Page 99 of Heartbreak & Cupcakes
ALEX
I triedto ignore the empty feeling in the pit of my stomach as I walked down the hallway of the rehabilitation center that Mrs. G had been moved to this morning. It was most well known for being the premier physical therapy rehab facility for professional athletes that could afford the best, and I needed the best.
I’d only taken one step into the room when Mrs. G greeted me, “This place is too nice. I can go somewhere else.”
“This is the best. You need to be in the best.”
“Have you seen the bathroom? It’s Italian marble.”
“Your bathroom at home is marble.”
“I know, but this is too much. I just want to go home. How is home? How is my Lexi and how is Sadie?”
“Lexi’s good. She started ballet last week and loves it. Sadie is good. Her building is ready and she is moving back home tomorrow.” That was the reason I was visiting Mrs. G alone. Sadie had asked if she could spend her last day with Lexi and I was keeping my distance. I had to. My obsession for Sadie had gotten out of hand. It had been bad before we’d spent the night together, but now it was unbearable.
Mrs. G lifted a single brow and gave me “the look”. It was the same look I’d received when I’d ditched school and when I’d signed her name on a bad report card and when I hadn’t done my chores. It was the look that told me she knew I’d done something wrong, and she was waiting for me to come clean. “Oh, is she?”
“The renovation finished ahead of schedule.” That had cost me a pretty penny and calling in several favors. But just like I’d do anything, spend any amount of money to get Mrs. G back to one-hundred percent, I’d do the same to save my sanity. And if I spent two more weeks living with Sadie, I’d have to be institutionalized.
I could feel Mrs. G’s eyes boring into me and I felt the uncommon impulse to explain myself.
“She needs to get back to her business.”
Mrs. G remained stone silent which clearly communicated that she was disappointed in me. I hated when she did that. I would rather her yell at me, not that she ever had. Sometimes the things people didn’t say were much louder than the things they did say.
I found myself growing defensive. “The arrangement was always temporary.”
I hadn’t done anything wrong. Well, that wasn’t strictly true. I’d had sex with my nanny. But she was so much more than that. The situation was the textbook definition of complicated.
Mrs. G’s eyes narrowed, and she tilted her head to the side. “Did you buy her building and speed up the process of getting it renovated?”
She knew me too well. I was pretty sure that this was a rhetorical question, so it was my turn to remain quiet.
“You fast-tracked the permits to get the building done.”
And so what if I did? That should make me a hero, not the villain that Mrs. G was acting like I was.
“She’s not a nanny. She owns a business that has been open less than a year. The sooner it’s up and running the better.”
“Alexander.” Mrs. G hadn’t said my name in that tone since she found cigarettes and beer under my bed when I was eleven.
Thankfully, her reprimand was cut short when a woman walked in wearing a silk button down shirt and black slacks. Her light brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail which accentuated her large green eyes.
She looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t quite place where I’d seen her before.
“Mrs. Garrett, I’m Dr. Charlotte James but you can call me Charli. I’ll be overseeing your rehab.”
Mrs. G smiled. “Nice to meet you, Charli.”
I stepped forward and reached out my hand. “Dr. James, I’m—"
“Alex Vaughn,” she cut me off mid-sentence and did not extend her own hand.
Mrs. G’s eyes bounced between Charli’s and mine.
“Do you two know each other?”
Not that I was aware of.
