Manic Monday

by Piper Rayne

  I round the corner to find Jade’s hand in Reed’s, sitting on the couch with Moe climbing over Jade to get to Reed. He snuggles into his thigh, leaving Reed’s slacks covered with a thick layer of black fur. He hesitantly pets the animal.

  “Mommy.” Jade’s soft voice announces my entry and Reed’s attention shifts from the loving cat at his side to me in the doorway.

  “Hey.” He moves to stand and Jade releases his hand.

  How does he keep getting more handsome? He’s wearing a pair of charcoal grey slacks, a blue button-down shirt and a pair of black loafers that aren’t shiny like the ones he wore Monday morning. His hair is gelled a tad differently, wilder but still put together.

  “Hi.” I lean my shoulder on the doorway and catch his gaze raking me over.

  I worry my dress is too short, but from his heated gaze, I’m guessing he likes it. Long gone are the days I can wear anything tight and form fitting, but I show off my best asset that wasn’t altered due to childbearing—my legs. My heels give the impression they’re longer than they are which is great considering my petite stature.

  “You’re beautiful.” This is why Reed won a date. I’ve never believed someone more in my life. That cocky persona he puts on has disappeared and when he says I’m beautiful, his voice shakes slightly, like that scares him a little.

  “Thank you.”

  “Here.” Jade holds up the flowers to him. “He brought flowers.” She stands between us, smiling back and forth.

  Reed takes the bouquet of tulips and holds them out for me.

  “Thank you.” Our fingers brush when we exchange them and a current blasts down to my toes and back up. “I’ll put them in water.”

  I turn to head to the kitchen, but my mom is there. “I got it. You two go.” She takes the flowers from my hands and I smile down at her since my heels have me towering over her.

  “Thanks for watching Jade.”

  “Yes, Ms. Clarke, thank you for watching her so I can take out your daughter.” Reed pokes his head into the kitchen.

  My mom puts the flowers into the vase she already prepared. “I’m happy to do it. It was a pleasure seeing you again, Reed. Maybe you can come by for dinner sometime.”

  I crinkle my forehead at my mom who effectively ignores me.

  “I’d love to.” Reed side glances me and I shift my stance.

  “Great, I’ll talk with Vic and we’ll let you know. Now, you two, go. Jade and I have a night of movies and popcorn.”

  Jade runs in, hugging my mom around her waist.

  Reed holds out his fist to her. “Henry said this is unfair, so next time you guys come.” He winks. Jade fist bumps him and then stops in front of me.

  I bend down so I’m at her eye level. “Be good for Grandma. Go to bed on time. Don’t fuss, okay?”

  She peeks up at Reed and I shift her face back to me with a nudge of my finger on her chin.

  “Promise.”

  I kiss her cheek and squeeze her to me. Once we’re apart, she pushes me lightly, but since I’m mid crouch, I lose my footing and fall right into Reed’s arms. I eye Reed like he planned it, but he shakes his head.

  “Not my doing, but you smell amazing,” he whispers, and I straighten, pretending he doesn’t affect me.

  “Sorry, Mommy.” Jade has her am-I-in-trouble expression on.

  “Let’s go.” I wave over to my mom who’s leaning over the counter in front of a bowl of popcorn with a kernel between her fingers.

  “After you.” Reed steps back, allowing me to go first.

  The chill of the spring night air settles around me. Reed shuts the door, walking in line with me down the walkway until we reach the sidewalk. I had expected to see Abe’s blue sedan, but there’s a sleek sports car parked along the curb. Its lights flash and it beeps when we approach.

  I stop. “Is this yours?”

  He opens the passenger door. “I hope so, or this date is going to get interesting when the police chase starts.”

  “Oh.” I slide in as demurely as I can considering I have to bend so far down I’m practically sitting on the potholed street of Chicago.

  He shuts the door, rounds the back of the car and before I can take in all the fancy controls and figure out what the wing trademark logo on the steering wheel stands for, the scent of his cologne surrounds me and blocks all working brain function.

