Engaging Alex

He reached for the knob. “Open this door.”

“I’m warning you, Alex,” she shouted from the other side. “If you don’t leave right now, I’m calling the police.”

“I’m not going anywhere.” Alex wiggled the doorknob but it stayed firmly locked. “And I’m warning you. If you don’t open this door by the time I count to three, I’m going to knock it down.”

Silence. The door didn’t budge.

“One.” he called out, certain she’d open it before he got to three. Paige was a reasonable person. She wouldn’t call his bluff.

“Two.” Then again, he hadn’t seen her for a year. Maybe she’d changed on the inside as well as on the outside. He backed up a step, trying to gauge the thickness of the wood. He’d never actually knocked a door down before, though it always seemed easy enough in the movies. He backed up another couple of steps.

“Three!”

Alex lowered his shoulder and barreled forward at the same moment the door swung open. Paige sidestepped out of his way to avoid a collision. Alex wasn’t quite so lucky. He flew inside the room and careened into a table. The dishes and candlesticks on it went flying, crashing onto the floor. Like Alex.

For a moment he just lay there, trying to remain conscious after banging the back of his head on a chair. Shards of china and glass surrounded him. Something wet seeped through the back of his shirt.

At last he looked up to see Paige gazing down at him. “Guess you called my bluff.”

“Now it looks like I should call an ambulance.”

He shifted on the floor, wincing slightly at a sharp pain in his right shoulder. “You’re not getting rid of me so easily.”

She planted her hands on her hips. “So what do I have to do to get you to leave? Set another wedding date?”

“Look, Paige…” Alex got up on one knee, then grew so dizzy he had to grab the leg of an overturned chair.

Paige reached out one hand to steady his shoulder. “Are you all right?”

Was that concern he heard in her voice? It gave him hope and enough encouragement to rise unsteadily to his feet. “I think so.”

“Too bad.”

So much for her concern. The momentary dizziness passed and he wiped his hand across the sticky wetness on the back of his shirt. “What’s this?”

“Champagne. Dom Pérignon, 1992. A very good year.”

Too late Alex realized that Paige must be expecting someone. He’d glimpsed the intimate table setting for two just before he’d crashed into it. The candles. The champagne. Hell.

She was expecting a man.

Jealousy washed over him like a tidal wave. Just the thought of another man touching Paige made him want to grab her in his arms and stake his claim. Alex took a deep breath, then another, a little stunned by his visceral reaction to the fact that she was dating. Had he really expected her to wait for him? Especially when he’d given her no indication that he was coming back?

Yes.

His faith in Paige’s love had made it possible to endure the hell of the last year. He’d assumed she’d be angry. Hurt. Confused. But he’d never even considered the possibility that she’d move on to another man.

Which proved that he truly was an idiot. She was gorgeous. Then again, she’d always been beautiful to him. But now she was different. The shy, reserved Paige of his memory was gone. The woman before him now was full of fire. A kitten who had morphed into a hellcat.

But she was his hellcat. Alex would make that fact perfectly clear to any man who happened to walk through the door.

Paige took a step toward him, her brow furrowed. “You’re bleeding.”

He followed her gaze to the front of his gray T-shirt and saw a small red stain spreading in a circle on his chest. No doubt he’d landed on one of the slivers of glass on the floor.

“Don’t get your hopes up,” he said wryly. “It’s probably not serious.”

She met his gaze. “You might need stitches.”

Pulling his T-shirt over his head, he wadded it up into a ball then dabbed away the blood on his chest. “See? Nothing serious. You can barely see the cut.”

She wrenched her gaze up from his chest and cleared her throat, her cheeks flushed. “Good. Okay, well, you can leave now.”

He tossed the shirt aside. “You’re awfully eager to get rid of me. Afraid your date won’t like finding another man here alone with you?”

She blinked. “My what?” Then her eyes narrowed. “Wait a minute, how did you know where to find me?”

“This is where you live,” he replied, confused by her question. He probably had a concussion.

She shook her head. “Not anymore. I sold this apartment eleven months ago.”

