Tied Together (The Cade Siblings Duology #1)

46. Alex

CHAPTER 46

Alex

We’re in the car with Marco and on our way back home. My girl is quiet, but I have her pulled close to me and I’m having trouble not asking if she’s okay every five seconds. I know she isn’t, but she hasn’t told me what happened when she left for the bathroom and came back different. Timid and unlike herself.

We get home and I run her a bubble bath. She undresses without much emotion and overall just seems extremely in her head. I stay in the bedroom and allow her privacy as she gets settled in the tub. After a few moments, I hear her voice. It’s small and quiet, but she’s calling for me.

“Can you come in here?”

I can’t say no to the woman, not that I’d want to, so I stand and enter the bathroom. She looks beautiful. Her hair is piled on top of her head, a few tendrils falling out of the messy bun and framing her face, and the bubbles cover her completely. It looks like she’s sitting in a cloud.

“I want to tell you about what happened tonight. I know you know something happened.” I shake my head in affirmation and make my way to the stool sitting by the clawfoot tub. She pulls her hand out of the water and reaches for mine. “It’s really not a big deal,” she says.

“I want to know.”

“Well, I was in the bathroom and I heard two women walk in. After a few seconds I realized one of them was Genevieve.” I tense, knowing this story doesn’t have a happy ending. “She was speaking in English so I knew immediately that this was likely some sort of scheme. She just said some hurtful things to try to get to me.”

“What did she say?”

“That really isn’t important, I don’t even want to repeat it. She basically just attacked my ability to do my job, and to be with you.”

“To be with me? How did she even know we were together?”

She laughs and raises her eyebrows, giving me a look that says ‘It’s not that hard to tell.’

“Okay, fair enough, she figured it out. Why does she think we can’t be together?” I can feel the anger building and I try desperately to tamp it down because it isn’t helpful in this moment.

Her eyes close and she releases a heavy sigh. “She just thought she could get you to take her home instead of me.”

Alana stares at me in shock when I start to laugh hysterically. It’s an uncontrollable kind of laughter. After a few seconds, once I finally tame it, I shake my head. “There is absolutely no way I would ever go home with that woman. Most certainly not when given you as a choice over her. Not in a million years, Lanie.”

“I know that. It was just hard to hear. It threw me.”

I stand now and make my way behind the tub, positioning myself directly behind her upper body. I place my hands on her shoulders and begin to knead them. “I understand, that would be difficult for anyone. How do you feel now?”

“Better now that we’re away from her and I’m in this bath. And you’re rubbing my shoulders.”

“We don’t have to go back. We can tell Amélie that we’re going to work the rest of the days from home. There aren’t that many left.”

“No, I don’t want to let her win like that. I want to go back in and face her every day and show her how little she affects me.”

“That’s my girl. I’m proud of you.” I rub her shoulders a little longer, then place a kiss on her temple before leaving her to the rest of her relaxation time.

While she finishes up, I head into the living room to make her some chamomile tea. I add a bit of honey and stir, then take it over to the couch. She comes out and sits down next to me, reaching out for the mug that I offer.

She brings it to her lips and breathes, the steam floating around her beautiful face.

We lay there on the couch and she cuddles close. After a few minutes, she asks me to turn on 13 Going on 30 and I do, because I would do anything she asks. We stay out in the living room until the early hours of the morning, and when she’s finally fallen asleep in my arms, I carry her to our bed.