The Things I Do for You (The Alexanders) (13 page)

“I was going to tell you all today, I swear. It all happened so fast. I saw that Mom left me a message but I didn’t even listen to it. I was planning on stopping by later.”

Elliot popped him on the back of the head.
 

“Ouch! Damn, Eli. What was that for? I already apologized.”

Eli shook his head. “That was on behalf of your poor wife. Do you really think Mom is going to just sit back and wait for you to bring Raina to the house?”

Nick thought of Raina alone at her house, opening her front door to a crowd of Alexanders.

“Oh no.”

Elliot nodded. “That’s right.”

Nick whipped out his cell phone and dialed Raina’s number. It rang several times before voicemail picked up. “She’s not answering. This is about to be bad. Really bad.”

Elliot snorted. “You haven’t seen bad. I hope your bride is ready for the invasion. Let’s go rescue her.”

*
 
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*
 
*
 
*

“Harder.
Harder
!” Sam grunted when Raina punched the heavy bag three times in quick succession. “Just because you disappeared for three days doesn’t mean you get to ignore your workouts. Vacation time is over.” He patted the bag and waited until she punched again, this time with enough force to knock it back against him.
 

“That’s more like it.”
 

Rock music blared from the speakers behind her as Raina channeled every bit of her rage at the face she was imagining on the bag in front of her.
 

Thwack.
That was for being so convincing.
Thwack.
That was for invading so much of her mental space.
Thwack.
That was for being so damn good-looking.
 

She stopped in mid-punch at the thought. God, she was supposed to be using this time to catch up on things and gain some perspective. Instead, she was just daydreaming about him. How was she supposed to think of anything but him when he looked at her like that, like their marriage was real? Like she was his whole world.
 

The man was pure evil.
 

“Any other man would take offense to that.” Sam raised an eyebrow when her eyes met his.
 

“Oh. I wasn’t actually talking about you.” Raina stopped punching and blew out her breath.
 

Sam slapped the bag. “If you’ve got enough energy to daydream, clearly I’m not working you hard enough. Come on. Go again.”

Raina groaned. “I take it back. I was talking about you. You are evil.”

“But you look good, right?”

Raina punched the bag once more, satisfied when he jumped at the sudden movement.
 

“You bet your ass I do.” She stretched her arms overhead, reveling in the burn of her muscles.
 

Building a fully quipped home gym was one of the first things she’d done when she bought the house. Modeling was a career where women had a much shorter-than-average shelf life as a rule. Raina was smart enough to know her days were numbered, but she was determined to stay in the game as long as possible and then transition over into several side projects she was working on. Now that she’d gotten a network to carry her reality show, she was hoping it would do well enough for her to land a book deal. If everyone from Snooki to those housewives on TV could get publishing contracts, then why not her?

Sam walked over to the small cooler in the corner of her home gym and pulled out two bottles. He handed her one and then took a deep swig of his.
 

“Yuck. What is this stuff?” Sam held the bottle of bright green liquid away from him as if it was toxic.

“It’s called Grenade. Remember the ad I did for the vitamin supplement? Well, one of the marketing guys sent me some free samples of their newest product.”

Sam shook his head and placed the cap back on his bottle. “I can see why they’re giving it away.”

They were interrupted by a loud chirping sound. Raina had just taken a big sip of her own drink, so she just pointed toward the treadmill where she’d left her cell phone. Sam walked over and picked it up. After a quick glance at the screen, he smirked.

“It’s Alexander. You want me to answer?”

Raina gulped down the mouthful of bitter juice and held out her hand. As soon as he gave it to her, she hit the button to silence the call. Sam narrowed his eyes.
 

“What? I’ll just call him back after I’m done working out.”

Sam shrugged. “Okay. Whatever you say. But just tell me one thing. And you have to promise to tell me the truth.”

Raina sighed and put her bottle back in the refrigerator. She didn’t meet his eyes, just went back over to the heavy bag and waited. When he didn’t follow, she let out a loud, exasperated sigh.
 

