What You Do To Me (Unexpected Love) (5 page)

“
Abby,
this is my assistant
,
Sam.
Sam,
this is Abby.”

“Actually, I’m his sister first and his assistant second, but I think he forgets that
from
time to time. It’s n
ice to meet
you,
Abby.” She looked
over at Alex with a confused look on her face.

“Abby was at the meet and greet and came to the concert alone. So, Steve and I thought it best to get her a seat on the side of the stage so she wouldn’t be mauled in the mosh pit.”

“I thought the concern was me being crushed?”
I wasn’t really
sure when my mouth decided to open and join the conversation.

“That
too,
” Alex said
with a smile.

“Well, I’m glad you were able to watch the concert and not be cru
shed or
mauled,
” Sam said
with a
genuine smile on her face.

Alex then explained
to Sam how he ran into me again at the hotel bar, but due to
fans,
he thought it
was best to come back up to the room
to talk without interruptions.

“I’ll leave you guys to talk and I’ll head in
to
get some work done then.”

I looked at Sam and thought it was so much safer if she stayed
in the room with
us.

“Why don’t you stay here with us and have a drink. As Alex’s
sister,
you can tell me about the real him and he won’t be able to fabricate any stories to his benefit.”

“That sounds like a great
idea.
Ale
x,
why don’t you grab a bottle of wine
?
This may be a fun night after all.”

Alex left the room and Sam
guided
m
e by the
arm
over to the sitting area.
It had
a couch and two nice
armchairs
with a beautiful coffee tabl
e in the middle. She then placed
me on
the couch next to her and smiled. She didn
’t say anything, but
for some reason
,
her smile made
me relax.

Alex returned
with a bottle of Pinot Noir and three glasses. “I hope this is
okay
. I figured you were good with red since
that’s
what you were drinking at the bar.”

I
nodded
my head and responded
with a soft yes
. That
was all I could manage. While Alex was pouring the wi
ne into
the
glasses, Sam looked
at
me with big
brown
eyes
.
I couldn’t see much of a resemblance between Sam and Alex
.
“So, why did you
go
to a
n
Awakening
by yourself? Your husband didn’t want to come?”

Looking at her with large
eyes,
I saw she noticed
the ring on my left
hand. She then looked
at Ale
x, probably to let him know I was
wearing
a ring and to be careful. She was
probably assuming
I was
a groupie
and planned
to sleep with the rock star.

“Umm…well…No, I mean he doesn’t like
Awakening
. Ugh, I’m married, but not married.”
Stopping to breathe, I felt like an idiot. I didn
’t want to
explain my story to them. I didn’t know them and I didn’t want pity. The
weekend was about moving on, not th
inking about everything that had
happened in the last eight months. 
Finally,
with a deep
breath and on the
release,
I felt
myself speaking. “I’m widowed; my husband died 8 months ago. I’m here
alone,
because my friends thought I needed to do a few things
that
I’ve always wanted to
do.
They
bought the ticket
for me
.”

I grab
bed my wine and I took
a big drink
, hoping it would calm my nerves. As I was drinking, I could
feel
both sets of eyes on me. I felt
a hand on
mine
.
Looking
up
, I
saw
Sam staring right at me. “
Oh,
my God, I am so sorry. I saw the ring and thought something completely different, I am sorry.”

“
Really, it’
s
okay
and I understand why you asked. It’s not a big deal. It was a while ago and there is nothing to be sorry about.”

Sam quickly changed the
subject.
I sat and listened to her and Alex
telling
me stories of the road and a few
stories of
them as kids. I really enjoyed
it.
I felt like I was sitting with
friends, not a famous rock star
and his sister. Throughout it all, I kept locking eyes with
Alex.
It
wasn’t just a simple meeting of the eyes, it felt like so much more, like a connection. I was probably over thinking and basing it o
n
some inner wish. I obviously wa
s buzzed with all the wine I had been
consuming since the hotel bar and here.

At about one in the
morning,
Sam stood to leave and asked to talk to Alex. I noticed while they talked
that
their eyes kept coming back to me. I felt uncomfortable and decided it was time for me to head back to my room too. It was
late
or early depending how you looked at the time.

