The Lawson Boys: Alex (10 page)

Wishing the
time was over and she was home, she looked out of the side window
while Alex got into the Jeep and started it up. In silence he
backed out onto the road and then moved forward into the
traffic.

“Paul has
delivered your car home for you,” he said quietly. “It’s all fixed,
engine purring like a kitten, or so Will says.”

“At last.”
Harly breathed sigh of relief. “I’m surprised he didn’t drop it off
at work as he’d normally do.”

“Because I was
picking you up.”

“I could have
just met you wherever it is we’re going, save you the hassle of
picking me up.”

“It’s no
hassle.” His profile was perfectly calm. “To pick you up or drop
you off home.”

“Oh, I can get
a taxi home-”

“No.”

That was it, a
straight ‘No’. She glanced at him again. How the hell could he
sound so definite, determined and calmly assured with just one
word? And why didn’t she argue? Because, she inwardly acknowledged,
arguing didn’t seem to work too well with Alex. It never had
done.

Minutes later
he pulled the Jeep into the parking lot of the local pub, and
Harly’s brows rose. A quiet chat just didn’t happen in the pub.
“Here?”

“Yes.”

One word
answers. This just didn’t bode well for the chat. “I thought we
needed somewhere quiet?”

“They have
booths which I’m assured are rather private.”

“In another
room off the main bar.”

He looked at
her. “Do you have another suggestion?”

“We can talk
here in the car.”

“I’d rather
somewhere more comfortable.”

“It’d be easier
here.”

“No.” And with
that, he got out of the Jeep.

Cripes, the man
just knew how to cut off a disagreement.

More than a
little annoyed, Harly shoved the door open but before she could get
out, he was there holding the door. Getting down, she stood still,
stopping him from shutting the door.

He studied her
upturned face for several seconds before stating, “You look
annoyed.”

“Really?” She
glared. “You have an irritating habit of simply walking away from a
disagreement as though it fixes the solution.”

“It usually
does.” Placing one hand on her hip, he gently but firmly pushed her
to the side and swung the door shut.

“Not with
me.”

“We’re going to
argue out here because I want to sit in the relative privacy of a
booth and have a drink while we talk?” He raised one brow.

“Well, I-”

“When you’d
rather sit in the car and talk? We could go through the Hungry
Jack’s drive-through and get a couple of cokes, maybe a hamburger,
and sit in their car park.” There was a sudden gleam of amusement
in his eyes.

Now she felt
stupid, even though that had been her original idea. “Of course
not.”

“I guess we
could sit out here and talk, though people will look at us.”

Turning on her
heel, Harly snapped, “All right already!”

He didn’t say
another word but she could practically feel the amusement exuding
from him as he strode by her side. Ever the gentleman, he held the
door open for her and followed her inside the pub.

There weren’t
many drinking on a Wednesday night, and when they walked through
into the room containing more private booths for couples to drink,
eat and chat at, she saw that there was only one other couple
inside.

Yep, there was
Alex’s hand again, big and warm at the back of her waist, steering
her over to the opposite side of the room. He stood while she slid
into the booth before sitting opposite her. And then he looked at
her, his blue-eyed gaze drifting over her face as though
re-memorizing every inch of it. Silent in his perusal, she
nevertheless felt the intensity of it.

Refusing to
look away, she simply watched him as he looked his fill of her,
wondering at his thoughts.

Finally his
gaze lifted to meet hers. “Time has treated you well, Harly.”

Surprised, she
at first didn’t know what to say before commonsense took over and
she replied, “Thanks. You’re pretty good yourself.”
Pretty good
yourself? Crap on a stick, had she really said that?
Taking a
deep breath, she placed her bag under the table on the floor next
to her feet, using the movement as an excuse to break their eye
contact and get her rather addled nerves sorted out.

Until that
second, she hadn’t even known how nervous she was, but now - hoo
boy, she wished herself anywhere but here, sitting in a private
booth across from Alex Lawson, one-time lover for one magical
event, and subsequent father of the baby she’d lost.

