Alex leaned toward me "I don't know whether to kiss you or leave you," he whispered.
I noticed the door open and my face dropped. Two dozen Ken Department Store employees walked in, or tried to. The place was so crowded only half of them could get inside, and the other half wasn't happy to be left out in the cold night air. "Don't thank me yet. Jamie's idea of having the party at this place just got a whole lot worse."
"What the hell's going on here?" shouted one of the larger Ken employees.
"None of your business!" Alan growled.
The Ken employee pushed through our group and up to Alan. He was a good head foot than Alan, and that much uglier. "What'd you say, shrimp?" Ken-employee growled.
Alan raised himself up to his full five-foot-nothing height and stuck out his chest. "I said it's none of your business."
Before anyone could stop him Ken-ugly pulled back his arm and thrust his fist into Alan's face. Alan reeled back into a crowd of Stacy people, and blood dribbled down his face. I heard Alex beside me growl. Alex jumped off the bar and strode toward Ken-ugly. He pulled his sleeves up and stood head-to-head with the ugly one.
"You want to try that on me?" Alex challenged him.
"Sure thing," Ken-ugly accepted. He swung back his arm, but Alex didn't give him a chance to pull it forward. Alex sprung forward and connected his fist with the stranger's jaw. Ken-ugly fell back into his men and crushed four of them beneath his weight.
"Fight!" yelled one of the Ken people.
Everyone dove into the brawl including the dozen Ken employees outside the bar. Jamie and I jumped off the bar and joined the fray, punching, biting, and kicking anyone who wore the Ken patches. People were thrown over tables, tables were thrown over people, and people were thrown over people. Fists flew faster than a supersonic jet and walls were dented in with bodies. The noise was so terrible I was surprised the police weren't called. In the mess we got separated and I backed up into someone. I swung around and slapped the guy across the face. Then I realized it was Alex
He winced and clutched at his cheek where my hand mark was clearly outlined. "Not bad," he complimented. One of the Ken people came up to us swinging, and Alex ducked a blow to k.o. the guy in the gut. The guy went down and didn't get back up.
I nodded approvingly. "Not bad. Where'd you learn to fight?" I yelled at him over the noise.
"College. Captain of the boxing team," he told me. Someone's fist connected with his face and he was pushed into me.
I grunted and righted him. "Don't look now, Captain, but somebody's trying to mutiny for your position," I quipped.
"Not for long," he promised, and dove into the thick of the Ken-mess.
The Ken people didn't stand much of a chance, not with most of the permanent Stacy employees on hand to do battle. In half an hour the last of the Ken employees dragged their wounded and whining out the door, and a loud cheer rang up.
"Three cheers for Stacy!" Alan shouted as he pumped his fist in the air.
"Hip! Hip! Hooray!" came the reply.
"And three cheers for our back room manager!" Jamie spoke up.
There was another 'hooray,' and Alex was lifted from the floor battered and bruised, but smiling. He was set on the backs of some of the men and paraded around the room. Alex passed close to the bar where stood the owner of the ruined establishment. He leaned over toward the older gentleman. "I'll pay for the damages!" Alex shouted to the bartender.
"I'll put it on your tab," he shouted back.
After that I don't really remember much except the bottoms of several glasses of milk that was conspicuously spiked by my traitorous friend Jamie. I'm pretty sure somebody drove me home because somehow I ended up on my couch the next morning with a headache to rival all headaches and milk again spilled down my front. I groaned, remembered I was on suspension, and rolled over for another few hours of sleep.
Chapter 12
Now I know what you're thinking. You're thinking that I got my job back, everything went smoothly for that week that Alex needed to convince his dad not to pull the plug on the store, and we all lived happily ever after. Well, not quite. For one thing, I didn't get my job back. Saving my job wasn't part of the plan. Saving everyone else's was. I was kept up-to-date on the non-mishaps when Alex visited me the day after the fight-to-end-all-fights.
There was a knock on the door and I opened it to reveal Alex. He stood in the hall with bleary, tired eyes and ruffled clothes. "Do I need to let Mr. Smith drag you in to complete the picture?" I teased. He managed a half smile and dragged himself inside to collapse on the couch. I followed him and sat down on the arm of the couch closest to him. "So what brings you here?"
"My report card," he replied. He pulled a slip of folded paper from his jacket and held it out to me.
I took it and saw it was the day's orders and arrivals. Everything looked in order. "You've got some nice handwriting," I complimented him as I handed back the paper.
"That's what everyone in the back room is saying," he commented.
"Is everyone going along with our little scheme?" I wondered.
He sighed and nodded. "Unfortunately, yes."
I raised an eyebrow. "What's unfortunate about it?"
Alex chuckled and glanced up at me. "Have you ever had four dozen people looking over your shoulder helping you learn a job in a week that usually takes years of training?"
"Does that explain the drowned rat look on you?" I asked him.
He looked down at himself and shook his head. "No, this is the consequence of last night. Somehow I ended up at Alan's place and didn't have time to iron my clothes. I'm just lucky I didn't get any blood or alcohol on it last night."
I patted him on the shoulder. "For what it's worth, that was the easiest way you could've earned their admiration."
Alex cringed and rubbed his shoulder where I'd patted him. "I'd hate to feel the hard way," he murmured. His eyes darted over to me. "And speaking of hard, now that you're unemployed what are you going to do?"
I shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe clean the place up and look for another job. If I don't find another job cleaning the place up will make the packing easier."
Those beautiful bright eyes of his took in all of me. "You could stay with me while you look for a job," he suggested.
I sighed and tried to slip off the couch arm, but he grasped my wrist and pulled me down into his lap. I grasped his wrinkled shirt and looked up into those unwavering eyes. "You're stubborn, you know that?" I asked him.
