Slow Burn - a Novel: The Elite (23 page)

Alesha let out a wolf whistle and my cheeks went red hot. Nick chuckled. “Sorry, couldn’t help it.”

“I’m sure,” I teased. I turned to address the room. “Okay, people, nothing to see here. We now return you to your normally scheduled broadcast.” Nick laughed and everyone lurched back to the way they were, though the dull roar of whispers was hard to ignore. “Now you’ve done it…” I groaned, unable to stop smiling long enough to properly scold him.

“They were gonna find out sooner or later. Small town.”

“I suppose.” I reached up and ran my fingers over the lapel of his leather jacket. “You working today?”

“Yes ma’am. The air show is in a couple of weeks and we have a lot of work left to do. But, I’m free tonight.” He waggled his eyebrows and I smiled at his subtle invitation. He was just as eager for a redo of last night as I was.

Alesha was speaking with a customer and the sound of her cheery voice reminded me that there was something that needed to be tended to first. “Well, as soon as I close up here, Alesha and I have a phone call we need to take care of…but after that?”

“Works for me,” he said, not letting on that he knew about the reason behind the phone call.

“All right. Let me get your coffee and send you packing before you completely sidetrack me,” I said, before pushing off the counter and heading to the espresso machine.

Minutes later, Nick left the shop, coffee and muffin in hand. I followed him with my eyes as long as I could, jolting back to life when he was out of sight, and joined my sister at the counter to continue helping the line of regulars waiting for their orders.

* * * *

“I can’t do this.”

“Alesha, you
can
,” I insisted, sitting on the couch beside her. My laptop was propped open on the coffee table in front of us, just waiting on one of us to hit the call button and bring up a video chat with our dad. “Come on, let’s get this over with. It’s already the middle of the night for Dad. I’m pretty sure he’s not going to be any more receptive to the news if we make him wait up any longer.”

Through a series of emails earlier in the day, I’d arranged a time to do a video call with Dad, even though thanks to the shop’s hours and the time difference it wasn’t exactly the most convenient for him, but I wanted to get the call over with before Alesha made herself sick with worrying about it.

She drew in a shaky breath. “Okay,” she said, releasing it just as slowly. “Call.”

I clicked the buttons before she could change her mind and within seconds, Dad’s face was on the screen. “Hi, girls,” he greeted. He was smiling but there was a hint of apprehension etched in his expression. “How is everything?”

I glanced at Alesha, waiting for her to dive in but she looked paralyzed on the couch. “Things are good, Dad. Alesha and I do have something we wanted to talk to you about though.”

“Well, I figured that much,” he said, his brows raised. “Go ahead.”

I nudged Alesha with my elbow. “Go on…”

“Okay, okay!” She jerked her arm away from me and took another deep breath. “A couple of days ago, I got really sick and had to go to the ER—” she started. Dad’s eyebrows went even higher, wrinkling his forehead. “I’m okay,” she rushed to add. “I passed out but the doctors ran a bunch of tests and it was because I hadn’t been eating or drinking enough.”

Dad nodded to indicate he was following along, but was obviously aware there was a “but” coming soon.

She licked her lips and glanced at me out of the corner of her eye. “Umm…but…they did find something.”

“Alesha?” a quiver of panic took over Dad’s tone. He leaned in closer, his face growing larger on the screen as he moved into the camera as if to get a closer look at her.

“Daddy, I’m going to have a baby. I’m pregnant.”

I watched as Dad’s face froze, long enough that I wondered if the camera was glitching out. When he finally reacted, he blew out a long puff of air and sagged back in his chair like a deflated balloon.

Alesha started crying and I wrapped an arm around her, silently pleading for our dad to say something. Anything. His silence was unnerving.

“I’m sorry, Daddy! I know you probably hate me…but I didn’t mean for this to happen. It was a mistake.”

“A mistake?” he repeated, his tone sharp. “A
mistake
?”

I held my breath.

“Who’s the father?” he demanded.

“My boy—ex-boyfriend, Brian. He’s the only one, you know, that I’ve been with.”

My dad cringed. TMI, Leash.

“And does he know?”

Alesha nodded and I sat up straighter. She hadn’t told me that part yet. “I called him today and told him. He—he doesn’t want anything to do with me—or the baby—”

“Oh, well that’s too damn bad, isn’t it? That little fucker’s gonna pay!”