Alex couldn’t believe it. She had fallen in love with this old place the moment she’d set eyes on it. He remembered the way she’d danced around the apartment when she’d given him a tour after making the down payment, almost giddy with excitement. The way she’d wanted to turn it into the perfect newlywed nest—a place for just the two of them.

But most of all, he remembered the hot kiss she’d given him on the balcony. The lushness of her body pressed into his own. Her soft whispers of love in his ear.

He sucked in a deep breath, the ache of those memories slicing deeper than the superficial cut on his chest. He’d been fooling himself that they’d be able to resume where they’d left off after he explained everything.

Well, not everything.

He planned to tell her just enough to make her understand. Enough to keep her from asking more questions—questions he couldn’t answer. But now he sensed it wasn’t going to be that easy.

That didn’t stop him from asking a question of his own. “If you sold the apartment, why are you here now?”

“That’s really none of your business.”

Jealousy flared up in him once more. Was she living with another man? He looked around the room. “This doesn’t look like your furniture.”

“You’re right, it’s not,” she replied, with no further explanation.

“So what is it doing here? What are you doing here, Paige?”

She picked up one of the chairs and set it upright on the floor. “If you must know, I’m leasing the place on a time-share basis—weekends only. I thought it would give me a chance to get away from everything.”

That did make sense. He’d met her mother. But his instincts told him there was still something she wasn’t telling him. A year ago, Alex would have pushed her for a clearer answer. Digging deeper. Always digging. Paige had mentioned once that she liked the way he always listened to her. She hadn’t realized that was his job.

Paige’s voice cut through his reverie. “So why are you here?”

“Because I want to explain why I left.”

“Don’t bother. There’s absolutely nothing you can say that will change anything.”

“Maybe not. But I’ll feel better.”

She arched a finely winged brow. “This may come as a shock, Alex, but making you feel better isn’t high on my list of priorities.”

She was bitter. He couldn’t blame her. But Paige deserved to know the truth. Needed to know the truth. At least, some of it.

“I didn’t mean to hurt you,” he blurted, realizing too late he should have rehearsed what he was going to say to her. He’d certainly had long enough to do it. “Everything just got out of control.”

“You should have told me you were having second thoughts,” she said haltingly. “Instead, you just…left.”

“Under the circumstances, I thought that would be for the best.”

“Best for you, maybe. You didn’t have to announce to everybody that the wedding was off. You didn’t have to deal with the caterer or the reception hall or the band. You didn’t have to pretend your heart wasn’t broken….” She sucked in a deep breath, then tipped up her chin. “Don’t you see, Alex? You did more than dump me. You humiliated me.”

Her words hit him low in the gut. Wrenching. Twisting. He braced himself against the pain, knowing it was only going to get worse before the night was over. He glanced at the door, tempted to walk out. To let her think he’d just suffered a case of cold feet.

But that wasn’t the case. He’d waited a year for this moment. Marking off every day on the calendar until he could tell her what was in his heart.

Alex didn’t plan to waste another second. “I’m sorry about everything you went through, Paige. But I have to make one thing perfectly clear.”

“What?” she asked.

“I never asked you to marry me.”

PAIGE STARED AT HIM, wondering if the collision with the floor had affected his brain. “That’s not true. I still have the proposal you e-mailed me.” She looked at the gray ashes scattered on the messy floor. “At least I had it until a few minutes ago.”

“I agree you received a proposal,” Alex said slowly, “but it wasn’t from me.”

Paige reached blindly behind her for a chair and sat down. Maybe it was the champagne or the shock of seeing Alex again or the fact that he wasn’t wearing a shirt, but for some reason her knees felt a little wobbly.

“Are you just trying to torture me?” she asked. “I’m finally over you, Alex. The last thing I need is for you to come barging back into my life, causing more chaos. So I suggest you leave. Now. For both our sakes.”

A muscle flexed in his jaw. “Just hear me out first.”

Nobody could say she hadn’t warned him. “Okay, fine. Tell your story.”

Alex pulled up another chair beside her, straddling the back of it in one easy motion. She couldn’t help but notice the ripple of taut muscle over his chest and belly. He was slimmer than he’d been a year ago. Fitter. Maybe the time away from her had been good for him. Maybe Franco had a shirt he could borrow.

