Page 4 of Behind the Scenes
Lauren squeezed her arm. “It’s a beautiful home, isn’t it?”
She scanned the space filled with dark woods that made the place feel like it was closing in around her and missed her spacious home back in California. “No green trees and I feel like this place is going to smother me. For the amount I paid for this place, I should at least be able to feel like my home wasn’t swallowing me whole.”
“The designer will be here next Monday at eleven. You’ll see. She’ll make this place into a home you’ll love even more than LA,” Lauren said, trying to be supportive.
Alexis couldn’t help but smile. Hugging her assistant, she said, “You’re not going to let me wallow in my misery and hate for this place, are you?”
“I’ve known you since we were nine years old. You couldn’t hate if you tried. I know this is hard, but you can handle this. I know you can.”
A sense of shame washed over Alexis. They grew up two poor kids in rural Minnesota in families that often didn’t have enough money for new shoes more than once a year. That was hard. Getting used to a six million dollar penthouse wasn’t hard.
She took her assistant’s hand and walked with her toward the kitchen. “I guess I better check out my new kitchen because I’m starving.”
“I made sure everyone involved in the move put every fork and dish and pan just where it should be before you got here. It’s situated just like it was back in the old house.”
Alexis chuckled. “I never once cooked back in the LA house, so there’s no reason to believe I’m going to start here, Lauren.”
One foot into the kitchen and Alexis knew this room looked nothing like the one at the old house. Instead of having an open feeling, this one had walls on all sides that felt like they were closing in on her.
And cabinets. So many cabinets. How many dishes and glasses did the person who built this place have? As she stared up at the dark wood cabinets that seemed to go up forever, she thought to herself that they could house every glass she’d ever drank out of in her entire life and still have room for more.
“Let’s hope no one here ever needs to get something down from one of those cabinets on the top,” she said craning her neck to look at the highest cabinet next to the ceiling.
“It can all be changed. That’s what the designer is for. No worries,” Lauren said with far more assurance than Alexis felt.
Her assistant motioned for her to sit down at the table at the end of the room while she headed toward the refrigerator. “I think this calls for some champagne. We need to christen this new house, don’t you think?”
“Sounds good to me,” Alexis said as she sat down at the old wooden table that had come with the place and looked out the window at the darkness outside.
Definitely not like LA.
Lauren poured them both a glass champagne and raised her glass to make a toast. “To your wonderful new home.”
Clinking her glass against Lauren’s, Alexis took a sip of champagne and sighed. “To my new home.”
She knew her assistant wanted her to be happy, but so far, all that made her happy in this place was knowing she had her oldest and dearest friend by her side. Everything else about her new place felt foreign and just reminded her of all she’d been forced to leave behind.
Carla appeared in the doorway a moment later with a box in her hands. “The doorman brought this up. He said it was just delivered by courier.”
Alexis smiled and waved her over toward the table, eager to see what gift she’d been sent. “It’s probably a housewarming gift from Paul. How much do you want to bet?”
“Probably,” Lauren said before taking another sip of champagne. “He can be a pain, but he never forgets the little things.”
The three women stood around the table, and Alexis set the cardboard box down in the center of it. Ripping open the top, she looked inside and saw a snow globe with the Empire State Building inside it. Charmed by the gift, she lifted it out and handed it to Lauren as she reached in to grab the card sent with it. Paul always knew how to say just the right thing to make Alexis smile.
“This is gorgeous,” Lauren cooed as Carla nodded in agreement.
Opening the envelope, Alexis slid a folded piece of paper out and opened it up. Her eyes opened wide in horror as she saw cut out letters just like her stalker always used that said, “Welcome to New York! I’ll be seeing you.”
“It’s from him!” she screamed and then threw the card away onto the table. “He knows exactly where I am!”
“Who?” Lauren asked as she set the snow globe down to walk around table to comfort Alexis as she began to cry.
As she sobbed into her hands, she said the words that had taken over her life. “Him. My stalker. He knows just where I am. I left my home for nothing!”
Chapter Two
Hunter lifted hislegs to rest his feet on the coffee table in front of him while Gideon and Xavier argued over which team would go all the way to the Super Bowl this year. He didn’t mind hanging out in the game room with them like others on the estate did, but their insistence on having this same damn fight over and over was beginning to get under his skin.