Page 25 of Get Lost

Chapter Ten

Monday morning came hard and fast. Alex needed a vacation to recover from his vacation, and he hadn’t gone nearly as hard as some of the other groomsmen.

Alex sat at his parents’ dining room table, sipping his coffee as he went over the latest listings his commercial real estate agent had sent him. With a few pretty good connections in the city, his agent was able to send him places that hadn’t yet been listed from time to time, and the one he now viewed in West Hollywood looked like it checked all the boxes. But Alex knew not to get his hopes up. He’d been chasing this dream for a few years now, and there was always someone with more money or more clout to swoop in and swipe up whatever location Alex had his eye on.

“My boy,” his mom said as she stepped into the kitchen. She bent to kiss the top of his head, then patted his shoulders. “What are you doing home?” She glanced at the clock on the microwave. “And so early on a Monday morning.”

“I got in early this morning and didn’t feel like driving all the way to my place.” Alex shrugged. His parents’ place was much closer to LAX, and the three o’clock flight home had been rough. He’d barely slept in the three days they’d spent in Vegas. Though, not for a lack of trying. Those guys just really wanted Drew to go out with a bang.

“I went to bible study this week.”

“Yeah?” Alex nodded. “That’s good.” He hadn’t set foot in a church since he turned eighteen and could make the decision for himself, but he supported his mother’s faith.

“Ellie Sutton was there.”

Here we go again.Their mothers had been trying to pair them up since middle school. “Mrs. Sutton is well, I hope?”

Alex’s mom narrowed her eyes, then sighed the martyr sigh only a mother could manage. “As well as a mother can be when her daughter is so… liberated.”

Alex snorted, then quickly coughed to cover it up.Liberated.Kelsey would probably get a kick out of that one. Their mothers were so old-fashioned… he could just imagine what Kelsey’s mother thought of her spitfire daughter and the way she bucked the outdated, patriarchal system their families had been raised to accept as the norm. The housewife gig wasn’t for Kelsey, and finding a man to settle down with was never on her agenda.

She’d told him that much when she broke his heart in high school.

But who was she now? Did she have room for him in her life? Would she make room?

He’d soon find out, so dwelling on it while his mother watched him expectantly was a fruitless waste of time. So he motioned to his computer. “Do you want to see what I’m looking at?”

“Do you want Kelsey’s phone number? Maybe you could take her out for a nice cup of coffee—”

“We’ve been over this. Kelsey has hated me since elementary school, Mom. She wants nothing to do with me—”

“But you’re such a good boy.”

Alex chuckled.I’m an asshole where Kelsey is concerned.But Rebecca Arroyo wouldn’t understand that her son antagonized Kelsey to get a rise out of her. Hell, he didn’t fully understand it himself; they’d just been doing that dance for so long that it stuck. He pissed her off, she sassed him back, and the game continued. He’d hoped, back in twelfth grade, that things had finally changed between them, but Kelsey was more stubborn that he’d given her credit for and wanted nothing to do with him after their unforgettable make-out session that night after the homecoming game.

In college, he dated Renee, and Kelsey was the last thing on his mind.

For a little while, at least.

But then she’d pop back into his life, her sharp wit and even sharper tongue doing strange things to him, and eventually, Alex just accepted the fact that he and Kelsey would always besomething. What thatsomethingwas, he had yet to figure out. But, maybe… maybe in Barbados, she’d give him a chance to try.

His mother leaned her hips against the counter, watching him with too much interest in his thoughts as she sipped her coffee.

Pushing Kelsey Sutton aside and trying to change the subject, he turned the computer around to face his mom. “There’s a new listing.”

“Oh?” Her eyes widened. “Where?”

“WeHo.”

She nodded as she sat down across from him. “Can we go see it?”

“I’m waiting for Alyson to get back to me.”

“Alyson is a nice girl.”

Alex rolled his eyes. “Mother, enough. She’s my real estate agent.”

“So? Who’s to say you can’t find love with your real estate agent?” She shrugged. “Is she single? You are.”

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