Anyone but Alex (The English Brothers Book 3) (22 page)

“
Your fiancé, Barrett, screws her and dumps her, but
you
don’t have a problem. How nice for you.”

Hope turned back to Alex. “If you change your mind…”

“I won’t,” said Alex. “Don’t come here again.”

“Asshole,” muttered Hope, sneering at Emily as she brushed past her, out of Alex’s office, and hopefully out of his life.

Emily took a deep breath, closing Alex’s office door. “Detangling is never easy.”

“She was my last loose end,” said Alex.

Emily grinned at him, plucking a tissue from the box on his coffee table and offering it to him. “Your loose end wears very red lipstick.”

Alex took the tissue gratefully, walking to the mirror over the wet bar.

“Thanks for interrupting,” he said over his shoulder.

“No problem. But I need a favor.”

“Anything.”

“My roommate, Valeria. She’s in a little bit of a jam.”

“How so?” he asked. Aside from a small red smudge on his collar, he was well rid of Hope’s lipstick. He turned back to Emily.

“The
bank is threatening to shut down Danse Allegre, her aunt’s dance studio. Val moonlights there for extra money, and well, we love
Tia
Angelina, but we don’t think she’s managed her money very well. Barrett said you might be willing to look at her books for me? See if there’s anything you can suggest?”

Alex nodded. “Absolutely. Can you get copies of everything? I’ll have Stratton tak
e a look first if that’s okay. He combs through numbers faster than I do and he even catches things I miss sometimes. Anyway, he and I will powwow after we each take a look, okay?”

Emily reached for Alex
’s hand and squeezed it. “I love this family, you know.”

Alex winked
, squeezing her hand back before dropping it gently. “For the record, this family loves you too, Emily Almost-English.”

She waved goodbye, promising to forward the files soon, but as soon as she was gone, Alex’s mood spiraled back to the dark place it had been before. He and Cam couldn’t be in the same room together without throwing punches, he never got a chance to ask Chris
about Devon, and Hope Atwell was sure to stir up trouble. Not to mention, Jess was supposed to leave for London three weeks from tomorrow, the very thought of which was enough to rip his beating heart out of his chest.

He shook his head back and forth, sitting down at his desk. The
brightest spot in his sorry life was Jessica. His face softened as he heard her words in his head,
I love you, too.
He needed to figure out how to get her to stay, because letting her go was unthinkable.

The cab ride from Alex’s apartment building to Mulligan’s only took a few minutes, but it was enough time for Jessie to read the messages her brothers had sent that afternoon. Cam and Chris had both texted their almost-fight with Alex on the squash courts, calling him a maniac, and Brooks left a long voicemail about family obligation and general disappointment. But the silver lining was a message from her mother that encouraged her to stay strong. Jessie grinned at that one. Her brothers were pouting and posturing, but they all liked Alex deep down inside. Once they understood that he loved her and he wouldn’t hurt her, they’d back off. She was sure of it.

She scrolled through her
voice messages, deleting most of them, but surprised that she’d missed one from this afternoon. It was from an unknown number, but the caller had left a message. She pressed listen, holding her phone to her ear.

“Jessica? It’s Hope Atwell. You don’t know me, but my sister is Connie Atwell, who’s friends with Jane Story,
and learned from her sister Margaret that you’re Alex English’s new fuck buddy.” Jessica gasped, lowered the phone, pausing the message. Alex had warned her that something like this would eventually happen, but she didn’t feel prepared for someone to speak with such hostility and disrespect about her private life. It was so jarring, she rolled down the cab’s window, taking a deep breath before pressing play again. “When Alex and I got together today, things got a little hot between us. You see, Thursday’s my day with Alex. We have a standing date at the Four Seasons. I just thought you should know. You take care, Jessica. Bye, now.”

Jessica
pressed “End” on her phone, letting it fall from her fingers into her purse. She tried to swallow the lump in her throat, but her eyes watering only made it bigger.
Things got a little hot… Thursday’s my day… a standing date at the Four Seasons…

“No,” she murmured, fisting her hands in her lap. She and Alex were exclusive. He loved her. He’d said so.

Her face softened as she recalled his last words as he left her this morning. “
What I said before? I meant it, Jess.”
She took a deep breath, forcing her racing heart to calm down. Alex had warned her that jealous exes could reach out to her when they found out that Alex had a girlfriend. That’s all this was. Jessie was quite sure that it was all a lie—Hope probably hadn’t seen Alex at all. She was lying.

This is just a disappointed, angry woman lashing out because she can’t have the man she wants.
My
man.

She thought about calling Alex
to find out if any of it was true, but remembered his face this morning when she asked him about Valeria. He didn’t need her distrust right now. They needed to be strong together against people like Hope Atwell, who wanted to pull them apart.

The cab pulled up at Mulligan’s, and Jessie paid the driver. Though she was determined not to let Hope ruin her Girl’s Night Out, she’d be lying if she said she was unaffected by the phone message. It had taken a little shine off the evening
. That was the truth.

S
till, she fixed a smile on her face and walked into the college bar, finding Emily, Daisy, and their friend, Valeria, sitting together at a table in the back.

Emily waved her over and Jessie wound her way through the crowd, sliding into the booth beside Daisy.

“Hey, Jessie!” exclaimed Emily, grinning at her from across the table. “You look great!”

Jessie looked down at her ensemble: a simple white, buttoned-down shirt tucked into belted skinny jeans with knee-high brown leather boots. She shrugged out of her navy blue cropped jacket, laying it over her bag
, and grinned, her worries about Hope and Alex dissipating as she surrounded herself with girlfriends.

