Читать книгу Mistresses: Just One Night - Yvonne Lindsay - Страница 21

RESTLESS beneath a cover of thin cotton, Elise followed the streak of late-night headlights as they stole through the slats in the blinds and cut a path across her bedroom ceiling.

Though Seattle hadn’t come up once in the week since Levi mentioned it, the moment was never far from her mind.

He hadn’t been pressing for a commitment. She knew that.

Levi had been clear about the temporary nature of the invitation extended. That all he was talking about was a couple of months. A little more fun.

Except Elise couldn’t stop reading it as more than that. She couldn’t stop her thoughts at the point where Levi told her they’d play a little longer before he sent her packing back home with a shiny new plan for a future that would take place in a different state than the one where he resided. No, she couldn’t leave well enough alone. She’d had to take it a step further … to the fact they shouldn’t have been anything but a single night. But already it had been a month and still Levi didn’t think he was going to be ready to give her up by the time he needed to leave. He’d reconsidered his plans, again.

Queasy nerves stirred her belly and Elise rolled to her side, tucking her knees up close.

Now Levi was suggesting—albeit, only as an alternative if her loan was denied—they turn the single month that remained into another three? What then?

Nothing was as set in stone as she’d believed entering the relationship. Levi had destroyed the security she’d had in knowing that, no matter how much she’d begun to care for him, there were those hard and fast rules, inflexible boundaries that kept her from getting in too deep. From finding herself in another position where she had to choose.

By changing the rules, he’d given her license to envision possibilities she never would have before. Scenarios that revolved around forbidden words like somehow, what if, and just maybe. Words that dared her to hope and all but promised heartbreak.

The phone beside her bed flashed bright with a text alert and her belly did a little flip, her body coming alive as all the doubts and worries weighing on her evaporated into thin air. “You awake?”

She dialed him back. “It’s two in the morning. Of course I’m awake.”

A gruff laugh answered, then, “Hmm, so not sleeping … but tell me you’re already in bed.”

“I am,” she murmured, adjusting the pillow behind her head. “Where are you?”

“In my car. I was on my way home and thought I’d swing by if you were up.”

This time it was Elise laughing. “On your way home? Considering the only thing between your club and apartment is a layer of concrete and some insulation, I’m wondering how you found yourself in the car.”

“Call it a driving urge … but enough about that. What are you wearing?”

Her thighs shifted together in a sensual rub that was all about anticipation and the low, gravel-rough sound of Levi’s voice. “Why do you want to know?”

“Because I’ve got about five minutes until I get there and I’m about to give you some very detailed, very specific instructions. Timing is everything.”

Elise smiled, her eyes drifting closed. “In that case, I’m not wearing anything at all.”

Hours later Levi woke alone in Elise’s bed, that sleepy contentment he always felt waking there crumbling at the sound of a muffled voice down the hall. Following it, he stopped at the front room.

Elise stood with her back to him, phone at her ear. Spine rigid beneath her thin robe. The tension radiating off her hit him before her words. “How long?” Then, “No, I’m not ready. Give me ten minutes … I’ll call you back.”

“Everything okay?” he asked when she’d disconnected the call and begun pulling on her jeans without her underwear. He was a dog for noticing when something was clearly wrong, but he was also a guy. And guys didn’t miss that kind of thing.

Unwilling to look at him, she nodded once. “That was Ally. There’s a … situation. I’ve got to take off. I’m sorry, but you should probably go home. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

“There’s a situation. At four in the morning. And you think I should just take off?” Crossing to her, he caught her chin in his palm, forced her to face him and saw the shadows in her eyes. Shadows he’d only glimpsed in her most unguarded moments. The ones he’d wondered about, but were gone so quickly, he’d always just let pass. But not tonight. “There’s no way I’m leaving without finding out what’s going on.”

And short of some husband she’d forgotten to mention being on his way home, he wasn’t leaving then. Okay, chances were good he wouldn’t leave regardless.

Her chin took on a stubborn set and he wondered if she’d refuse him flat. Tell him to take a leap. Only beneath that stubborn jut broke the barest tremor. A crack in the façade she was trying to maintain.

Pulling her into his chest, he ran a hand over the tumble of curls that framed her face against his pillow like a wild halo. He’d half expected her to pull away, but her hands crept up between them and her forehead pressed against the center of his chest.

Whatever this was, it was bad. He didn’t know what was wrong. He just knew that in that moment she needed him.

Drawing a shaky breath, she took a step back, quickly arranging the features of her face to disguise the pull of fear and sorrow it was too late to hide. “It’s my dad. He’s … missing.”

Everything inside Levi came to a grinding halt. Missing.

Immediately Levi started flipping through the details he knew about her father … found his scowl deepening as he came up blank. Which didn’t seem possible. The way he knew Elise—the way she talked to him for hours at a stretch about her dreams for the studio, about books and movies, about local politics and pop culture, about her sister’s family …

But not her parents.

Parents, family and home life were subjects Levi was a master of avoiding. But until that very minute, he hadn’t realized how easy Elise had made it. Because she’d been avoiding them too.

Sure, there’d been a handful of stories from her youth. All white-picket perfection. A few more from high school. But nothing current. And yet he hadn’t even noticed.

Which took skill. The kind gained through practice.

Suddenly the ground beneath him felt loose and ready to give.

What was she trying to hide?

As he stared into the troubled eyes of a woman he cared too much about, ugly scenarios he didn’t want to consider rose to the surface of his consciousness.

“Heaven help us, Elise, tell me what’s going on.”

