Love in London (Restless Hearts) (4 page)

This woman I recognized- Marian. Dexter had introduced her as his assistant. She had been one of the only people to have a normal, relaxed conversation with me.

“Needed a break?” she guessed sympathetically.

“It was a bit tense out there.” I locked eye contact with her in the mirror. Based on what I had overheard, I needed to know some answers about Dexter and I was willing to bet Marian could help me out. “Can I ask you something?”

“I suppose,” she said with a frown, as if she could sense what I was about to ask.

“Who’s Laurel?”

She sighed. “Let me guess- the marketing girls got to you?”

“Not exactly. I overheard some people talking.”

“I guess you better hear it from me,” she said. “Laurel used to work on the marketing team. She quit a couple months back after becoming pregnant. Some people speculate that she’s carrying Dexter’s baby.”

It wasn’t too far off from what I had guessed. “Why would they think that?”

“Laurel is quite beautiful. Dexter seemed fond of her. Now she is with child and doesn’t need to work? That only makes sense if the baby’s father is wealthy.”

I couldn’t keep the look of surprise from my face.

“You shouldn’t listen to office gossip,” she said with a smile. “Dexter has always been a perfect gentleman in my eyes. But then again, my eyes are a bit blinded by his good looks.”

“Welcome to my world,” I muttered.

After another deep breath, I headed back to the party. Dexter was standing more or less where I left him, near the bar. I stopped for a drink before rejoining him. He was just wrapping up a conversation with a very serious looking man when I approached. When his eyes found me stepping through the crowd, he smiled broadly.

“I thought maybe you snuck out the bathroom window,” he said.

“That would’ve been tricky on the second floor.” I had a hard time staying irritated when he smiled at me like that. “Did I miss anything?”

“Hopefully me,” he said, laughing when I rolled my eyes. “You should know that many women find me charming.”

“I’m sure they do,” I mumbled, thinking about Laurel. “It’s amazing you are still single.”

He didn’t seem to get that I was being serious. “It’s good news for you.”

“Right.”

I noticed two women standing about ten feet away, staring hard in our direction. I was certain that they were the chat queens I had overheard in the bathroom. My stomach began to twist.

“Are you okay?” Dexter asked, noticing my sudden change in demeanor.

“Actually, I’m not feeling very well suddenly.”

“Here, let’s get you a seat.” He grabbed my elbow and ushered me to a bar stool. Once I was seated, he scanned my face. “You look a bit green. Do you want to go home?”

“I’ll be okay,” I said, fighting back a wave of nausea. “On second thought, maybe I better go.”

Dexter looked around, flustered. “Okay. Let me quickly tell someone that I’m leaving and then we can go.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. You can’t leave your own party. I’ll just get a taxi.” I started to stand, but Dexter held me down.

“It’s fine. I can go-”

“Stop.” I gave him a hard look. “I’m quite capable of getting home on my own.”

“Alright. But you aren’t taking a taxi. I’m getting you a car.”

He had his phone out before I could stop him. In less than five minutes, a car was waiting for me out front. Dexter insisted on walking me out.

“Straight home, young lady,” he said as he opened the car door for me.

“Yes, sir.” I smiled sheepishly. “This is pretty embarrassing. Sorry to be such a pain on your big night.”

“It happens.” He shrugged. “There’s always tomorrow.”

I nodded, wondering if I would feel any better in the morning or if the truth would still be gnawing at me. “Thanks for putting up with me tonight.”

“It was my pleasure.” He grinned and leaned in, kissing me softly on the cheek. “Good night, Taylor. Feel better.”

“Good night.”

My cheek still tingled after the door was shut and we pulled away. I glanced out the window and saw that Dexter was still standing there, watching us disappear around the corner.

I was glad to find the flat empty when I got home. Cessy was out with friends and likely wouldn’t be home for hours. Rather than spend time pondering the thoughts in my head, I found a bottle of wine in the kitchen and opened it, taking the whole thing with me as I started a bubble bath.

By the time I was neck deep in bubbles, half of the bottle was gone and I was feeling much better. While I sang along with the radio, I started to think more about what I had learned about Dexter.

He had been nothing less than a perfect gentlemen to me during our time together. But if the rumors about Laurel turned out to be true, then Dexter wasn’t the kind of man I wanted to waste time on. But if it was really just a rumor and I accused Dexter of fathering a child and paying off Laurel, he would probably never want to speak to me again. Now I just had to figure out how I could learn the truth without jeopardizing whatever might be developing between us.

I was hoping that after a good night’s sleep the answer might come to me, but I was even more confused in the morning. With a large cup of coffee and laptop in front of me, I started digging up as much dirt as possible on Dexter as I could. There wasn’t much dirt to be dug.

When he’d first decided to open an office in the city, he had spent a lot of time in London. From what I could tell, he had dated a couple of actresses and models and was even seen in public with a duchess. But no website anywhere mentioned a woman named Laurel. An hour after I started my research, the intercom buzzed and I let in a delivery man.

He was weighed down with packages. “Taylor James?” he asked.

I nodded and gestured for him to come inside. After he placed the items on table, I signed the delivery slip.

“Have a nice day,” he said, literally tipping his cap to me.

Once he was gone, I paced in front of the delivered items. I had a very good idea who had sent them.

The card in the vase full of flowers seemed like a good place to start. I plucked the notecard out of the arrangement and read the careful handwriting.

Thanks for a wonderful night.

Hope you are feeling much better by now. Without a proper diagnosis of your condition, I wasn’t sure what you would need so I bought a random assortment. Hopefully something does the trick.

