Alex (BIG Northwest Book 2)

by Janice M. Whiteaker

  “Do you know who you are?” It was one of the most real concerns she’d come up with this afternoon while she was locked away pretending to work. “Isn’t that why it took you so long to realize you were unhappy with Alicia?”

  “I didn’t know who I was when we got together.” Edward reached up to stroke down her hair. “Then once I started to figure it out I thought I was just being ungrateful. Selfish.”

  “Sometimes you have to be selfish.” It was something she’d been called on more than one occasion. Always by the men who wished they could be a part of her life.

  But there was no room in her life for them. She and her sisters were fighting too hard for the life they deserved.

  But somehow Edward seemed to find a place in that world. After just a few days he carved out a spot he fit into perfectly.

  “Sometimes you’re the only one looking out for you.” Edward’s fingers continued their slow drag through the length of her hair. “When that’s the case it would be difficult to let anyone else have part of the job.”

  She tried not to smile at the thought of Edward believing he had to look out for her. “Is that what you think? That I need you to look out for me?”

  “You skip meals. You work almost around the clock without taking breaks. I’ve even seen you try to power through a sprained ankle.” He leaned back a little to peer at her injured joint. “Which has healed remarkably fast.”

  “It probably wasn’t as bad as they thought it was.” Alex shifted a little, tucking the foot of that leg back in an effort to hide it from him.

  That was the other real issue she struggled with this afternoon.

  Would she ever have to explain what she was to Edward?

  It would only be a matter of time before he realized something was different about her. About her sisters.

  Then what?

  “You were going to eat cold soup for dinner.”

  Alex shrugged. “It’s not the worst thing I’ve ever eaten.”

  Edward’s expression changed in the blink of an eye. The line of his jaw tightened, clenching until she was sure he would grind his teeth to dust. His eyes narrowed. “Sometime I want to hear about your life, Al.”

  “Probably not.” No one wanted to know the truth of how she and her sisters lived when they were children. They thought they did, but the reality of how sick a man could be was more than most people could comprehend.

  Could stomach.

  “I can handle whatever you need me to, Al. I promise.”

  “I don’t really know how to deal with you.” No man ever said the kind of things Edward said, and it was difficult to wrap her head around the possibility that it could be more than a man simply telling her what she wanted to hear.

  But what would the purpose of that be? She was already sleeping with him. He already had a good job, probably making more money than she could stomach.

  There was nothing else he might be trying to get from her.

  Except one thing.

  Edward smiled. “You’ll get used to it.”

  “I—”

  Someone started banging on her door.

  She tried to wiggle away from the spot Edward had her cornered into, but his hand spread across her stomach held her in place as he turned to go toward the door. The second he let go she was right behind him, trying to push her way in front.

  He caught her by the waist, shoving her back.

  “It’s Sam.” Alex tried to dart out from behind him, but Edward moved faster than she expected, grabbing her again, this time holding on as he opened the door on Sam’s frowning face.

  “See?” Alex squirmed free. “What’s wrong?”

  Sam’s eyes moved up and down Edward, the frown twisting her lips lower. “What’s going on?”

  “Edward heard something outside and came to check on me.” Alex finally managed to make it around his wide frame. “What’s going on?”

  Sam hadn’t been the same since the night two of their father’s men kidnapped her in an attempt to lure the sisters into a trap. Luckily their father always underestimated them, and they were able to rescue Sam.

  But not before her captors had followed through on their father’s order to cut her hair.

  It was a surprisingly traumatizing thing, to have someone cut your hair against your will. To be a little girl who was never able to know the feel of her hair on her back because vanity was evil.

  Sam glanced Edward’s way. “Nothing. I just thought I would come see how your ankle was.”

  “It’s fine.” Alex glanced at Edward.

  “I’m going to go to the camper.” He walked behind Sam’s back and gave Alex a wink before going outside, leaving her and her sister alone.

  Alex wrapped her arm around Sam’s shoulders. “You want something to drink?”

