Back In The Bedroom (The Wrong Bed #29)(31)

Reilly pulled the cell phone out of his pocket and frowned at the ID. “Eddie.”

“Maybe he’s going to give you back Marge.”

He looked at her, startled, as if the thought had left his mind and was back only because she’d reminded him. She found a laugh. “Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten you didn’t want me to work here.”

“You know, you’re just about the most upfront woman I’ve ever met.”

“It’s a curse. Are you going to answer the phone?”

He sighed and did just that. The irritation left his face after he said hello and listened. His mouth pulling into a frown, he stood up. “An hour ago? And you’re just now telling me?”

Tessa tried to look busy gathering their trash as she shamelessly eavesdropped.

“How did they get in?” He shut his eyes and shook his head as he listened. “I’ll be right there— No, I do think it’s necessary.”

“Is he okay?” Tessa asked as soon as he clicked off.

“Yeah. Apparently the man has nine lives.”

“What happened?”

He stopped at the door. “Someone went after him in the garage but they got away when Eddie managed to set off the alarm. I’m going over there now to check on him for myself.”

He was going to check on the man he didn’t want to be like. The man who he felt hadn’t been a good father. The man who annoyed him at every turn.

A little burst of warmth spread through her, because she just realized…Reilly Ledger could play bad-ass, tough guy all he wanted, but inside there was a soft spot for the people in his life, whether he liked it or not.

Now all she had to do was deal with that, deal with how she felt about him.

She had a feeling she already knew how she felt about him and it was fairly terrifying.



EDDIE HUNG UP the phone and glanced over at the woman sitting at his kitchen table.

“Well?” she asked.

“Well, he didn’t ask for Marge back.” He thought over the implications of the telling omission. “I consider that a good sign, don’t you?”

His temp for the day smiled at him and he felt his heart tip onto its side. Her smile had always done that to him.

“Maybe he’s beginning to like his current temp,” Cheri said softly and rose. She came to him and held an ice pack to his split lip. “You’re still bleeding.”

“It’s nothing.” He pulled it away so he could talk better because this subject was extremely important. “How can that be, him liking Tessa? She’s young and pretty and smart and outgoing,” he huffed and then winced because it hurt his mouth. “She’s everything he doesn’t want.”

“Only because you think she’s young and pretty and smart and outgoing,” Cheri pointed out reasonably and put the ice pack on his lip again.

“I don’t think that about her for me. I think that about her for him,” Eddie said around the ice and blinked when Cheri laughed at him.

“I know that, silly man.” She cupped his cheek and his heart tipped again.

“It’s just that I feel a spark between them.” Eddie put his hand on her hip to keep her next to him. “And it excites me because it’s the first spark I’ve seen in Reilly in a good, long time.” He knew damn well his cool, distant son went to extremes in order to not be like him.

Well, the hell with that. If he had to help things along by teaching Reilly there was fun out there to be had, then that’s what he’d do. He’d already started. He’d sent Marge out on a weeklong job in downtown Pasadena, where she was happy as could be. There were two bonuses in that. One, Eddie could stay involved in what was going on at Reilly’s, which he enjoyed. And two, with Tessa working for Reilly, it meant he just might be able to finagle getting Cheri to keep working for him.

Two birds with one stone, and everyone was happy.

Well, at least he was.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Cheri asked, holding the ice pack to him with one hand and using the other to touch the bruise on his cheek. “Are you sure that you don’t want to go to the doctor—”

“It was just a scuffle. The lights were off in the garage or I’d have been able to get a better hold of him.” He grunted. “The * didn’t even stick around and fight like a man. Once I popped him in the eye, he was gone.”

“You were too much for him.” She kissed his bruised cheek and he resisted, barely, the urge to turn his head and line up their mouths. “We have work,” she reminded him gently.

“Work can wait.”

“You’re fretting over this.”

“I’m not fretting.”

“Yes, you are.” She ran her hand down his arm in what was supposed to be a soothing gesture, but he didn’t want her to soothe him, he wanted…so damn much more.

“You fret,” she repeated. “Because you want him to like you. Then you try too hard and you end up pushing him away. Leave it, Eddie.” Her hands were gentle on him, so gentle. “It’ll work out.”

Eddie sighed, in bliss, in frustration. “He’s on his way over here. He won’t come see me just to see me, but because some jerk is trying to get revenge, he’ll come.”