Elliott maintained an expressionless calm and extended his hand. “Elliott Vanderpool. You are?”

“The man who is going to throw your ass out of here.”

Alexis splayed her hand in the center of his chest. “Noah, don’t.”

He looked down at her and cataloged her appearance. Puffy red eyes. Dark circles. He wanted to believe the cause of her suffering was the man sitting in her office, but Noah wasn’t stupid. He was equally responsible, and it gutted him.

Elliott slowly stood. “Is this—are you her boyfriend?”

At that, Alexis made an indecipherable noise that caused a small eruption in his heart.

“It doesn’t matter who I am. Stay away from her.”

Elliott looked at Alexis. “It’s not true. I’m not here because I need a kidney. I’m here because I am your father—”

Noah’s hands curled into fists. “You dare to call yourself that after you threw her out of your house?”

Elliott raised his hands in a truce. “I came to apologize for that.”

There was a lot of that going around today. “You need to leave.”

“Noah,” Alexis sighed, hand pressing into his chest. “Can you wait outside?”

He locked eyes with her. Beneath the naked pain was a detachment that scared him even more than when she’d driven away from him yesterday. More than the agonizing hours while he waited for her to call him back or respond to a single text. Even with her fingers against his chest, she was removed from him. Yesterday, there’d been nothing but heat in her touch. Today, it was ice-cold.

“It’s okay,” Elliott said, maybe because he was catching on to the tension between them or maybe because he was a fucking coward. “I was just leaving. I-I’ve said what I need to say.”

Alexis faced the bastard. “Wait.” She looked back at Noah. “Can you please wait outside?” This time she pointed, and the dismissal felt like a warning as much as a punishment.

Noah forced his feet to move, and she shut the door behind him. He paused to listen but then felt guilty. She didn’t want him in the conversation. He could at least respect her wishes that much. Noah trudged to a tall chair next to one of the stainless-steel counters and sat down. Behind him, the kitchen door swung open, and frantic steps approached. He turned around just in time to see Jessica.

“What’s going on?” she whispered.

“Hell if I know,” he grumbled.

“Is that really her father?”

“Looks that way.”

“Is that why she was crying this morning? Because of him?”

His head snapped up. “She was crying?”

“She tried to tell me it was just allergies. I tried to get her to tell me what’s going on, but she wouldn’t.”

Her office door opened. Noah shot to his feet, and Jessica squeaked and ran.

Alexis came out first, looked at him briefly, and then turned back as Elliott emerged. “I’ll let you know as soon as I do,” she said.

“Know what?” Noah asked.

She looked at the floor as she answered. “If I’m an initial match.”

A blood vessel burst in his brain. “Are you kidding me? You’re going through with this?”

Alexis pressed her fingers to her temple. “Stop, Noah.”

A buzzing noise in his ears drowned out Elliott’s response. Noah watched through hazy eyes as the man said goodbye to Alexis, nodded in Noah’s direction, and then shuffled out of the kitchen.

“I’ll be right back,” Noah said.

Alexis pinched the bridge of her nose. “Noah—”

He followed Elliott out. “You’ve got some fucking nerve.”

Elliott turned around in the center of the café with a blank expression, as if he’d been waiting for exactly this and had been practicing how he’d respond. “Would you like to go somewhere private and talk?”

“No. What I have to say won’t take long.”

“I can see that you care about Alexis a great deal. And it probably doesn’t matter much, but I’m glad she has you to support her during this.”

“You’re right. It doesn’t matter. I don’t need your fucking approval.”

“No, you don’t. And you probably won’t believe this, but I care about what happens to her.”

Noah snorted.

“Just because I wasn’t part of her life until now doesn’t mean I don’t already think of her as my daughter. I’m sure your father would tell you that . . .”

“He would, if he were alive.”

Elliott swallowed. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Why should you be sorry? You made money off his death.”

Elliott shook his head, face paling. “I’m afraid I don’t know what you mean.”

“You work for a defense contractor. My father died in Iraq when his improperly equipped Humvee ran over an IED.”

“I’m sorry. Truly. And not just for your father. For everything Alexis is going through too.”