  “Sure.” Alex went to the cabinet where she kept her tea and started to pull out the option she had.

  “Something stronger than that.” Sam scooted onto one of the stools across the peninsula. “That’s why I came here. I knew you had good booze.”

  “Frankie has good booze.”

  “Frankie also has one of the loggers over.” Sam shook her head. “I don’t know what she sees in them.”

  “I don’t think she sees anything in them.” Alex pulled out a few options from her liquor cabinet. “You want something like desert or something light and refreshing?”

  Sam shrugged. “Surprise me.”

  “Dessert it is.” Alex pulled the cream out of the fridge and went to work making two white Russians. “Frankie’s just looking to have a good time.”

  “They’re barely old enough to drink. I don’t see how they could be that good of a time.” Sam raked her fingers through the short pixie she’d been left with after the hairdresser evened out the mess their father’s men made.

  “At least they’re eager.” Alex slid the first drink her sister’s way. “That probably counts for something.”

  “Not much.” Sam sipped at the drink before staring down into the glass for a few silent seconds. “Am I going to be the only one of us who ends up alone?”

  It never occurred to her that Sam didn’t want to be alone. “Do you want to be alone?”

  “Yes and no.” Sam sighed. “I wish things were different. I wish they weren’t so—”

  “Fucked up.”

  Sam’s eyes lifted. “Yeah.”

  “Me too.” Alex took a drink of her own cocktail. “But we can’t change it now. All we can do is work with what we’ve got.”

  “What if I can’t?” Sam leaned back in her seat. “What if everyone else figures out how to get past it and I’m the only one who gets stuck?”

  “There are worse things than being alone, Sam.” Alex rested her drink on the counter. “Maybe you need to find out how to be happy on your own first. Then it might come easier.”

  “Are you happy on your own?”

  Alex let the question settle between them. She loved what she did, even if she’d worked herself to death at it. She loved her house. Loved using what little free time she had to shop for clothes that made her feel powerful and put together.

  She gave Sam a nod. “I am.”

  Was.

  Was she still on her own?

  It was a complicated question she didn’t have the brainpower left to contemplate. “Come on.” She walked out of the kitchen, grabbing Sam on her way to the living room. “Let’s call Charlie and have her bring over a movie to watch.”

  SIXTEEN

  “KENNETH!” HIS DAD was running with the phone, the movement of the video making Edward a little seasick. “Kenneth!”

  He knew how this call was going to go. Considered waiting a little longer to make it.

  But the fallout when his dads found out he hadn’t told them he was close would have been swift and strong. “I can call back.”

  “You can do no such thing.” His dad ripped open the door leading out to the backyard where his other dad was working in the small vegetable garden
he started after retiring. “Kenneth. Edward is in Washington.”

  His dad squinted at the phone. “He lives right by it. Why wouldn’t he go there?”

  “No. Washington state.”

  Kenneth grabbed the phone out of Jeffrey’s hand, holding the screen at an angle where the sun bleached out the entire picture. “What in the world are you doing in Washington state?”

  “I came here to work.” Edward blinked as Kenneth spun around, the bright sun in California glaring in the screen before disappearing then returning again.

  “I can’t see his face.” Kenneth continued moving the phone.

  “Then take it inside.” Jeffrey shoved his face in close to Kenneth’s. “You’re going to make him sick swinging it around like that.”

  “How can I make him sick with a phone?” Kenneth squinted at the screen. “Am I making you sick, E?”

  “I’m fine, dad.” Edward smiled as his dads bickered their way into the house where he grew up. Finally the screen cleared and his fathers’ faces smiled back at him.

  “How long are you going to be in Washington?” Jeffrey turned to Kenneth. “How long does it take to get to Washington?”

  “Depends on where he is.” Kenneth put on his reading glasses and dropped the phone lower, holding it in a position that gave him the illusion of having two chins. “Where are you in Washington?”

  “A little town called Shadow Pine.” He smiled as Jeffrey grabbed Kenneth’s hand and lifted the phone up.

