The Agent

by Ellen Lane

  Which meant she was going to have to rearrange everything.

  “Michael, I want to be there,” she ran a hand through her dark hair tiredly. “But the soonest I can be is a few days.”

  “I know,” He returned snippily, obviously at his wit’s end. “But can you just…well…can you talk me through this? I’m losing my mind, Ali. I’m…I’m scared.”

  Bullocks.

  Of course, he was scared. It was his first child. Alice was exhausted, but she and her brother were always there for each other when they needed one another. She could hardly abandon him now.

  Alice propped herself up on a number of pillows in her new bed, trying to get as comfortable as possible. She wasn’t going to get any sleep that night, she knew. But by morning, perhaps, she’d be welcoming a new family member into the world.

  She supposed that was a fair trade-off.

  Victoria Alexandra Tate was born at eight thirteen that morning and weighed four and a half kilograms. The moment she came into the world, Alice was pelted with photos Michael sent her from his cell phone and the tiny, wrinkled face of her niece took her breath away.

  She was absolutely beautiful.

  For at least an hour, Alice lay curled in bed looking through every image Michael had sent her and marveling at the miracle of new life. It seemed like in the past year everyone she knew had a baby – Cat, Rose, several of her friends…they all seemed to be settling down and starting families. According to Alice’s parents, it’d be a good idea for her to start thinking about something similar.

  When Alice held a soft, squirming baby in her arms, she had to admit, she understood why women became mothers. Children were a marvel – sweet, innocent and ripe for growth. When she looked at Cat’s son, she saw the future. How couldn’t she? Liam was absolutely gorgeous.

  And so was Victoria.

  When Michael requested to video chat with her, Alice accepted without hesitation. He and Rose popped up on her phone screen, their precious bundle between them. Alice didn’t think the blonde woman had ever looked more exhausted, or more beautiful. In her arms, Victoria squirmed, yawning as she opened her eyes as gray as her mother’s.

  “She’s gorgeous.” Alice cooed, smiling widely. “Just like her mother.”

  “She looks like me”, Michael attested, indicating the small shock of auburn hair atop the baby’s head – just as vivid as her father’s. “She’s going to be a heartbreaker.”

  “Don’t get ahead of yourself, Michael.” Rose chastised him gently, holding the child gently to her breast. “We’ve got a while before we have to worry about any of that.” The look on her face…Alice couldn’t even describe it. It was obvious that Rose’s daughter was her entire world.

  “Of course.” Michael quickly placated her, sitting on the edge of the bed as he stroked his daughter’s head gently.

  “Did you finish the nursery?” Alice inquired, looking from mother to daughter adoringly. “I sent you some things I thought would match your design theme.”

  “I already put them up, Alice. They’re wonderful.”

  The dark-haired woman laughed softly. “I should have known.”

  “How’s the job going?” Michael inquired, managing to tear his gaze from the newest member of their family for a moment.

  Alice shifted in bed with a sigh. “I haven’t started yet. It’ll take a few more weeks – then I’ll be able to get away and come see little Vicky.”

  “And spoil her senseless, no doubt.” Michael muttered under his breath, making Alice scowl at him.

  “Of course! You should expect no less from a favorite aunt!” Rose merely laughed, propping Victoria up so Michael could get a good shot of her with the camera.

  “I’m sure Cat would take offense to that.”

  Though Alice was ever one to put her work before anything else, at that moment, she missed her family. She had no doubt that this job would open up a plethora of opportunities for her, but she would have given anything to be present for the birth of her niece.

  Ultimately, she stayed on camera with Michael and Rose until she drifted off around ten, and when she woke, she found her brother had sent her a picture of Rose and baby Victoria in a similar position. The dark-haired woman lingered in bed until Tom brought her a late breakfast and the paper for the last few days, announcing that today was the deadline for her to send paperwork back to Lemmy.

  Alice meant to get right on it, but when she saw the paper from a few days ago, she nearly spits out her tea.

  She and Russell made the front page of a major LA newspaper.

  HIGH PROFILE BRITISH SUPER COUPLE MAKES LA TEMPORARY HANGOUT

  For a moment, she was so taken aback, she didn’t know how to react. In her adult life, Alice had been on the cover of more tabloids than she could count. She had never taken any of them seriously and had even laughed at some of the more outlandish stories that were printed.

  But this one…this one came a little too close to home.

  Perhaps it was because this was the first time she’d ever seen anything that referenced she and Russell as a couple- even if she knew that was about as far from the truth as it was possible to be. If anything at all, she and Russell were casually dating. It was almost as if they had some sort of unspoken agreement that they weren’t serious. To date, the most intimate thing they’d shared was a kiss. And even if that kiss was exceptionally steamy, it still didn’t make them a couple.

  Frowning, Alice gazed over the picture one more time before turning it over and placing her tea plaintively on top of it. It didn’t matter. It never mattered. All that mattered was that she got her work finished as soon as possible so she could go back to Britain and see her niece.

  Hopefully, Lemmy could give her at least that much.