  “Is it okay if we head out of the city?” he asks.

  “Sure.”

  “So, your mom’s good if I fly you to Paris for the weekend?” His face is serious. No raised eyebrows or sarcastic tone.

  “No, and you aren’t.”

  He reaches over and squeezes my knee. “I’m kidding. I want to impress you, but I’m not that guy from Pretty Woman.”

  Embarrassment hits me hard and I immediately lose all my spunk. Of course, he wouldn’t want to go to the trouble of doing anything like that for me. What a ridiculous thought.

  “He only took her from L.A. to San Fran and operas aren’t my thing.”

  He chuckles, shifting the stick around and then slowly eases away from the curb.

  “Damn him. Who did he think he was going to impress with that?” Reed laughs as I fixate on his strong hand shifting the gears while his knee rocks back and forth with the clutch.

  It’s sexy as fuck.

  “What kind of car is this?” I ask.

  “Aston Martin. I keep it in the garage of my condo. Only take it out on special occasions.” He glances over with a smile that says I’m special and embarrassment washes over me.

  “I forget where you grew up sometimes.”

  “Good. I’m not what that upbringing usually implies.” He signals and turns left.

  “Do your parents still live there?”

  We pull onto the highway, the engine purring away as he shifts and presses down the gas pedal speeding up on the on-ramp. Traffic is piled on the other side heading into the city and we’re heading out.

  “Yeah. They’ll leave in coffins.”

  “They like it there?”

  “They like the status of it. They like that my sister married our next-door neighbor growing up and they moved two streets over. The grandkids can ride their bikes over. They like that they can brag that my sister married a wealthy plastic surgeon. Never mind that he’s never home. Never mind that she calls me once a week to say she’s on the edge of a nervous breakdown and wants to divorce him.” He glances over for a second. “Sorry, more than you asked.”

  “No, it’s fine. I’m sorry for your sister. I’ve been there.”

  His shoulders slump when the car goes faster. Is that because I brought up Pete? Does it bother Reed to think about me being his ex-wife?

  “Sorry,” I mumble.

  “Don’t be.” The car slows to a normal Chicago speed which is at least twenty over the limit. He finds his way over to the left lane and seems content to stay there for the moment. “I never want you to feel like you can’t tell me something. There are no rules tonight, Victoria. You want to talk about Pete, go for it. You want to ramble on about Jade, I’m game. You want to complain to me about the egg salad sandwich you had for lunch this week that made you sick, cool.”

  I laugh. “I knew I should’ve just stuck with The Sandwich Place,” I murmur.

  Glancing over his shoulder, he changes lanes and catches my eyes on the way back briefly before they land on the road again. “I just want you to enjoy yourself. That’s all.”

  “Okay.”

  “Okay?” he asks.

  “Okay.”

  “So, I went on this date last weekend,” he talks and my body stiffens. He bursts out laughing, not finishing the story. “I’m kidding.”

  I laugh along with him.

  “Henry told me a joke yesterday when I called to see how he was. Want to hear it?”

  “Sure, but I have to warn you, I might put you to shame in the kid jokes arena.”

  “Are you challenging me?” he asks with amusement and pulls into the far-rig
ht lane, exiting one highway to hop on another one.

  “I am.” I shift in my seat, so I can look at him better.

  “Okay, why are ghosts such bad liars?” he asks, finally relaxing in his seat.

  “Um…because you can see right through them.” I tilt my head in a fashion that says I know I’m right.

  “You weren’t lying. Okay, let me dig into my arsenal here.” He thinks for a moment and I try to figure out where he’s taking me, but since returning to Chicago I haven’t ventured out of the city much. “Okay, what do you call a cow with no legs?”

  “Oh.” I think and replay all the jokes Jade and I have said back and forth. All the popsicle stick riddles and her stealing my phone to ask me. “Steak?”

  “Is steak on your mind?” A flirtatious grin crosses his face.

  “No. Is the answer steak?”

  He pulls off the highway and turns right at the light.