“I have many faults, but I’ve never been a liar. Ask me anything. Maybe then you’ll finally stop worrying.”

Sam waited until she came back and stood next to him. “Do you love this guy?”

Raina bit her lip. “You know I don’t believe in love. He’s a nice guy and I think he’ll make a great dad. I love that about him.”

“Don’t tell me you don’t believe in love. If something bad happened to him, how would you feel? Would you be sad for a few minutes and then move on?”

Raina picked at the edge of the boxing glove she held. She didn’t have to be in love with him to miss his smile. His laughter. His way of talking her off the ledge when she was worried about something. Even in the abstract the thought of anything happening to Nick made her heart race.

“No, I wouldn’t just be sad for a few minutes.”

She had a feeling that if anything happened to Nick, she’d be sad for the rest of her life.

RAINA TURNED AT the sound of the bathroom door banging open. After finishing her workout, she’d immediately come upstairs to shower and wash her hair. Sam wouldn’t bother her unless it was important. She pushed the glass shower door to the side slightly and called out, “Sam? What’s wrong?”

“It’s not Sam. It’s me.”

Raina pulled the door open a bit more and stuck her head out into the cold air of the bathroom. “Ridley? What are you doing here?”

Ridley was wearing a pair of leggings with a hole in the knee and the ugliest sweatshirt she’d ever seen.
 

“And what the hell are you wearing? I hope no one saw you dressed like that.”

Ridley glared at her and pulled her towel off the rack. “I’m trying to save
you
. Mrs. Alexander came by the house. She heard about your marriage and wanted me to bring her to see her new daughter-in-law. She’s downstairs. Right now!”

Raina squeaked and slammed the shower door shut. “Oh my God. I can’t meet my mother-in-law looking like a drowned rat. I am going to kill Nick! I thought he was going to wait to tell everyone.”

“Raina, it’s all over the internet that you got married.”
 

“It is?”

“Yes.
Everybody
knows now. Come on, it’s time to face the music.”

“Can’t you stall her?” Raina whined. It was cowardly, yes, but dammit, she wasn’t good with parents. They wanted nice, sweet, daughters-in-law who baked cupcakes and stuff. Not girls like her who were better at pouting on a sexy ad campaign.

This is going to be a disaster.

Ridley pulled open the shower door, letting in a blast of freezing air. “You’re saying that because you don’t know Julia Alexander. Trust me, if I don’t come down there with you in a few minutes, she’ll come up here and find you herself.”

Raina pushed her wet hair off her face and shut the water off. “Okay, I’m coming.” She took the towel her sister handed through the open door and wrapped it around herself, trying to stop the shivers wracking her body.

“I’ll go pick you out some clothes.” Ridley left, leaving the bathroom door wide open.
 

Raina toweled off quickly, then wrapped the towel around her body and knotted it under her arm.
 

Ridley came back in with her clothes and dropped them on the counter. “Okay, I’m going back down there to help with dinner. Hopefully cooking will distract her.”

Raina’s head shot up. “Dinner? I don’t have any food in the house.”

“She brought it all with her. I guess this is your ‘welcome to the family’ dinner. Now hurry up!”

As soon as Ridley left, Raina yanked off the towel and pulled on her clothes. She pulled out a wide-toothed comb and gently detangled her hair section by section. There was no time for blow-drying and flat-ironing. She’d have to just put it back in a braid.
 

The doorbell rang downstairs and she paused. Had Mrs. Alexander gone to get something from her car and gotten locked out? When it didn’t ring again, she figured Ridley must have opened the door for her, so she hurriedly applied tinted moisturizer and swept a single coat of mascara on her lashes. She surveyed herself in the mirror.
 

She looked terrified.
 

“Here goes nothing,” she muttered.
 

As soon as she descended the stairs, she could hear them.
How can two people make that much noise?
It sounded like a circus troupe had set up shop in her kitchen. She rounded the corner and stopped at the sight of the full room.
 

