She swung the door open and she yelled out to her brother the second she stepped inside.
“How long does it take to install a shower rail, which is totally unnecessary, by the way!”
Dylan followed her closely as she dropped her things on the floor by the door and went in search of Spencer.
“Spence?” she yelled.
“Out back,” came his deep reply.
Alex hurried through the kitchen, happy that it was at least somewhat picked up and not a total mess. She didn’t want Dylan to think she was a slob.
She was, but only a little.
She opened the back door to find Spencer, surrounded by lumber. He glared at her, like she was the one that disassembled her back steps and had them strewn across the yard.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Why didn’t you tell me that this was a deathtrap? I came to throw something in the trash and almost fell through the damn stair,” he growled.
She could feel Dylan looking over her shoulder.
“That’s why I keep that door locked. Just go out the front,” she told him.
“Who the hell is that?”
“Dylan,” she said offhand. “What am I supposed to do with this now?” she held out a hand at the mess of rotted wood and what was essentially a drop-off when she opened the door.
Spencer ignored her, standing to his full height, hands on hips as he looked at Dylan standing behind her.
“Where the hell did he come from?”
“The stairs, Spencer,” Alex said, mirroring his position. “What am I supposed to do about that now? Fall out the door?”
“You already said you didn’t use it, so don’t bullshit me. And I’m fixing it. The stringers and risers are in my truck.” His eyes never left Dylan.
She spared him a glance to see that he stood there, intimidating in his own right, shoulders wide, hands in his designer pockets, face implacable.
“Spencer—Dylan, a guy I kind of like so far, so don’t screw it up for me. Dylan, my brother Spencer, the guy who’s fixing my deathtrap, so don’t piss him off.”
Spencer rolled his eyes. “Logan said the doctor gave you the green light.”
She nodded. “Good to go. No more throwing myself down the stairs though.”
Dylan’s hand tightened on the back of her shirt. “Not funny,” he grunted.
“He know you’re knocked up?” Spencer asked.
“Well, if he didn’t before he does now,” Alex complained. “What did I tell you about screwing it up?”
“I’m your older brother. It’s my job to screw it up for you.”
“Well stop it,” she told him. “I hate to leave you two here in Thunderdome, but I have to take a shower and clean up. Try not to kill each other.”
She spun on her heel and headed for the stairs, taking them two at a time, ready to have just a minute to herself in the shower. She let out a loud laugh at the sight in front of her when she got to the bathroom.
Spencer had installed a bar in her shower, alright. A shelf that had a wineglass on it with a little note that said, A new bar for your shower, as requested by Beth.
Somehow, she was sure that wasn’t what her sister had meant.
Lexi had told him that her brother was big and intimidating and he’d only listened with half an ear.
Next time, he wouldn’t make that mistake. She hadn’t been exaggerating in the least bit. Spencer stood at least six-and-half-feet tall, a hulking bruiser of a dude. His eyes were the same color as his sister’s but they were hard and full of suspicion.
Dylan extended a hand. “Dylan James.”
Spencer hesitated, eyeing his outstretched hand before finally taking it.
“Spencer Walker.”
An awkward silence descended while they eyed each other, Spencer a wall of muscle and intimidation.
Dylan searched for anything to say, his mind whirling, trying to latch onto something. His eyes hit on Spencer’s T-shirt.
“You like that White Mountain Blueberry Brew?” he asked.
He’d tried the beer himself at a tasting, but hadn’t enjoyed it. They had a summer ale he liked and an Octoberfest, but the fruit flavors were his least favorite.
“No. My distributor gave me the shirt but the beer is shit.”
Dylan nodded. “Yeah. I like the summer ale,” he agreed. “Have you tried the Harper Farms pale ale?”
Spencer’s hard gaze lightened a fraction as he reconsidered Dylan.
“It’s good. Not as good as the amber, but not as bad as this shit.” He pointed to his shirt, then leaned down and went back to work.