  “You look like you’re five-hundred pounds when you hold it like that.”

  “E knows I’m not five-hundred pounds. Why in the hell would I hold it like that?” Kenneth turned his head from side to side, scanning the kitchen around them. “Where’s my phone?”

  Jeffrey rolled his eyes. “He loses his phone a hundred times a day.” He looked into the camera. “I’ll be right back.”

  Kenneth’s arm started to drop again before he pulled it back up, sticking his chin out. “Where’s Shadow Pine at?”

  “It’s near the Olympic National Forest.”

  “What in the world are you working on there?” Kenneth was why Edward became an accountant in the first place. His father worked for the government after retiring from the military shortly after meeting Jeffrey.

  “Lance’s sisters live here and they needed some help with their business ventures.”

  “What sort of businesses do they have?” Kenneth was bored as hell since retiring from his high-level security civilian position, hence the gardening. Now he found every opportunity to discuss work with Edward.

  “They basically own the whole place. One sister runs the only store in town. One has a bakery. One runs a taxidermy shop and one runs a logging company.”

  Kenneth’s red brows shot up. “Some sisters.”

  “You’re telling me.” Edward held up two fingers. “There’s two more. One is an MBA who runs all the finances, and the other one lives in Vegas.”

  “Six sisters?” Jeffrey appeared at Kenneth’s side, passing over his dad’s found cell phone. He rested his hands on Kenneth’s shoulders. “I would have loved to have had six of you.”

  Kenneth focused on the screen of his phone. “Twelve hours.”

  “It seems closer than that.” Jeffrey leaned toward the camera on his phone. “Does Shadow Pine have a hotel or something?”

  Edward smiled. The conversation was going exactly like he knew it would. “No hotels. There’s only five houses.”

  Jeffrey’s eyes widened. “What?” He turned to Kenneth. “How can you have a town with only five houses?”

  “I don’t know. I’m not the Google.” Kenneth frowned at the screen. “Where are you staying then?”

  Edward moved his phone around Craig’s camper. “I’m staying in a travel trailer for now. Lance has a fifth wheel he stays in when he’s here.”

  “You’re camping?” Jeffrey looked shocked. “How are you eating? You need to be eating.”

  “There’s a kitchen.” Edward shifted so his dads could see the kitchen. “I have a fridge and a stove and a microwave.”

  “Look at that, Kenneth.”

  “I’m looking at the same thing you are.” Kenneth’s eyes narrowed behind his readers. “Where’d that come from?”

  “One of Lance’s friends bought it but never used it so he’s letting me borrow it.” Edward settled back on the jackknife sofa. “You’d be surprised how nice it is.”

  “Huh.” Kenneth was back on his own phone, passing Jeffrey’s off. “Never knew they looked like that.”

  “How long will you be there?” Jeffrey glanced down at Kenneth’s phone as he held it up. “It only matters if he’ll be there for a while, Kenneth.”

  “I’m thinking of staying here.” Edward dropped the honest answer, knowing where it would lead.

  Both his dads looked straight at the camera.

  Kenneth appeared confused.

  Jeffrey’s mouth lifted in a slow smile.

  Kenneth glanced back at his husband before turning to look toward the phone. “What? What’s going on?”

  “We’ll call you back later.” Jeffrey’s smile widened even more. “Love you.” He reached out to disconnect the video call.

  Edward set his phone on the cushion beside his leg.

  His dads would have a camper purchased before the end of the day.

  He leaned back to lift the blind on the window. Alex, Charlie, and Sam left about an hour ago, the three of them walking side-by-side toward downtown. They clearly needed some alone time so he took advantage of the opportunity, but now he was itching to check in on Alex. Make sure everything was okay with Sam. The oldest of the sisters seemed upset when she showed up last night.

  JD was out walking his dog again when Edward stepped out of the camper. He tipped his head Edward’s way. “Had to sleep in the camper last night?”

