Dirty Deeds (Mechanics of Love #3)(10)

He grunted as the doors closed.

BACK IN HIS apartment, Spencer quickly undressed and slipped on a pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt. He found leftover Chinese food in the fridge and heated it up in the microwave, then ate sitting on his couch, watching the news.

It’d been about a week since he came back from Tory.

A week since he’d worked very, very hard to forget about Alex.

But he couldn’t, especially when he looked at his keys every day and saw that damn keychain that he refused to get rid of.

His hookups with women had dwindled the older he got. He was set in his ways now and accustomed to being on his own. Penny had told him to use a dating app, but they were all either too focused on hookups or too . . . desperate. Either way, they didn’t work for him, despite their happy pictures of smiling couples.

Before Alex, it’d been . . . God, too long since he’d been with a woman. Maybe that was why his head was spinning, why he couldn’t forget about her.

He needed to, though. He was up for a promotion, one that he’d had his eye on since before Cody ever announced his retirement.

He walked to his kitchen to wash his plate and load it in the dishwasher.

A maid came in twice a week and cleaned his apartment. He wasn’t here much anyway, so the biweekly cleaning left it rather sparkling. His black countertops gleamed. His tiled floor sparkled.

He ran his bare foot over the floor as he leaned back on his kitchen island.

He wondered where Alex lived, what she did in her spare time. She clearly had a loving sister, a niece, men she worked with who cared about her.

He hadn’t been surrounded by family like that . . . well, ever. He’d grown up with a distant, workaholic father. His mother had died when he was ten, so his life had been a small flat in Manchester while his father worked on cars all day, then came home and drank beer all night. Spencer guessed he parented as best as he could.

His relationship with Penny had been rocky at first as Spencer wasn’t quite sure . . . how to do it. The friend thing. The I rely on you and you can rely on me thing. Which was why he was loath to expand his circle wider. It’d taken years to get his friendship with Penny to this point.

He wondered, though, what kind of friend Alex was. What kind of girlfriend. How would it feel to be loved by her?

He shook his head and pushed off the island. He should just go to bed. This wallowing and thinking was just putting him in a shitty mood.

And he really, really needed to get Alex out of his head.





Chapter Five


Two weeks later . . .

PENNY STOOD IN the parking lot of the Tory Inn, hands on her hips. Her nose wrinkled as she gazed up at the hotel. “Not a Royalty Suites, is it?”

Spencer rolled his eyes as he hauled his suitcase out of the boot of his car. “Don’t expect chocolates on your pillow.”

Nick laid his arm across her shoulders. “I told you that you didn’t have to come, Penelope.”

She leveled a glare at him. “My father wants me to check out the sites. I’m an employee, just like you are.”

“Yes, and you never let anyone forget it,” Nick muttered as he set their luggage on the cracked concrete.

“You two about done?” Spencer asked.

Penny smiled at him brightly. “Just your average marital bickering. Totally normal. You wouldn’t know, Mr. Lone Wolf.”

“I’m not a lone wolf,” Spencer huffed.

Penny made a howling noise and walked ahead of them into the hotel, her heels clicking smartly.

Spencer sighed and glanced at Nick, whose brows were furrowed in irritation.

Spencer wanted to ask him what he was so uptight about. Spencer was the one who was sweating through his shirt thinking about being back in Tory, Maryland, for the indefinite future.

He’d see Alex again. This town was too small and apparently her family and friends were everywhere. He wondered if she’d be angry. What they had was clearly meant to be one-time. He wasn’t invited to get to know her any more than he’d invited her.

He could maybe hole himself up in his hotel room for the duration of his stay, but that would defeat the purpose of why he was here.

Which was to work.

Plus, Penny would never let them stay inside. She’d never been to Maryland, and she wanted what she called “the full experience.”

He reminded her this was a business trip, that they were making the final decision on where to build another Royalty, but Penny said they could mix business with pleasure.

He’d nearly swallowed his tongue. Last time he was in town, he’d done just that and all it had gotten him were wet dreams. And a keychain.

Christ, he needed to get a grip.

Penny handled checking them in while Spencer and Nick stood awkwardly in the lobby surrounded by luggage.

