Page 82 of Twenty Years Later

He looked thoughtful, but his flirty grin gave him away. "Hmm, that's not the way I remember it."

Rolling my eyes, I shook my head at him and grabbed my bra. "I'll be right back."

I headed for the bathroom because, well, the bladder. Unfortunately, I knew this was only the beginning of the bladder annoyances. I spent a few minutes getting cleaned up and dressed again, the whole time in complete awe that Alex was really here.

My phone kept buzzing, and I saw it was Kaileen, demanding some answers. I finally texted her the scoop and said she might not hear from me for a while. Her reply? Ten surprise face emojis plus ten eggplants.

Still smiling from her response, I arrived back in the living room to find a steaming mug of tea and a tin of cookies on the ottoman.

"Have a seat," Alex said, fully dressed which was a real shame.

"All right," I said, feeling a bit skeptical. I pointed to the tea and cookies. "Is this for me?"

"Yep." He grinned then started to pick up toys, tossing them into the nearby bin. "Just sit back and relax, baby, because your personal cleaning service has arrived."

I let out a laugh. Was he seriously going to clean right now? "You're kidding me."

"Nope. You've had a lot on your plate, and I'm going to wait on you hand and foot."

He stepped around a pile of broken-up, trampled-on Cheerios that Audrey had spilled right before we'd left then stomped on accidentally a hundred times.

"I swear I'm not normally such a slob. I just got into writing mode, and I feel such pressure to get that done. And so when the mood hits me, I ignore everything else and write. I mean, I don't ignore Audrey. But if she's not here—"

"Sweetheart, I'm not judging. You have a kid. You have a career. You're pregnant. Even if you had just one of those things, or none of those things…" He shrugged as he tossed the last toy into the bin. "Come on. Grab the cookies and tea while I clean the kitchen. And then I'll vacuum last."

Oh, my heart.He was going to vacuum? I didn't know if my ovaries could take it. Good thing they were inactive right now.

I followed him into the kitchen, cookies and tea in my hands, stars in my eyes as he started to fill up the dishwasher. "Can I help?" I asked.

"No. Just sit," he ordered, the sexy way he said it making me hot all over.

When he started to wash the pots and pans, I might have drooled a little bit from my perch at the table, especially because I had such a great view of his rear in the jeans he was wearing.

"So how's the book coming anyway?" he asked.

And now he was going to ask me about my writing? That love in my heart just about exploded, and I wanted to tell him so much. I came close to blurting it out. But I bit down on my tongue.

Not yet.

I wanted to wait for the right moment... sometime when he didn't have his back to me, sometime when his hands were on me. I didn't know exactly when I'd tell him but definitely at some point this weekend.

"You said you were in writing mode?" Alex prompted.

"Oh, right. Sorry. You're just distracting me."

He turned around to look at me, slinging a dish towel over his shoulder. "I am?" he asked, that grin back on his face.

"Yes, you are." I returned the smug smile he was throwing my way then took a sip of tea. "But anyway, yes, I've been in full-on writing mode. And I knocked out the rough drafts for a bunch of scenes. I'm almost to the big finale."

"Good for you. I'm really glad to hear that." He turned back to the dishes. "So are you going to let me read it?"

Alex had caught up on the other books, something we had talked about often during those six weeks apart. His encouragement meant everything to me, something I had missed so much after Blake had passed.

"You're not going to make me wait, are you?" he asked.

I thought about that for a heartbeat because, of course, I was going to let him read it. Iwantedhim to read it. I really wanted his input. "Mmmm, I won't make you wait, but you might have to earn it."

"Aren't I earning it now?"

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