Dylan wanted to offer his help but hesitated. He was still wearing a suit and had no idea what to do. Home improvement wasn’t exactly on his list of specialties.
“I’d offer to help but I think I’d just hold you up.”
Spencer sent him a dry look. “You don’t say.”
Dylan laughed at Spencer’s tone and didn’t mind being the butt of that joke. He could admit his shortcomings. When he needed help fixing something, he hired someone who knew what they were doing.
He wasn’t that guy.
“I’m not that handy around a house,” he admitted. “But, if you want to invest your money, I’m your guy.”
“Yeah?” Spencer perked up. “I’m trying to get my own craft-beer company off the ground. Still brewing at home, but it’s a damn good beer. I’ve got a little money saved up. Think you can help me out?”
Dylan nodded. “Absolutely. I wouldn’t mind testing the product either.”
“My sisters are all pains in the asses,” Spencer said out of the blue, crouching on his haunches to fix the stairs but looking up at Dylan. “But I love them anyway. Alex told you about the baby?”
Dylan nodded. “And I met the rest of the crew at the hospital.”
“I know. Andy texted me.”
Word traveled fast with the Walkers. Dylan would have to remember that.
“Thing is,” Spencer continued, “Alex has it in her head that this whole thing is going to be easy. She and Beth, they aren’t exactly besties. Fight like you wouldn’t believe, you know? But she wanted to do this for Bethy, to give her something, maybe show her how much she loves her or some shit. She thinks when she has the baby, she’ll just keep on keeping on, just like it was before.” He sent Dylan a grave look. “I know you just met her, but she’s not in a place where she can handle casual. She might very well be heading right into a shit-storm. You’re going to have to decide if you’re in or you’re out.”
“We just met,” Dylan pointed out.
“I know. Bad timing on your part, but you’ve got a right to know the truth about where she is, and she sure as hell won’t tell you because she hasn’t even figured it out for herself yet. She’s got a lot going on, that’s all I’m saying. Don’t give her anything else to worry about.”
It was a warning. Not veiled in the slightest, just a blatant caution about where Lexi was in her life.
It wasn’t necessary. He had no intention of letting Lexi’s situation scare him off, or adding to her worries.
“Noted,” Dylan said.
Spencer eyed him speculatively, almost impressed. “You’re staying.”
It wasn’t a question but Dylan gave him a nod in answer anyway.
“Okay,” Spencer murmured, definitely impressed this time. “Next time you’re around, I’ll have Alex bring you by to taste my beer. I’ve got a few names kicking around but I haven’t decided on one yet.”
“Get some of your financials in order and I’ll see what I can do to make you some money.”
“You work with small-time guys like me much?”
Dylan shook his head and gave Spencer the straight truth. “No. Usually we’re looking for the whales, but we all do favors for friends and family. Not a big deal.”
Spencer stood to his full height which, even standing inside the house and two feet above him, was impressive. Lexi’s brother stuck out his han
d and gave Dylan a solid shake.
“Consider yourself not in danger of being scared off.” He sent Dylan a shark’s smile. “Yet.”
“Consider yourself not too pissed off you won’t finish fixing the stairs. I don’t want Lexi falling and hurting herself.”
“Lexi, huh?” Spencer chuckled as he crouched again. “She must love that.”
“She hasn’t minded so far,” Dylan noted, though he wasn’t sure he’d ever called her that to her face yet. He’d have to tread carefully there.
He casually looked behind himself and into her kitchen.
Outdated wasn’t even a word that truly described what he was looking at. Decrepit? In shambles?
“She does all her baking here?” he murmured, more to himself.
“She’ll tell you everything works fine. Julia Child baked in a kitchen that looked just like this, she says. Even made us all go to The Smithsonian to see it. Sure as shit, it looks the same. Just without the last fifty years of wear and tear,” Spencer informed him. “One thing you’ll learn if you stick around, is that Walkers, the women especially, are some of the most stubborn creatures put on this green earth. Tried to buy her a new stove a couple years ago, she nearly came unglued. Now, we just buy her gift cards to the home improvement store. She said she’s stocking them up so she can buy something big.”
