by Parker, Ali
I couldn’t bear arriving to the same comatose form I left behind, even though I knew that was exactly what I needed to prepare myself for. I turned the dial in my rental car until I found a local radio station I liked, then linked my phone up to the car and sat back, taking the last few minutes I had to myself before driving into the lion’s den to order my thoughts.
In less than an hour, I would be back in the thick of things. I was going to need every ounce of mental energy I could muster now to deal with my family. Considering there was only the three of us, I wouldn’t have imagined things in my family ever getting as complicated as they were right now.
My phone started ringing through the speakers of the car, bringing me out of my reverie. The sight of Aston’s name on the screen in the center console caused a grin that shouldn’t have been possible under the circumstances. Pressing the button on my steering wheel, I connected the call. “Hey.”
“Hey you.” The sound of her voice in the car instantly relaxed me. I let my head rest against the seat as I navigated myself out of the airport at a near crawl. “Did you get to Florida okay?”
“I did.” It surprised me how much I liked that she was calling to check if I’d arrived safely. No one in my life had done that before. I supposed that was what girlfriends and moms did, but none of my girlfriends had been the kind of companion who called to check in, and since my mom took off when I was young, there had always been a vacuum in my life where that kind of care ought to have been. “How’s everything going over there?”
“It’s all good. We’re really busy, but that seems to be the norm now.” There was a well-deserved hint of pride in her voice before it changed and became more serious. “Have you seen your father yet? How is he?”
Her concern touched my heart in a way not many things ever did. “I’m on my way to the hospital now, but there was no news when I called Danny earlier.”
“Well, no news is good news,” she mused. “Or so they say.”
“I’ve heard that,” I told her. “I just hope that they’re right, whoever they might be.”
Aston’s soft giggle filled the cab, making my body feel warm. She elicited the weirdest reactions in my body. “Still wishing I was there?”
I still couldn’t believe I’d sent that text about the empty seat. It wasn’t like me to act like a school boy, texting a girl my random thoughts. With Aston though, I couldn’t help it. I saw the open seat next to me, wondered what it would have been like to have her sitting there, and the next thing I knew, I’d sent the text.
The damage was done and there was no taking it back now. I didn’t think I would though, even if I could. “I do. It’s lonely in this car and a little company would be nice.”
“Company? Is that all? You could always pick up a hitchhiker.” Her tone was light and teasing, but she was definitely curious to know what I meant. So was I.
I searched my brain until I found an honest answer for the sake of both of us. “No, that’s not really it. It would have been nice to have you here. Just you. The next couple of days are going to suck. You would have made being here way more fun.”
She giggled again. “Is that so? And how exactly would I have managed that?”
Her voice was huskier, flirty. The recognition of that tone, the same one I’d heard from her in bed, was like a fist around my cock, which took notice immediately.
But as much as I would have enjoyed it, I couldn’t just pull over to have phone sex right now. I tabled the thought for later though. “I don’t know, maybe because I would have had someone to play backgammon and tennis with.”
She laughed. I could almost see the way her eyes lit up and her eyebrow raised when she did. Damn, she was beautiful. “Backgammon and tennis, huh? I was hoping for something a little more interesting than that.”
Jesus, Aston being light and flirty was really getting to me. For a brief second, I considered pulling over and risking arrest just so I could hear where the conversation would go if we kept it up. But Aston was at work, and the thought of having to call Danny to bail me out after getting arrested for jerking off in my car killed the moment. That wouldn’t be the greatest way to start the talk I had to have with him.
“It would have been more interesting than you imagine. Backgammon is a captivating game.”
She laughed again. “Oh, I can imagine all right.”
I sighed, I missed her already. Crazy, but true. I couldn’t wait to get back to California and I’d only just left. “Are you sure you can’t come here? I give a pretty spectacular tour of our head office.”
“I’m sure, but I’ll definitely take you up on that tour next time,” she promised. “Are you at the hospital yet?”
I checked my estimated arrival time on the navigation system still running on the screen. “Just about.”
Aston grew serious, pausing before she replied. “Good luck. I really wish I could be there for you when you get in there. I’m about to go into a meeting, but text me if you need me, okay? I don’t know if you know this, but I’m kind of the boss around here, at least whenever a certain heir to the group isn’t around. I can get out of the meeting anytime.”
I chuckled, but I was sorry we were going to have to end the call. “I’m sure you’re a much better boss than that heir. Thanks for the luck, I’m going to need it.”
“No problem. Now remember—especially if you feel like ripping your brother’s head off —if you wind up in jail we won’t be getting around to that game of backgammon anytime soon.”
“Words to live by.” I chuckled at the unlikely exchange. “I’ll do my best to stay out of jail then, but just in case, I feel like I should remind you that conjugal visits are allowed. So surely gaming visits are permitted as well.”
“Even so, I’d rather play the game with you someplace where I wouldn’t have to get strip searched to visit.”
“I don’t know much about prison visiting protocol, but I don’t think it involves strip searches,” I told her.
