Good Girl : An Enemies-to-Lovers, Roommate Romance (Alphahole Roommates Book 2), page 16
My eyes bounce to the window, at the view of the river. It’s a great view. I prefer the view at home, but this view Aiden has ain’t too shabby. And the view from his bedroom is even better, a view of the park.
“What’s yer name?” Braeden asks.
“I’m Jada.”
“Oh. I hearded my mom talking about you on the phone with my Auntie Carly.”
“Bray!” Adele exclaims. “You’re such a little sponge. Zip your lips about Momma’s conversations. Go pee first. I’ll finish getting Lilly out. Don’t forget to wash your hands. Down there,” she points down the hall.
“I haven’t been here in a long, long time. Not since I was a baby,” Braeden says. “So I don’t really remember it.”
“Oh. That’s a long time!” Jada plays along.
Braeden nods and runs for the bathroom.
I’m watching the exchange when Adele hands Jada the miserable, crying Lilly.
“Just a minute, precious. Momma has to pee and then I’ll get you all settled.”
Jada snuggles Lilly to her chest. “It’s okay, baby girl. You’re okay. Shh.” And she gently bounces her as she walks.
“I’m using the master ensuite. I can’t wait,” Adele rushes off.
And Lilly has settled and stuck her thumb in her mouth, putting her monkey head against Jada’s chest. Her eyes are droopy.
Jada is still shushing her and bouncing as she walks back and forth along the length of the living room window, and then Jada gets a weird look on her face and backs up and instead walks back and forth by the island.
“You afraid of heights?” I ask, smirking. Because that’s obviously what that expression and the jolt away from the window was.
Jada sticks her tongue out at me and looks the other way.
I laugh. Loud.
Jada looks at me, startled, and covers the now sleeping Baby Lilly’s ear.
“You’ve worked here a while. How do the windows get cleaned?” I ask.
She looks at me with horror.
“What? You’ve never cleaned the windows?”
“I close my eyes,” she says, looking away.
I laugh again.
She gives me a narrow-eyed look. “You don’t look like such an ogre when you’re laughing,” she observes.
“Huh? An ogre?” I ask.
“If the loincloth fits,” she mutters, and her face goes even redder.
I laugh again, but keep the volume down so I don’t wake the baby.
“How’s that burn?” I ask.
“Not bad. I’m fine.”
“Here, I’ll take her; you should finish your dinner.”
“I’m full,” she says and holds Lilly closer like she doesn’t want to give her up.
And I’m smiling. I can’t help it.
Jada Miller looks like a natural with my baby niece in her arms.
19
Jada
Adele is back from the bathroom. She asks for one more minute while she gets things organized. I have no problem with this. Her little baby girl is snuggled into me and I’m in baby love. I love babies and they love me, too.
Adele and Austin get into a debate about where she and the kids will sleep, so I offer to leave for the night, which is stupid because I have no place to go, and she calls me out on that – obviously knowing I have no place to go but saying so in a sweet way that doesn’t make me feel like less.
She says she’ll sleep on the couch and make a bed up for Braeden on the floor, but then Austin announces that Adele and the kids are taking the master bedroom and he’s sleeping on the couch.
I’ve met her twice and really liked her both times. Once, she visited Aiden for a weekend and I met her just briefly. She invited me to go to dinner with them. Aiden talked her out of it, much to my dismay at the time. I think she was trying to set me and Aiden up.
The second time, Adele and her husband came for a romantic weekend while Aiden was away at a convention and stayed here. It was their anniversary, so I helped her set up a romantic weekend via an exchange of emails and a few phone calls. She sent me a lovely card and a $500 gift certificate to a high-end department store as a thank you gift a week later. I still have that leather purse I bought with it. It was one of the cheapest items there but is still the most expensive accessory I own.