"So are you," he countered. He leaned down and captured my lips in one of his legendary body-numbing kisses. When we parted my cheeks were hot and so was the rest of me. "When are you going to stop being so stubborn and start letting me in?"
I frowned. "When I'm sure I'm ready to open that door," I argued.
"I can't wait forever," he persisted.
"If I haven't opened the door for you by the time one of us is dead than you have your answer," I replied. He sighed and let me go. I jumped up and out of his reach, but noticed his face was softened and he hung his head. "Just give me some more time. A lot's still happening. We're not even done saving everyone's jobs," I pointed out.
He chuckled, stood, and ran his hand through his dark hair. "Some time you're going to have to start thinking about yourself, and when that comes you'll find you're all alone," he whispered.
I cringed, but tried to salvage my argument. "Solitude has its advantages," I answered him.
"I guess you're willing to see," he replied. He held out his hand to me. "Good luck with your life, Miss Trammel."
"Miss Trammel?" I repeated. He dropped his hand and turned toward the door. I grabbed his shoulder and half turned him toward me, but his face still looked away. "Come on, Alex, things aren't that bad between us. You're just tired, that's all," I protested.
He wearily smiled. "Yeah, maybe that's it. Maybe I'm just tired. If you'll excuse me." He broke from my grasp and quickly left my apartment.
I clutched my head i
n my hands and plopped down onto the couch. Mr. Smith jumped up and rubbed himself against me. I lifted my head and let the tears run out of my eyes. "Am I an idiot, Mr. Smith?" I whispered to him.
"Meow," was all the reply I received.
The coming days were very long and lonely. Alex didn't come back with any more report cards and nobody from the store called me, not even Jamie. I guessed they were all busy keeping Alex out of trouble. The only distraction I had from the ticking clock was as the personal servant to Mr. Smith. I substituted human interaction for a cat and found the cat was pushier. This was a hard fall from the triumph at the bar only a few days before. Then things got lower with the surprise arrival of a most unwelcome guest.
Six days later there was a knock on my door. I opened it to find Caroline Brenton on the other side. Her nose was turned up so high that I could see clear down her nasal passages. She smiled at me, but there wasn't any friendliness in the gesture.
"May I come in?" she sweetly asked me.
"Um, sure." I stepped aside and she swept past me into my humble abode. I'd gotten bored enough to clean the place up, but she still avoided touching any furniture. "So what are you doing here?" I asked her.
She spun on her heels and shrugged. "I was just driving by and decided to pay you a visit," she replied.
I raised an eyebrow. "Uh-huh. So what's the real reason you're here?"
Caroline chuckled. "I can see I can't trick you. To be honest, this was a spur of the moment decision to come here. You could almost call it desperate."
"I'm all in suspense," I quipped.
She frowned. "Yes, well, I come to you bearing an olive branch and a proposition. If you stop my brother from winning his bet with our father than I will give you your job back."
I frowned, grabbed the door, and yanked it open. "Out," I ordered her.
"How do you expect to pay for this place without a job?" she pointed out.
"That's my problem, now out," I repeated.
"Answer one question, and I'll go," she promised.
"Depends on the question," I countered.
"Do you love my brother?"
I pulled the door open farther. "Out."
Caroline planted her high heels an inch into my carpeted floor. "I won't move until you give me a firm answer. As his sister I have a right to know," she demanded.
"It's none of your business how I feel about him," I argued.
She raised one of her penciled eyebrows. "Then you do love him?" she guessed.
"I. . .I care for him a little," I conceded.
"That's not what I asked you," she persisted.
I dropped the door and threw my arms up in the air. "Are all you Brenton's trying to drive me mad?" I accused her.
"Answer the question," she ordered me in a louder voice.
"Is this some sort of a cruel joke?"
"Answer it."
"Go bother someone else!" I yelled.
"Do you love him?"
"Did you hear me?"
"Do you love him?"
"Yes!" The word came out so fast from my exasperated lips that I hardly knew what I'd said. I blinked and wrinkled my nose. "What did I just say yes to?"
Caroline sighed, but I detected a hint of pleasure in her twitching lips. "Did you get that, big brother?" she spoke up.
I blinked and looked around. We were alone. Even Mr. Smith was hiding somewhere. "Um, you okay?" I asked her.
She sighed and shrugged. "I suppose he could have done worse."
"Who could have done worse?" I wondered.
My answer came running down the hall and in a moment Alex appeared in the doorway. He was breathing hard and there was the largest grin on his face. It stretched from ear to ear and his eyes shone with a passion that eclipsed the stars. "You love me?" he asked me.
I whipped my head from sibling to sibling. "What is this?"
Caroline reached into her purse and pulled out her cellphone. "I had this set to speaker phone so Alex could hear your decision."
"T-that's illegal! It's not admissible in a court of love!" I protested.
"This jury accepts it," Alex spoke up. He wrapped his arms around me and caught me in a kiss full of passion, hope, and promise. When he released me I was left winded and filled with the same emotions. "I'm never letting you go again," he promised.
I snorted. "Do I at least get bathroom breaks?"
"Not if it's to use the shower," he teased.
Caroline rolled her eyes and strode past us. "This is low, even for you, Alex," she quipped before she walked down the hall.
When she'd gone Alex turned back to me. "Will you marry me now or do you need more convincing?" he wondered.
I smirked, wrapped my arms around his neck, and stretched up on my tiptoes to rub my nose against his chin. "With such a wonderful family as yours how could I refuse?" I teased.
We embraced in another wonderful kiss, and he didn't let me go for many, many years.
For all books by Mac Flynn visit her Smashwords author's page
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Mac Flynn, The Family Business #2
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