The Renegade (The Moorehouse Legacy #3)(45)

“I’ve brought someone with me. Cassandra. She’s working on our house.”

Alex talked for a while, saying nothing much. For some reason, being around her eased him and the feeling was evidently mutual. When the dementia got bad, even with the drugs Emma was on, the nursing home would call him and he’d come running. All it took was the sound of his voice and she’d calm down.

It was odd to be the source of comfort for someone. But over the past month or so, he’d grown to need the sensation he got from being needed by her.

*

Cass settled back against the wall and fought the urge to give Alex privacy. She just didn’t want to leave. Seeing such kindness in him relieved the tension in her somehow, even though his compassion was directed toward another.

As Alex loomed over the bed in that black leather jacket, he didn’t seem at all the kind of person who could be so gentle. But this massive, hard man had tremendous reserves of tenderness. He just kept them to himself a lot of the time.

And he was wrong about being awkward around people. Everyone at the facility adored him. The staff, the patients.

How could they not? He cut a stunning figure to begin with. Add to the looks his innate charisma and his calm confidence and he was the leader no matter what space he walked through or who was in it. She was quite certain he could rally everyone in the nursing home with a mere passing suggestion.

“I’m working on some of Dad’s plans,” she heard him say. And then, “Do you think he would have minded?”

In the low light, Alex’s face was mostly somber, but in his expression she caught a glimpse of something so sweet her heart cracked: a hint of the little boy he had once been.

An awful feeling came over her, something tantamount to dread.

No, it actually was dread.

She couldn’t possibly be falling in love with him. No way.

No. This was not happening.

Cass closed her eyes and let her head fall back. When it hit something, she turned around. The framed photograph was of a young man who looked like Alex.

“My father,” Alex said softly into her ear.

Cass jumped and glanced over her shoulder. “Ah, you two look alike.”

He reached out and squared off the picture. His blunt fingers lingered on the frame.

“I’m sorry,” she said, abruptly.

He frowned, but didn’t look away from the photograph. “Why?”

“For the loss of your parents. Gray told me how they died. It must have been very difficult for you. All of you.”

She expected him to shrug her off. Instead he murmured, “If Reese could come back, would you do anything different?”

Cass hesitated, the question catching her off guard. “Yes. Yes, I would.”

“What would it be?”

Oh, God, she thought. So much.

“I, uh, I would have let him know what I was thinking more often.” Even though it would have hastened the disintegration of their marriage. If the infidelity had been out in the open between them, she knew in her heart she couldn’t have stayed, and it was disturbing to realize that the subterfuge had been what kept her with Reese. Why lies were more binding than the truth just didn’t make sense.

Didn’t sit well with her, either.

Alex nodded. “Me, too. I would have told my father how much he meant to me. And I would have spent more time with him. My mother as well. Anyway…Let’s go, okay?”

On their way out of the nursing home, they stopped so Alex could chat with the rehab specialist about his grandmother.

When they were in the Rover, Cass looked over at him. “You are so good with her.”

Alex’s face tightened as he put his seat belt on. “It’s weird. We weren’t close when I was growing up. I thought of her as rigid and old-fashioned, but now I love her for those very things. The high standards of behavior. The Victorian code she lived by. When she dies, it’s going to devastate me.”

Cass stayed quiet, hoping he’d forget he was talking with such candor.

Fortunately, he kept going.

“Because of this leg of mine…I’ve had a chance to get to know her again.” He shook his head. “God, if I hadn’t been forced to come home, I wouldn’t have. Maybe not even for Frankie’s or Joy’s weddings. And how whacked is that?”

“Racing is a very demanding profession. I’m sure they would have understood.”

He looked at her. “But why should they have to? You know, I didn’t realize how much slack the family cut me until recently. When I came back after the accident, all banged up, my sisters welcomed me with open arms, as if I hadn’t run off and left them when they needed me.” He swore softly. “Success doesn’t put you in a special class, it really doesn’t. It just predisposes you to behaving badly. Or at least that’s what it’s done to me. Frankie raised Joy. Joy took care of Grand-Em. The two of them sacrificed their lives while I chased after finish lines. The only solace that I take is they both ended up with men worthy enough to love them and strong enough to take care of them. But still…it’s a damn shame I can’t replay the past. And I really wish there was some way to make up for the great void that is their brother.”

Alex frowned, as if he’d just realized how much he’d said.

Before she could get a word in, he said smoothly, “Do you mind if we stop at the supermarket on the way home?”