Page 15 of Breaking the Alpha
“Excuse me, miss, my boss asked me to come by and—what the fuck?”
She looked up from her cash counting and was unable to hide the surprise and guilt in her expression when she saw River standing in the doorway, frozen half in and half out of the store with his hand on the knob.He stared at her, his eyes darkening with anger moments before they lightened with a mix of understanding and a little sheepishness.Then he cleared his throat, stepped in, and let the door chime finish its song before he spoke.
“I mean, hi, Angelina who lives in Wisconsin.Fancy running into you here.”
Chapter Six
There she was,the woman whose voice was constantly whispering in his mind night and day.The woman who had him daydreaming about her wild hair and auburn eyes when he was supposed to be wallowing in self-pity.His pretty little hippie who was now giving him a saucy scrunching of her nose while her filmy pink skirt provided a tantalizing view of her legs.
Legs he’d had wrapped around his hips a mere week ago.
Angelina from Wisconsin.
Angelina, who was definitely notinWisconsin.
Angelina, who’d left him with a fake phone number he’d deleted the moment he heard the hotel elevator door close because every true blooded Epsonite knew the commercial jingle of the worst—yet somehow long-lasting—pizzeria in the damn state.
The urge to tear after her and demand her real number had risen and died fast inside him.And it was better that way, because if he had her number, the temptation to call her would be too much for him.The thought of dragging her into the shitstorm of his life, even from a distance, churned his stomach.It was easier to remember those few hours he’d spent with her as a moment of untarnished respite, something he could escape to in his mind when he needed a reminder that not everything—or everyone—sucked.Knowing she lived a few thousand miles away from LA and two states away from Epson kept her in that unreachable zone where he needed her to be.
Except four stores down from Serpent’s Tongue Ink was not thousands of miles away.It wasn’t two states away.Hell, it wasn’t even a block away.Angelina from Wisconsin was standing behind the till of the shop where his brother was now sourcing all his piercing jewelry.
The gods were either smiling down at him or playing games.
“I, um—” She looked away from him, busying herself with something in a display case behind her.“Here.Birch and I were talking this morning and I think this is everything he wanted.”
Birch.
His brother’s name so casually stated, like she knew him.
Which she did, but still.
He’d spent seven sleepless nights tossing and turning while her voice caressed his thoughts for hours in the quiet of night, and his brother was just out here talking to her like it was nothing.And Birch didn’t even have the decency to give him a heads-up about the new shop owner.A simplethe woman who runs the hippie store up the way is smoking hot, sexy as fuck, and has a voice made for foreplaywould’ve sufficed.
Though he supposed that if his brother had given him that description, he would’ve wanted to knock said brother’s teeth out.
“River?”The tilt of her head and the slight pursing of her lips as she looked at him made him feel more exposed than any photo shoot he’d ever done.Then she sighed and set the box of jewelry down.“I’m sorry.”
Cocking a brow in an attempt to regain a little of the playboy persona Angelina so easily decimated, he smirked.“Giving me a fake number was bad enough, but giving me the number to Pesto Pete’s Premium Pizza?That hurt, Angel.Salt on an open wound.”
She laughed and gave him a genuine smile.“It was pretty mean.Like I said, I’m sorry.But it’s the only local number I have memorized, River from LA.”
“I suppose my presence here is as damning as yours.”He ran a hand through his hair as he approached the counter.“I do live in LA, but my brother owns Serpent’s Tongue and I’m staying around for a while as his piercer until he finds a permanent replacement.”
“Birch is your brother?”She narrowed her eyes.“Your actual brother?”
“My actual, real brother.”He extended his arms out and took a step back so she could make an accurate appraisal.“You don’t see the similarities?”
He knew he didn’t look like Birch.Though they sported the same bone structure and smile, Birch was a little rougher and a lot tougher across the board.Different eye and hair color aside, his older brother was muscled in that hard-working way; he wasn’t sporting the kind of muscles refined only through weights and training.One of them lived a full life of hard knocks, while the other…
While I got out.
“Ah, now I see it,” Angelina murmured as she picked up the box of jewelry and handed it to him.“It was good to see you again, River.Tell Birch I appreciate his business and if he needs more, I usually put my order in mid-month.”
He was dismissed.
And dumbfounded.
She left him no opening to do anything more than accept the package with a promise to relay the message before he walked out, his confusion over what the hell just happened playing out in his mind to the sounds of the cheerful chimes overhead.
