Page 11 of The Hanukkah Hoax
“I’m Alec, by the way. Alec Elms. Figured I’d introduce myself properly at this point.”
The hand he held out to her was one of the gentler shocks to her system and made her realize she was standing in a stairwell with a stranger.
A stranger who was attempting to broker peace through what seemed to be a genuine smile and introduction, despite the insanity they’d just fled from.
Aw, hell.
“Marisa Silver.” She took his hand and gave the single conciliatory shake she gave to all business acquaintances, but when he returned the gesture with a slight warm squeeze before taking his hand back, she couldn’t help but breathe out some of her anxiety.
“It’s nice to meet you, Marisa.”
“Likewise, I guess,” she mumbled.
Then, with his arms clasped behind his back, he hinged forward at the waist. “Will you let me explain now?”
Oh, jeez, how could she not? The rumbling burr he spoke with rebounded gently off the stairwell’s concrete walls, calming her overexcited nerves with an oddly comforting echo.
She nodded. “You have five minutes.”
“Five minutes?” He arched a single brow in query, but the corner of his lips joined in the conspiracy, lifting as well. The bastard was grinning. Adorably.
“Fine. I’ll accept seven.”
“You drive a hard bargain.” He righted himself and unclasped his hands, as if he would need their aid to answer her. “All right. I joined your conversation because I came to find you.”
“Why?”
“To apologize.”
“What could you possibly have to apologize to me for?”
He itched at the back of his neck, taming his more rugged features with a splash of boyish bravado. “I feared I may have distracted you a wee bit. When I happened to notice you earlier, I mean. Across the room. Right before you . . .” The swirling gesture with his hands filled in the gaps as to what he was so kind enough not to say out loud: Marisa stalling out and backing into Phoebe, staining her dress and causing a scene she hadn’t needed.
“Oh.”
“Yeah. I felt terrible, and then seeing that it was my ex-girlfriend you had the unpleasantness to run into, well . . . given the circumstances, I knew she wasn’t about to treat you kindly.”
Marisa snorted and waved her hand in dismissal. “I’ve dealt with worse.”
“But you also deserve better.” The syllabic R on the last word lingered between them, punctuating his stance on the matter. Then he gestured toward the door. “I heard what you were talking about before I joined you, and then I saw Phoebe waiting to pounce on every stuttered word you managed to get out. I could tell you were trying to impress Monica, but if there’s one thing that can be said for Phoebe, it’s that she can smell blood in the water a mile away.”
“Why would you ever date someone like that?”
Alec stiffened and frowned, finding something on the floor terribly interesting. “We’ve all made mistakes. But the point is that I’m here hoping to correct the one I made earlier this evening. When I knew Phoebe was about to go in for the kill, that she’d trained her sights on you after you ruined her dress, and it was all because of me, I couldn’t let that happen. So, when Monica made the assumption about who I was, I didn’t exactly correct her.”
“You lied to her.”
“Isn’t that what you did first?”
“Hey, buddy, if you’re going to act all smug, then just go start a YouTube channel like everyone else who needs the validation. My career’s on the line here.”
“Exactly. So is mine,” he said with leashed frustration, the only evidence of cracks in his cool-as-a-cucumber facade up until then.
“What do you mean?”
Alec paced in a small loop on the fractured concrete landing for a minute before leaning against the wall across from her. “I mean that I’m not exactly on holiday, despite my presence at tonight’s party. I got injured in my last rugby tournament. It was the middle of November. I took a bad hit during a match, so I’m off the roster for a while. With my contract up in May once the regular season wraps, and given my age, my agent has concerns about whether I should continue to play and whether my team, or any other team, will even want me to. I’m in New Jersey staying at my brother Cal’s place to think through some things.”
“What happened to you? In the game?”
