First Down (Texas Titans #3) (9 page)

“I can’t afford a house,” she said, trying to control her temper. She’d barely known him a couple of weeks, and he was already trying to tell her where to live. That was exactly the kind of stunt Ronan would have pulled.

“You can pay me whatever they were going to charge you for this place.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Why would you take a loss like that? First you offer to let me use your car, now you’re trying to get me to move into your house? Why?”

“Because living here would be depressing.” He swatted at a fly buzzing around his head.

“Maybe for you,” she said, swallowing as her pride took a hit. “But not all of us can live in gated communities on golf courses.”

“Isn’t that the life you left behind?”

“That’s exactly the reason I don’t want it,” she cried, throwing her hands up. “I hate everything about the life you live. I just want a simple life without all of the material trappings. I just want to be happy.” She blinked back tears.

“Hey,” he said, taking a tentative step closer. “Don’t get upset. I know this is your call. I’m just trying to help.”

“I don’t need your help,” she said, sniffling. “I don’t need anyone’s help. I can make it on my own.” Before he could get any closer, she stormed out of the apartment. Grayson was hot on her heels. “I’ll take it,” she said as soon as she spotted the beady-eyed realtor sneaking a puff outside of a beat-up Ford. “I’ll take this apartment.”

“Alana, for Christ’s sake,” Grayson said, grabbing her arm when he finally caught up to her. “Don’t you think you should at least sleep on it before you decide?”

“No, I don’t, and who the hell are you to question me?” She felt her heart pounding and her chest tightening. She’d thought moving there would lessen her anxiety, but with someone like Grayson in her life, she might have to fill the prescription she’d refused to take.

“Maybe you two would like a little more time to decide,” the agent said, wiping sweat from his brow. “I wouldn’t want to get in the middle of a lover’s quarrel.” He laughed awkwardly and cleared his throat when Grayson scowled at him over Alana’s head.

“We’re not lovers!” Alana burst out. An older couple passing by shook their heads in disgust at her outburst, and she blushed. “He’s my boss.
Just
my boss.”

“Whatever you say.” The realtor raised his hands in surrender. “It’s none of my business.”

“At least you’re smart enough to realize that,” she said, putting her hands on her hips. She crooked a finger over her shoulder at Grayson. “Which is more than I can say for him.”

“Watch it, Alana.”

The murmured warning made the hair on the back of her neck stand up. She’d heard that warning in exactly that tone before. She was being warned that if she didn’t toe the line and do exactly as the boss man said, there would be consequences. Well, to hell with him and his consequences. She would live life on her terms, not his. She slowly turned on him. “You know what you can do with your job? Shove it!”

His mouth dropped open before snapping shut. “You don’t mean that.”

“Don’t tell me what I mean. I wouldn’t work for you if your company was my last resort, which it’s not, by the way. I have plenty of options. I’m a damn good accountant, and any company would be happy to have me on their payroll.” Hopefully she could find one who would back up her claim before she found herself homeless in a strange city.

“You’re angry. I get that,” he said, sighing. “I’m sorry I overstepped, but I’m not sorry for looking out for your best interests. Lord knows someone has to.”

“Excuse me?” She felt her blood boiling.

“You’re not thinking clearly. You’re making rash decisions because you’re so anxious to distance yourself from the life you used to live.”

“You don’t even know me!” Knowing there was no sense arguing with a man who thought he knew it all, she turned to Mr. Allen. “Would you mind dropping me off at a friend’s house? It’s not far from here.”

“Damn it, Alana,” Grayson said, in a sharp tone, “I’ll take you back to Kari’s. We need to talk about—”

“We don’t have anything to talk about. I told you I’m not interested in working for you.”

“You need a job.”

She heard the frustration in his voice. Too bad. Let him suffer. “And I’ll find one, just not at High Rollers.”

“Why are you being so goddamn stubborn?” he asked, reaching for her arm. “You know you want that job as much as I want you to have it. Let’s just forget what happened today.”

Alana recognized the signs of a controlling man. Grayson may promise to mind his own business from now on, but he’d break his vow as soon as she did something he didn’t agree with. “I’m still not interested. About that ride, Mr. Allen…?”

He shrugged. “Sure, why not?”