That reminder
alone was enough for her to gather her nerves and when she
straightened up, she was able to link her hands on the table and
meet his eyes calmly. They’d come here to talk and she was ready.
Get it over with, go home and never see him again. Done and
finished.

But rather than
start asking questions, Alex picked up the drinks menu and
proceeded to study it. “What will you have?”

“Oh - um,
Lemonade, thanks.”

With a nod, he
got up and walked over to the bar in the corner of the private
room. The barmaid giggled and flirted while he smiled politely and
paid for the drinks.

As he placed
the glass of fizzing Lemonade in front of Harly, she said, “Thanks.
Got a date lined up for tomorrow yet?”

“Hmm?” Picking
up the glass of dark fizzing liquid, he took a sip and raised his
eyebrows at her.

“I can’t help
but notice that you’re catching the eyes of the some of the ladies
around here.”

“Does that
bother you?” he asked bluntly.

Surprised, she
realised it did, but immediately she stomped that errant thought on
the head. “No. Sorry, that was rude of me to ask.”

“Don’t
apologise. You always were straightforward.” Alex took another sip
of his drink before placing it on the table. “In some things.”

And there it
was, the elephant in the room.

Taking a deep
breath, she eased back in the seat. “Okay, Alex, let’s get this
over with. Ask your questions.”

Again he
studied her, his gaze scouring her face with that intensity that
she had no doubt unnerved stronger people than she’d ever be, but
no way did it effect her.

At all.

Okay, maybe it
did a little, but damned if she was going to admit it to anyone.
Bad enough she could feel a mental shiver course through her.

At first she
thought he wasn’t going to speak, then she realised why when the
barmaid suddenly appeared at their table to place a bowl of chips
between them. She smiled at Alex, cast a rather flinty look at
Harly and walked away, leaving them alone once more.

Reaching over,
Alex took a chip and crunched it in half, his gaze never leaving
Harly. Chewing slowly, he gestured to the bowl.

She shook her
head.

“Bacon
flavour,” he offered.

“No thanks.”
Just get on with it!

Popping the
chip into his mouth, he picked out another one and lifted it
up.

“I thought we
were going to talk?” she said.

“I eat when I’m
nervous.”

Startled, she
blinked. “What?”

“Sorry, poor
joke. I’m just a little hungry.” Leaning back in the booth, he ate
the chip, took a sip of drink, placed the glass back on the table,
looked her right in the eyes and said, “Let’s start.”

Four

Harly might
appear to be in control, but Alex noted her moistening her full
bottom lip nervously and the way her fingers entwined right before
she put them on her lap out of his sight.

It was true,
time had been kind to Harly. She’d grown from a pretty, shy,
overweight girl to a pretty, more confident woman. True, she was
still full figured, though he preferred the term generously curved,
but time and maturity had given her a quieter, self-assured
air.

Sitting
opposite him, the light overhead cast a gleam in her silken black
hair. Her eyes, those startlingly pale grey eyes, seemed to hold a
million secrets, and he’d seen them darken like storm clouds when
she was upset, and be perfectly clear when she was sitting as she
did now.

They’d also
shimmered with passion, gazing up at him as he’d thrust inside her,
her lush lips moist from his kisses, her -
Cutting off the
thoughts abruptly, he raised the glass of Coke to his mouth for a
fortifying mouthful. The memories were from another time, and the
result of that memory was what held his interest.

Straightening
her shoulders, she returned his direct gaze. “I’m not sure where to
start. As we both know, most of it was said last night. I’m not
sure what else there is to say.”

“I just want to
know more.” His smiled slightly, trying to be reassuring. “With
both of us in a much calmer state.”

She thought
about this for a few seconds before nodding slowly. “Okay, I
understand that. Maybe you should just ask me questions and I’ll
answer them. Or try to.”

“Sure,” he
agreed. “Fair enough.”

The answer
didn’t seem to relax her any, she continued to watch him with a
touch of wariness.

“You missed two
periods before you knew you were pregnant.” It came out a
statement, not a question, but she answered it anyway.

