Page 66 of Twenty Years Later

We'd go in to thaw and eat some food, then head right back out again. And the best part? Once Alex saw the neighbors outside with their snow blowers and shovels, he just grabbed my shovel that was leaned up against the shed in the backyard and started to clean up the sidewalks... on his own, without me even asking.

While I played with the girls, I couldn't keep my eyes off him. Something about it was so hot. Maybe because I'd had to do it on my own for so long. Every winter, I'd swear this was the year I'd buy a snow blower or hire someone. But I never got around to it and ended up doing it by myself. Or sometimes, if I was lucky, a kind neighbor would do a bunch of houses, including mine.

But watching Alex so easily scrape up the snow and toss it to the side, it made me so... I took a deep, steadying breath, trying not to think of the way his muscles strained against his coat.

Feeling heated suddenly, I loosened my scarf and took off a glove to check my phone. Nope. Nothing from the doctor.

After I stared at Alex the entire time, he finished up and walked by me to put the shovel back. "That hat. You just had to wear the hat, didn't you?" he said, smiling and shaking his head.

So I wasn't the only one feeling it, I thought, laughing quietly.

***

Not long after dinner and an impromptu dance party in the living room, the girls fell asleep lightning fast from all the fresh air and playing in the snow. And I found myself once again snuggled up with Alex on the couch, my new favorite place to be, well, if I couldn't be doing other things with him. I let out a sigh.

"So still no word from the doctor?" Alex asked, his hand finding mine.

I stared at the crackling fire in front of us. "No. I guess it's not surprising for a Sunday."

"I guess not," he said, releasing an epic sigh himself.

"I could have called the on-call emergency doctor, but—"

Alex's laughter interrupted me. "But it's notreallyan emergency... not to anyone but us."

"Yeah. I would have felt pretty ridiculous."

We were silent a moment as Alex studied my hand in his. "You know, you have beautiful hands," he said. "You always have. I remember that in high school."

I smiled to myself because I had thought the exact same thing about him.

"And your toes. I remember all the sandals you used to wear and those little toes with hot pink nail polish."

I had to laugh at his words. "So you're a foot guy?"

He joined in my laughter. "Only yours. You used to totally distract me in trig. Let's just say that did not end up being my best class."

"Oh, blame it on me, huh?"

"Completely."

I noticed him checking out my fuzzy pink socks. "You want me to take off my socks for you?" I teased.

He flashed that sexy smile at me. "Nah. Wouldn't want you to get cold feet."

The double meaning behind those words was not lost on me, and I swallowed because I still had some thinking to do about our future, even though I desperately wanted a future with Alex, even though—hello!—I was pregnant with our baby.

There was also something else on my mind, something we hadn't really talked about yet. And because of that, it worried me a bit, not a ton though because I trusted Alex and knew he wouldn't ever hurt me intentionally. However, I did think about his ex sometimes.

I knew they had divorced and it was officially over.But as a woman and as a mom, I had to wonder what would happen if she ever changed her mind and wanted to be a mother to Gabby. She'd only had Gabby fourteen months ago. And it was a strong possibility that she might want to know her daughter someday. Before Alex and I could forge any kind of future, I needed to know what he planned to do if that ever happened.

He was a smart man, and I was sure he'd thought about it. But being with Blake for so long, I'd seen over and over how he and his guy friends tended to avoid talking about more serious topics and just lived in the moment.

Many times, I had envied that. But sometimes, it had annoyed me when I wanted to discuss something heavy. It'd been like getting water out of a rock to get Blake to talk about the deeper stuff in life, and I had to wonder if Alex was the same way.

"What are you thinking about over there, baby?" Alex asked, squeezing my hand.

I sucked in a breath, not sure how to even bring up the topic and also feeling bad about it. Hadn't we just had a gut-wrenching emotional discussion last night? Did we really need another tonight?

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