“There she is,” someone said.
 

The entire room went silent and what felt like a million pairs of eyes fixed on her at the same time.
 

A short woman in a lacy blue dress came forward and grabbed her hands. “Raina, we’re all so glad to meet you. I’m Nick’s mother, Julia.”

 
She’d met Steven’s mother once when she’d been in New York for the symphony. She was tall, thin, impeccably dressed, and just as stuffy and formal as her son.
 

Julia Alexander, on the other hand, was a short plump woman with a café-au-lait complexion. She wore her dark hair in a bob of pin curls that made Raina think of the old-fashioned pink rollers her mother used to wear.
 

She looked
warm
, Raina decided.
 

“Hello. I’m so glad to meet you, Mrs. Alexander.”

“Oh sweetheart, just call me Julia. Or Mom. After all, you’re Mrs. Alexander now, too.”

Raina felt like her head was spinning as she was enveloped into a warm hug.
 

Julia pulled back and preened. “Oh, just look at you. Just as pretty as a picture! Of course, we knew that already. Come, come and meet the family.”

Raina followed silently as she was led over to the group. She was hugged by Nick’s father, Mark, first. Then she said hello to Nick’s older brother, Bennett. He shook her hand and smiled politely. Then Mark introduced her to his younger sister, Maria. Next was Maria’s daughter, Laura, her husband, Peter and their two children, Isabelle and Annabelle. She placed a hand over her racing heart. What if she couldn’t remember any of their names? By the time they circled around to where Jackson and Ridley stood, Raina felt like her head was spinning with faces.
 

Ridley pulled her in for a hug and said in a low voice, “I had no idea she invited the whole family!”

Before Raina could respond, the front door opened. Nick stood in the doorway, breathing hard. “Raina!” he called out. He took a few steps then stopped short when he finally noticed everyone in the kitchen. “Oh boy.”

 
Raina walked over to him and hugged him.
 

“I am so sorry,” he whispered. “When Elliot warned me, I came as fast as I could.”

He looked like he’d run from the car to the house. Her earlier annoyance vanished as he struggled to catch his breath. It was kind of sweet that he’d come so quickly to “rescue” her.
 

“It’s okay,” she said. “I think I can handle a little family time.”

“You might not say that after an hour of this,” Nick warned.
 

Raina watched as everyone moved around her kitchen, following Julia’s orders to set the table and carry the food out. It was so odd to see the dining room table her decorator had ordered filled to overflowing with platters and bowls of food. There was macaroni and cheese, chicken, both baked and southern-fried, and the most delicious potato salad she’d ever tasted. It was also
loud
. Everyone talked over everyone else in a delightful jumble of sound.
 

“So, Raina. You have a reality show now,” Bennett asked. He was seated on her left side. They were the only people at the table not talking.

He spoke slowly and Raina noticed that he stumbled and stuttered over several of his words. He was different from the rest of his brothers who all seemed so confident and outgoing. He also looked different than the rest of his family. He was the palest one of them and his brown eyes were lighter with a sprinkling of green through them. He was also the only one who wore glasses. She thought he must have always been the oddball in such a boisterous, loud, confident family.

She liked him immediately.

When he noticed her watching him, he lowered his eyes. A slight blush tinged his cheeks. “S…sorry if we weren’t supposed to ask about it. Mom told us.”

“No, no. It’s okay. It’s public knowledge now. I signed the deal a few weeks ago, so it should air early next year if all goes to plan. I’m really excited about it.”

 
She looked around at everyone else. There were several conversations going on at once and a heated argument at the end of the table between Mark and Eli about football.
 

“Sorry if I’m not the best company.”

Bennett glanced at her. “We can be a bit much to take at times. Mom’s not normally this pushy. It’s just that we thought you were a friend of Jackson’s. When we heard you and Nick got married… She just couldn’t take the suspense of waiting to find out. She thought he’d never settle down. Sorry if we bombarded you all at once.”