Page 43 of Just a Little Crush

I flinched at her words before I could catch myself, and Alyssa clearly took pleasure in that discomfort before she gave me one last triumphant look and walked out of the ladies’ room.

Logically, I knew what she said wasn’t true. I even knew that Caleb would never think such a thing of me, but if Alyssa spread the rumors and stirred the gossip, the last thing I’d ever want was to tarnish Caleb’s reputation because ofmypast or how my upbringing could paint me as a woman who was only with Caleb for his money. I’d never want to put that kind of speculation on him.

Those knots in my stomach tightened. I had to talk to Caleb and tell him the truth before he heard about my past from someone else and was blindsided by the skeletons lurking inmycloset.

As wonderful as the night had been up to this point, it clearly wasn’t going to last.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Caleb

As soon asI saw Alyssa exit the ladies’ room with a smug look on her face shortly after Stevie went inside, my entire body tensed in reaction, my gut telling me that my ex had probably stirred up some kind of shit with Stevie.

My instincts were confirmed when Stevie came back out a few minutes later and approached me, her expression subdued. Gone was the lively, exuberant woman I’d been with all night, and in her place was someone who almost looked…defeated.

“What did Alyssa say to you?” I immediately asked.

She shook her head, the distress in her eyes unmistakable. “Please, can we just leave?”

It took every ounce of control I had to not demand answers so I could take care of whatever the problem was, but I respected her request and ushered her out of the ballroom while texting Dylan to bring the car around to pick us up.

But once we were settled in the back of the vehicle, I took her hand in mine and approached the issue once more. “Stevie, what happened with Alyssa?”

She looked at me, and the pain I saw in her eyes was like a direct hit to my heart. “I promise to tell you everything, but not here,” she said in a soft tone. “Just…let’s get back to your place and let me change out of this dress and get more comfortable first. Please?”

Not wanting to pressure her further, I relented for now. “Okay,” I said, though that easy agreement went against every grain in my body when I was a man who preferred to face things head-on.

The rest of the drive was quiet as she stared out the passenger window, and it drove me insane the way it felt as though she was shutting me out, or maybe putting up her guard. There was a disconnect between us that I despised, and I was furious at the thought that Alyssa had done or said something to cause that divide.

When we arrived back at my place, I gave her the time and space she’d asked for while we both changed out of our formal attire. I pulled on a pair of sweatpants and went back into the living room to wait for Stevie while she removed her makeup in the bathroom and joined me a short while later, wearing one of the casual cotton sleepshirts she’d kept here for her overnight stays.

She sat next to me on the couch, turning toward me and curling her legs beneath her. I waited for her to start the conversation, and she did so immediately.

“The first and most important thing I need to tell you is that when I walked into the ladies’ room, Alyssa was in the lounge area by herself,” she said, her fingers absently pulling at the hem of her sleepshirt. “I caught her by surprise, and she was pouring prescription pills out of a bottle to take one, or a few, I don’t know. She dropped them onto the counter as soon as she saw me because I startled her, and she had a hard time picking them back up and seemed under the influence of something. It could have been too much champagne, for all I know.”

My stomach clenched and I swore beneath my breath. “Do you know what she was taking?”

She shook her head. “I wasn’t close enough to see exactly what kind of pills they were, but it was definitely a bottle from a pharmacy. It could be nothing at all, but considering her past substance abuse, I wanted you to be aware of the situation.”

I scrubbed a hand along my jaw. “Thank you for letting me know.”

I wasn’t sure what to do with the information Stevie had just given me, but my first reaction was to jump to my own conclusions, which weren’t good ones and only based on my past with Alyssa. In reality, the pills could have been for her migraines, or even antibiotics…hell, I had no idea what Alyssa’s current health history was, so I knew I had to be careful about making assumptions without proof.

Regardless, I was concerned because of Owen. I had him back for the week starting tomorrow, and while I thought about confronting Alyssa when she dropped him off, I knew if she had relapsed, she’d deny that the pills were anything more than just a prescription for a current ailment. And despite my worries, I had no right to demand she show me those bottles just to ease my conscience. We were divorced, and she didn’t owe me anything just based on a hunch or speculation, and accusations, if inaccurate, would only cause more friction between us.

I had a week to figure things out and my first thought was to see if Remy, who was a skilled private investigator himself and had a law enforcement background, had any ideas on how to handle the situation. Or if there was a way to find out what her current prescriptions were. Doubtful, because of patient privacy laws, but the unease of it all sat in my stomach like a rock. I was just grateful that I would have Owen in my custody through next weekend, since we’d be at the Hamptons for his birthday.

“Something else happened between you and Alyssa,” I said, addressing my next concern because it was imperative to me that I knew everything that had transpired between Stevie and my ex. Especially when it had changed Stevie’s demeanor so drastically. “I saw the smug look on her face when she walked out of the ladies’ room, and she wouldn’t have looked that way if she hadn’t felt as though she’d gotten the upper hand somehow after you caught her with the pills.”

She shook her head and glanced away, but not before I saw the dismay etched across her features. Yes, there was something else, and it seemed more personal than the pill situation.

I gently touched her jaw and turned her face back toward mine, needing to know what had caused that distress. “Whatever it is, Stevie, you need to tell me,” I said emphatically. Because I cared…more than she probably realized. She wasn’t some random, one-time date for me that had an unfortunate run-in with my ex. No, Stevie was a woman I wanted to protect, in any way I could.

It didn’t escape my notice that my feelings for her had grown over the past few weeks in her company. I’d spent the last couple of years since my divorce keeping my emotions on lockdown, saving whatever I had for Owen because I’d been wary of another woman taking advantage of me the way Alyssa had.

But Stevie was the antithesis of my ex. Her heart was good and pure. Her intentions equally so, which made opening up my own heart to her, and trusting her, far easier than I’d ever anticipated, despite our short time together as a couple. Yet for her, I knew she viewed our arrangement as nothing more than a fake relationship with an end date, to make sure there was no negative blowback on me for the custody case.

Somewhere along the way, pretending with Stevie had become very real.

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