  Alice finished her paperwork as soon as she could before deciding to take it to the film lot and talk to the director in person. It hadn’t taken much for her to be able to rent a car in LA – even if driving there was slightly terrifying. What was it with Americans and driving on the wrong side of the road?

  The lot was about a twenty-minute drive outside of the downtown LA area, so, of course, it took her over an hour to reach it. By the time she was parked, Alice had to take a deep breath and a sip of her large coffee to calm herself down.

  She resolved that, perhaps, she would hire a driver so she didn’t have to deal with the obscene traffic, and with that in mind, made for Lemmy’s office at the rear of the studio.

  Only to come up short when she ran into a veritable wall of paparazzi.

  Of course, they’d been waiting outside the film studio. Alice was pretty certain that if she hadn’t been on the front page of the LA Times a mere two days earlier, they might not have recognized her. She tended to keep a pretty low profile outside of the UK.

  But they certainly recognized her that day.

  “Miss Tate! Are you here to see Russell Darwell?”

  “Are the two of you an item?”

  “Will we be hearing wedding bells soon?”

  “I…” Usually, Alice wouldn’t give them the time of day. She was used to brushing off the media. In this particular situation, however, she found herself so flustered that she couldn’t form proper words. “I’m not…we’re not…”

  “No comment.” As if he’d sensed she was somehow in trouble, Russell suddenly appeared at her elbow. Alice hadn’t even known he would be at the studio that day, so to suddenly have his arm around her shoulder as he pressed them both through the invasive crowd that blocked their way…his scent and warmth swept over her and she was suddenly light-headed. Before she knew it, Russell swept her out of the sunlight and into one of the nearest offices, shutting out the horde of people and chaos beyond.

  Alice’s head was spinning for a good minute before she managed to come back to herself – and when she did, it was to Russell’s concerned expression.

  How did he manage to take her breath away every time they met? Today, he was dressed in a crisp navy suit and tie t
hat hugged his long, taut form, his dark hair slicked back from his brow.

  “Are you alright, Alice?”

  “Fine,” she managed breathlessly, reaching errantly into her purse for her coffee. She needed the caffeine. “I’m just fine.”

  “I apologize.” He frowned deeply, glancing out the window at the crowd of cameras and reporters outside. “I’ll call security to get them out of the way. Do you need anything? A bottle of water? An escort?”

  Alice just blinked, staring at him incredulously. The man was really, truly worried about her. It was probably the most genuine thing she’d seen since she’d known the man.

  “I should be fine once you call security, Russell, really.” She didn’t know if she was more upset that he was upset, or flattered because the man was so obviously worried about her. Perhaps she should get into trouble like this more often. “But thank you for saving me.”

  “Of course.” Seeing that she wasn’t, in fact, pulling her hair out in distress seemed to calm him down. Russell took a deep breath, straightening the lapels of his suit before smoothing his hair back perfunctorily. “I…I apologize for not helping you move in. I had some business to take care of with Regina’s contract…and then something came up with Amelia back in the UK-”

  While the young woman had been perfectly content to have Russell apologize to her, at the mention of Amelia’s name, she was immediately on alert. “Amelia? What’s happened to her? She’s alright, isn’t she?”

  Russell’s eyes widened when he realized what he’d said. Over the course of the short time she’d spent in LA, Alice let him in on how she and Amelia knew one another from grade school – and just how close they were.

  “Ah, she’s perfectly fine.” He rushed to reassure her, his mouth curving upward into a serene smile. “Just some business matters that require me to go to Britain in a few weeks.”

  “Really?” Alice couldn’t believe how fast her brain made the connection. Usually, she was all about avoiding the men she dated, but in this scenario, an opportunity to spend more time with Russell couldn’t be missed. “I was actually planning on asking if Lemmy could give me a week or so off in the next month – after everyone gets settled and I ensure things run smoothly while I’m gone, of course.”

  “So soon?” Russell arched a brow, his tone carefully neutral. “May I ask why?”

  “My brother just had a baby.” Alice wasn’t ashamed to tell anyone who might ask. “I have a new niece!” She beamed, smiling so hard her jaw ached. “I just wanted to see her for a little while, as I know I’ll be working a lot this coming year.”

  “Ah.” Russell’s smile widened – but Alice couldn’t help but notice that it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Congratulations. I can only imagine how excited you must be.”

  “I’m ecstatic.” Alice agreed without hesitation. “Do you have any nieces or nephews?”

  “Not yet.” Russell provided, before turning quickly from her. Alice peered at his back, wondering why the man seemed so suddenly uncomfortable after he’d whisked her so boldly from the eye of the storm. “Let me call security and get you a clear path.” Once he’d finished his call, Alice stood from the chair she sank into upon entering, approaching him slowly.

  “Are you alright, Russell?” She took a chance, reaching up to cup his face gently. Surprisingly, the man didn’t rebuff her, instead he took her hand in his briefly to squeeze before releasing it quickly.

  “I’m fine. Just want to make sure you get to Lemmy to get that time off you’re asking for before anyone else.”

  Before he could usher her out the door, Alice was determined to have her say. “Russell…I was thinking about chartering a private jet back to England. How would you like to ride along?”

