Page 43 of Ashes of Us
“I have a quick stop to make, but I'll be there as soon as possible.” He grinned. “Don't look so worried. It's good, I promise.”
Danica got aboard the Jeep and buckled her seatbelt, shifting slightly so she could look at Alex. “What's going on? Since when are you all buddy-buddy with Emilia, Xavier and Maverick?”
“Maverick and I have been in touch since I hired him, and Emilia introduced herself at the memorial at your house.” He started the Jeep and pulled around the Impala, which started and began to follow them. “I've been noticing that you struggle with being alone, but also can't reach out and ask for help, something Emilia confirmed when I mentioned it.”
“Okay, and why were you mentioning it?” Danica rubbed her temples, feeling a headache coming on, but not from annoyance, more from exhaustion and the ups and downs of the emotions she'd been going through all morning.
“Because I wanted her opinion on an idea I had.” He said evasively. “I reached out to her and Maverick on Monday, and we've been working on it together all week.”
“Working together?” Danica shook her head. She couldn't imagine a more different group of people working together, and she was a little flustered and annoyed that they were talking behind her back like that. “Please tell me what you guys have been up to.”
Alex huffed out a sigh and shook his head. “I found you place to stay until you figure out the house situation. Emilia and Xavier have been setting things up, and Maverick has been working on his own thing that he wants to surprise you with, and I promised not to say anything about it.”
Danica froze, unsure if she was hearing him correctly. “You found me a place to stay?” He nodded. “And you what? Paid the deposit and first month's rent already without showing it to me? What if I don't like it?”
“Dani, relax.” He smiled at her quickly. “My next-door neighbours are an older couple who recently packed up and moved to Arizona to be closer to their daughter, who just had a baby. They used to keep an eye on my condo while I was away and asked if I would mind finding someone interested in renting theirs.”
“I can't afford to rent a multimillion-dollar condo, Alex.” Danica could feel her stomach twist unpleasantly. “And I don't want you to pay for it either.”
“Ah, but see that's the thing. Because I vouched for you with them, you only have to cover the condo fees, which you can absolutely afford.” He smiled at her. “I'm willing to bet they're less than your mortgage because they are based on what you want access to. As long as you don't mind only having the basic amenities, and don't care about using the gym, pool or other recreation areas, it's like a thousand a month.” Danica had to admit that it was less than what she was paying for the mortgage, and since that was paid off, her monthly bills weren't doubling.“Plus, they're okay with a month-to-month agreement, so you only have to give them thirty days' notice to move out.”
“And Emilia and Xavier have been setting things up?” Danica mumbled, realizing she couldn't refute Alex's argument because she didn't want to go back to the house anymore, and if Emilia had agreed it was a good idea, she knew it was probably the best thing she could do. Alex smiled when he realized she wasn't pushing back anymore.
“Yeah, it was empty, so they found a few pieces of furniture to get you through until you figure out what you want to bring from your place,” he explained cheerfully. “Unfortunately, you only get one parking space and a guest space, so you're gonna have to figure out what to do with one of your cars for the time being.”
“What? You're not going to let me use your guest space?” Danica asked dryly. She was mostly joking but given how much he'd gone out of his way to do this for her, she had half expected him to say she could use his spare.
“Yeah, I would except that's where I park my motorcycle.” He chuckled. “You can leave it in the underground parking at the hotel, I guess, but as you know, we can't guarantee its safety there.”
“You have a motorcycle?” Danica stared at him in surprise. He was the last person she would have pegged as a biker. “Since when?”
“Since I turned sixteen.” He glanced at her and smirked. “I'm not much of a car guy, but I love a motorcycle.”
“Who are you?” Danica was trying her hardest to reconcile the image of the no-nonsense businessman with the image of a carefree biker and couldn't do it. Alex let out one of his deep belly laughs and shook his head.
“I think I'm going to keep that to myself. At least for now.”
Chapter Thirty-Five: A Place to Land
They arrived at the condo building before everyone else, with Alex explaining he had given the code she had to use to get into the parking garage and the parking space numbers to Xavier and Emilia already, Emilia was at her house, getting her some clothes for the night and all her electronics and their chargers for her, Xavier was picking up Gracie and taking her to his mother-in-law's house, since Benny and Delilah were with his mother at Eastie Eats with the rest of the Preston's, then he would go back to help Emilia if she needed it and bring Danica her car.
Danica just nodded. Emilia had a key to her place and knew where everything was, so it didn't bother her that she was grabbing all that for her. She did notice that Alex seemed to be deliberately avoiding mentioning what Maverick was up to but couldn't for the life of her think of anything he could do besides tell her that he had found out who Lucy's real baby daddy was, so she figured she would just go along with things for now. They were all working so hard to help her that even if there were something about all this she didn't like, she wouldn't have been able to say anything about it.
On the twentieth floor, Alex led her down the hall to the door before his, unlocked it and stepped back so she could go in first. The first thing she noticed was that the layout was the mirror image of his place, but the colour scheme was more like something you would see in an old Cape Cod house on the ocean, all light blues and sandy browns. There was a TV over the gas fireplace in the living room and a comfortable, slightly faded, brown leather couch, loveseat and recliner that she recognized as Xavier's mother's old set.
“I guess Rita finally talked her husband into a new living room set.” She murmured, smiling faintly. The couch in her living room desperately needed to be replaced, but Jasper was the type who wouldn't replace something unless it fell apart and was unrepairable, unless, of course, it was something he deemed was unsafe, like if their jack system for lifting cars up to get under them broke, he'd replace the whole thing immediately to make sure it was safe and reliable. The couch in their living room wasn't going to seriously injure or kill one of them if it collapsed, so it wasn't a priority to him, and he pushed back every time Danica mentioned buying a new one.
“From what I understand, he came home to a missing living room set and she wouldn't tell him where it went.” She turned and saw that Alex was watching her carefully. “We put the bed from my spare room in the bedroom for you, it'll do for tonight, and we can either move yours over tomorrow or find you a new one. Other than that, it's basically yours to do what you want with. My neighbours did ask that if you want to paint or anything, you hire a professional, and when you move out, you have to hire them again to paint anything that isn't in a neutral colour.”
Danica nodded. That was fair, but she wasn't mad about the colours anyway and wasn't sure she wanted torent something long enough term to warrant making massive changes like painting. Turning, she headed down the hall and glanced through the open door into the bedroom. Sure enough, the room was empty except for a bed and one bedside table with a lamp on it. Alex followed her and opened the door across the hall. “It used to be a two-bedroom, but they turned the spare room into a large walk-in closet.” He stepped back, and Danica peeked in curiously. One whole wall was lined with cubbies for what she could only assume were shoes.
“I take it the wife liked her footwear.” She chuckled. She doubted she could fill those cubbies if she kept every pair of shoes and sneakers she bought for the rest of her life.
“Someone did.” Alex smiled and shut the door again. “Well? Does this work for you?”
Danica hesitated. It actually worked really well for her, considering everything. The condo was in a very nice and safe area of town, wasn't connected to her life with Jasper at all, was well within her budget and was about the same distance from the hotel as her place, if not a little closer. However, she was still reluctant to agree to signing a lease because she didn't want to encroach on Alex's personal life more than she already was. “Does having me so close both at home and at the office work for you?” she asked as she led the way back to the main living area. She turned in time to see him rolling his eyes.
“Obviously I'm okay with it,” He walked around her and sat down on the sofa, crossing his ankle over his knee as he gave her an exasperated look. “It was my idea.” He reminded her as he studied her. “Are you okay with living and working so close to me?”