“Really? Then prove it. Stay the fuck away from her.”

The kitchen door swung open. “Noah,” Alexis said quietly behind him. Her tone turned his name into an admonishment.

“I’m done,” he said, stepping back.

Elliott cast one last look at Alexis and then turned away. The bell above the café door was a melancholy soundtrack to his retreat, followed by the ominous return of the thwap of the kitchen door. Alexis had gone back inside. Noah found her waiting for him in her office, standing by her desk.

Noah walked toward her, arms reaching to hold her. “Are you okay?”

Unlike last night, when she’d fallen so willingly into his embrace, she backed away from him. Her arms came around her torso, a protective shield. Her coldness brought a chill to his entire body.

“Lexa—”

“I’m sorry I haven’t called you back.” She dragged two trembling hands across her weary face. He wanted to pull them away and kiss every worry line. She sucked in a breath and started again. “I needed some time to figure out what to say.”

Her blunt honesty, so Alexis, caught him off guard this time. “Then maybe I should talk, because I know exactly what I need to say.”

Her head shook in tiny little denials. “I can’t do this right now. I’m already behind, and I have a lot to do right now—”

“It can wait.”

“It can’t.”

“Dammit, Lexa, stop talking to me like I’m some random angry customer who needs placating.”

She swallowed hard and briefly met his eyes. He’d gone long enough without touching her. Noah closed the distance between them and cradled her face in his hands. “Talk to me.”

“This is all my fault, and I’m so sorry.”

“Nothing is your fault.”

“I shouldn’t have kissed you.”

Alarm bells began to ring in his head. He let his hands fall away as he backed up.

She looked everywhere but at him. “You were right to put a stop to it. It was a mistake.”

No. No, it was not a mistake. It was the most important moment of his life. But he couldn’t get those words out, because she hit him with another punch.

“I—I was vulnerable and upset, and I took advantage of you.”

“Took advantage of me?” He’d been reduced to useless parroting of her ridiculous words.

She nodded, biting her lip again.

He shook his head. “Alexis, all I wanted was for us to take a break and talk about what was happening.”

“And I’m glad you did, because clearly, we were making a mistake,” she said.

He swallowed a groan. “I would give away all my money for you to stop saying that.”

“But you obviously regretted it, and—”

“I didn’t regret it!”

“I need some space.”

He blinked. His brain heard the word, but his heart refused to accept it. “What—What does that mean?”

“It means that I can’t think straight right now, and I tend to make really bad decisions when I’m in that kind of headspace, obviously—”

He bristled at the word obviously.

“—and I think it would be best if we just—”

“No. Whatever you’re about to say, you’re wrong. It would not be best.”

“I need some time to get centered and figure a few things out.”

He wanted to argue because, Christ, he could already feel her drifting away from him like a boat pulling away from the dock. He had to clear his throat to find his voice. “How—How much time?”

“Maybe we can talk this weekend at the bachelorette party.”

“This weekend.” His voice had gone flat and lifeless, just like he felt. They hadn’t gone more than a single night without talking in almost a year. He lost feeling in his knees and sank against the counter behind him. “Alexis, I need you to be clear with me about what’s happening here.”

The sight of a tear dripping down her cheek made his stomach pitch. “I just need time.”

She hugged herself and, with a last glance at him, walked away. He couldn’t move as she crossed the kitchen, pushed open the swinging door, and disappeared into the café. Beefcake peeked around the corner from the back room and hissed.

“Yeah, well, fuck you too,” Noah grumbled.

He peeled away from the counter, dragged his hands down his face, started toward the back door, and then stopped to turn around. He did it three more times before pounding his fist with an argh, throwing open the door, and stomping into the alley. It was another five minutes of indecision before he started his car and pulled out. He wanted to hit something.

Wait. Not something.

Someone.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Noah whipped his car into the lot behind Temple. He grabbed the book from the floor, where it had fallen off the seat during one of his more aggressive turns on the way there. He folded it into one furious hand, slid from the front seat, and slammed his door because he wanted to and it felt good and he needed to warm up for the big show.