She giggled, then I heard a door open on her end of the line. “I have to go, so let’s not risk it, okay? The searches, I mean.”
“You got it. Bye Aston, thanks for checking in.”
“Anytime,” she said. “Good luck. Speak to you later?”
“Absolutely.” We hung up just as I was getting to the hospital.
I ran into Dad’s doctor in the elevator. The guy smiled when he recognized me. “Blake, welcome back.”
“Thanks, Doc. How’s he doing today?” I wasn’t expecting bad news, but I couldn’t help searching his expression for even the vaguest hint of it. Being back at the hospital set me on edge, made my nerves flare up.
Thankfully, however, the doctor smiled. “I’ve just come from my rounds. I checked in on him just a few minutes ago. His test results are getting better. He could wake up any day now. Having his wife around sure seems to be speeding up the process.”
My head jerked back, a deep line forming between my eyebrows. “His wife?”
The doctor nodded. “She hasn’t left his side for days. It’s the kind of dedication you don’t see very often any more. I even offered her use of the staff bathrooms so she could get cleaned up without having to leave.”
The elevator ding signaled our arrival on Dad’s floor. The doctor stepped back and allowed me to pass.” It’s good to see you, son. He’s lucky to have his family around him.”
I had no idea what he was talking about. The only thing I could think of was that Dad had a girlfriend we didn’t know about who was pretending to be his wife so she could hang around. I didn’t know why he would hide something like that, but there was no other explanation.
When I got to Dad’s room, the same woman I’d seen that day when I left the hospital was sitting next to his bed. She looked up at me and for the first time I saw her face fully. She stood up, her lips curling into a warm smile. “Hello, Blake.”
I froze, rooted to the spot. It couldn’t be. She was older, her hair was peppered with gray
strands that hadn’t broken the jet black before. There were crow’s feet around her eyes and her posture had changed slightly, but there was no doubt in my mind who she was. What the fuck was she doing here? “Mom?”
Chapter 37
Aston
By the time my shift ended, I was bone tired and yet still strangely exhilarated at the same time. The hard work that came with being the manager now that the hotel was so much busier left me exhausted at the end of each day, yet more fulfilled than I've ever been before.
My exhilaration wasn’t only work-related though. My earlier conversation with Blake left my head in the clouds and my heart beating double time. During that conversation, for the first time I felt like I really knew him and that there was something between us that was real.
I logged out of my computer and locked up my office, still wishing I could have taken Blake up on his offer. Tiffany was walking down the hall just then, skipping up to me when she realized I had my bag slung over my shoulder.
"Well, would you look at that? Our fearless leader is packing up on time for once. Hey, what are you going to do now? I’m heading to the beach. Running into you like this makes me think fate wants you to come with me."
I laughed, about to decline her offer automatically when I stopped. There was really no reason not to go with her. It would be nice to get outside and it wasn’t like I was rushing home to anything.
“Okay, which beach are you going to? I’ll meet you there.” Tiffany’s eyebrows shot up when I accepted, her mouth dropping open just a few millimeters.
“I can’t believe you said yes. I had a whole speech prepared to try and convince you, too. You never just agree,” she exclaimed.
“Maybe I’ve changed,” I shrugged, throwing her a quick wink. “Or maybe all your invitations have just worn me down.”
“No, as much as I would love to take credit for this, I don’t think this one is on me. Remind me to thank Blake the next time I see him. A couple of orgasms and a steamy tryst in the supply closet have apparently made you a better person.”
“Going to the beach makes me a better person?” I asked, not sure if I followed her logic.
Tiffany grinned and shook her head. “Nope, but spending time with your best friend without having to have your butt kicked to do it does.”
“It was never about not spending time with you,” I told her, realizing that my overworked self might have given her the wrong idea about all those rejected offers. “I love spending time with you. I just ran myself ragged for a while there. I felt like it was necessary at the time.”
Tiffany reached for the exit door and pushed it open. “I know. Your dedication to your job is probably what saved us from getting caught in the cuts. This push the last couple of weeks might have helped us over the edge, but without you at the helm these last couple of months, we would have been gone for sure.”
I waved her off. “No, we all did it together. Anyway, the important thing is that we are safe now, and we owe it to ourselves to celebrate and relax for a couple of hours.”
We reached Tiffany’s car and she gave me a look. “Don’t lie, you’re coming because you’re in a good mood because of Blake.”
I couldn’t tell if she was being serious or teasing, but it didn’t matter because she was right. I was in a good mood because of Blake. Since he was the one to give me the news that there would be no cuts at our branch, both Tiffany and I were technically right.
“You say ‘potato,’ I say ‘potahto.’ Are we going to the beach or are we going to stand here all day?” I motioned towards the setting sun, or rather, to where we would’ve been able to see it if not for another hotel blocking our view from this parking lot. “We’re burning precious daylight here.”
Tiffany nodded, throwing her hands out to the side. “We’re going, we’re going.”