“Yeah? Thanks. I copy everything Kate Middleton wears,” she said, sharing her secret.

“I copy all of her shoes,” said Valeria from beside Emily. “I don’t think I could get these hips into any of her clothes. By the way, I’m Val.”

Jessie shook her hand
across the table. “Jess. And two things, Val. One, she has some
awesome
shoes. And two, I’d
kill
for your curves.”

“From what I hear, Alex likes
your
curves just fine.”

Emily and Daisy giggled as Jessie’s eyes flew opened and her cheeks flushed.

“I guess he does,” she confessed.

“Don’t mind Val,” said Daisy, nudging Jessie in the side. “She just says what we all think.”

“Can I be really vulgar and nosey?” asked Val.

Jessie shrugged. She knew she was among friends. “Sure.”

“Is he as good as they say?”

Jessie’s mouth dropped open in surprise, but she couldn’t help smiling and nodding. “Way better.”

“Gah!” exclaimed Val, palming her forehead with one hand and lifting her pint glass with the other. “I have to get me an English boy!”

“Stratton and Weston are still free,” said Jessie, grinning at Emily to thank her for the glas
s of beer she slid across the worn wooden table.

“Weston’s a baby,” said Val dismissively, “but Stratton English…oh, my God. He showed up here a few weeks ago and I almost died. He’s so hot.”

“Remember
that
night, Daze?” asked Emily, grinning at her cousin like the Cheshire cat.

“Perfectly,” said Daisy, blushing as she sipped her soda.

“What happened?” asked Jessie, sensing a story.

“I admitted that I wasn’t engaged and Fitz dragged me into the back hallway,” Daisy said, flicking her chin toward the back of the bar before turning to Jess askance. “Best. Kiss. Ever.”

“The electricity on this half of Philly got a boost from the current,” said Val, matter-of-factly, chugging the rest of her beer and sliding it to Emily who poured her a fresh one.

Daisy giggled again, spreading her hands over her belly.

“Are you feeling better?” asked Jess.

“I am. Eight weeks and everything’s settling down now.
Sweet Pea’s the size of a raspberry,” she added, smiling.

“Sweet Pea? That’s so cute!”

Daisy smiled. “You know that song?
Sweet Pea, apple of my eye, don’t know much and I don’t know why…
”

“
…you’re the only reason I keep on coming home
,” sang Jess quietly. “I love that song.”

“Me too,” said Daisy, her smile far away, as if remembering something really nice. “We’re dancing to it at the wedding. This one’s helping us learn some moves.”

Valeria smiled back at Daisy then turned to Jessie. “My aunt owns a dance studio. I do some moonlighting there.”

“How fun! I’m a terrible dancer.”

“I bet Alex doesn’t think so.”

Jessie grinned, thinking back to the night on the balcony at the Union League Club when they danced to
The Way You Look Tonight
.

“I knew it!” said Val triumphantly.

Jessie giggled, shaking her head at Val and turning to Emily. “How are the wedding plans coming along?”

“Well, we were planning to have a double wedding in June, but this one got herself knocked up, so…”

“So, Fitz and I are going to get married on Valentine’s Day,” said Daisy.

“And Barrett and I will wait for June, as planned.”

“Valentine’s Day! That’s so soon!”

Daisy smiled. “Will you come back for it
, Jessie?”

“Sure
,” she answered softly.

Jessie knew she dropped her eyes too quickly, but the question made her heart clench with uncertainty. Would she and Alex still be together two months from now? Her heart insisted that they would be, but her mind wasn’t convinced. They’d barely discussed their plans for after Christmas.

“Hey, Jess. You okay?” asked Emily.

“Yeah,” she said, forcing a smile.

“How are you and Alex doing?”

“He told me that he loved me this morning,” she said softly.

“You love him too?” asked Daisy.

Jessie nodded. “Always have.”

“Another English brother bites the dust,” mourned Val.

“So…that’s good, right? He loves you, you love him, the sex is amazing…”

“It’s good, yeah.” Jessie looked at Emily, wincing as she shook her head. “I’m ridiculous. I have this gorgeous, amazing guy telling me he loves me, and all I can think about is that I have to go back to London in three weeks.”

“Do you
have
to go back?” asked Emily. “You have dual citizenship, right?”

“Right. But, I live there. It’s my
home
. I haven’t lived in Philly since I was a little girl, you know? You guys are so great, and Westerly is so beautiful…but I don’t feel like I belong here. Not like I do there.”

Emily nodded and said softly, “And Alex belongs here.”

“He’s the CFO of English & Sons. And he
loves
it here. His family’s here, and he adores Philadelphia, the Eagles, Haverford Park. I can’t imagine him leaving.”

Val huffed lightly. “Sorry to be
Captain Obvious, but one of you is going to have to give if you want it to work. I mean, long-distance from New York to Philly would be one thing, but from London to Philly?”

“I know. We just haven’t figured it out yet.” Jessie sighed, hating the heaviness that threatened to overtake her good mood. “Hey, I’m getting sad. Can we talk about something else?”

“Definitely,” said Daisy. “I had a dream last night that I was attacked by a fifty foot squid. My dreams have gotten really weird.”

“
Normale
,” said Valeria in her native Italian. “My sister’s dreams were off-the-charts all nine months. It was like experiencing an acid trip every time she told us about them.”

As Daisy and Valeria bantered back and forth
about pregnancy and dreams, Jessie looked across the table at Emily, who gave her a sympathetic smile that didn’t make Jessie feel better at all. Valeria was right. As much as she hated the thought, the only way she and Alex were going to work out was if one of them gave up their life for the other.