“Where are you going?” I heard Alex say as he was walking back towards me.

“Well, it is getting late and I overstayed my five minutes by a couple of hours. I think I should head back to my room now.”

“One more glass, will you stay for one more glass of wine
?” Looking at me, I swear I saw
an almost desperation or pleading in his eyes for me to stay a bit longer. When I look
ed at my
hands and
then back up
,
it was
gone.
The
win
e
must be making me wish
for things that weren’t
there.

“I don’t
know.
I should get back to my room.”

“Do you have an early morning planned?”

Thinking
about my day and the
fact
that
I didn
’t have p
lans in the morning, but wished at that
moment,
I
did,
so I
would have
an excuse to leave. “
Actually,
no, but you probably do, so I should let you get some sleep.”

“Actually, I don’t either. We have a show in Chicago on Sunday
,
so we aren’t flying over till later tomorrow afternoon.”

Shit, that
was my only way out. “One, I will stay for one more small glass.”

             
Instantly,
a smile was on his face and my body was tingling. I quickly sat on the
couch,
because I was afraid my legs would fail me and I’d
fall. Every time
he looked at
me,
I felt
weak and
tingly
. That was the craziest feeling. I felt
like a high school girl finally being talked to by a
boy I had a
crush
on
. Seriously, I
was
thirty-one
and
needed
to settle down.

             
Alex grabbed my wine glass and
fill
ed it
up,
and while he did
that,
I t
ook
a c
loser look at his features. I had
already examined his chiseled
god-like
body, but his face
was
equally beautiful. His eyes
were
a sharp, spar
kl
ing
,
deep blue that
grabbed
you and
sucked
you in, but there
was
gentleness
to them when he
looked
at you. His
cheekbones
were
higher, but
helped
round out the
god-like
form. Once I look
ed at his
lips,
I couldn’
t take my eyes away from them. All I seem
ed to think
about
was
how they would taste or
how it would be to have
them taste me.

             
“Is this enough, or would you like more in the glass?” Confused
,
I look
ed up at Alex and felt
my face go instantly red. He
saw me staring at his
mouth.
I felt like
such an idiot. I somehow manage
d
to choke out a response, “
It’s
perfect, thank you.”

             
Alex moved over and took
Sam’s pl
ace on the couch by me. He bent
his knee
and tucked it under his leg so he could
turn h
is body towards me. When he
did,
his shirt tightened
across his chest and stomach area, showing off his
taut
muscles.

             
“I’m sorry to hear about your husband.”

             
“
Thanks,
” was
all I seem
ed
to get out. I really d
idn
’t want to talk about
my husband
with hi
m,
especially him. I felt
so exposed
talking about David
.

             
“Were you married long?”

             
“Thirteen years.” All I could do was
look at my hands.

             
Alex took my left hand and gave it a gentle squeeze, but
he
didn
’t let it go. “How old were you when you
got
married? You look about late twenties and that can’t be right.”

             
“I was eighteen
when we married.
I’m
thirty-one
now
, but thanks for the compliment. Can we talk about something else?”

             
“
Okay
, what would you like to talk about? We did a lot of talking about
me,
thanks to Sam,
b
ut I want to know about you.”

             
I wasn’t
sure what I want
ed to tell him, but
I
knew
any information I
offered was
better than
the
prying questions
that
he
might
have
for me. I told
him about
my three girls and the fact
that
I was a
teacher.
Then I told him about the
small
town
where
I
lived
and how much I
loved
living there,
especially in the summer. I told him
about my parent
’s pub
that I
worked
at a few night
s
a week
,
just so I could have
conversations with people
over the age of
seven. The fact I
loved
to run
and
used
it as a way to escape my reality. The whole time I
talked,
he listened. I didn’t feel
as if
he was listening to humor me, but
that he
listened because he was genuinely interested in my life. Alex asked questions whenever he thought he wanted more details on something, but
he
never asked anything to personal. It felt good to be me for a
while, n
o
t
the
me that is a
newly
,
single
,
parent
of three, the widow
,
or
the teacher, but
me,
Abby Porter
.