Page 10 of Courageous Demands

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ALEC

Alec stared at his cell phone, his heart breaking all over again and almost texted Willow back. She was so cold, so bossy sometimes, and wasn’t hearing him half the time. He didn’t want someone in his life who could only spare part of themselves.

Except she decided to take his feelings, crumple them, and chuck ‘em right over her shoulder on her way out the door. No, he couldn’t handle this right now.

“Alec, the spaghetti is ready… Honey? Are you okay?” his mother asked worriedly, stepping from the doorway toward him. He had been heading over to join her for dinner when the first text had nearly brought him to his knees.

Willow was still saved on his ‘Favorites’ and had a folder of their old photographs on his cell phone. He pretended not to know who it was because he was in shock that she still had his number, too.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” he said hoarsely, looking at his mother and held up his hand to stop her in her tracks. “I’m not feeling well.”

“Are you all right, baby? You look like you are about to…”

“I’m fine,” he interrupted, turning away quickly.

Alec began jogging back to his little ‘house’ at the back of the property. He was barely in the door when he broke down. He slid down the back of the doorframe, hung his head on his knees, and threw his cell phone across the room – sobbing.

He wanted love, a soulmate, just like anyone else. That passion, that spark, that feeling of whole when you looked in someone’s eyes – and he had once thought that they had something magical between them.

He thought that he had that feeling with Willow and had been so very wrong.

“Alec? Alec? Are you okay, honey?”

He heard the knock and knew she was worried. His mother had always been able to read him like a book. She was probably thinking, wondering, moving those mental chess pieces in her head. By this time tomorrow, everyone in Ember Creek would know that he was upset about something. He loved his mother dearly – but boy, could this town gossip something awful!

“I’m fine, Ma.”

* * *

Another three months later, Alec wasn’t fine.

He was a mess.

Being ‘okay’ was relative.

He was relatively sure that he was falling apart. Willow’s text message had gutted him months ago. He couldn’t seem to get past it either. He kept looking at their discussion via text message, feeling guilty that he’d kept shutting her down – and even worse when she finally acquiesced. She did as he asked and felt like the biggest heel.

It was the exact opposite of what he wanted. He wanted to have a relationship, to be close to her, to have open discussions where he could find out what exactly happened, how she had been, had she dated anyone, did she miss him— all of that – and he’d shut her down, like a moron.

He was distracted, temperamental, moody, and snapping at everything or everyone. Avoiding his mother’s prying questions was only going to last so long. He had a permanent case of indigestion, probably an ulcer, and couldn’t sleep unless he was falling down exhausted.

Like today.

Alec slept two hours last night before coming in to work this morning. Nothing like a flaming house fire to start the day off wrong. You know, screaming people outside, nosy neighbors gawking. Oh, he loved the aggressive ones that got out a water hose to try and ‘help them’… ya’ know, protecting the important stuff like their wooden privacy fence or their kid’s treehouse in the backyard. Never mind that someone’s entire life was going up in flames like his was being flushed down the toilet, second by second.

Wheeeee, he thought flatly, pressing his lips together.

Yeah, things were really bad at work. Their old engineer had quit and Colton stepped up, but that pulled him from the front lines. Their captain had quit and he wasn’t really comfortable it just being the three of them on the scene.

“Hey, Cortes… you guys take the roof and check it out.”

“No mice up there, bro,” Alec taunted pointedly, picking on Lance and pounding his hand against Colton’s as the two chuckled easily. The man rolled his eyes and started up the ladder.

Alec grabbed his pike, jumped and wiggled in his gear, testing fit and getting the feel of the tank on his back after being off a few days. He was wobbly on his feet anyhow due to exhaustion and sure didn’t need to fall backward off the ladder before the spectators.

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