Page 70 of I Always Will

She was over with Homer and a couple of guests with food allergies. From the looks of things, Hailey had been in the back, preparing their meals.

In a full suit.

Alexandria couldn’t help but smile.

Chandani interrupted her swooning by handing her a tray with her food on and Alexandria blushed before leading her mum and Farid back to the table, leaving a still-laughing Hailey behind. They had all night. There was still plenty of time to talk.

Alexandria was usually a patient person. It was only Hailey who made her feel like this.

She concentrated on making conversation at the table, on being present, and enjoying the moment. She did such a good job of it that she didn’t even realise when the only empty seat left at the table was across from her. At least not until Hailey was dropping down into it with her own food.

Alexandria looked up and it was like looking directly at the sun in many ways—the brightest, most brilliant thing she’d ever seen. Hailey sent her smile that said she’d regained some of her usual confidence. Work did that for her—she liked what she did and she was good at it. Being able to do her work successfully always left her with the flush of happiness and confidence that came from fulfilling your dreams.

Susan’s words echoed in Alexandria’s head again. Find the person who builds your dreams up. She wanted to spend the rest of her life building up Hailey’s dreams.

“Ah, the wanderer returns,” Farid said, breaking the moment between them and reminding them both that there were other people at the table.

Hailey laughed, dragging her eyes away from Alexandria with what seemed like some effort. “I knew you’d be lost without me.”

“On the contrary, I have my date,” he said, his eyes gleaming as emphasised the worddatejust a little too much.

Alexandria had no idea what was going on but she couldn’t deny she was curious, especially when Hailey’s eyes flashed in response.

“One of these days,” Hailey said, scooping up a spoonful of her own food, “you’re going to push your luck too far.”

Farid laughed like it was a challenge and Alexandria could feel the competitive edge between them. “If you want to talk about pushing your luck, what’s the most reckless thing you’ve ever done?”

Alexandria looked at the people on either side of them. Everyone had been pulled into other conversations, so it was just the three of them in this weird, overly-charged moment where she was certain Farid was attempting to force confessions from the two of them.

“You have to answer too,” Hailey said, seemingly unperturbed by the question.

“Of course,” he replied easily. “So what’s yours?”

Hailey ate some food while she thought about it and Alexandria wondered whether she wanted to know the answer. She’d read a lot about Hailey’s life in the last couple of days but she wasn’t ignorant to the fact that she’d been given a sampling—probably a highly curated sampling—of Hailey’s life. God knows what else she could have done in that time.

“Too many options to choose from, huh?” Farid teased.

He had grown so much since school, Alexandria was reminded again. Perhaps they all had. She didn’t think that her fifteen-year-old self would have foreseen the three of them here, at her brother’s wedding, like this. Perhaps she’d have hoped for Hailey, but not like this. In those imaginings, they wouldn’t have neededThe Davis-Daley Contract.They’d already have been married by choice.

Hailey rolled her eyes at Farid. “Kissing a girl in a climbing frame in the middle of a storm,” she said finally, her eyes flitting from Farid to Alexandria and back again so quickly Alexandria would have missed it if she hadn’t been so focused on her.

Farid raised an eyebrow, looking at Alexandria and clearly attempting to put together whether this was a safe topic of conversation, whether she was the girl in question. “That’s it? Seems pretty tame to me.”

“It was a bad storm. Probably not the safest place to be.” She glanced at Alexandria again. “And it was absolutely worth the risk.”

Farid hummed. “Okay. I suppose I’ll allow it.”

Alexandria’s heart was pounding faster again. Was this an invitation? Was she supposed to do something? Say something?Besomething? She wasn’t even sure that was the most reckless thing Hailey had ever done. She was obviously making a choice, sending a message.

“How about you?” Farid asked, looking at her with a smile. He knew exactly what he was doing. “Kissed any girls during dangerous storms?”

Alexandria’s mind went momentarily blank. Of course she’d kissed a girl in a storm. She wasthegirl in the climbing frame in the storm. And they all knew it. Was she supposed to admit it? Should she claim it as her most reckless moment too?

Or was there something else she could claim that sent the same message?

She took a deep breath. “Got a tattoo,” she said. It wasn’t so much the tattoo that was reckless, it was more that she’d done it on a whim—sad and lonely and missing Hailey so badly—and what the tattoo was.

“You have a tattoo?” Hailey asked, intrigued.

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