Dylan considered what it would cost to remodel her kitchen and to him, it would be pocket change. Twenty grand maybe, he thought as he looked around. He could make a few calls and have it fixed up in just a few weeks for her.
“I see what you’re thinking,” Spencer cut in, shaking his head. “Don’t do it. She doesn’t want to be bought.”
“It would be a gift.”
“One she doesn’t want. She wants to do it herself.”
“Stubborn women,” Dylan recalled and felt a swell of pride at her own sense of worth. Despite what people thought about him, he hadn’t touched his trust fund. Not really. He’d gotten himself through school, yes, but for the most part, that money was just making more money. He didn’t live off it. He and his partners all took a salary and lived like normal people.
Mostly.
He and Lexi lived in very different worlds, but not necessarily worlds apart. From what Spencer had to say about her, Dylan liked to think he understood her a little more and certainly respected her more.
He liked to think, if and when she learned where he came from, she’d think the same of him.
That he hadn’t just come from money. He’d worked hard to make something of himself.
He and Spencer chatted sporadically for a few more minutes until he heard Lexi coming down the stairs, her voice ringing loud down the hallway. He walked to the stairs, ready to help if she needed him.
“Well, I left him downstairs with Spencer. He’s either still here or he turned tail and ran. I choose option A. He’s got more balls than that,” she was saying.
She was quiet for a moment before he rounded the corner, her striking blue eyes meeting his. Her long, black hair was wet, brushed back off her face as if she couldn’t be bothered to style it any other way.
“No, I haven’t seen them yet, but I appreciate the confidence in my dating game, Kels.”
She smiled at him, completely unashamed with talking about his genitals with someone he didn’t know.
“Just have to ask,” he told her.
“He’s still here,” she confirmed to whoever she was on the phone with. “I’ll talk to you later?” She rolled her eyes at whatever the other person said. “Not for a few more months but I’ll see you guys before that.” More silence as she descended one more stair.
Dylan put himself right in her path, his hands coming to hold onto her hips as she stood in front of him.
She was small, barely more than five feet tall, but her presence was so much bigger. It wasn’t until he stood so close to her did he really notice their height discrepancy. She was soft and supple under his hands, her hips molding to his palms. He’d love to squeeze her. Not just her hips but her backside too.
He wanted to grab her ass and hold her to him, maybe grind against her some until she came.
He wanted to grab her breasts, squeeze her nipples as he pressed himself inside of her.
She must have seen the desire in his gaze, her cheeks heating as she puffed out a little breath onto his cheek. She’d leaned in a little, her body mere inches from him, and he could smell her freshly washed scent.
“Yeah. Talk soon, Kels,” she murmured, thumbing her phone and dropping her hand to her side.
“Hey,” Dylan whispered, her neck breaking out on goose bumps as his greeting coasted over her skin.
“I knew you’d still be here.”
“You won’t scare me off that easily,” he promised. “Besides, you promised to pencil me in for baking. I could give you a hand with your stuff for tomorrow.”
She leaned back a little and boldly ran her fingers through his hair, watching her hand the entire time.
“I can take care of all that. Really, I’m fine. You can go back to your workday and regularly scheduled life. We can catch up another day for your lesson.”
Dylan hesitated.
He should go back to work. Hell, he did have things to do, but he didn’t want to leave her. She’d just gotten out of the hospital. He should probably stick around to make sure she was alright.
“How about I stay for a while. At least that way, if you need something, I can help you, then I’ll go back to my regularly scheduled life.”
“No seriously,” she argued. “I got, like, no sleep last night. I was just going to hang out here and maybe take a nap. You’re not going to miss anything exciting.”
“I’d miss seeing you sleep,” he reasoned.