  “Sam came over and I thought she and Alex could use some time alone.” Edward reached down to pet the Brittany wagging her tail like mad at him.

  “Everything okay?”

  “That’s what I’m on my way to find out.” Edward walked along the sidewalk with JD, passing up the back side of the buildings that lined the main street. “Sam seemed upset.”

  “Sam always seems upset.”

  “Not mad upset. She seemed worried.” Not knowing Sam well, it was tough to decipher what sort of upset she was, but it definitely wasn’t mad.

  “Something happen?” JD’s brows came together as he scanned the area around them. “I didn’t hear anything last night.”

  “I did.” Edward turned at the corner, headed toward the front side of the bakery. “I was outside and heard something strange.”

  “Strange how?” JD didn’t look his way, but something about his demeanor seemed more focused. More interested.

  “I don’t know how to explain it. Almost like footsteps, but not really.” Edward rubbed the back of his neck at the memory of the feeling of being watched. “It was just weird.”

  “Lots of weird sounds out here.” JD sped up a little. “I gotta hurry so I can get to the shop on time. Got someone bringing in a hog for butchering.”

  “Sounds like fun.”

  “It’s the only way to get bacon.” JD and Molly crossed the street toward his camper, leaving Edward on the corner.

  “Morning, handsome.” Gail stood at the door to the bakery, holding it open as she poked her head outside. “Come in here. We need opinions.”

  “Opinions?” Edward followed Gail into the bakery. “I should warn you my expertise is in finance, not cooking.”

  “Do you eat?” Gail held out a tennis ball-sized circle of what appeared to be cooked dough. “Try it and tell us what you think.”

  He bit into the soft but slightly chewy breadish ball. It was a little sweet and the bread itself was light and airy.

  But there was something else mixed in. He looked at the spot where he’d taken a bite. “What’s in it?”

  Gail turned to Sam. “You w
ere right.” Gail snatched the ball away from him and passed another. “Try this one.”

  He took another bite, bracing for the unappealing bits scattered throughout.

  They weren’t in this one.

  This one had obvious slices of linked sausage instead of the browned bits of ground sausage that turned the other one grainy and a little greasy. “I like this one way better.”

  “Smart girl.” Gail wagged her finger Sam’s way. “She called it.”

  Sam gave him a tight almost-smile. “Thanks.”

  “Sure thing.” Edward held the ball up. “Do I get to keep this one?”

  “Of course, honey.” Gail passed him another from the case that held trays of three different types, each labeled with a hand-written card. “Take this one to Alex. See if she likes it better than the bacon one.”

  “I can do that.” Edward took both pancake balls and headed out, past the line forming in front of the bakery.

  “What are those?” One woman leaned, trying to get a better look at what was in his hands.

  “Pancake balls.” He tipped his head toward the door to Sam’s bakery. “She’s got sausage, bacon, and plain.”

  The woman turned to her friends. “I love this place already.”

  “Make sure you come back. We’re expanding and we’ll be adding new things all the time.”

  Alex stood just outside of Charlie’s shop, one brow cocked at him. She waited until he was close enough no one else would hear before leaning close and whispering, “Expanding?”

  “Have you been to the bakery in the past couple of days?” Edward held out the pancake ball Gail sent for Alex. “Your sister’s adding new items to the menu.”

  Alex grabbed the ball and immediately took a bite. Her eyes widened. “This isn’t bacon.”

  “Sausage. I’m supposed to ask if you like this one better than the bacon one.”

  “Hmmm.” Alex took another bite. “That’s a hard call.” She took a deep breath as she chewed, eyes moving along the road. “Expanding.” She shook her head. “Shit.”

  “We’ve already started, Al.” He wrapped one arm around her shoulders, pulling her into his side as they walked toward her office. “The website can be live in a few days. We’ve got shirts and cups ordered for Charlie’s shop.” He tipped his head at a couple as they passed. “Charlie’s got an order in with Spirit to start selling her moonshine in the store.” He paused. “Does she need a liquor license for that?”