He quirked a smile. “I don’t know if we’re at the hugging stage yet, but I’m willing if you are.”

Alexis laughed for real this time and stepped forward. His arms came around her for a brief squeeze. When he released her, she backed up and felt Noah’s hand on her back.

“Drive safe,” Elliott said.

“You too,” Noah responded.

They watched silently as Lauren, Elliott, and Candi walked to their car.

“Ready?” Noah asked.

Alexis turned and hauled his mouth down to hers for a hard, fast kiss. “You’re a good man, Noah Logan.”

“Don’t tell anyone. It’ll ruin my reputation.”

She kissed him again, lingering this time with meaning. “Drive fast.”

“You in a hurry for something?”

“Yeah,” she said. “We have two weeks until this surgery. Let’s not waste a minute of it.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Alexis had been right. Getting ready for as many as two weeks away from the café was a full-time job all its own. Now, with just two days until the surgery, Alexis held another meeting with Jessica to go over the schedule, what to do in case of emergencies, and—because she absolutely needed another complication—how to handle the upcoming zoning board meeting tomorrow evening.

Alexis wouldn’t be there, obviously, so she’d pulled together all the documentation the board would need to make a decision. Jessica had agreed to sit through the meeting just in case. But for now, Jessica was more concerned with Alexis’s pre-op binder. “Wow, you can’t lift anything heavier than a gallon of milk for six weeks?”

“Can we focus on the zoning board meeting for a second?”

Jessica closed the binder and folded her hands primly on the table. “Sorry. Of course.”

“Karen will probably lie,” Alexis said. “And she’ll definitely say things that make you mad. But you have to just bite your tongue and ignore it, okay?”

Jessica pursed her lips. “Easier said than done. I hate that woman.”

“She knows it, too, and the best gift we could give her would be to throw some kind of fit at the meeting. Just let her present her case and direct the zoning board to all our documentation if they have any questions.” Alexis took Jessica’s hand. “Remember, we’ve done nothing wrong.”

“Exactly. Which is why I wish we could fight fire with fire. The Karens of the world—”

“Are not worth our time or energy,” Alexis finished for her.

Jessica didn’t look convinced, but nor did she argue the point. Maybe, like Noah, she’d given up on trying to convince her to Hulk out on people.

Alexis went through the rest of her agenda items, thanked Jessica profusely for agreeing to stay with Beefcake again while Alexis was gone, and then gathered up her stuff.

“I’ll be in my office,” she said over her shoulder as she walked through the kitchen door. She sank into her chair, propped her feet on the desk, and dropped her head against the back of the chair. Almost done. Just a few more things on her to-do list, and she would actually be ready to go.

“Hey, wait!”

Jessica’s voice brought Alexis’s head up, just in time to hear the kitchen door swing open with a violent crash.

Alexis jumped up, walked out of her office, and nearly collided with a seething, furious Cayden.

“I knew it,” he spat.

“Cayden, what the hell? What are you doing here?”

Cayden shoved his phone at her. Confused, she took it from his hands and tried to skim what was on the screen.

Leaked documents from embattled defense contractor, BosTech, reveal that company executives lied to congressional investigators two years ago during a probe into the reliability of the guidance system on the Night Hawk, a long-range missile drone used by the U.S. military since 2014. Nearly three hundred civilian deaths have been attributed to faulty radar systems. The leaked documents reveal that executives overruled concerns by engineers . . .

She looked up, confused. “I don’t understand. What is this?”

“Mr. Straight and Narrow? I knew it was bullshit.”

His tone of voice and the rage in his eyes sent a surge of adrenaline through her that made her back up on instinct.

“How do you think the media got these documents?” Cayden barked.

She shook her head to chase away the nagging whisper in the back of her mind. “Noah had nothing to do with this.”

Cayden snorted. “Right.”

“He wouldn’t do that.” Bile rose in her throat.

“So I’m supposed to believe it’s just a coincidence?”

“Yes! He wouldn’t do it. He wouldn’t. He knows . . .”

“Knows what?”

That I care about you all. She didn’t say it, because she could tell he didn’t want to hear it and wouldn’t believe it anyway. She didn’t say it, because the truth of it took her by as much surprise as it would Cayden. And what a fool she was, because Cayden was staring at her like something he’d stepped in on the lawn.