“Daddy!” Alesha yelped at the same time I cried out, “Dad!”

“He’s going to pay child support if nothing else,” he growled.

I rolled my eyes. “Of course, because this is about
money
right now! Dad, Alesha has a lot of things to think about, I don’t think money should be one of them. Not when we all clearly have enough to help her get settled and make sure her baby has everything he or she needs.”

My dad turned his eyes on mine and held me in his sights just long enough to make me squirm. Normally we had a very adult relationship, we talked business, politics, and big, life stuff, but he could still make me feel like a little kid. “I’m not saying the logistics aren’t important, they are, obviously. But right now, this is more of an emotional adjustment.”

He sighed and pressed his eyes closed as his finger and thumb went to pinch the bridge of his nose.

Alesha sobbed harder and I hugged her close. “It’s okay, Leash.”

“I’m just disappointed, Alesha,” he continued, opening his eyes again. “I’m not mad. But I wanted better for you. I wanted you to finish high school, college, get settled, fall in love, get married, and
then
have a baby.”

“I know, Daddy.” Her sniffles petered off and I loosened my grip on her. “I can still go to school and get married and all those things.”

I nodded my agreement.

“How far along are you?” Dad asked, his voice evening out. He was starting to accept the news.

“Fourteen weeks…” Alesha answered, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

Dad nodded, clearly doing some mental math. “All right. Well, Kelli and I can fly home as soon as the end of the month. I can wrap up some things here and come back early.”

Alesha cut a desperate glance at me. “But I want to stay with Carly.”

“Not up for debate, Alesha. You’ll come back to Phoenix so we can make a plan to get you through school. We’ll hire a tutor and then we’ll need to find a nanny so that you can complete your senior year as planned…” he continued to tick off the items like a to-do list and I tuned out. Alesha sank into misery as she realized there was no way out. As soon as she got back home, Dad was going to completely take over and she’d spend the next year battling him to get control back over her own life.

My heart broke for her. Dad wasn’t mean, but he was strict and had very high expectations. He wasn’t going to let her out of his sight once he got home. I knew it wasn’t what she wanted, but I didn’t know what I could possibly do to help her either.

Nick

“I can’t believe she’s really leaving this weekend…”

My fingers stilled on their way down to Carly’s stomach under the thin cover of the sheets. I’d woken up ready to pick up where we’d left off the night before, but clearly her mind was elsewhere. “I’m sorry, baby.”

Life in Holiday Cove had been on some kind of fast forward mode for the last three weeks. I’d been so busy getting the F-4 ready for the air show I’d barely had time to come up for air. And whenever I did, it was to spend time with Carly—most of which was spent burning off our excess stress in my bed. Carly and Alesha had been busy making preparations for their dad to come visit, afterward Alesha would be going back with him and his wife by the end of the long weekend.

Carly rolled over to her side so she could face me. Her eyes were dark and distracted. “Do you think I should let her stay with me?”

It was a question she’d asked me half a dozen times over the past few weeks. I’d never been able to come up with a good answer. It wasn’t my call to make. Selfishly, I wanted Alesha to go home because it would free up what little time Carly had left after running her business seven days a week. With things set to slow down at the Rosen Air Museum—at least in the shop—I was looking forward to spending more time with her. That wouldn’t be possible if her sister and soon to be niece or nephew were living with her full time. I wanted to tell her—to be honest with her—but now wasn’t the time.

“You know I can’t answer that for you,” I replied, tucking a strand of her pink hair behind her ear, fingering it before letting go. “How’s Alesha taking it?”

“She’s been quiet lately.” Carly chewed at her lower lip. “I know she’ll be okay. My dad’s already got everything figured out as far as renovating one of their bedrooms into a nursery and then the practical stuff, like a bigger, safer car for Alesha to drive that will fit a car seat. Knowing Dad, he’s probably already got the kid a college fund set up.”

I chuckled as I reached for her, my hands skimming over her warm skin. “Mmm, come here. In five minutes that damn thing is gonna ring,” I said, looking over her shoulder at the alarm clock on the bedside table.

“Well five minutes is not enough time for
that
,” she said, giggling as she snuggled against me.