“Give me your business card,” Grayson snarled at him.

The man reached into the breast pocket of his jacket and handed a card to Grayson. “Why?”

“Because if she doesn’t make it home safely, I’m going to hunt you down and make you wish you’d never met me.”

Before Alana could lash out at him again, he was in his car, burning rubber out of the parking lot.

“Geez, he’s one guy I wouldn’t want to cross,” Mr. Allen said, shaking his head. “Funny, he seems so easy-going in those TV commercials. Maybe you bring out the worst in him, huh?”

“Maybe,” Alana said, taking a few deep breaths as she clenched the door handle. “He definitely brings out the worst in me.”

***

“Hey, big brother, I thought Mama said you were bringing a girl to dinner.”

Grayson’s mother shot a warning glance at her youngest daughter. “His plans changed, Terri. Pass the sugar, please.”

Terri chuckled. “You must’ve done something to piss her off. Come on, tell us what happened.”

“Mind your own business,” Grayson said, trying to release his death grip on his fork. He should have known his family would have questions when he showed up alone after making such a big deal about bringing Alana. Next time he’d keep his mouth shut. Not that there would be a next time. He’d learned his lesson. He’d stick to women who didn’t make it their mission to make him miserable.

“She must have been pretty special,” his other sister, Raelyn, said. “I can’t remember the last time you brought a girl home. High school, maybe?”

“She’s just an employee,” Grayson said, trying to sound casual. “She’s new in town, and I thought she might like to meet some people. Something came up, and she couldn’t make it. No big deal.”

“No big deal, huh?” Terri winked at her sister. “Is that why you’ve been grumpy as a bear all day?”

“I have not been grumpy,” he said, forcing himself to take a deep breath. His kid sisters made it their mission to rile him.

“You have been sort of grumpy, Uncle Grayson,” his niece, Kylie, said. She looked up at him with eyes the same shade of blue as her grandmama’s.

He dropped his fork and pulled her into a hug. “I’m sorry, kiddo.” He kissed the top of her sun-bleached head. “I don’t mean to be.”

“It’s okay.” She giggled when he squeezed her tighter. “Mama says everybody gets grumpy sometimes. She tells me when I feel that way I should go to my room and sulk ‘til I feel better. Maybe you should go to your room, Uncle Grayson.”

The table erupted in laughter. Grayson adored his niece, mainly because she wasn’t afraid to voice her opinion, even when it got her into trouble. He’d always been that way and had never regretted it… until yesterday. He’d over-stepped with Alana, and it was costing him. He wanted to give Kylie advice that might prevent her from making the same mistake, but she was only ten.

Looking around the table, he saw the people he loved most and realized no one knew him better, with the possible exception of his best friends and partners. But he couldn’t talk to them about his problem. “The truth is…”

His brothers-in-law set down their utensils, giving him their full attention. They’d been with Grayson’s baby sisters since high school, and both were like the brothers he’d never had.

“I did want Alana to come with me today. I screwed things up in a big way.”

Terri raised an eyebrow before glancing at the three children sitting around the table. “Why don’t y’all run outside and play?”

“Awww, we wanna hear this too,” Kylie whined.

“Do like your Aunt Terri says,” Raelyn said, waving toward the door. “Run along, now.”

Grayson waited for three grumbling kids to shuffle outside before he continued. “We, uh, hired Alana as an accountant. Actually, Jaxon hired her.”

“Where’s she from?” Terri scraped peach cobbler off her plate and popped the last bite in her mouth.

“California. She wanted to get away from her ex-husband. From what she told me, he was a real domineering S.O.B. who tried to control every area of her life. I don’t know a lot about him. Just that he owned some big software company and Alana worked for him.”

“I’m surprised you haven’t had him checked out yet,” Terri said, grinning.

His family knew him too well, though he’d never admit he’d gone to those lengths to protect a woman he barely knew. It wouldn’t make any sense to his family. They wouldn’t understand his connection with Alana unless they saw it. She lit him up, plain and simple.

“So what’d you do to piss her off?” his brother-in-law, Duane, asked.

“I guess she didn’t appreciate being told what to do.” He grimaced, sliding his hands over his face. “That wasn’t my intent, but that’s the way it came across. I went apartment hunting with her yesterday, and I guess I was kind of judgmental about the places we looked at. I suggested she think about renting one of my houses instead.”

