I stopped briefly to discuss the liquor order, then headed to my office.
My desk was full of paperwork, which was my own fault. For the past few weeks I’d been leaving early to get home to Elena. It felt weird to hurry home to someone, but so right at the same time. Except there was a shit-ton of guilt attached to it. Never once had I slept with a married woman. I may have a skewed moral compass, but I still had one. And one of the things my father had drilled into us over the years was that you don’t cheat on your spouse, or sleep with someone else’s. Although Dad didn’t seem to have an issue with the current situation.
Pushing the guilt to the back corner of my mind, I began tackling the orders for the next week. It took me longer than normal; thoughts of Elena in my bed every night more than a little distracting.
Maybe Dad was right when he said I felt more for Elena than lust.
I had feelings for Elena that went a whole lot deeper than saving her from a bad situation. Figured that, for the first time in my life, I wanted a woman for more than a few weeks, a woman who happened to be the perfect match for me in every way imaginable, and she was married to a man that gave a new definition to the word asshole.
Everything in my life had been that way. I had the education and experience to become a chef in a high profile restaurant, except that the business didn’t give me the time to work in a restaurant. My way of overcoming that was to buy my own and make them more successful than anything else in the area.
If there was anyone that could overcome the obstacles that stood in the way of Elena and I making a go of this thing, it was me.
The game was in the third inning and still no sign of the rat bastard, though saying that, I’d still have to stay the whole game, even if he’d showed up during the first inning. Leaving right after him would be too suspicious. Dad was adamant we remain cautious if we were to avoid being caught. If the home team was losing, I could sneak out early since half of the stadium would be leaving with me.
Brock called for dinner earlier in the evening and the only thing I could think about were the meals I’d shared with Elena over the last few weeks. There had only been three times, including tonight, where she’d been left to eat alone. I knew she didn’t have any friends, except the one from the diner. Dominic had done one hell of a job isolating her from everyone in her life.
“Ashton, what the hell is up with you?”
I peered over my shoulder at Brock to find him staring at me, brows drawn down.
“What do you mean?”
He pointed at my plate with his own fork. “Let’s start with the fact that you haven’t touched your steak, one of your favorites. Not to mention you haven’t paid one bit of attention to the game. You always said the best part of dealing with all of this shit was watching the game in privacy.” He moved his fork toward the glass in front of me. “You haven’t even noticed that your team is up by four runs.”
Glancing toward the scoreboard, I notice the score one to five. How did I miss that? The only number I’d been paying attention to was the inning, wanting the game to be over sooner rather than later. I pulled off my glasses and rubbed my eyes before putting them back in place. “I guess I’m distracted.”
“It’s the girl, isn’t it? I saw the way you looked at her that first night.”
I couldn’t lie to Brock. He’d been through enough shit with me. He deserved the truth. “Yeah, it’s her.”
“You know you’re walking into a huge pile of shit by getting involved with her, right?”
“Why do you say that?” I growled, feeling my blood pressure rise. Friend or not, he was not going to sit there and bash Elena. She’d been through enough.
“Look at yourself, ready to fight me over another man’s wife. Does that even make sense? And if you’re not careful you’re going to end up getting sloppy, which you can’t afford.”
I looked down and saw my hands, clenched into a fist. With an effort, I forced them to relax. “I’m just fucking her—not asking her to marry me.”
“Could have fooled me.”
“What do you know?” I snapped.
“Look, I’ve known you for years and I’ve never seen you this fucked up over a woman. You rarely ever pay them any attention, unless you want to sleep with them, and this time it’s all about a married woman. What happens when it’s time for her to go back to her piece of shit husband?”
I groaned and my head fell against the back of the chair. “I’m still hoping she’ll choose not to.”
“Can’t guarantee that. And do you really want to take on a crazy fucker like Tolley? Any bastard willing to trade his wife to save his own ass must have a few screws loose.”