Elise swallowed, nervously checking the phone still clutched in her palm. “My father was diagnosed six years ago with Alzheimer’s. He doesn’t work, and my mother takes care of him at home.” After a breath, she turned to him, her eyes brimming with helpless tears. “Tonight she woke up and he was gone. The car and keys are still there, and so are his shoes. My mom’s got to stay at the house in case he comes back. She’s the only one who might be able to calm him down. They’ve already called the police and David’s driving around, but Ally’s home with Dex, and he needs another set of eyes.”

Levi nodded, the well of relief within him nearly enough to bring him to his knees. Alzheimer’s was a tragedy. And he pitied Elise’s entire family for the toll it had taken on their lives. But the scenarios he’d begun to imagine … had been much, much worse. What was wrong with Elise wasn’t about some seedy secret. It wasn’t a trip down a bottle-littered memory lane. And it wasn’t anything he could fix. But a missing parent was something he understood all too well.

“Okay, sweetheart. Call Ally back. Here’s what we’re going to do …”

An hour later, they were working their way through the grid of neighborhoods surrounding Elise’s parents’ home. Levi driving as Elise scanned the alleyways, sidewalks and gaps between parked cars. Ally riding with David, while one of Levi’s HeadRush managers, who happened to have six younger siblings, stayed with Dexter.

Elise stared out the window, eyes searching. “I didn’t mean to lie to you.”

Levi shot her a questioning glance.

“About my family being so great. You said they sounded perfect, and I told you they were because that’s how it used to be. And sometimes, maybe, I’d just rather pretend it still was.”

Levi watched the road. Taking in her admission and turning it around in his head. Knowing this was the opportunity to come clean himself. Ease her conscience by telling her about his own past.

Instead, he said, “You don’t need to apologize, Elise. You don’t owe me anything you aren’t comfortable sharing. But for the record, if you want to talk about it, I’ll listen.”

Her lips pressed into a flat line as she nodded too quickly, blinking back tears.

“It’s just hard for me to talk about. Hard to deal with. But at least if I’m the only one dealing with it, then when I don’t want to think about it—when I want to pretend it’s like it always was, I can. If you don’t know what’s happening, then you won’t ask me what kind of day my dad is having. What the latest news is on his medication. If he’s getting worse.” She swallowed, and closed her eyes a second before snapping them back open and scanning the streets.

Levi slowed the car, giving her time to reassure herself she hadn’t missed anything. Settling back into her seat, she went on. “Sometimes I just need to forget—be someone without all the worries.”

Someone without all the worries.

He understood the need to be someone else for a while. To take a break from the problems. But he also understood something else. “This is why you can’t come with me. Why leaving town, even for a few months, isn’t an option.”

“And why the studio is so important. It’s not just for me.”

No, he’d imagined it wouldn’t be. “What are you thinking?”

“That my mom’s spent the last six years at home taking care of my dad. Giving up a little more of herself each year, because she wouldn’t consider giving up the time she had left with him. Didn’t want to risk speeding up the progression of the disease with a change in surroundings or by bringing in unfamiliar faces. She just kept telling us she could handle it. Refusing to even consider that Dad might be at a point where he needs more help than she can give him. But after this—something has to change. And she’s going to need something to do. A place to go, to start rebuilding a life that doesn’t revolve around someone who mostly doesn’t know who she is anymore.”

He got it. “And you’re going to be ready. With a place for her to come.”

“She needs to be around people again. Get out of that house for more than a trip to the doctor’s office. The studio would be a base where she could spend some time with me. If she wanted to work, she could help out with the child care or handle the front retail area. I just want her to have options. I want to give her something she can count on.”

Because Elise knew what it was to feel as if her options were gone. To suddenly have everything she’d counted on taken away. Levi’s fists clenched over the wheel.

Yeah, now he got it, all right.

He hated that she had to go through this. But at least she wasn’t alone now. He’d stay with her, searching, for as long as she needed him to.

Reaching over, he slipped his hand beneath the tumble of silky curls at Elise’s neck. “We’ll find him.” He just hoped to hell it was the truth.

Twenty minutes later, the phone chimed to life, the screen illuminating behind the white-knuckled grasp of Elise’s fingers.

Slowing at a deserted intersection, he waited as she quickly connected the call.

“What’s going on?” she asked, still scanning the sidewalks. And then her head dropped forward, her free hand covering her face, and something wrenched deep inside his chest.

“Thank God. Where? … I can be there in … Are you sure?… Okay, I’ll see you then.”

Disconnecting, she turned to him, eyes shimmering bright.

“He’s okay?” he asked.

She nodded, her throat moving up and down in the exaggerated way it did with the buildup of too much emotion.

“Yes. David and Ally found him down by this restaurant we used to go to when we were kids. He’s fine. Tired and worn-out—which may have been a good thing in getting him into the car …” Her voice trailed off, and she looked out the window into the darkness of night. “But he wasn’t hurt.”

“Do you want to meet them over at your parents’ house? Is that where they’re going?”

“It is, but they don’t want me to come. David’s going to stay the night and then in the morning I’ll go over and we’ll meet with his doctor. Talk about options.” Leaning back into the seat, shoulders sagging with relief, she closed her eyes. “Could you just take me home?”

She looked fragile in the seat beside him. At that moment, all he wanted to do was pull her into his lap and hold her against his chest. Promise her all kinds of nonsense about how everything would be okay. Only it would be a lie, one that neither of them could buy into. Levi didn’t have a wealth of information about Alzheimer’s, but he knew well enough what it was like to live with a disease that couldn’t be cured.

His mother’s alcoholism. At times she was recovering, but the disease itself would never go away.

Shifting uneasily in his seat, he tried to push the thoughts of his mother away. Only the parallel was too easy to draw, especially as his mother was currently unaccounted for. In Levi’s case, however, there wasn’t anything remarkable about that. She dropped off the grid most every time one of her short-lived bouts of sobriety splashed to an end.