“Well, this guy knows he’s looking out for my friend’s girl. So, he thought it was kind of weird that she had a quick meet with this dude. He saw you leave your house this morning, so he knew it wasn’t you.”

Alex frowned. He hadn’t planted this guy on Valerie to spy on her. He was supposed to be watching out for her, not reporting anything he thought might be suspicious on her part. But he had to admit Romero had his attention. “What do you mean quick meet? Like at one of the properties she showed?”

“No.” Romero picked up the beer the bartender placed on the bar for him. “She was on her way to the church then she suddenly made a u-turn. He thought maybe she’d caught on to him so he backed down a little. He followed her to a gas station where she met with some dude. It didn’t sit well, with me—he said they hugged, and he even held her hand for a minute there. So, I had him run the plates. Car’s registered to Luke Faust. That’s him right?”

Held her hand? What the f**k? “Yeah, that’s him.”

“Yeah, so, I uh…” Romero took a drink of his beer. “Just thought I’d mention.”

Alex eyed him, knowing exactly what he was thinking, his mood deteriorating with every word Romero said. From the very beginning, his gut told him there was more to Valerie’s relationship with Luke. He wouldn’t have such an issue with it if she didn’t have to see him every day. Incidents like this one were exactly the reason.

He turned to look at Valerie. Sarah, Sofia, Angel and Eric now joined her and Isabel. He took a long deep breath. This was neither the time nor the place. He’d just have to fight the urge to go ask her why she was late until after the dinner.

Alex turned back to Romero. “Is that it?”

“About Valerie and Luke?”

The sound of that had Alex clenching his teeth. “About everything.”

“Yeah, for now. I’ll know more soon.”

Alex’s thoughts went back to Bruce and his missing first wife. His only consolation was with a rap sheet like his, it would be easier to throw him in jail longer if he tried anything. He clenched his fists. The fear of anything happening to Valerie wrenched his insides.

“Listen, if you get anymore big news like last nights and you can’t talk, text me. I wanna know as soon as possible.”

“Hey,” Romero pointed at his own chest. “I got this.”

Alex grabbed a peppermint candy from a bowl on the bar. He popped it in his mouth needing a moment to digest everything Romero had just dumped on him. Getting through the rest of this dinner without being able to ask Valerie about her morning would be a challenge.

***

Valerie would be so be glad when this whole wedding thing was over. As happy as she was for Sarah and Angel, she really needed a weekend off. It seemed when she wasn’t working, she was busy doing something wedding-related.

Tomorrow would be the first Sunday in a while she got to just relax. She was so looking forward to it. No appointments with clients, no dress fittings, nothing but pure self-indulging relaxation…with Alex.

She drove slowly, with Alex following closely behind. He seemed a bit quiet at the rehearsal dinner earlier. She even caught him spacing out a few times during dinner. Valerie hoped he wasn’t still worrying about Bruce.

Valerie waited outside the back door for Alex. He’d warned her not to go in the house until he was there with her. She watched as he looked around the yard, making sure Bruce didn’t lurk in the bushes, no doubt.

They entered the house, Alex up front and cautious. She saw his eyes search the room. Did he really think the situation was that bad?

“Honey, you need to relax. You’re so tense.” Valerie kicked off her shoes and flung her purse on the sofa.

After checking the bedroom, Alex made his way back to the front room. Valerie plopped down on the sofa. “Seriously, Alex, would you please bring it down a notch?”

Alex began unbuttoning his shirt. “So, what happened today? Why’d you get there so late?”

Valerie’s eyes fixated on his fingers. They were making their way down the row of buttons on front of his shirt. “I’m always running late, Alex. I’m sorry, I’ll have to work on that.”

“Nothing happened though? You just got caught up at work?”

He was now working on the cuff buttons. In a second, he’d be out of his shirt completely. Valerie watched, anticipating. If she were with him forever, she’d never get enough of watching him remove his shirt.

“Are you listening to me?”

Valerie finally brought her eyes away from his chest and rested them on his face. The coy smirk told her he was easing up finally.

“Not really.” She smiled and went back to shamelessly enjoying the view.

“I asked if anything happened to make you late today.”

Thoughts of Luke interrupted Valerie’s happy ogling. Gawd, she didn’t want to bring him up now. But Alex was staring at her so she figured she may as well get it over with it.

“I was almost at the church when I had to turn back to meet Luke.”

“For what?”

She explained what happened. The smirk was long gone replaced now by an unmistakable glower, although, she could tell he did his best to conceal it.

“Did you have to get out of the car?”

Valerie thought about the odd question for a moment. “Well, yeah, the box with all the keys I carry around is in my trunk. I had to get them for him.”