  “No, it’s not. Another guess?”

  “Roast?”

  “You’re so close.” His fingers move up to show a little space between his thumb and forefinger. Turning left, he parks in front of a restaurant and we sit in the car for a moment.

  “Just tell me.”

  “Ground beef.”

  My head falls back to the leather seat. “I should’ve gotten that.”

  “How about some steak though? I thought it was only fitting you get to taste a great steak on our first date.”

  I roll my eyes, though not in a bad way and push him gently toward the window. He turns off the car, climbs out all alpha and hot then rounds the front of the car so I get an eyeful of him. When he opens my door, I accept his hand.

  “You’re too much,” I say.

  “You have no idea.”

  He makes it sound like a promise. And suddenly I’m hoping with everything in me that Reed really is a man who keeps his promises.

  Chapter Nineteen

  To say that dinner with Reed was something out of a movie is probably an understatement. He was a gentleman the entire night. Pulling my chair out for me, suggesting a bottle of wine, discussing which steak on the menu was the best, sliding in a joke about how he’s not on the menu tonight unless I ask for the special.

  By my second glass of wine, the tension and anxiety that had been laced through my body had dissolved like salt in water. Sitting at a candlelit table tucked into the far corner of a restaurant I’d never be able to afford at this point in my life, Reed wooed me. It wasn’t any one thing in particular. There were no grand declarations or heartfelt moments. It was just Reed being Reed.

  We talked about anything and everything and I never once felt like I had to temper my responses for fear of judgment. He told me stories about him growing up—some of which involved Pete—and I confessed to some of my more embarrassing escapades as a teenager. I explained how much I enjoyed working with Chelsea and Hannah and about my job back in Los Angeles and he explained some of the inner workings of some of his cases.

  By the time we stood up, I had to find my footing. With a full stomach and a contagious smile, I allowed Reed to take me by the hand and guide me to the coat room.

  “Thank you,” I murmur, sliding my arms into my coat.

  “I’m the one who needs to say thank you. I’m glad you took that leap.”

  “Me too,” I admit. I put myself out there and I couldn’t know for sure if it was the alcohol talking or whether Reed had cast some sort of spell on me.

  * * *

  I circled around, waiting for him to put on his own jacket. He hands the coat check some money and nods toward the door.

  Leaving the warm atmosphere of the restaurant behind, I walk ahead, and he catches up, his hand molded to my hip rather than its usual spot on my lower back. His touch has my nipples tightening inside my bra.

  Until tonight, I’ve kept my feelings for Reed in an iron box. Locked. Under my bed. Surrounded by other boxes I haven’t wanted to dust off and examine the contents of. The fear that I’ll turn into the old, naive Victoria Clarke before I lost myself to being Mrs. Victoria Keebler had waged a war inside and won.

  It’s been two years since the divorce and it took an entire year before I felt like the Clarke surname fit me again. My intuition assures me that Reed will handle me with gentle hands, but my intuition misjudged once before and although I received the best gift from my worst decision, I am still the one who picked Pete to share my life with.

  All of that and yet here I sit, not wanting him to take me home. Wanting a minute, even a second more with him...to see the crinkle around his eyes when he laughs at something I said, to have his gaze land on me like there’s nothing he’d like more than to ravish me at that very moment.

  My mind is so consumed with this internal debate I hadn’t noticed we were pulling away from the restaurant. He’s turned the radio on at a low volume and the silence between us isn’t awkward, it’s comfortable. His fingers tap along the stick shift, the lyrics low as they tumble out of his mouth.

  For a moment, my mind flashes forward to what it would be like if we actually worked out. On our way home from a date night to find Jade and a set of twins still challenging my mom about their bedtime. Reed swooping them up in his arms when we walk in. Me sitting down on the sofa and talking with my mom about the night. Reed bringing us tea, snuggling up beside me on the couch as he fawns over my mother and me.

  I smile thinking about what could be in the fantasy I’ve created for the two of us.