When Paige met his gaze again, she couldn’t help but feel that Alex was a virtual stranger. Those wonderful few weeks of their whirlwind courtship almost seemed like a blur now. A crazy dream. Had she really agreed to marry this man?

“Promise me you’ll hear me out,” Alex said. “No matter what I say, you won’t leave or try to kick me out until I’m done.”

Her stomach twisted. It must really be bad. Was there another woman? Was he married? Was he an alien? Paige shook those unsettling thoughts from her head. She’d been spending too much time with her mother. “Okay, I promise.”

He hesitated, as if not sure how to begin. “Our first meeting was a setup, Paige. I was supposed to bump into you that day on the wharf. I was supposed to make you fall in love with me.”

Her mind flashed back to that fateful day on Fisherman’s Wharf, a place she loved despite all the tourist trappings. She spent almost every Sunday there if the weather was decent. It had been sunny the day she’d met Alex, if a little cool. She’d worn a khaki jacket. Alex had spilled raspberry iced tea on it when he’d bumped into her.

Now he was here telling her that had all been staged. All part of some scheme. Which left her with one simple question. “Why?”

“Because I was assigned to find information about your missing stepfather. We didn’t buy the story about his abduction by a UFO. We thought you and your mother were hiding the truth. So if I got close to you…”

“You could find out what really happened,” Paige breathed. It was all starting to make horrible sense to her now. The police had been called after her stepfather’s disappearance but they’d been highly skeptical of Margo’s UFO explanation. Even speculating that her mother might have something do with Stanley’s disappearance.

They’d obviously decided to send in one of their own to determine if there had been foul play. And what better way to get to the mother than through the daughter?

It also explained why Alex had never shared much about himself or his family. The fact that she’d never been to his home—or even knew his address. The way he’d listen so patiently when she talked on and on. The fact that he never complained about spending time with her kooky mother. She’d watched enough shows about undercover cops to know that’s how they operated.

No wonder she’d thought of him as a stranger just now. He was a stranger. And she’d been ready to marry him!

The impact of her own stupidity made her slump back in her chair. Alex had just been doing his job. He’d never cared about her. Never loved her. Never even been attracted to her.

Her cheeks flamed when she thought about the reason he’d given her for not wanting to make love. How he’d wanted to wait until their wedding night. She’d thought him an old-fashioned romantic at the time. What a fool.

One tiny, rational part of her brain told her she’d be even more upset if he’d slept with her under false pretenses, but Paige was in no mood to be rational.

“I think you’d better leave,” she said with an odd calmness she was far from feeling.

“I’m not done.”

She looked at him in disbelief. “There’s more?”

He gave a brisk nod. “I never meant our relationship to go that far. The engagement, I mean. That e-mail proposal was sent by someone else. Someone who thought an engagement between us might make you open up to me.”

She was going to be sick. Or else she was going to shoot him. The latter sounded more enjoyable than the former. If only she had a gun…and knew how to operate one. Maybe Alex would give her a few lessons. It was the least he could do after lying to her.

“I meant to call off the wedding before it was too late, Paige,” he continued. “But everything just spun out of control. I’m sorry.”

He was sorry. As if that made everything all right. Alex sat there shirtless in front of her, patiently letting her absorb everything in silence. Looking so sexy that she wanted to scream. It wasn’t fair. She’d been wild about him and he’d been…faking it.

She met his gaze and the expression on her face made him scoot his chair back a notch.

“Are you done?” she asked.

“For now.” He leaned forward. “I know this isn’t easy to hear, Paige, but I thought you deserved to know the truth.”

In her opinion, truth was highly overrated. She would have preferred to keep believing he’d dumped her, just like every other man in her life.

It was pathetic, really. During the past year, Paige had come to the depressing realization that every relationship she’d ever had, beginning when she was fifteen years old, had been ended by her male counterpart. Not once had she been the dumper instead of the dumpee. Not once had she broken someone’s heart.

She wouldn’t mind breaking Alex’s heart right now. Along with other assorted appendages. Most of which she’d never seen before. She wasn’t sure which was worse. The fact that he’d been playing her or that it had been so easy for him to do.