“I take it she didn’t care for that idea?” Raelyn looked amused. She, better than anyone, knew how obstinate her big brother could be.

“Apparently not,” he said, clenching his hand into a fist. “She’s the most stubborn woman I’ve ever met. She had to sell her car to move here, so I offered her my truck. She refused. I offered her a great little house for the same money as the dump she was going to rent, and again, she refused. What the hell am I missing? I’m just trying to help the girl.”

“Sometimes a girl needs to know she can stand on her own two feet, Gray,” Terri said. “It sounds like her ex may have done a number on her.”

“That’s another thing that really pisses me off,” Grayson said. “She keeps comparing me to him. Says I look just like him, and she seems to think I’m treating her the same way he did. That’s total bullshit! I wanted to help her. He wanted to control her.”

“Maybe it feels the same to her,” Raelyn said. “You know you want to help, but when a good-looking, successful guy tells you where you should live, work, what you should drive…” When Grayson glared at her, she shrugged. “I’m just saying it may seem like déjà vu to her.”

“What did you say the guy’s name was?” Terri asked, whipping out her phone.

“Ronan Holmes, Holmes Inc.” He wasn’t too keen on his sisters looking up Alana’s ex, but he couldn’t stop them.

Terri’s jaw dropped. “Oh my God. Gray, this guy could be your twin.”

“Lemme see.” Raelyn grabbed the phone from her sister’s hand. “Jeez, I can see why Alana’s a little freaked out.” She looked back and forth between her brother and the screen. “It’s kind of eerie.”

“Let me see that,” their mother said, holding out her hand. “I’m sure you girls are exaggerating. He can’t—” She frowned at the screen. “Oh my, there really is a striking resemblance, isn’t there?”

Grayson sighed. His family was just confirming his fear. There was no way he could convince Alana to forgive him if he was linked to her ex through no fault of his own. “Thanks a lot, guys. That makes me feel a whole hell of a lot better.”

Terri reached for her phone once it had made the rounds. “Physical appearance aside, you need to prove to her you’re nothing like him. If he was controlling, you need to be supportive. If he was opinionated, you need to hang back and invite her to share her opinions first.”

“That’s gonna be hard, since she never wants to see me again.”

“What do you mean?” Duane asked, frowning. “Didn’t you say she was workin’ for y’all?”

“She was until she quit yesterday.”

“Wow.” Raelyn’s breath hissed between her teeth. “You weren’t kidding when you said you’d pissed her off. Didn’t she move here just so she could take this job?”

“Yeah.”

“I guess she’ll be heading back to California now?” Terri asked.

Grayson’s stomach pitched. He hadn’t considered the possibility she might run back home since she no longer had a reason to stay in Texas, but of course it made sense. Without the job, she could move anywhere. He jumped up. “I gotta go.” Bending to kiss his mother on the cheek, he said, “Thanks for dinner, Mama. It was great, as always.”

He ran out the door to a chorus of “good luck” behind him.

Alana was home alone when she heard a car pull into the drive. Kari and her mother had gone to a movie and invited her to tag along, but she wasn’t in the mood for a romance. Her heart lurched when she peeked out the window and saw Grayson jog up to the door. She’d lost sleep thinking about him last night, which had only incensed her more. She had to get him out of her head!

He knocked on the door several times and rang the doorbell before glancing up at her bedroom window. Busted. She could move away from the window and ignore him, but that would make her look like a coward. That wasn’t the image she wanted to leave him with, so she squared her shoulders, took a deep breath, and made her way downstairs.

“Alana,” he said when she finally opened the door. “Damn, it’s good to see you. I was afraid you might’ve left town already.”

“Left town?” She clenched her hands and forced herself to release them.

“I thought you might think about leaving,” he said, stepping closer. “Since you don’t want to work for High Rollers anymore.”

She did want to work for High Rollers, but she refused to work for another man who thought he had the right to control her life. “I’m weighing my options.”

Two middle-aged women walked by the house and glanced at them with interest before smiling and waving.

“Maybe you’d better come in,” she said, stepping back. She wanted to send him on his way, but not before she’d said her piece.