We met up less than an hour later at a local beach nearby and rushed to watch the sunset with our asses in the sand. Before I was made the manager, we used to do this all the time.
There were only a couple of other groups of people on the beach at this time. We used to know some of the other regulars who hung out here, but I didn’t see anyone I knew anymore. There were some college-age kids playing volleyball, a couple of couples strolling near the shoreline and a group of people gathering around a guy with a guitar to our left.
Tiffany pulled two bottles of water out of her backpack and handed one to me after we got settled. “Thanks for coming with me, I've missed doing this with you.”
“Me too,” I admitted, stretching my arms out behind me and digging my fingers into the sand before I leaned back. “We should start doing this more often again.”
“I still do it all the time, but yeah. You should start coming with me again,” she said wistfully, staring out at the orange ball starting to disappear behind the dark horizon. “If we still did it as often as we used to, I would have known what was going on between you and Blake.”
I laughed. “There’s not much more to know that you don’t already. Like I said this morning, I also don’t really know what is going on between us. I did speak to him this afternoon, and he said he wished I was with him, if that counts for anything.”
Her eyes widened. “Was he saying it hypothetically or did he actually ask you to go with him?”
I ducked when I saw a volleyball being launched our away. A girl caught it before it even came close to us though. Tiffany was still waiting for my answer. “He asked. He told me yesterday that he was waiting on something and if he didn't get it, he would have to go back to corporate. After he told me he would have to go, he asked if I would go with him.”
She stared at me, gaping. “And you said no?”
I nodded. “Now isn’t the right time for me to be away from the hotel. I mean, I wanted to go with him but we are really busy and I couldn’t take leave now.”
Shaking her head at me, Tiffany wagged a finger in my face. “Listen to me, you’ve given everything to this hotel. This is exactly the right time to take leave. You’ve worked your butt off these last few weeks to avoid cuts at our branch. You’ve now confirmed that there won’t be any cuts made here. This is the perfect time to take some time off.”
A wave of doubt over my decision came crashing into me. What Tiffany had said actually made some sense. “You really think so?”
“Of course,” she said. “Everyone will understand if you need to take a couple of days after the last few weeks. You’ve been under a huge amount of stress, but it paid off. You’re respected well enough around here that people will keep working even when you are gone. We won’t let all of our hard work go down the drain just because you take a couple of days for yourself. Go. You’ve earned it.”
“I do really wish that I could be with Blake,” I told her, wondering if she was right about taking time off.
The truth was I’d approved leave for many of our staff members recently. A lot of people were taking a break for a few days and I hadn’t thought anything of it before telling them it was fine.
Tiffany seemed to follow my thought process. “It’s okay to need to take some time off. It’s human, even. If you really wish you can be with him, then what’s stopping you? You can be with him.”
“But with all the changes we’ve been making—”
“No,” she interrupted with a stern expression. “Don’t you dare start making excuses. Your team can do this—without you needing to be there. We respect you, we love you. We’d never let all your hard work go to waste, especially not in a matter of a couple of days.”
“You’re sure about this?” She was convincing me, but I was worried. I knew I wasn’t the glue holding everything together. My team was extremely capable, I simply didn’t feel like I should be leaving at a time like this.
But Tiffany wouldn’t have it. “I’m one hundred and ten percent sure, and the others would be too.”
I blinked hard. Was I actually considering this? I imagined the look on Blake’s face if I surprised him. Su
rely, he would like it. I could be there for him, to support him like he had supported me in the face of the cuts.
He had done everything he could for me. I wanted to do something for him, and this felt like the perfect choice. The people whose jobs he helped me save were my friends, some of them were like my family. He wanted me with him now that he had to deal with his own family problems and Tiffany was right, I could be there.
Slowly, I made my decision. I would go to him. “Okay, I’ll tell everyone tomorrow morning and I’ll be out of here by tomorrow afternoon.”
Tiffany’s head swung to mine. “You’re really going to do it?”
“I am.” My mind was made up. For all Blake had done for me, I owed it to him to do this. More than that, I owed it to myself. I hadn’t taken a single vacation since I started working for the McAllen Group.
Knowing where I wanted to go and that I wanted people like Wayne McAllen to sit up and take notice of me, I kept my head down and worked hard. Even the idea of a vacation, as short as it might be, felt strange.
But I was going to go through with it. “You’re right. I need some time off and I trust you guys to hold down the fort while I’m gone. It’ll only be for a few days.”
Tiffany squealed and let out a loud whoop. Several of the other beachgoers looked curiously in our direction, but she ignored them all. “I’m so proud of you. You’re doing the right thing. Your first vacation since you started here. I must admit, I’m a little jealous that you’ll be spending it with Blake instead of me, but I’m glad you’ve decided to go.”
“Me too.” I really was excited. A lot of people would probably question me taking my vacation to be with a guy, but I knew it was for a good reason. Plus, it was more for me as much as it was for him.
I wanted to go to him. I wanted to spend time with him. He’d spent plenty of time with me in my world. I wanted to go see him in his. And it was about time I started doing things for myself again.