Talk about insulting. She mentally cringed at the thought of that night on the balcony. She’d brought him here to show him the apartment, blabbering endlessly about their future life together. Then she’d kissed him, practically throwing herself at him. But he’d nobly resisted her advances.

Saint Alex.

Now he was back, confessing all, looking for redemption. Fat chance. She’d rather push him off the balcony.

“Are you all right?” he asked at last, his face searching her own.

“It’s a little stuffy in here.” She fanned her warm cheeks, then looked toward the open balcony doors. “I could use some fresh air.”

The door chime forestalled his reply. Paige set her jaw and walked to the door, opening it to reveal two uniformed policemen.

“Please come in, officers.”

Alex slowly stood up as the cops entered the apartment, his gaze wary. “What’s going on?”

The older cop took in the shattered dishes on the floor and the upturned table. “That’s what we want to know. We received a telephone call from this apartment about a possible domestic disturbance.”

Alex turned to her. “You called the police?”

She nodded. “Just like I warned you I was going to do. Unlike you, Alex, I mean what I say.”

He took a step towards her but the younger cop moved into his path, putting himself squarely between Alex and Paige.

“Listen to me, Paige,” Alex entreated, craning his neck around the officer. “Despite everything, I fell in love with you. I’ve never stopped loving you.”

The older cop turned to her. “Are you all right, ma’am?”

“I’m not sure,” Paige said honestly.

“Look,” Alex explained, turning to the cops, “the two of us just need some time alone to work things out.”

“That’s what they all say,” the younger cop muttered under his breath.

The older cop ushered Paige to a chair. “Would you like to file a complaint?”

“What happens if I do?” she asked.

“We’ll take this man with us and make sure he doesn’t bother you again.”

“You mean arrest him?”

The cop nodded. “If you’re willing to file charges.”

She looked at Alex. “Absolutely.”

“Paige, this is crazy!” Alex exclaimed as the younger cop pulled out a pair of handcuffs. “Tell them there’s been a mistake. Explain what really happened.”

“All right.” She turned to the cops. “Mr. Mack threatened to break down my door, then he barged in here and broke all of my good dishes. Then he proceeded to take his shirt off. Is that enough to file charges?”

The younger cop nodded. “Trespassing. Destruction of private property. Attempted assault. What do you think, Bill?”

“Sounds like he wins a trip down to the county jail to me. All expenses paid.”

Alex didn’t struggle as they led him out of the apartment in handcuffs. He just stared at Paige in stunned disbelief until they’d crossed the threshold and disappeared down the long hallway.

Paige followed after them. “Wait a minute, officers.”

The younger cop turned to her at the top of the stairs. “Yes, ma’am?”

Hope lit Alex’s dark eyes. The same eyes that had haunted her dreams for the last year.

“He forgot his shirt.” She shove the wadded gray T-shirt between Alex’s cuffed wrists, then turned back into the apartment and shut the door.

It wasn’t a gun or a shove off the balcony, but it was enough.

For now.

3

Franco’s Notes:

MY LATEST SUBJECT is Paige Hanover. She’s young and cute, the perfect prototype to test the power of the skirt. I’m thinking Ashley Judd to play her in the movie. Naturally, I didn’t tell her I’m writing a screenplay about the skirt’s effect on men. Things definitely sounded interesting upstairs after that young Greek stud headed up to her apartment. Lots of shouting and the sound of dishes breaking.

Did the sight of Paige in that skirt make the man go berserk? I know the aphrodisiac effect of the unique fabric is said to be quite powerful. However, it appears Paige wasn’t open to his advances. I saw the police take her hot-blooded admirer away in handcuffs. Perhaps I could make my screenplay a murder mystery. I’ll have to see what develops from here….

TWO DAYS LATER, Paige sat at her desk in the back office of Bay Bouquets. She’d inherited the business after her father’s death in a traffic accident had left her as Grandpa Hanover’s only heir. Her grandfather had taken Paige and her mother in shortly after Margo’s breakdown, giving her mother a job as a clerk in the store after she’d recovered while making Paige his apprentice. Grandpa Hanover had not only given Paige full ownership of Bay Bouquets in his will five years ago, but left her his house as well.