“I was scared
when I missed the first one. I’ve always been regular.” Her round
cheeks flushed but she didn’t look away. “When the second one was
missed, I knew. I took a pregnancy test and it was positive.”

“You were
scared.” Another statement.

“Shit scared.
But oddly exhilarated, too. It’s kind of hard to explain.” She
shook her head. “I’d already had a month of wondering, of thinking
if I was pregnant would it be a boy or girl? What could I do about
it? I wasn’t going to abort it, as I said before, but I knew my
parents would be mortified when they found out. So I kept it a
secret.”

“Did you feel
it move?” He really wanted to know.

“I wasn’t far
enough along for that. I was only nine weeks pregnant. It didn’t
even show.”

Nine weeks. His
baby had been inside her for nine weeks. “Your parents must have
noticed you being sick every morning.”

She shook her
head. “After about a week, I didn’t get much sickness at all, so it
was put down to a tummy bug of some kind. I didn’t even know at
first and I just suspected it when I missed my first monthly.”

“You must be
one of the few women to not suffer much morning sickness.”

Harly shrugged.
“I guess.”

Shifting
slightly in the booth, he stretched out his legs to a more
comfortable position. “When you knew for sure, it didn’t cross your
mind that sooner or later you’d have to tell someone?”

“I was shit
scared to tell my parents. I didn’t have a plan, I was
panicked.”

“You had to
tell someone, surely? A close friend?”

She shook her
head. “I never really had a close friend.”

“How did you
think you were going to get away with it?”

“I hadn’t got
that far before…” She sighed. “No, that’s not quite true. I started
to think that maybe I should shift to the city, try to get a job.
Something.”

“A sixteen year
old raising a baby and paying rent, trying to work? Even that
should have struck you as a near impossible task.” Had she really
contemplated it? Watching the flash of anger in her eyes, he could
believe that she had thought about it.

“Yes,” she
replied, “I knew it was just about impossible. I had no friends or
contacts in the city. You’re right, the truth occurred to me even
as I tried to think of a way.”

He held up one
hand, palm outward in a gesture of peace while keeping his voice
quiet and calm. “I hear you. I’m not judging now, Harly, I just
want to know more details.”

Calming down,
she sighed and picked up the glass of Lemonade, taking a few
mouthfuls.

He waited until
she’d placed the glass back down on the table before continuing.
“Did you have any idea that you were going to lose the baby?”

“I’d had a
couple of cramps during the day, but I thought I’d eaten something.
At dinner that night the cramps started to come faster and harder.”
Harly took a deep breath.

Suddenly Alex
realised that however much he wanted to hear about it, those
memories probably hurt. “I’m sorry, Harly. If this is too hard…”
They could still talk about what happened without going into
details.

“It’s all
right.” Those clear grey eyes looked at him and she smiled
slightly. “It was a long time ago, Alex. I was just a kid. A scared
kid, true, but just a kid. Basically, as soon as I started to lose
the blood and had the cramping, the doctor suspected what was
happening and asked me if I’d missed my monthlies and if so, how
many. As soon as he told my parents what was happening, Mum put the
phone down from where she’d been dialling for an ambulance.” There
was a slight flash of pain in her eyes before her lashes slid down
to hide it. “She asked if I’d be all right, he thought so, said
they could wait a bit longer and see. The bleeding didn’t last long
and I wasn’t in any danger. I was packed off to bed and when I got
up the next morning I found that arrangements had been made for me
to go to the city to have a ‘clean-out’, as Mum angrily put it. Dad
could barely look at me. I was driven down that afternoon, had the
procedure the next day, and was back at school by the beginning of
the following week.”

“Jesus.” He
knew his own parents wouldn’t have acted like that with his sister,
Cindy. They’d have had an ambulance immediately, then hospital and
counselling for her, and
then
, once she was okay, they’d
have been mad at her. She’d have had a lecture that would have left
her ears ringing for weeks.

“But they
stayed with you, right?” He couldn’t help but ask. “Your mum? She
did give you some comfort, right?”