forbidden. Papa didn’t know she was here today. No doubt, one of the guards would see her bright-blue car and report to him now, but as of this moment, she was a surprise.
And not only to her father.
She hoped this wasn’t a terrible idea.
Alex’s muscle car was on the lot, so at least she knew he was here. It was parked amid a row of other vehicles, so she couldn’t park near it, but she found a spot along the outside edge of the lot and sat there for a minute, looking at the canvas sack on the seat beside her.
When she’d been at home, this had seemed like a fun, new-relationship thing to do, but now … was it intrusive? Clingy? They’d been on two dates—great dates—and Lia thought Alex liked her as much as she liked him. He’d said as much, in word and deed.
But they hadn’t done more on either of those dates than she’d done with other guys in the past. Stuck on second base again, because they didn’t have a place to go, now that her apartment had been taken from her, and Alex wouldn’t get frisky in his car.
This whole new relationship was so weird and mixed up. They knew each other almost like an old married couple—well, he knew her that well, and she was trying to catch up. They’d already had pretty great sex—or, at least, sex that definitely showed the potential for becoming pretty great later. But now it was like they were in high school, having PG-rated dates and texting for an hour each night.
Also, Alex was the first boyfriend Lia had ever had.
It all made it very difficult to understand what was cute, spontaneous fun and what was creepy stalker behavior.
Oh well. She was here. Enter fun new girlfriend/creepy stalker, upstage center.
She grabbed the sack and got out of her car.
Though there was a crisp breeze coming off the harbor, all the big bay doors were open. Only one had a truck parked before it. She could hear heavy machinery working and guys shouting, and she saw a few guys she didn’t recognize walking back and forth, wearing jeans, hard hats, and bright yellow safety vests.
A concrete staircase led to a plain grey metal door beside the end bay. It had a keypad above the door handle, and she pulled up short for a second, but then carried on up to the door. If it was locked, she would knock—or, no, there was a button beside the door, which was probably a ringer. Good. Climbing over the rail to slip in through the bay would be embarrassing.
The door wasn’t locked, or even fully latched. She stepped in and stood inside the Pagano Brothers Shipping warehouse and didn’t know what to do next.
Guys strode around looking busy, calling to each other in words that made no sense to her. One guy drove a forklift carrying a stack of plastic-wrapped something-or-others onto the truck parked at a bay. Another forklift backed out of a wide aisle, with that strident back-up beep that made her want to rip her ears off.
Okay, her idea was stupid. This place was big and loud, and there was no, like, receptionist or anything to help her out. How would she find Alex in all this?
“Miss Pagano?” a male voice said behind her.
She spun around, surprised to discover she’d walked several feet into the warehouse. A guy in his thirties or so stood there, looking shocked and curious. Lia didn’t recognize him at all, and it was a little disconcerting to realize she was familiar to him.
“Yes, hi.”
“Are you lost, miss?”
“Um … no. I’m looking for Alex? Alex Di Pietro?”
A sly smirk tried to claim his face, but he forced it down. “Yeah, okay. I’ll get him. But Miss Pagano, you need to step back. See that yellow line there?” He pointed to a wide painted line between them on the concrete floor. “That’s the safety line. You have to have gear on to be inside it. Don’t look like those boots have steel toes.”
She stepped her Gucci riding boots to the safe side of the yellow line. “Sorry.”
“Forget about it, Miss Pagano. I’ll get Alex. Stay put, yeah? Safe.”
“Right here. Like a statue.”
With a courtly nod, he walked off, unhooking a walkie-talkie from his belt as he went.
During the minute or two that Lia stood stock-still and waited for Alex, several hard-hatted, yellow-vested men emerged from various places in the vast warehouse to peep at her.