“I thought I’d find you here,” Sage said as she walked up to him. “Well, it’s official. You are the new manager of Le Magnifique.”
“None of this would be possible if it hadn’t been for you.”
She smiled at him. “You deserve it, Ryan. Everything you prepared tonight was delicious. You are a wonderful cook. I hate to admit this, but you’re much better than I am.”
“Where is your father and brother?” Ryan asked. “I can’t remember if I thanked them for giving me this chance.”
“Ari went upstairs, and my dad is on his way home. You did thank them.”
Ryan glanced around the restaurant once more. “I still can’t believe it. My life has changed a lot over a short period of time.”
“We were destined to meet,” Sage stated. “I really believe that. When I saw you the first time, all I could think of was that I had to do something to help this man.”
“I want you to know that I am glad I had a chance to meet you, Ms. Alexander.”
“I look forward to a long working relationship,” Sage responded with a smile. “Security is waiting to lock up, so I guess we need to get out of here.”
There was no denying that he was attracted to her, but Ryan tried to shake the idea out of his mind. Acting on his attraction would be a huge mistake.
They walked out of the restaurant together.
“I’m going to start looking for a place to live,” Ryan blurted. “I don’t want to wear out my welcome here.”
“You are more than welcome to stay here for as long as necessary, Ryan. We have some guest rooms that are only for staff. However, I understand if you want some place to call your own, so let me know if I can do anything to help.”
He laughed. “I can’t afford the type of properties you represent.”
“You never know,” Sage countered. “You may be able to do so in the future.”
Ryan gave her a sidelong glance. “Are you always so positive?”
Sage managed a tremulous smile. “I try to be.”
“I like that.”
“If you’d like me to, I can pull some rentals for you.”
“That would be nice,” Ryan responded. “I appreciate your help.”
He grew quiet for a moment, prompting Sage to ask, “You okay?”
Ryan nodded. “I’m just not used to having anyone look out for me like this. Franklin called you my guardian angel. He’s right.”
“I’m no angel,” Sage responded with a short laugh.
“You are my angel.”
Her gaze was riveted to his face. Sage found herself extremely cognizant of Ryan’s virile appeal. The smoldering flame she saw in Ryan’s eyes fascinated her. Her eyes traveled to his full lips that left her wondering what it would be like to feel those lips against her own.
She cleared her throat softly. “I need to… I have to meet my brother for lunch.”
Sage thought she glimpsed a shimmer of disappointment in Ryan’s eyes, but it was gone as quickly as it had appeared.
He walked her to the private elevator. “I owe you a debt of gratitude, Sage. I intend to repay that debt.”
“Just do the best job you can, and that will be payment enough.” She refused to look at him this time because all she could think about was how her body ached for his touch and his kissable lips.
* * *
Ryan could not ignore the tingling in the pit of his stomach.
His feelings for Sage were intensifying. Everything around him seemed to take on a clean brightness whenever she was around.
“This is insane,” he muttered. “I can’t have these kinds of feelings for Sage.”
Ryan was only in town to work his story. After all Sage had done for him, he felt guilty for misleading her. He had even taken a job as restaurant manager. This was probably the craziest move yet.
He silently reasoned that he had to continue to play along to keep Sage from becoming suspicious. How could he explain turning down a job?
Ryan vowed to keep a professional distance where Sage was concerned. He had to continue this charade until he had all the material he needed to write his article.
A wave of sadness flushed through him. Ryan had not felt such an intense attraction toward anyone like this in a long time. He kept telling himself that his feelings for Sage had nothing to do with reason.
The truth was that she had brought senses to life that Ryan thought were long dead.
Ryan left the hotel and walked the surrounding area.
Three blocks from the hotel, Ryan noticed a scrap of dirty blanket visible under some stairs and a bag of recyclables parked discreetly behind a bush. To most people, it looked like trash, but he had learned how to decode the bits of urban detritus that most people ignored. That area beneath the stairs was someone’s home.
He moved closer.
There was an elderly woman sound asleep beneath a worn, tattered sheet.
“Ma’am,” Ryan said gently.
Startled, she opened her eyes and sat up, cowering in fear.
“I’m sorry,” Ryan said. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I just wanted to make sure that you’re okay.”
“What do you care?” she sniped.
“I care a lot,” he responded.
Ryan pulled out his wallet and showed her his driver’s license. “I’m a writer, and I’m working on a piece about homelessness.” He took out a fifty dollar bill. “I’d like to ask you some questions, if you don’t mind.”
“You got that in smaller bills?” the woman asked.
“I have two tens, two fives and a twenty. Will this do?”
She nodded and whispered, “I can hide the money in different places—people steal, you know.”
“I understand.”
She accepted the money with a toothless grin. “What do you want to know? It really don’t matter what I tell you, though. Nobody can know what it is like until they’ve lived one night out here.”
