Back In The Bedroom

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 asshole 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.”

“It’s not some jerk. You know who it is.”

Eddie sighed again and said, “Yeah.”

“Oh, Eddie.” Cheri gave him a hug. “You try too hard.”

“The boy is hardheaded.”

“Really? And where do you think he got it?” She kissed him on the cheek when he just stared at her. “It’ll be all right, Eddie. It will.” Another stroke of her hand. “Look at how he’s running over here to save the day. He loves you. He’s always loved you.”

Eddie couldn’t resist another second. He pulled her in for a hug. “How the hell did I ever let you get away?” he whispered into her hair, her long, glorious, dark hair. “I was such an idiot.”

“Yes,” Cheri agreed, and stepped back. “We were both idiots. Now, let’s work. After all, that’s why you brought me here, right?”

Here’s your chance, Ace. Be smooth, be debonair, do your thing. Instead, his mouth went dry and he stood there like a fool. A tongueless fool. Eddie Ledger, legendary lady-killer, known for his charm and wit and ability to get any woman he ever wanted into his bed, and he couldn’t come up with a single intelligent thing to say.

She stroked his jaw and moved away, moved toward his home office.

And all he could do was watch her go.

Oh, yeah, he really was just one big, fancy idiot.

TESSA GOT UP EARLY the next morning, got ready in record time and, for the first time in the history of her existence, left for work with time to spare.

When she opened her front door, Carolyn popped her head out of her apartment next door. “Hey, there. Wow, you’re…” She glanced at her watch. “Twenty minutes early?” Her welcoming smile vanished. “What’s the matter?”

“Nothing.” Tessa locked her front door and crossed her fingers that her car would start today.

“Uh-huh. Nothing.” Carolyn eyed her carefully from head to toe. “You look good. New clothes?”

So she’d splurged on the way home last night, buying a new dress for work, and only partly because it was red and made her feel sexy. “This old thing?”

Carolyn didn’t buy it. She put her hand on her hip. “There’s a guy at work, right?”

Oh, yeah, there was a guy. But if her sister got wind of it, there’d be no peace. “There’s work at work.”

“So everything’s okay?”

She put her Sunday best smile on. “Of course.”

“You’re just…early. For no special reason.”

“Yep.”

Carolyn crossed her arms. “Honey, I know you, and I know something’s up. So you might as well spare us both the time and tell me what’s going on.”

“What’s going on is me loving my job.”

“You’re sure?”

“Absolutely sure.”

Carolyn eyed her for another long moment before she was satisfied. “So, are we on for dessert and a movie tomorrow night?”

“Of course.”

“Great.” Carolyn kissed her on the cheek. “Have a good day, hon.”