Dex

It was probably the nicest thing anyone had ever done for me. It made me feel terrible that my only real affliction had been jealousy and suspicion.

Dexter had covered all his bases. He’d sent soup, chocolates, ice cream, cold medicine, Kleenex, cough drops, and a teddy bear encouraging me to “Get Well.”

It was hard to picture a man that sent get well teddy bears as a negligent baby daddy. Those two things just didn’t go together.

Before I could talk myself out of it, I messaged Dexter to thank him for the gifts. I would’ve called, but I knew that hearing his voice would make me lose my resolve. After he replied that it wasn’t a problem and inquired about my health, I invited him to come over so we could talk.

It must’ve sounded like an ominous request because he responded that he would be by in twenty minutes. That didn’t leave me much time to shower and make myself somewhat presentable. He arrived right on time and after polite greetings, I led him out onto the balcony. So far, Cessy had been diligently sleeping away her hangover, but our talking might wake her. I didn’t want us to be interrupted.

“Thanks again for everything. That was really very sweet of you.” I sat carefully on one of the small metal chairs.

Dexter remained standing. “I’m just glad you’re feeling better.”

“Yeah.” I thought hard about what I would say next. “I need to ask you something, and it’s pretty personal and presumptive so I’ll understand if you get mad.”

“No. I’m not a virgin.” He let out a breath. “Whew. I’m glad we got that over with. I knew you would figure it out eventually.”

“Stop being funny, Dex.” I tried to glare at him but had to return his smile. “This is important.”

“Okay. Funny turned off.” He finally sat in the chair across from me.

I busied myself playing with the drawstring of my hoodie. “Last night I overheard some women talking in the bathroom. About you.”

“Oh? Was it about how much they love having me as their boss?” He tried to sound carefree, but his smile said that he was nervous.

“Actually, it was about Laurel.”

Any part of me that had hoped the story wasn’t true faded away when I saw Dexter’s reaction.

“Well, I guess that explains why you weren’t feeling well last night.” He sat back with a sigh.

“Is it true?”

“Does it matter?” His arms crossed over his chest. “Everything thinks it’s true.”

“It matters to me,” I said.

Dexter looked at me, considering. “Laurel is pregnant, yes. But I didn’t pay her off. She didn’t feel comfortable working at the company anymore. People were already starting to talk. I’ve been supporting her while she finds something else. But we’re not together.”

It wasn’t the answer I had been hoping to hear. But I was glad that he had decided to tell me the truth.

“Look, Taylor. Maybe I should’ve said something to you, but we just met and I was pretty sure something like this would scare you off.” He leaned forward. “I’m trying to do the right thing with Laurel. I really am. I hope you can see that I’m not a bad guy.”

“You said it yourself, Dex. We just met. I don’t really know anything about you.” Before he had admitted that it was true, I’d been so certain about how I would react. I would end things now, make a clean break.

But now that I was sitting across from him, seeing how miserable he felt about everything, my resolve wavered.

“I still really like you, Taylor. I’ll understand if you don’t feel the same way, but I hope you’ll be willing to give me a chance.”

I looked away, focusing on buildings in the distance rather than his piercing blue eyes. I needed some time to think. “Maybe we should take a step back,” I suggested.

“Is that a polite way of telling me to bugger off?” he asked with a sad smile.

“It’s my way of saying that I need some time.” My chest tightened, reminding me that I was dealing with more than just Dexter’s revelation. “You have no way of knowing this, but I’m a little damaged on the inside. I can’t just instantly trust people. It’s going to take me time to decide if I can trust you.”

He nodded thoughtfully. “Okay. If time is what you need, I can give you that. But you should know that you
can
trust me, Taylor.”

“Maybe you’ll have to prove that to me,” I said.

“Maybe I will.” He grinned. “Since it appears you don’t have the plague, any chance I can convince you to spend the day with me?”

“Doesn’t that directly contradict my request?”

“No, of course not. This is just one friend asking another friend to hang out.” His eyes widened innocently. “I just thought you might need someone to show you around town.”

My resolve was quickly melting. “Just friends?”

“For now.” He winked. “At least until you can’t resist me any longer.”

“Okay.” I sighed dramatically. “I guess I can spend the day with a friend.”

“Excellent.” He clapped his hands together. “Now, go put on some comfortable shoes. I don’t want to hear any complaining about sore feet and blisters.”

“What do you have planned?” I asked suspiciously.

“Everything.” He pointed inside. “Go.”

I followed Dexter’s advice, pulling on comfortable shoes to match my casual outfit. It was a drastic change from what I had worn the previous night, but he didn’t seem to even notice.

“You make sneakers look good,” he said with his usual heart-stopping smile.

You make everything look good,
I thought to myself. Dexter himself was also dressed casually- jeans, t-shirt, and baseball cap. I tried not to judge him too hard for being a Yankees fan.

“Does your plan for the day involve food?” I asked hopefully.

“It does indeed.”

We stepped outside, joining the other early morning pedestrians on the sidewalk. It was a perfect morning- sunny and warm, but not too warm. It was going to be an ideal day to play tourist.

Dexter led us a few blocks south, stopping at a tiny café that was nearly hidden from the street. “After you,” he said, holding open the door.

I was surprised when the door turned out to be a hallway, leading to a small outdoor garden. “What is this place?”

“Matilda’s,” he said. “It’s only open when the weather is nice because it’s entirely outdoors. They have great coffee.”

“I’m sold,” I said, taking in the romantic setting.

Beautiful flowers covered every open inch of the non-paved ground. Lush vines crawled up old trellises and soft piano music drifted through the air.

“Dexter!”