  “You’re quiet,” he says, his hand finding my bare knee.

  I swivel in my seat to face him. “I feel like all we’ve done tonight is talk about me. Tell me about your family.”

  His body tenses for a moment. “I’ve told you about them. They have expectations I don’t quite live up to.”

  “Does being an ADA pay well?” I can’t help but glance at the logo on the steering wheel.

  He glances at me with a smirk on his lips. “Not enough for this, if that’s what you’re asking.”

  “Well, you wear three-piece suits, which by the way I still insist a personal shopper picks out for you, you drive this ridiculously priced car”—I pat the dash—“and I imagine you live in a nice condo with a parking space that costs more every year than my entire college education did.”

  He chuckles. “You know I’m a rich kid.”

  He says it as casually as you’d tell someone you love pizza.

  “Am I to assume you have a trust fund?”

  He glances at me again and that smirk hasn’t left his face. “You assume correct.”

  I move to look straight ahead out the windshield, leaning back in the seat. This would be another difference between Pete and Reed. Pete’s parents though rich, didn’t save. They spent and continue to spend what his father makes. They were nouveau riche and my guess is that Reed comes from old money. Pete knew if he wanted to continue his lifestyle, he had to earn the money himself. Reed went the opposite route.

  “From your grandfather?” I ask.

  “Grandmother.” He winks. “My mom’s mom.”

  “So, your dad…”

  “My dad is a successful businessman. A CEO of a major food industry company, but my mom’s family money goes back generations.”

  “And your dad doesn’t like you being an ADA either?”

  He huffs. “Right? I guess money can change people. Here’s a guy who worked his way up through the ranks and he thinks his money was wasted on my degree.”

  My mom would have been ecstatic if I’d become a lawyer.

  “I wasn’t brought up to do what makes me happy, Victoria. I was brought up to do something that had a lot of money and prestige attached to it so that my parents could brag.”

  “But being an assistant district attorney is a noble profession,” I insist.

  “Don’t feel bad for me, I’ve had a good life. So, what if my parents don’t like what I do? I learned a long time ago, that’s their problem, not mine.”

  “You sound so sure. I mea
n parent’s expectations have the capability of really messing up a kid.”

  He nods before checking his blind spot to change lanes. “Believe me, I think my dad hates the fact that I started mentoring at Big Brothers because that’s when I found out the real world was far from the reality inside the tiny enclave I’d been raised in. On one hand, I was grateful for what I had growing up, but on the other hand, I wanted to help those who didn’t have the same opportunities.”

  “You’re like a noble prince.” The sentence falls from my lips without filtering through my brain.

  Shit. My filter must be soaked in red wine at the moment.

  The car rolls to a stop and for a moment, I think he didn’t hear me. His gaze is set forward, his hand wrapped around the gear shift, feet poised over the two pedals. Then he glances over, and his tongue is sliding over his bottom lip. “I love that you see me that way, but I don’t want to set some unrealistic expectations for you. I have plenty of faults.”

  “I need details.”

  “Well, I don’t cook. I order in every night. If you went to my condo right now, you’d only find a gallon of chocolate milk and a million takeout containers and condiments in my fridge. A cleaning lady comes twice a week because I am in no way domesticated. She washes my clothes, takes care of my dry cleaning, cleans the place. I stay up insanely late every night, usually crashing on my couch with a case file in my hand.”

  I smile, thankful that he’s not perfect. Because perfect is an illusion. And I want the real thing.

  “Sounds like you’re a typical bachelor to me.”

  He shrugs, the light turns green and he accelerates back onto the highway.

  “If I continue living this way, I’ll be single forever.”

  “I wouldn’t go that far.”

  He chuckles. “I’m kind of hoping I might be off the market soon.” He glances over at me and winks.

  I melt into the expensive leather seat. If it wasn’t for my sweet Jade, I’d wish I would’ve met him before Pete. But taking Pete out of the equation takes my Jade away and there’s no way I’d be me without her.

  “Can I ask you a question?” His eyes focus back on the road.