Page 21 of The Rules of Dating a Younger Man

“Hey.” I forced a smile.

She turned and blew a hair up into her forehead. “Hey.”

“I’m sorry I’m late,” I said.

“I didn’t think you were gonna show,” she said, walking over to where I stood.

“Yeah, well, I stupidly forgot to set my alarm last night.”

Alex raised her eyebrows. “I didn’t take you to be so irresponsible.”

“I’m generally not. Distracted is a better word.”

“What has you distracted?”

“A certain woman who’s wrong about being too old for me, but probably not wrong about being too good for me.” I exhaled. “Anyway, I’m pissed at myself for missing half the morning.”

She looked around to make sure no one had heard me. “I got news for you…” She chuckled.

“What?”

“I forgot to set my alarm, too.”

“You were late?”

She shook her head. “I just got lucky because I couldn’t sleep and was up by five AM anyway.”

“Sounds like we’re both pretty distracted.”

“Hey, Ashton Kutcher!” Holden shouted. “Don’t mean to interrupt, but we need to get going.”

I’m gonna kill him.

“You’d better go.” Alex blushed as she turned toward the wall she was painting.

“I’ll see you when I get back.”

“Yeah, okay,” she said without turning around again.

After Holden and I went to the home improvement store, I’d never moved so fast as we loaded and unloaded those appliances. But one catastrophe after another ensued once we tried to hook everything up. All I wanted was to convince Alex to get coffee with me before we both had to leave. But it was late afternoon before I had a chance to go talk to her again.

When I returned to the room she’d been working on, though, I realized any luck I might’ve had left with Alex this weekend had officially run out.

She was gone—without saying goodbye.

CHAPTER 6

Alex

“You have no idea how many faces are going to light up when they see these, Mrs. Jones.”

“Please, call me Alex.”

After I left the renovation site on Sunday, rather than heading straight home, I’d stopped over at Memorial Cancer Center, the hospital the latest Ryan’s House would support, to drop off a few of the newest electronic gaming consoles and some games. I’d read an article in the Seneca Falls paper that said donations were down due to the economy. It had mentioned that the pediatric wards had outdated gaming systems, so I’d decided to do something about it.

“If you have time,” Liz, the social worker, said, “you’re welcome to come with me up to the floor to deliver these. The kids are usually gathered in the rec room before dinner. Donors should get to see the impact they make when they can.”

“I’d love that.”

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