I happily hold the warm, cuddly, sleeping baby while Adele proceeds to unpack a bunch of things for the fridge. Baby food. Baby bottles. Juice boxes. Other snacks for Braeden. She then takes the rest of the massive suitcase and her diaper bag to the master bedroom. She calls me to come in and I gently lay the baby in the center of the bed and cover her up with a quilt Adele has passed me. The baby stirs and her eyes open, so I keep my hand on her back to fool her into thinking she’s still being held. She’s got a pacifier dangling from a strap on her fuzzy footed pink monkey pajamas, so I place the nipple against her lips.
It works. She takes it in and lazily sucks on the pacifier as her eyes drift shut again.
“Ooh, you’re good at that. You got nieces or nephews?”
I shake my head. “No, but I did a lot of babysitting neighbors’ kids during high school.”
“You want kids?” she asks.
“Definitely,” I breathe. “I mean, someday…”
Adele barricades the baby on all four sides with pillows and then I grab some bedding and we set up a makeshift bed on the lounge chair in the corner for Braeden who is in the living area with Austin. The chair is a big easy chair with a long ottoman and pushed together is nearly the size of a twin bed.
She then sighs. “I need a drink. Do you want a drink?”
I smile. “I’m okay, thanks. I’ll let you hang with your brother and catch up. I’ve got some stuff to do.”
“Oh.” She looks disappointed. “I’m glad you’re here,” she says under her breath. “He’s going through a super-rough time right now. I decided to come for a couple days and see if I can cheer him up. How does he seem to you?”
“Uh…” My face heats. “I really don’t know him so I wouldn’t know if how…uh…he’s been is… how he usually is.”
“How’s he been?” Her eyes are sharp. Concerned.
I wince. “Uh… I-”
“Can’t answer that on the grounds she could get herself in hot water with her asshole boss,” Austin finishes for me from the doorway.
My face goes hotter.
He’s standing there smiling with his arms folded across his chest. Looking hot. Just my luck. Why can’t Austin be hideous?
“Language,” Adele chides.
“He can’t hear me. He’s playing Xbox.”
“What? No. Not the kinds of games you play. Turn that off. I’ll set up a Disney movie in here for him to go to sleep to. “You sure you don’t want to have a drink with us, maybe catch a movie, Jada?”
“I’m, I’m good. Thanks. Good to see you again.”
I (without making eye contact again) squeeze past Austin, who is still in the doorway and head for the kitchen to put away the rest of my dinner. I glance down the hallway and see that the wall could use a better cleaning by my door, but I don’t want to deal with that while Austin has company, so I grab my bag and head into my room and close the door.
I then send a text to Austin.
Do you need anything from me tomorrow at all?
He responds right away.
Austin: I’m good until Monday. The rest of the weekend is all yours.
Me: Thanks.
I breathe a sigh of relief, happy for solitude. Happy that working for him won’t infringe on my plans to go to Josh’s grave tomorrow and do my little ritual.
Adele Carmichael slash whatever her married name now is – she’s a very nice person. She’s attractive and poised, but also down-to-earth, not at all stuck-up and snobby. She always tries to be friendly with me, and that doesn’t surprise me that she’d invite the hired help to hang out with them, but I need to not be near Austin, so I’m going to ensure I’m scarce for the duration of her visit. After all, it’s what I’m paid to do. Be scarce.
I can’t figure out what to make of his demeanor with me earlier, when he was all gallant and, well… human, but I frankly don’t have the emotional capacity after today to deconstruct it. I also have no desire, whatsoever, to think about how it felt when he lifted me up off the floor and took care of me.
I try to watch television, but before long I’ve got my laptop open and yes, I’m working again on that story.
Him asking me about cleaning the windows was like a trigger. I had the urge to do what I did in the story.
I need to write some more smut about him. About him being bossy and sexy and telling me what to do. About him being chivalrous and protective.
I can’t seem to stop myself.
I write a scene where Jada Sweetheart burns herself making him some soup and he kisses the burns better before making sweet love to her.
