ALEJANDRO SERRANO

"Am I glad to be home!" Alejandro all but groaned as he stepped foot inside his apartment, one which she had turned into their home over the past few days.

Layla scowled when he reached out for his hospital bag, snatching it from her hand and heading to the bedroom to deposit it on their bed. She had nearly bit his head off when he tried grabbing it from the car earlier, and couldn't wait for her to start screaming at him about taking things easy and not to strain himself too much as the doctor had ordered.

He secretly enjoyed how much she cared about him, and honestly hoped that she had a slutty nurse's outfit stashed away at the back of her wardrobe.

The doctor had prescribed him with 6 weeks minimum of light activity and absolutely no work, so for his sake, he sincerely hoped she was ready.

Usually, Layla made him lunch at the bakery while he cooked dinner for them at her apartment – they were now living in his apartment and calling it theirs, already having spoken to his assistant, Roberto, about looking into renting out her apartment as she wouldn't be needing it anymore – but that quickly changed as she refused to let him stand on his feet for so long, claiming that he would tire himself out.

She was nearly as bad as the nurse at the hospital. While he had complained, whined and threw a fit then, he chose to mind his words and cover his smiles instead now. The difference being that this woman was the love of his life.

The days blended into weeks and before they knew it, they had found themselves reaping the benefits of a healthy routine.

Assured with his healthy and recovery, they left him in her very capable hands as they returned back to their home, promising that they would fly out again towards the end of next month. His brothers, her family and Hailey continued visiting which provided them both with a great source entertainment.

The monthly game night tradition which she shared with her family, soon grew in size as it turned into a bi-weekly thing. Hailey, his brothers, their respective partners and her brother would unite – her dad would occasionally also join – and take turns to host the game at each of their apartments. The last time, it had been held at Layla and Alejandro's apartment, only to wake up in the morning to multiple bodies passed out all over their living room floor.

She had thought one Serrano man was difficult to deal with, but now she had a whole cluster of them, but Layla couldn't bring herself to complain. Her brothers were now his and vice versa.

Seeing as he had nothing better to do with his free time, Alejandro spend his days keeping her company at the bakery and helping her out wherever he could. She tried to stop him but he was a force to be reckoned with, so she made sure to assign him only simple tasks which wouldn't cause too much strain as he was still healing.

A few times a week he would have a few people come into the bakery for him. At first, he tried to play to play it off as old friends sharing a coffee together, but once she spotted the calculated look on his face and the incessant questioning from him, she knew he was lying.

Similar to how he had done it with Neil a couple months ago, he was conducting interviews for his bodyguard business. It appeared that once his heroic activities had been revealed – literally protecting her till the very end, even when he had been taken off the case and death stared him straight in the eye – a lot of people had been inspired by his story, most of them junior police officers, and were interested in working for him.

She was annoyed at first but quickly got over it as technically, he wasn't straining himself, as he so cheekily had pointed out.

As much as she loved the man, he really did her head in sometimes but she wouldn't want him any other way. He might be a royal pain in the ass, but he was her royal pain in the ass.

Earlier that day, Alejandro had mentioned that he had another interview scheduled so when the bell chimed towards the end of the day, she had assumed it was his next interviewee.

How wrong she had been.

"Byron?" Layla sounded, surprise masking her features as she stared at him.

"Hi." He smiled meekly. "I thought I would find you both here. Could I speak to you?"

She nodded her head, at a loss for words.

When a hand rested on her waist and she felt a firm chest press against her back, she allowed herself to lean back into them.

"I was actually hoping to speak to both of you."

Alejandro began to make a sound of protest but Layla quickly shut him down by stomping on his foot, not even caring when his grip tightened around her waist and he swore quietly in her ear. When she refused to apologise, he leaned down and nipped her neck, somewhat foreshadowing with how he would punish her for such a stunt later.

"Why don't we take a seat?" She led them both to Alejandro's booth.

Byron sat opposite them in the booth and clasped his hands together on the table, a solemn expression on his face.

"I wanted to apologise to you both."

Alejandro snorted, as if to say, where have we heard that before? He was quick to cover it with a cough when she glared daggers at him.

Smiling encouragingly, she nodded for him to continue.

"I'm speaking to my therapist to try and work through this all and I've joined a support group also. I'm sorry for the way that I've treated you and for everything that I've done to you." He sighed, his eyebrows furrowing together as he struggled to get the words out. "I just want to get better. I don't want to be like this anymore. These past 3 months, I feel like I haven't had any control of my life whatsoever. I feel like I've become a shell of the man I used to be. Before this, I had friends and hobbies, and most of my evenings I had plans. I just want to go back to that."

"And that's going to start off by making things right with you guys. To be able move forward with my life and become the man I used to be, I need to make things right with you. I'm so sorry for everything. I never should have come between you guys and it was a complete dick move to go to the chief of police about your relationship. I was sad and hurt, and with Nixon egging me on from the side lines, I lashed out and, in the process, I hurt you both. I'm so sorry. If anything had happened to either of you, I don't think I would be able to live with myself."

"Please don't say that." She reached across the table and gave his hand a comforting squeeze.

The same applied to them. They would never truly be able to move forward with their lives if they weren't willing to leave the past in the past, and that included forgiving Byron for the mistakes that he had made.

"You don't have to apologise for anything, Byron. It wasn't your fault." And it wasn't. Every time he had acted out, there was a reason or person behind it. "And I'm sorry too. I wasn't there for you in the way you needed. We could have handled things much better than we did."

They both turned to Alejandro expectantly, waiting for him to say something.

"You're right. It was a dick move." Layla inhaled sharply at his words and he gave her a sideways glance before he continued. "But if I was in your shoes, I would have done the same. Layla's right. Things probably would have turned out so much better if we were honest with you from the start, but I can't go back and change the past so I'm sorry for the way my actions hurt you."

Byron beamed while Alejandro didn't scowl.

That counted for something.

This didn't mean that they were friends, but at least they weren't butting heads anymore.

That was one step forward.

-

You can read ahead on Inkitt for FREE: https://inkitt.app.link/RA__illuminating_

Support me to read the rest of this series! https://www.patreon.com/LaylaKnight

Layla Knight

12.06.2020