Alice snorted. “Not one, until Mary brought hers home.”
“When I met Wrench, I knew he was for me, but... I had this idea of what he ought to be that he wasn’t. I wasn’t disappointed, but it took some adjustment. I had to get past his rough exterior and street speech and swearing, and once I did I found this amazing man who I needed to spend the rest of my life with. It could be the same, for you. Don’t be put off by the fact that Graham was in jail, or that he can seem distant.”
Was Wrench really a name? Alice wondered. Then the rest of Lydia’s soft-spoken statement caught up with her.
“Graham was in jail?” Alice exclaimed. “For what?”
For the first time, Lydia looked flustered. “Oh, I’m sorry. I assumed you knew. It’s not really a secret. But it’s not such a bad thing. My own mate was in jail for a while. And I was alarmed when I found out, too.”
“What was he in jail for?” Alice repeated. “Graham, I mean.”
Lydia hesitated, then said, “Manslaughter. None of us know the details, but manslaughter is usually just an accident.”
“Huh,” Alice replied.
“But Graham is more than his rapsheet,” Lydia was quick to say. “Just like Wrench is. And don’t be put off by fact that he is so cool and reserved. He’ll take patience to get through to, but he has a warm heart under that gruff exterior. It might take a long time to get him to open up, but he deserves that chance.”
“Cool and reserved?” Alice scoffed. “Good god, the man declared his love for me before I found out his name.”
Lydia blinked at her, but seemed to have reclaimed her calm. “Then why aren’t you with him?”
“This isn’t the basis for a relationship,” Alice insisted. “I’m glad it worked out for you and... Wrench? Really? Okay... but I’m not looking for a man and I don’t have room in my life for one. And Graham wouldn’t be happy there anyway.”
Lydia continued to gaze at her, not judgmentally, but patiently.
“I’m six foot four and turn into a bear that could eat his face off,” Alice said desperately. “I live in a tiny apartment and have a high-stress job teaching ungrateful middle school students. I’m constantly traveling for sports events. I’m just... not girlfriend material.”
“Graham doesn’t care about that,” Lydia assured her confidently. “Let’s end our session in five minutes of child’s pose, to lengthen our backs, open our hips, and ease our stress.”
Alice obediently knelt and leaned her head forward onto the mat. She sighed into the stretch.
Graham didn’t care about any of that, she thought achingly. She actually believed him when he said he loved her. He would go back to Minnesota with her in a hot minute, if she asked him to. He would give up his perfect life here, with his friends, doing something he enjoyed in paradise, and he would follow her to... what?
To her hardscrabble life in a snowy state with strangers? He wouldn’t fit in her tiny apartment in Lakefield and she could barely afford it already. She couldn’t possibly put food on their table, and as far as she knew, jobs for landscaper felons were not available in any abundance. She couldn’t take care of Graham... she couldn’t even take care of the family she had.
Before she could stop herself, tears leaked out of her eyes and she was glad that her forehead was down on the mat.
She was trying so hard not to think about her family, because it only made her feel helpless and despairing.
Why couldn’t her mate have been a billionaire, like Gizelle’s deaf musician? she wanted to wail... but the brief, ungrateful thought made her chest squeeze with guilt and regret. The sad fact was, Graham was everything she wanted in one sexy package, and the more she reluctantly learned about him, the more she wanted to comfort him, to pull him into her arms and kiss him and show him that she knew who he really was beneath that quiet facade and checkered past.
Yoga, she decided, let her think too much. Once Lydia finally released her from this torture, she was going to go find the workout room that Neal and Tony had talked about and do something that would distract her more thoroughly. Maybe they had a punching bag, because she really felt like hitting something.
Chapter 16
“You’ll hurt yourself, hitting the bag that way,” Graham had to say.
He didn’t want to say anything, he wanted to slink out of the staff gym before Alice noticed him. But he couldn’t let her continue to batter at the bag that way, couldn’t bear to think of her in pain if he could do anything to stop it.
Alice was panting and sweaty, and the strong, gorgeous lines of her long body were fierce and graceful. “I suppose you’re some kind of fighter?” she said angrily, giving the heavy bag another furious, flawed hit.
Some kind of fighter, Graham thought.
“You’ll fracture your wrist,” he growled. “Hold it straight, like this, and step back a little, so the force goes all the way up to your shoulder when you make the hit. Those are the big muscles that can take it. Wrists are weak.”
He’d broken enough of them to know, he thought regretfully.
Alice gave the bag another hit, a better hit, and the bag shuddered on its chain. “Hot damn,” she said, pleased. “Thanks.”