Not dirty and erotic sex. Lovemaking.
I’m ridiculous.
20
Austin
Lilly and Braeden are asleep, and Jada hasn’t come out of her room since she slipped in there a couple hours ago.
Up until now, Adele and I have been rehashing the Sienna thing. Quietly. Because I don’t need Jada overhearing that.
“If I get my hands on her…” Adele growled earlier, doing an imaginary air-choke hold.
I waved it off. “Don’t. Don’t do anything to jeopardize the case against her. She’s goin’ down for this. I’ve got rock-solid evidence.”
“Good for you,” my sister said. “A lot of guys would let that go because of how it might be viewed in the public, but you are so right to pursue it. So right. She’s such a cunt.”
“Adele Quinn Carmichael-Burke!” I faked a gasp. “That word!”
“Good Audra impression,” Adele laughed. “What can I say, the c-word likes to come out when I’m on my second cocktail, which is a rare occurrence. Oh, speaking of cocktails, I should call Dirk and tell him I got here safe.”
“I do not wanna know what Dirk and cocktails have in common.”
I raised my hands.
She giggled and reached for her phone. “No, you probably do not.”
I decided to check on the kids while she made her call.
Braeden was crashed and Lilly was also out like a light, hands thrown over her head, her little green rubber soother still in her mouth.
I leaned over to kiss his forehead and then went to Lilly and pull the soother out. She pouts in her sleep without rousing. I kissed her head, too.
By the time I slipped back out, Adele was saying goodbye to Dirk and hunting through Aiden’s sparse liquor cabinet. I should get it topped up.
***
I sit down on the couch and lean back, taking another sip of my water after bringing her a bag of tortilla chips and a container of Mexican dip I found in the fridge.
“Can’t believe you’re making me drink alone,” Adele pouts.
“I had food poisoning last night. My gut still isn’t right,” I defend.
“What happened?”
“Just dinner,” I wave my hand. “Probably some bad seafood.”
“She’s really pretty. And sweet,” Adele whispers.
She’s on her third cocktail and she’s slurring a little. Lightweight.
“Who?”
“Jada, silly.” She leans over and slaps my arm.
I shake my head. “Don’t.”
“God, Auzzie, she’s perfect for you. I tried to set her up with Aiden once, only meddled this much,” she holds her finger and thumb aloft with an inch between them, one eye closed.
“But that was all wrong. She wasn’t right for Aiden, so I didn’t push it. I’m gonna meddle this time, this much.” She holds both hands a meter apart and smiles at me. Big.
“No. Absolutely not.”
“Why?”
“I don’t need that right now. I need to focus on getting shit done here at work, making sure Sienna gets taken to task for what she did, then get home and get the fuck on with my life.”
“You’re hung up about that girl from the office that came to the wedding?”
“Stop. I’m not in the mood for this.”
“Carly told me that she talked to Ally, who said that-”
“Stop,” I groan. “I’m not hung up on her. It was almost six months ago, and it was one night. I have dated and gotten laid since then, you know.”
Adele keeps talking, “When she went home, he was there, back from school in the UK, and he courted and pursued her with all sorts of vigor. Sounds like he was a real prince charming.”
“If you don’t stop…”
“Listen please … she wasn’t interested at first, but her dad got sick, so she humored the whole thing to make her dad happy. Her dad passed away by the way, two months ago at home of an aggressive Cancer, and Nathaniel was really there for her and something blossomed between them. She didn’t even want to come to the wedding because she couldn’t afford the time off work. That’s why Carly paid for everything for her to be there for the weekend.”
“Fuck, Adele; I said I didn’t wanna hear it.”
“Don’t be so grumpy. I hate seeing you like this. It isn’t you, Austin.”
“Yeah, well go through what I’ve been through lately and see if it doesn’t put you in a shitty mood,” I grumble.
I hear the click of a door.
