sunshine.”
“Don’t ‘sunshine’ me.”
“What?” he laughs, pretending to be clueless.
I drop my eyes to his lips. “You only call me sunshine for two reasons. When you’re feeling extra sweet, or when you’re trying to be persuasive.”
“Can I persuade you to pass that puck over?” he grins.
Leaning in close enough to feel his breath run along my nose and lips, I reply, “Dating the wrong girl if you think that’s going to happen, Labelle.”
“No.” His head moves in a subtle shake. “I’m definitely with the right girl.”
CHAPTER 25
ALEX
SUNDAY MORNING I meet my brothers at Triplets. The bar opens at two in the afternoon, and the place was vacant for all except us. It’s eerie sitting inside a bar before opening. Almost like you’re waiting for something to rough up the calmness.
I asked Brooks and Cam to meet me here. We took up a booth in the VIP section. I sat facing the room, Brooks in front of me on the opposite seat, and Cam on the outside, sitting backward in a chair.