“Can’t help it, baby. You’re too damned sexy. I can’t keep it in line.” I laughed as I pressed my hard cock against her to prove my point.

“Yeah, yeah,” she scoffed, giving me a playful roll of her eyes.

“You know what I think?”

“Hmm?”

“I think you need to hire a part timer to help out so in a few months, we can go on a vacation together. I’m tired of alarm clocks and early mornings and passing out on the couch at nine thirty. We’re too fuckin’ young to act so old. We need a little more fun in our life.”

She smiled up at me. “For the record, you’re the only one falling asleep at nine thirty.”

“Hey!”

She giggled again and then rubbed her head on my chest, nuzzling me. “A vacation does sound pretty sweet though. Where would we go?”

“Everywhere,” I said, only halfway kidding.

“Okay, for starters, then.”

“London?”

“Ooh!” Carly perked at my suggestion. “Did Aaron give you a big raise that I don’t know about?”

I laughed and shook my head. “Naw, but I have some cash saved up for a rainy day.”

Carly lifted her head and stared into my eyes. I wished I could peek inside her pretty head and figure out what she was thinking. “We’ll see…”

I groaned. “Come on, Carly. Don’t do that again.” She stiffened and tried to scoot away but I grabbed her by the hip, stilling her. “Hey, hold on. Talk to me…”

The alarm cut in—right on cue—and I swore under my breath, distracted just long enough for her to pull away from me. She shuffled to the side of the bed, killed the alarm, and then stood up and gathered the clothes I’d stripped off her the night before.

I’d told her she could have a couple of drawers in the dresser but she’d turned me down.

“Baby, come back to bed.”

She snapped her bra in place and shrugged into her black t-shirt. “You know I can’t. You can’t either.”

She was right. The air show was days away and the F-4 still had some last minute details to make sure everything was perfect. Aaron was taking things in stride, never letting the cracks show in his demeanor, but I’d learned to read him pretty well over all the hours we’d spent working together over the past couple of months to know he was stressed. If I had a chance at getting a permanent position at the museum, I needed to make sure the F-4 was primed to perfection.

I shoved out of bed, striding across the room butt ass naked to the adjoining bathroom. When I came back to the bedroom, minutes later, Carly was lacing up her Converse sneakers. “Am I going to see you tonight?” I asked, trying to contain my frustration and keep my tone neutral.

“I don’t think so,” she replied, standing from the edge of the bed. She tossed her blonde and pink hair into a high ponytail and fixed it in place with an elastic band. Her eyes wandered as her fingers worked. She was avoiding me.

“Carly—”

“Gotta go!” She said, stopping to press a kiss to my cheek before running out the door. I didn’t bother chasing after her as her footsteps faded down the hall. Seconds later I heard the front door close.

Great. Back at square, fuckin’, one.

* * * *

“What do you think?” I asked, anxiety pulsing through me as I waited for Aaron to get a little closer. He’d just exited the F-4 after taking it up for the third test flight of the day. His face was grim as he approached and my gut wrung tight, waiting for his list of things that still needed tweaking. I was exhausted after working two, fourteen hour days to get it ready. And if the look on Aaron’s face was any indication, it looked like this day was about to go a helluva lot longer than fourteen.

Aaron stopped in front of me and after a terror-filled beat, a grin broke out across his face. He held out his hand. “We did it! We fucking did it!”

“Yes!” I pumped my fist in the air before accepting his handshake. Aaron tugged me in for a one-armed embrace and when we separated we were both grinning like idiots. “The throttle didn’t rattle?”

“Nope,” he said, shaking his head. “Smooth as fuckin’ butter!”

I let out a low whistle. “Thank God!”

Truthfully, I’d run out of ideas on how to fix the damn thing. As he’d gone up for the final work up, I’d been on the ground mentally going through every last idea and theory to have a suggestion ready for him when he landed. The panic had set in when I realized that I’d exhausted all my ideas. I was a damn good mechanic, but I’d been ready to pronounce the F-4 a lost cause more than once.

“Just in time too,” Aaron said, glancing over his shoulder at the runway where the F-4 sat gleaming in the late afternoon sun. “I gotta get the thing to Santa Cruz tomorrow afternoon.”