She’d inherited his natural talent with flowers, but not with numbers. She bent over the desk, trying to concentrate on the invoices and accounts receivable in front of her. There were some days she just wanted to chuck it all and camp out on a mountaintop somewhere and stare at the stars.

But that would meaning selling the store and Paige couldn’t conceive of letting go of her grandfather’s legacy. It had meant too much to him. Besides, her mother worked here, too, as well as Lena, a longtime assistant who could practically run the place by herself.

“More fan mail.” Her mother walked into the office and dropped a bundle of envelopes on top of the desk. Margo Weaver was half a foot shorter than her daughter, with ash-blonde hair, bright green eyes and a button nose. She wore a pink knit warm-up suit today with matching pink tennis shoes.

“I don’t want to read them,” Paige replied.

“But these are all addressed to you.” Margo pulled a chair up beside the desk and sat down with a contented sigh. “ UFO Watch aired that segment about Alex’s disappearance again Saturday night.”

“I know,” she said with a groan. “I saw it.”

Then she’d seen Alex. Literally. Although she hadn’t told her mother about their meeting—or about having him arrested.

She’d had two days to cool off and now Paige wondered if she might have overreacted just a little. Yes, Alex had taken her by surprise. Yes, she’d been stunned to learn that he’d romanced her under false pretenses.

Stunned might be an understatement. Paige was still reeling. She was also hurt and disillusioned. But as much as she wanted to wreak some old-fashioned justice, nothing that Alex had done to her was actually criminal.

Infuriating, but unfortunately not illegal.

Which left her with two alternatives. She could pursue revenge through the court system and let the lawyers worry about all the legalities. Or she could drop the charges and forget about her ex-fiancé once and for all. The former was the most tempting, but it also meant putting Alex front and center in her life once again.

“Earth to Paige.”

She looked up to see her mother’s forehead crinkled in concern.

“What’s wrong?” Margo asked.

“Nothing.” Paige stared blankly at the order forms on her desk.

“You’re thinking about Alex,” Margo surmised. “I can always tell. You get this look on your face.”

That settled it. “Alex is history.”

Margo reached across the desk and patted her daughter’s hand. “I know how you feel. Some days I worry that Stanley is never coming back.”

“Maybe it’s time to file for divorce,” Paige suggested for the hundredth time since Stanley had left her mother. “Time to move on with your life.”

Margo shook her head. “I can’t give up hope. Not when there’s a chance Stanley may return to me. I know you think it’s silly to give interviews to shows like UFO Watch, but maybe someone will be watching who can help us find Stanley and Alex.”

“Have you read any of these letters, Mom?” Paige pointed to the stack on her desk. “They’re all from crackpots.”

Margo sniffed. “Just because you don’t happen to believe in the existence of UFOs or alien abductions doesn’t make the rest of us crackpots.”

Paige swallowed her retort. They’d had this argument before and it had never gotten them anywhere. Margo clung tenaciously to the belief that her husband had left her against his will. Abduction by aliens seemed preferable to the possibility that he had simply walked away.

“How long are you going to wait for Stanley to come back to you, Mom?” Paige asked softly. “Another year? Five years? Ten?”

The chime of the laser door alarm signaled a customer had walked into the shop. Margo headed out of the office, pausing only a moment to reply to her daughter. “I’ll wait for him just as long as it takes, Paige. We shouldn’t give up on the people we love.”

Paige shook her head as her mother disappeared from the doorway. In her opinion, there was a huge difference between giving up and clinging to a romantic delusion. She’d waited a full year for the man she loved to come back to her. A man she now knew had never loved her at all. She didn’t intend to waste one more minute on Alex Mack.

Picking up the telephone, she looked up the number of the local precinct in the directory, then dialed the police. It took three operator transfers before she finally reached someone who could help her.

“Sergeant Phelps,” barked a low voice on the other end of the line.

“Hello, this is Paige Hanover. I filed a complaint against Alex Mack on Saturday night and the police took him to jail. But now I’m thinking about dropping the charges.”

“Will you spell his last name for me, please.”