“So, the drive was okay for you?” Spencer asked.

“The roads in Pennsylvania are shit,” Nick grumbled. “What the hell do those people do to their roads? Penny read the whole time. She should have ridden with you. I’m sure she would have enjoyed it more.”

Spencer kept quiet, which was usually the way his conversations with Nick went. But it was getting harder and harder for Spencer to ignore Nick’s remarks. Spencer also worried about Penny. Her first marriage had not been a good one. Her first husband and father of her children was a man who seemed to want a strong woman on his arm but yet wasn’t willing to stand aside as that strong woman stood on her own. Spencer didn’t know how to approach Penny about Nick, how to caution her on his behavior and ask if their marriage was okay behind closed doors. Was it any of his business?

And it wasn’t that he thought Nick didn’t treat Penny well, because Nick did try. It was that he didn’t think Nick was the man for her. Which sounded incredibly pompous when he thought about it. Who was he to know what was best for Penny? But Nick seemed vaguely threatened by everything, from Penny’s position at Royalty to her friendship with Spencer.

For now, Spencer kept his mouth shut and pulled out his cell phone, tapping aimlessly until Penny walked to where they were standing, key cards in her hand.

They were on the same floor, a couple of rooms apart, and Spencer was finally able to breathe when he was behind the closed door by himself. He unpacked his clothes and opened his laptop on the small desk. But he stared at his backdrop and eventually his gaze drew to the window in his room. His view was the pool, which was closed for the season.

Nick was also a scout for Royalty. That was how he and Penny had met. Spencer didn’t care much about impressing Richard Moore. He worked because he liked it. He loved fulfilling a need in a town for excellent lodging. He loved the site of a freshly built hotel, the air still smelling of cooling asphalt.

The past two weeks, the team in New York had narrowed down the site for a new hotel to two locations—the one Spencer recommended, and the land behind Payton and Sons Automotive. That . . . had not been his recommendation. At all. For some reason, Nick had thought that location was more attractive, except he wanted more. He wanted the land the auto repair shop sat on too. Which meant . . . he wanted to buy out the Paytons.

That made Spencer want to puke, but he didn’t want to think about that, couldn’t entertain the thought that Nick’s recommendation would be chosen over his. So his job while in town was to convince Penny his recommendation was best, while Nick would . . . well, he’d do what he did, which was flit around like a fly and annoy everyone. Or maybe just Spencer.

Spencer had confidence he could convince the company that he was correct.

He knew his emotions weren’t swaying him. He’d chosen to recommend the first property before he’d ever laid eyes on Alex. But now, he was even more determined. He didn’t know a lot about his sprite, but he knew she loved her job and she loved that garage. It was evident in her posture when she stood in the shop and in her voice when she talked about her work.

Spencer shut the lid to his laptop and paced the room restlessly. He’d always loved being alone. He needed the time to recharge his batteries, to keep all his armor in place so he could continue to be the carefully crafted L. M. Spencer.

But the past two weeks, his skin had felt too tight, his chest heavy. Like there was something else he should be doing, something he was missing.

Thoughts of Alex had eased him and shortened his breath all at the same time. When Penny’s father had instructed the three of them to return to Tory, Spencer had gone home and gotten drunk. On the hundred-year-old Scotch he’d been keeping for a special occasion.

He’d woken up on his living room floor wearing his robe. It had been unsettling.

He didn’t know what he would say when he saw Alex again. How would she react? They’d both been safe under the presumption they’d never see each other again after that night in his hotel room. That had been their safety net, and now he’d poked a big ol’ hole in it.

He got the impression Alex didn’t like surprises.

Yeah, well, he wasn’t too fond of them either.

He undressed and got in the shower, thinking maybe he’d sleep because come tomorrow, he’d have to unleash Penny and Nick in Tory.

And he wasn’t quite sure this would end well for anyone.

BELLINI’S HAD GOOD crab cakes. And that was the only reason Alex had let herself be talked into a fancy dinner on Friday night.

Brent didn’t seem too happy either, but he’d do anything for his girls. Ivy and Violet had gone all out, dressed up with hair and makeup and heels to celebrate Ivy’s birthday.