Moonlighter (The Company, #1)(77)

Afterward, she rests her head on my thigh with a sigh.

“Baby,” I rasp. “I’m trying really hard here not to fall too deeply in love with you, but you don’t make it easy.”

Alex buries her face against the messy sheets and laughs. “You are such a romantic.”

“I know, right?” I flop a careless hand onto her soft hair. But even if my sentiment lacks finesse, it’s still true.

Alex’s smile says she doesn’t believe me, though. And when she waddles off to the shower a few minutes later, I stare up at the ceiling for a moment and wonder what it all means.

The ceiling doesn’t answer.

Meanwhile, there’s only a few minutes until she’ll be back. So I hop into my boxers and T-shirt, and then scoot into the baby’s room while I have the chance.

At the risk of making Alex angry, I hang both shelves. It takes less than ten minutes. All I need to do is change the drill bit and enlarge the holes to the proper size. Once the mollys fit correctly, it’s a snap to screw in the supports and then hang the star and the moon where Alex had begun them.

I’m just admiring my work when Alex makes a startled sound from the doorway.

Turning around, I brace myself for her displeasure.

But it doesn’t come. Instead, her voice is sheepish. “Thank you.”

“Sure, baby.” I clear my throat. “It still counts, you know.”

“What does?”

“Hanging the shelves. You’re still using your own hands to make this room ready. Even if I helped you a little.”

“I guess. My mom used to cater my birthday parties. But then she made sure to light the candles herself.” She rolls her eyes. “I can probably bake a cake, right? Although decorating them sounds hard. If I keep up this stubborn streak, my daughter is going to have some scary looking birthday cakes.”

I’ll still eat it. The idea just leaps into my brain. As if I’d ever be invited to her daughter’s birthday.

You never know, though. Alex thinks she’ll be rid of me as soon as this latest craziness blows over. But I’m starting to think that it won’t. Craziness seems to hang on to Alex and me with both hands.

And I’m not sure I mind.

She crosses the room and wraps her arms around my waist. “You’re very patient with me,” she says quietly. “I don’t think I deserve you.”

Her belly is stretching her shirt out to a preposterous degree, so I absently place a palm on it and rub gently.

Alex’s expression goes soft. She stands on her tiptoes and kisses my jaw. I palm the back of her head with my free hand and kiss her forehead. “You hungry? I bet you are.”

“Oh definitely.” She gives me a shy smile.

I can’t stop staring into her eyes. This feels so different to me than I often feel with women. I mean—I love women, and fun is fun. But I usually have one foot out the door. Right now I just want to scramble some eggs and ask her where she keeps the coffee.

And the look she’s giving me right back wants all those same things.

“Hey, Engels,” I say, just to break the tension. “Stop looking at me that way.”

“What way?”

“Like I just hung the moon.” I jerk my thumb toward the new shelves.

“Oh, Eric.” She lets out a peal of laughter. “That is a seriously bad joke.”

“I know. But that’s why I snuck in here to do this. ‘Cause I was saving that one up. And you haven’t fired me.”

“Yet,” she laughs. “But it’s early in the day.”

“True.”

We’re both smiling at each other like crazy people when I hear a knock on the door.

Alex looks down at her bathrobe. “Can you get that? I need real clothes.”

“Sure.” I’m still in my boxers, but as usual I don’t give a crap. So we part ways, and I walk to the front door and open it.

My brother blinks back at me with a sour expression. “Seriously? Again?”

I shrug. “Is there something you need?”

“I need Alex.” He holds up her phone—the one that was hacked yesterday. “She and I need to talk.”





28





Alex





Even if Eric Bayer has just treated me to a twelve-hour break from reality, his brother’s appearance does the opposite. First, he searches my apartment for a second time just to make sure there aren’t any bugs or other detection devices.

That alone is enough to freak me out. But now he wants to talk.

After I make myself presentable, I sit down on the sofa beside Eric, who reaches for my knee to give it a comforting squeeze. “What did you learn?” I ask.

“First things first.” Max sets a shiny K-Tech phone down on the table.

I eye it the same way you’d watch a venomous snake. “Is that mine?”

“It is now. It’s a new one, Alex. Nate’s team didn’t have time to entirely reverse engineer the hack. So—just to be safe—Nate kept your old one and sent you this one. The passcode is 911, but you should change it immediately.”

“Thanks.” I take the phone with a sigh. “I want to catch this asshole.”

“Trust me, we will. And there’s some good news, okay? Nate’s operating system has some unadvertised security functions. And when the hacking software began copying all your files, it got spooked and locked the phone.”