We both look over our shoulders and I see Jada slip into her room without looking at us. She must’ve gone into the main bathroom while I was in the other bathroom. She’s got a towel turban on her head so hopefully she didn’t hear anything.
“Subject’s done. Stop,” I warn.
Adele pouts. “I want to see you happy. If Aid can find some happy, you certainly can. Look at the turnaround in him. Having Carly has made him like the Aid he used to be. It’s even better, though, because we get Carly, too, and I like Jada, so...”
“I’ll find who I used to be. When all this shit here is over with.”
“She’s perfect for you, Auz.”
I tilt my head.
“Jada is!” she says, too loud. “She’s totally your type.”
I lean over and flick my sister’s nose. “Shut it.”
“Ow,” she groans, then throws a couch pillow at me.
“What movie you wanna watch?” I ask, nabbing the remote from her lap.
“A slasher film,” she says. “Something gory. Dirk is a wuss with scary movies and when he’s not home, I’ve got kids crawling all over me and can’t exactly watch then. When Lilly was about three months I was nursing her and watching Saw and caught her looking at the TV. I’m afraid I might have corrupted her little brain.”
I laugh.
“Look at what our parents did do our brains. We’re okay.” I shrug.
“Yeah, we’re more than okay,” she agrees.
I flick the TV over to the movie guide. Adele and I stay up late watching two slasher films, though she nods off during the second one. I nudge her with my foot as the credits roll.
“I’m the one who should be sleepin’, you’re on Cali time.”
“These kids, though. I’m always tired. Night. Love you,” she leans over and kisses my cheek and ruffles my hair before heading toward the bedroom.
“Adele?”
“Hm?”
“Thanks for coming. I needed this.”
“I know you did. You’re welcome.”
“We’ll do something fun with the kids tomorrow?” I say. “Zoo?”
“Sounds good. Love ya.”
“Love you, too.”
“Night.”
“Night.”
21
Jada
I managed to avoid everybody Sunday morning, slipping out before anyone woke up. I get back, around eight o’clock and the baby and Braeden are playing on a blanket on the floor with some big Lego.
Braeden talks me up, telling me he’s building a replica of the empire state building, while I try to be nice but yet look to make my escape as quick as possible.
An animated TV show catches his attention, so I’m almost in the clear, but as I try to make my way past Adele and Austin who are at the island eating Chinese takeout, Adele promptly offers me some food.
“I’ve eaten, thank you,” I say, and then I back up, about to turn to head to my room.
“You wanna play a board game with us?” Adele calls out.
“I can’t, I have some work due,” I sort-of lie, “but thanks.”
I have nothing on the go for the freelance site, I haven’t bid on any jobs, nor heard from any previous clients lately, but I have been planning to get into my room and start on a new story. A new story with characters that look nothing like me or Austin Carmichael. And ‘work’ would be a good reason to not socialize with Austin’s sister.
“Work? What kind of work?” she asks.
“Oh, I do some writing gigs on the side.” I shrug.
“Really? What kinds of writing gigs?” She pats the empty stool beside her.
Austin scowls at her.
My eyes bounce between them, but her smile doesn’t wane, and I can’t be rude to her, so I walk back over and sit down, avoiding Austin’s gaze, which feels like it’s on me, and I’m sure it’s filled with disdain.
“Various things. Descriptions for online stores, resumes, stuff like that. Just do the odd gig here and there.”
“Oh, cool. I didn’t know you were a writer. Austin, did you know Jada is a writer?”
“Nope,” Austin says, shooting his sister a dirty look.
“Have some food,” she offers.
“No, really, thanks, I ate.”
“We ordered way too much. Me and the kids leave in the morning, so you won’t have to cook for days for yourself and my brother.” She starts spooning chicken fried rice onto a clean plate and slides it in front of me.
“Honest, I just ate, Adele. I’m full.” I put my hand on my belly.
“Oh. Did you go to see your family for Sunday dinner?” she asks and then takes a bite of an egg roll.
