Enzo:Damn sister!! You got him trained already!!
Dom:we’ll be back in about 30
I rolled my eyes and pocketed my phone. Alex appeared, wearing the same ripstop leggings from our hike and an oversized t-shirt tied at the waist. Her hair was pulled up in a messy half-bun and I suddenly understood why she was always grumbling about how unfairly attractive it was on me. She pulled on her sneakers by the door.
“Ready to go before I lose my nerve?” she half-joked, but I sensed the seriousness behind her words.
“Absolutely,” I tracked the red wedges near the entrance as I pulled on my sneakers. “Those the shoes you wore today?”
“Mm-hmm,” she opened the door, her grin turning wicked. “They make me four inches taller.”
“Okay, I have to see those on next time,” I followed her as she headed toward the street.
She may have been seven inches shorter than me and looked like she would be slow, but Alex couldmovewhen she needed to get her energy out. I thought I’d enjoy a leisurely stroll—evidently that was not what we were going for this time.
I listened as she told me about the last two months at work—starting with the acquisition call the week before Enzo brought me to her house under dubious circumstances. She spoke rapidly, only stopping to catch her breath occasionally as she told me about asking Jason to audit their security protocols that same day, Tabitha and Sherlock’s research into Titan, Jordan’s peculiar behavior around me that led to her asking Casey to keep an eye on him.
She circled back to Oliver’s retirement plans and the need to come up with some way of keeping the company—she mentioned briefly that she was sure Titan called because Jordan saw an opportunity in Oliver’s departure and contacted them. I was blown away by how much she had set up in such a short amount of time. Her constantly spinning brain building the shield meant to protect everything she cared about before she knew how big the threat was.
We were halfway around the second block when she told me about the increasing family pressure and how she’d been avoiding her mom, the small amount of wedding stress she’d felt trying to get a venue for the bachelor party, and the evidence Casey and Jason had been amassing while Tabitha looked for opportunities that would keep the company safe. Then she mentioned the FBI’s involvement.
Jordan was lucky I was never going to see him again.
I knew my distance had compounded the stress—and I knew she was purposely leaving it out as she brought up sleeping less and eating less and generally deteriorating to the point that Tabitha had to take her to the psychiatrist and call Enzo—her emergency contact. I was caught off guard by the jealousy that hit me, wishing I was her contact instead.
“Anyway, so now Peggy… Dr. Stewart, wants to taper me off my medication until I can show sustained improvement in my ‘lifestyle choices’ for at least a month,” she made air quotes around “lifestyle choices” and I detected the slightest hint of annoyance in her voice.
“Alex, I’m—” I stopped. Iwassorry, but the word seemed inadequate. I’d messed up. I’d missed everything while worrying about whether she’d even want to be with me once she found out about my test results. And I couldn’t tell her she needed to take care of herself—she knew that and I knew that being another voice saying something she already knew deep inside would only piss her off. I settled on, “how long have you been on your meds?”
“Just over five years,” her shoulders fell, her pace finally slowing enough that I could take her hand. “I’m terrified to go back to being without them. I need to be able to think, to function. Catalyst isn’t out of the woods yet.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t notice how much you had going on,” I apologized anyway, probably to make myself feel better more than anything.
“That was the point though, wasn’t it,” she shrugged. “I didn’t want you to see it. I didn’t want anyone to see I was failing.”
“You weren’t failing,” I tugged on her hand, stopping her. “Darlin’, anyone would struggle under that amount of stress. Most people would have imploded long before you did.”
“Yeah, well…” she looked away and then back to me. “Now I have to figure out how to keep going anyway with even less than I had before. I just wish I could just escape all of it for like two seconds and breathe!”
We started walking again, silence settling between us as I processed everything she’d said, and she took time to recover from her story.
“So… here’s an idea,” I started as we turned onto her street again. I figured we’d managed to walk at least two miles. “What if youcouldescape for a while?”
She glanced up at me, lifting an eyebrow.
“Hear me out,” I held up my hand, lifting a finger as I made each point. “Technically you can work anywhere, or you wouldn’t have a home office. You’re under your doctor’s orders to focus on yourself while you recover. Tabitha and the team are still working on succession plans for Oliver’s departure, and you’re bound to come up with something in that insanely brilliant brain of yours.”
“Okay…?”
“What if you… I dunno… came back to Wyoming with me?”
She slowed and I turned to watch her process.
“You’re not going back to LA?”
I shrugged. It had been the plan—that or ask to stay with her longer, but Wyoming felt like the obvious choice. Instead of taking care of everyone, she’d be amongst people who would actively take care of her. I could show her the Cub, let her work while I worked the ranch, spend quiet evenings with her under the stars.
“We could stay as long as you wanted,” I hitched a smile. “You could work as much or as little as you needed. It’s a neutral place to process whatever you’re going to go through with the medication thing. There are still a few baby animals hanging around, a river we could float, stars to lie out under—” Her phone buzzed and she pulled it out of her pocket, grimacing as she looked at the screen. I peeked—my curiosity getting the better of me. Her mom had left a voicemail. “You’ll be farther away from your family…”