“Noah didn’t do this. I know he didn’t.”

Cayden pointed his finger. “You are the worst fucking thing that ever happened to this family. Stay away from us. We’ll find him another fucking kidney.”

His words reverberated off the stainless-steel appliances in the kitchen, and their echo followed him as he stormed back through the swinging door. As soon as he left, Alexis deflated against the counter. This wasn’t true. It . . . wasn’t true. Was it?

Jessica ran in. “What the hell was that?”

Alexis looked at her but barely saw her. “I need to go.”

“Are you okay?”

No. No, she wasn’t. Alexis grabbed her purse from the hook on the back of her office door and removed her apron. Her hands trembled when she unlocked her car and when she fumbled with the radio to find a twenty-four-hour news station on her satellite radio. The first one she tried was talking about the upcoming election, so she tried another one.

Just in time to hear a commentator say, “This leak has all the markings of a Hatchet operation.”

A sour taste filled her mouth.

She pulled into Noah’s driveway and turned off the car. Wooden legs carried her to his front door. She knocked and realized belatedly how ridiculous that was. She normally would just walk in, but nothing made sense. A moment passed before the door opened. He grinned. “Why are you knocking?”

But then he froze. “What’s wrong?”

* * *

* * *

Lexa walked past him, her movements robotic, her face devoid of emotion. “Jesus, Lexa. Talk to me.” He turned her around to face him.

“Cayden—” She stopped and licked her lips.

“What about Cayden?” He gripped her shoulders. “Honey, you’re scaring me. What is going on?”

“He was just at my café. Someone hacked into Elliott’s company and leaked documents to the media.”

He blinked. “Today?”

She handed him her phone. “It’s all right there.”

Noah skimmed the screen and absorded just enough to know it wasn’t good. BosTech was in some serious shit if this was true. He wasn’t surprised, though. Everyone knew they’d lied their asses off before Congress. “I don’t understand. Why did Cayden—”

Cold adrenaline washed through him. “Are you kidding me? He thinks I did it?”

She nodded.

“Does Elliott think I did it?” And Jesus, when the hell did he start to care what Elliott Vanderpool thought of him?

“I don’t know.” Lexa stepped back, putting just enough distance between them to be meaningful. A cold draft from the open door replaced all the warmth between them, but it could just have easily come from the icy detachment in her gaze.

Noah’s arms fell like lead against his sides as another sickening realization knocked him senseless.

“Holy shit, Alexis. You think—” He stumbled over his own words because his heart, mind, and mouth were at war with one another. Alexis stared unblinkingly at him with one hand clenched into a fist against her stomach. He wished she’d use it. Just slam it into his chin and be done with it. It would hurt less than what he was about to say. “Do you think I had something to do with this?”

She blinked and let out a breath. Two actions, connected but not. One was a hesitation. The other a sign of relief. Both added up to one conclusion that turned his stomach.

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “I don’t think that.”

She reached out, but Noah backed up. “But did you?”

“No.”

Noah might have found some small comfort in the tremble of her voice, but the hint of guilt that seeped into her eyes destroyed it. Destroyed him.

“You did. For at least one second, you thought I did this, didn’t you?”

“No—”

“Yet you drove straight here to ask me.”

“Of course I drove straight here! Cayden accused you.”

“And you wanted to make sure it wasn’t true.”

His footsteps on the hardwood floor sounded a defeated retreat to his kitchen. Hers were the frantic march of a battle not yet over.

“That’s not fair. I know you didn’t do it. How many times do I have to say it?”

“How about one more time,” he said, gripping the edge of the kitchen counter. “Admit it. For one moment, you actually thought I was responsible for this.”

“Fine!” She threw her hands in the air. “I admit it! I thought maybe you did it. Why does this matter?”

“Because it does.” He barely recognized his own voice, but the emotion rising inside him, tightening his chest and heating his skin? He recognized that. And he hated it.

“That is so unfair,” she said, crossing the kitchen to jab a finger in his chest. “Of course people would suspect you. Even me, for just a tiny, split second. You have the means. You have the access. And you hate people like Elliott.”