Ryan agreed with her. The time he spent actually sleeping on the streets and in the shelter was a very different life and not for the faint at heart.
“I always have to worry about gang members or that the police will come and make me move. It sometimes gets real cold at night.”
“What’s your story?” Ryan asked.
“You mean what’s my truth,” she countered.
He smiled. “Yes, ma’am. That’s exactly what I mean.”
“Ma’am…humph…you make me sound like a lady and not some lump on the sidewalk.”
“What is your name?”
“I’d rather keep that to myself, but you can call me Lady Tee.”
“Okay, Lady Tee. What is your truth?”
“I lost everything I had in a fire. We let our insurance lapse because we thought that we didn’t need it. Our house was paid for and wasn’t much, but it belonged to me and my husband.”
“Where is your husband?”
“He died in the fire. He got me out and went back in to try to save our pictures. I told him to just stay with me, but he wouldn’t listen.”
“I’m so sorry,” Ryan stated.
She shrugged in nonchalance. “It was a long time ago.”
“Do you have any family?”
Lady Tee shook her head no. “My husband and I never had any children.”
“What about the shelter?”
“Every time I go there, I wake up to find my stuff missing. I used to have some battery-operated baby monitors as a burglar alarm, but somebody stole them, too. I can’t afford to lose nothing else, so I stay by myself.” Lady Tee pointed to a stack of books. “I am rebuilding my library. I love to read romance novels. They make me feel good.”
Ryan smiled. “I love the written word myself. I can
certainly understand why they are so precious to you.”
He sat and talked with Lady Tee for almost an hour.
“Thank you for taking time out to speak with me.”
She grinned. “God bless you for what you are trying to do.”
Ryan smiled in return, but deep down he felt as if it was not enough.
As he walked, Ryan mentally went over the information he had uncovered thus far. He discovered that scores of homeless people built semipermanent homes in the chaparral-covered hills that rise above the Hollywood Bowl. Hundreds lived in Griffith Park and Elysian Park and on islands in the Los Angeles River.
Ryan recalled a few years back that homeless people were discovered living above a concrete channel along the 405 Freeway. He never really understood why some people preferred to sleep in remote places by themselves while others grouped together in places like Skid Row or Hollywood. Lady Tee had given him some perspective on this.
On the way back to the hotel, Ryan encountered another homeless person who identified himself only as Simon.
Ryan engaged him in conversation by offering him the fifty dollar bill. Simon had no problem accepting the money—a sign that he wasn’t worried about being robbed.
“I usually prefer to sleep in Griffith Park,” Simon explained, “but I come up here during the week so that I can be available for jobs early in the morning.”
He showed Ryan his shaving kit. “I always try to look presentable, despite my situation.” In addition to the shaving kit, Simon’s worldly possessions included two blankets, a battery-operated black-and-white TV and a set of headphones. He did not want to disturb others who may be sleeping around him.
Simon ended the interview by saying, “To survive on the streets, it is necessary to live by a different set of rules. Ryan, where would you sleep if you were homeless?” he asked.
Ryan let the question go unanswered.
Chapter 8
Meredith met her brother for lunch at a nearby restaurant.
When they were seated at a table, Harold asked, “How do you enjoy working for Sage?”
“She’s actually very nice,” Meredith answered. “Sage definitely knows her job. I have to admit that I have learned a lot from her already. She has a generous spirit. Everyone at the hotel is talking about the homeless man she brought in, and now he’s the manager of the new restaurant.”
“You can’t be serious?” Harold DePaul uttered with disgust. “What is she thinking—bringing some strange man off the street?”
“She appears to be a lot like Uncle Robert. Remember, he brought in Franklin when he was homeless.”
“My uncle was fortunate that Franklin did not rob him blind or kill him in his sleep. We can’t say the same about this man she’s picked up off the streets. If Malcolm cannot control his daughter’s antics, then I will intervene. I want to know everything about this man—who he is and where he comes from.” Harold picked up his menu.
“I’m not going to be your spy,” Meredith stated firmly. “I told you that from the beginning.”
“I thought you cared about the DePaul legacy.”
She met her brother’s gaze. “I do, but I am not about to start another Alexander-DePaul feud.”
He shook his head in frustration. “I’ll take care of this myself. I’ll call Adam Hastings and have him check out this man. He is the best detective for this job.”
“Just make sure you don’t do anything to ruin this for me, Harold,” Meredith warned. “I intend to make sure my hands remain clean.” She laid down her menu. “Instead of being on opposite sides, why don’t you try to get to know them?”
* * *
Ryan picked up a discarded copy of the Los Angeles Times. He scanned through the paper, pausing when he spied a familiar face.
Sandra was getting married again.
Ryan’s mouth tightened. It wasn’t that he was still in love with his ex-wife, because that was not the case. He still harbored resentment in his heart for the way their marriage ended.