  For a split second, she thought she saw a spark of interest light in his eye –something akin to the hunger she’d seen when she all but asked him to bed. But as quickly as it had appeared, it was gone. “I’m flattered that you’d offer, Alice, but I wouldn’t want to intrude. I have a lady friend coming with me.”

  In that instant, Alice felt as if she’d been punched in the gut.

  A…lady friend?

  It was an amazingly blunt way to put her off – at least the first time Russell made an excuse he had at least tried to be polite. Alice opened her mouth and then shut it, wondering how on earth she might question him, before realizing that she didn’t really have any right to. Wasn’t it she who had accepted just that morning that they were just casually dating?

  Casual dating meant that they could see other people – and it certainly didn’t mean that the man was her property or anything of the sort.

  Just her landlord. A friend, perhaps. Who had kissed her, twice.

  So why was she so bloody hurt?

  “A lady friend? Oh…that sounds lovely.” The words tasted like ash in her mouth. “I’ll leave you to it, then.” She didn’t even look to see what his reaction was. Instead, Alice merely breezed past the man and out the door he held open for her. She wasn’t even sure where Lemmy’s office was, but she was determined to find it on her own. The last thing she wanted at that particular moment was Russell Darwell’s help.

  Dimly, she realized that Russell was calling after her. Alice was tempted to stop and listen to what he had to say – more than tempted. But her pride wouldn’t allow it. So, instead, she straightened her spine and hurried away from the site of her rescue – towards what she hoped was the general direction of Lemmy’s office. Otherwise, she’d be making a complete fool of herself.

  But part of her wondered if she hadn’t somehow accomplished that already.

  Thankfully, the young woman managed to find the office she was looking for relatively quickly. Lemmy was more than understanding about the leave she asked for and seemed genuinely excited for her where Russell had not – which only further aggravated her. By the time she returned to the apartment she was renting, Alice contemplated calling the whole thing off. It wasn’t as if she couldn’t find another apartment. The process would no doubt be exhausting but it was completely possible.

  Even if it was the coward’s way out.

  Alice had never been a coward but she didn’t enjoy being toyed with – and she was almost certain that was exactly what Russell was doing.

  She sank down onto the bed she’d just bought the day prior, remembering the way people spoke of the man. How it was impossible to get close to him and that he shut himself off from the world. She had to wonder: what precisely made him the way he was? The last time they went out together, she thought he had enjoyed himself. That he was genuinely interested in her and that, perhaps, they had both come to terms with the attraction between them.

  Evidently, that wasn’t the case.

  So, she now had a choice: she could ask Russell to give her back the six months’ rent she had already paid on the apartment and find another place, or she could grow up and simply accept that the man was who he was.

  It was a more difficult decision than one might imagine.

  Ultimately, Alice ended up booking her flight to England without a single word to him. And then she bought a new sketchbook and headed to a fabric store to start working on Lemmy’s costumes. There were, after all, an outrageous amount of them.

  And work always came first.

  It was work, in fact, that got her through the next few weeks.

  As difficult as Alice had thought it might be to adjust to life in LA, she didn’t have to tackle the city head-on as long as she was working – so she made sure that was almost all the time. Between designing costumes for Lemmy and doing correspondence with her own line, Alice found that she barely had time to eat and sleep. She also found that, despite his amicable exterior, Lemmy could be one tough customer.

  And don’t even get her started on what the actors had to say about their costumes. They wanted shorted hemlines, longer hemlines, more garish colors – they fought with Lemmy and they fought with her until Alice wanted to tear her hair out. During the first month o
f planning, the only time she allowed herself to seek Russell out was when she was having difficulties with one of his clients.

  Which, somehow, seemed to be once every two or three days. Alice told herself that every time she spoke to the man, she’d be nothing less than professional. After all, Russell made it apparent that was what he expected.

  It was no small feat – especially considering that she could still remember how gallantly he’d whisked her away from the paparazzi…and how he tasted the last time he kissed her. On more than one occasion, Russell hinted that he might like to take her out again. He asked her out to dinner and a movie, offered to show her around a neighborhood she’d expressed interest in, and asked how she was going about decorating the apartment.

  But Alice always found some excuse to give him. Of course, work was a suitable enough excuse, but by the time she was three weeks in and most of the preliminaries had been completed, she found she had more than enough room to breathe. But, she still didn’t have enough departure from Russell’s startling revelation to drive her back into his arms.

  Rather, Alice found herself in a constant state of confusion – questioning how she felt about men and relationships in general; and why on earth she allowed Russell Darwell to vex her so. She never acted this way around men. In fact, they lost their minds over her. At least, that had been the order of things before she let him get under her skin.

  And now, somehow, she couldn’t get him out.

  Thankfully, Cat, who had been to LA several times, sent her the addresses of several lovely furniture stores where she bought things for the apartment. While Alice had hoped she might be able to have Russell show her around the city, she ended up leaning on Cat more than she might like. Wife to one of the world’s richest men and foremost architects, Cat remained amazingly humble and true to her small town American roots. She adjusted as well as she could to the upper-crust life her husband provided for her, though Alice suspected that she’d never truly be comfortable living in four different houses a year and shopping on the high street for her son.