“It’s a little early for you to see that. You never know, I could be like Andy and snore like a truck driver. I don’t want to scare you off too soon.”
Yeah, Dylan thought as he laughed. He didn’t think that was going to happen.
He was enamored with Lexi Walker and every second they spent together, he remembered why. She was funny and bold and sexy as hell when her patented honesty tumbled from her full lips.
“I don’t think there’s too much chance of that,” he told her. “If I withstood the Spencer test, I don’t think a little snoring will do the trick either.”
She considered him, her eyes narrowed with fake scrutiny.
“Fine. But if I snore, don’t tell me yet. Let me keep on thinking I’m the perfect woman.”
Dylan barked out a laugh. “Deal.”
4
“Keeping a lot of secrets lately, James,” Brady commented one Friday afternoon as he slid his butt right onto Dylan’s desk.
Dylan sent him a glare. “Get the hell off my desk, Brady.”
His partner didn’t move. If anything, he made himself more comfortable, picking things up off the desk and inspecting them as if he’d never been in Dylan’s office before.
“I’m just saying,” Brady continued. “You don’t come to the club anymore. You don’t hang out on weekends. I miss you.”
“You do not,” Dylan scoffed. “You’re fishing.”
Brady shrugged. “Lincoln’s always been the homebody. Now we’ve lost you, too. Our four musketeers have dwindled down to two.”
“It’s been like three weeks, you drama queen.”
Three intensely amazing weeks. Weeks full of fascinating conversation with Lexi Walker. Lexi Walker who didn’t actually mind when he called her Lexi or when he joined her family for their Sunday dinner.
He’d been twice now and they’d made a place for him at their crowded table without a second thought.
He and Lexi talked, a lot. They held hands, they laughed and watched movies. She showed him how to bake in her horrendously outdated kitchen, and he soaked up every second he got to spend with her.
The one thing they didn’t do was kiss or get physical in any sort of way.
He’d enjoyed the time he�
��d spent with her and didn’t want her to feel like there was any kind of pressure on her. Like Spencer had said, she had enough going on without him adding any kind of stress. So, he sat back and did his best to ignore the urge to pull her close and plant his lips on hers.
He pretended she didn’t smell like cookies and ignored that he wanted to eat her alive, lick every inch of her.
She hadn’t made any moves either, watching him closely sometimes, like she was waiting on him, but still, she kept to herself.
She was meeting him in Boston tonight, after he got out of work. She was going to see his place for the first time, and if she didn’t want to drive the hour home when the night ended, so be it. His bed was plenty big enough for her to join him, and if she wasn’t into that, he had a perfectly good guestroom she could sleep in.
“Three weeks is a long time. A hell of a long time for you not to share any details about the woman that’s got you wading into the deep end.”
Dylan leaned back in his chair, threading his fingers together behind his head.
“Jumping,” he corrected. “I jumped.”
Brady raised his brows, surprise on his face. “Already? With the coffee girl?”
“Woman.” Lexi was all woman. A pregnant woman, at that.
He wasn’t going to share that detail with his friends just yet. They wouldn’t understand, and he didn’t want them to get the wrong idea about her before they met.
Every time he thought about her carrying a baby, doing something so selfless, it blew his mind. She’d given up her life, her body, for her sister. Spencer had said Lexi and Beth weren’t close, and she’d confirmed it when he’d asked her.
She’d told him that she and Beth fought all the time. In fact, she told him that most of the time she thought if they weren’t sisters, she wasn’t sure she and Beth would be friends at all. It was an interesting dynamic they had.
Beth, from the few times they’d met, seemed to hover somewhere between skittish and watchful.
Lexi swore that she wasn’t always like that, but that the whole baby thing had thrown her for a loop. He imagined it would. He wasn’t sure how he’d handle knowing he had a baby on the way, let alone having to hand over the reins to someone else and let them take care of it.
Delivering History (The Freehope Series Book 4) Page 7