She had somehow lied and manipulated her way into another marriage—this time to a movie producer.
The memory of finding Sandra’s birth control pills floated through his mind. At the time, Ryan was looking forward to becoming a father. If she was not ready, then all she had to do was be honest with him. However, when he confronted Sandra, she confessed that she didn’t want children at all.
Ryan drew himself out of the past. It was time to focus on the here and now.
He called Paige to check on her and Cassie and then decided to go visit them. Paige sounded a little down on the phone, so he wanted to make sure she was okay.
Ryan left the hotel and hailed a taxi.
Fifteen minutes later, he was dropped off at the little motel where Paige had been staying.
He knocked on the door, and then said, “It’s me, Ryan.”
Paige peeked out of the window before throwing the door open.
“Ryan?” Paige’s eyes stayed on his face for a moment before traveling downward, taking in the new clothes, his clean-shaven appearance. “Wow…”
“How are things with you?” he asked Paige.
“I still can’t find a job.”
“I had some luck in that department,” Ryan announced. “I’m the new manager of the Le Magnifique restaurant in the Alexander-DePaul Hotel.”
“That’s wonderful, Ryan.” She embraced him. “I’m so happy for you.”
“I’m going to check to see what positions they have available. Maybe we can find something for you to do.”
“I hope so. I cannot keep depending on you. Although I don’t know how you’ve been able to do so much.”
“I’m resourceful,” Ryan responded with a tiny smile.
“Then you need to teach me how to be so resourceful because I’m failing miserably.”
“Don’t lose hope, Paige. Everything is going to work out.”
“For you maybe,” she responded. “I’m not worried so much about myself. It’s Cassie. I don’t want her taken from me because I can’t support her right now.”
“That won’t happen,” Ryan stated firmly. “I’d never let that happen.”
“I’m so glad that you’re my friend. I’ve never met anyone like you, Ryan.”
The baby started to stir.
Paige picked her up. “Look, Cassie. Look who is here to see you. It’s Uncle Ryan.”
The little girl smiled at him.
His heart warmed at the sight of her sweet smile. Ryan reached for her. “C’mere cutie. Every time I see your face, you make my day so much brighter.”
As he played with Cassie, Ryan thought about another female who made his days light up with her smile.
* * *
Sage and her siblings decided to spend the weekend with their parents at the Pacific Palisades estate. Her parents had opted to stay in the house instead of the penthouse at the hotel because they preferred the solace and quiet of the house over the hustle and bustle of living in the hotel. Her parents were planning to give Ari and Natasha the penthouse as a wedding gift.
They were all outside on the patio with her parents. Malcolm and Blaze were working the grill, while Barbara sat nearby engaged in conversation with Natasha. Drayden had brought a date with him, and they were in the swimming pool.
Hearing laughter, Sage turned around in the lounge chair. Ari was teaching Joshua how to swim in the shallow end of the pool. She was thrilled to see her brother happy again. She had worried that he would never be the same after he lost his first love, April. However, Natasha and Joshua entered his life when he needed them the most. Ari had formally adopted Joshua, who was in remission after a bout with leukemia. The two were as close as any father and son.
“Good job,” Ari told Joshua. “You’
re going to be swimming on your own in no time.”
“Yeah,” the little boy responded. “Hey, Mommy, watch me. I’m swimming.”
“I see you,” Natasha said. “I’m so proud of you.”
Blaze strode over and sat down beside Sage, saying, “Ari is really good with him.”
She agreed. “I always knew he’d be a good father. Remember how he used to treat us like we were his children?”
Chuckling, Blaze nodded.
“How about you?” Sage asked. “Do you want children someday?”
“Yeah, I do,” he responded. “I wouldn’t mind having a son and a daughter.”
“Two children? You really want to have two kids?”
He laughed. “I don’t know, Sage. I’ll have to see how it goes with the first one.”
“Auntie Sage, did you see me swim?” Joshua asked, running up to her chair. He was dripping wet and grinning from ear to ear.
“I did,” Sage responded as she dried him off with a fluffy towel. Joshua had stolen her heart the first time she ever met him. She spent as much time with him as she could.
“What about you, Uncle B?”
Blaze nodded. “Good job, little man.”
“Are we still gonna do something special together?” Joshua asked Blaze, who nodded a second time.
“We sure are—just you and me.”
Ari got out of the pool and stood up, toweling off his body. “Joshua, c’mon. It’s time for a bath.”
“Okaay,” he responded with a sigh.
Sage hid her smile. She watched as Ari took Joshua by the hand and headed inside the house.
“Your brother is a wonderful father,” Natasha murmured as she sat down beside Sage. “Joshua adores him. You should have seen the two of them yesterday. Ari was teaching him to play checkers.”
Sage smiled. “Daddy taught Ari how to play when he was Joshua’s age.”
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