Page 55 of Wedding Season
“I think so. I should have told them before coming down here. My mom is still freaked out about the whole thing, but she’s trying to understand. Heck, I’m still trying to understand why it’s important to me that I know the person who didn’t want me when I was a baby.”
Alex shouldn’t feel any need to defend Mariella at this point. Based on how they’d left things Saturday, he wasn’t sure she’d ever speak to him again. “I don’t think it was a matter of not wanting you,” he told the girl.
“That’s how it felt,” Heather said, “when I was growing up. Like I’d been disposable to her.”
Alex wasn’t going to pretend he understood the emotional turmoil of someone who’d been adopted, but he could relate when his mother had been happier with her second husband and second baby. Alex sometimes felt like her life would have been easier if he hadn’t been born.
He reminded himself that he was there to support Heather not to wallow in his own past. “What about now that you know Mariella?”
Heather ran a hand over the purple cast that covered her left arm up to her bicep. “I guess it’s more complicated now that she’s involved.”
Alex smiled. “I’m not sure anything with Mariella is simple.”
Heather snorted her agreement and gave him a curious glance. Before she could raise the question about the nature of his relationship with Mariella, Alex turned the conversation back to business. “Can you get me projected sales numbers for the fall season? And when you see Luann, tell her she needs to finalize which pieces she wants to focus on when we see the New York buyers.”
“New York? I thought you were doing the launch at the Magnolia Blossom Festival.”
Alex nodded. “Yes, but we still need to go with some of the big retailers. I’ve set up the business model so that we’ll rely mostly on sales from the website and our social media links. We’re also going to do some work with major retail outlets.”
He studied her as she fidgeted. “You don’t think it’s a good idea?”
“It’s not really my business. I’m just an administrative assistant.”
“You aren’t going to play the not-involved card now. You pretty much run my life at this point. I know you have thoughts on the business.”
She flashed him a small smile. This time it reached her eyes, which gave him no small sense of accomplishment. Then she told him her ideas for the collection and how to launch it most effectively. He was amazed, once again, by her maturity and insight.
“You’re going to set the world on fire.” He didn’t know anything about Heather’s adoptive parents but could see so much of Mariella in her. He imagined this was how determined and focused she’d been coming to New York City on her own to make her mark on the fashion world.
He still wasn’t quite sure what to do with his feelings for Mariella.
Alex liked emotions simple and straightforward, and she was neither of those. But he could appreciate the adventure of discovering where it might take the two of them if their argument hadn’t ended things before they truly got started. As strange as it was that their lives intersected on so many levels, he wouldn’t change a thing about their connection.
Well, he would change how angry he’d made her on Saturday, but all he could do was find a way to fix that.
He kept an eye on Heather to make sure she didn’t seem strained or stressed as she went about her day.
Even after she returned from the meeting, which he assumed Mariella would have also attended, the girl seemed to be in good spirits.
It probably wasn’t his place, but he sent a quick text to her mother to express that Heather seemed to be doing well, feeling great and keeping her energy level high. He would have wanted to know that about his child.
Kay texted back a thank-you almost immediately and another text came in at the same time. The second one was from Mariella, asking him to meet her at the beach later that afternoon.
His heart gave a little leap of pleasure that she’d reached out, although for all he knew she would try to lure him to the ocean so she could drown him.
It was worth the risk without a doubt. Alex counted down the hours until he could leave the office and head home to change into shorts and a T-shirt before meeting her.
The temperature had climbed into the low eighties on this balmy late-spring afternoon. Alex loved the way the town was alive with blooming trees and great swaths of wildflowers along the open fields lining the road on the way to the shore.
There were a few areas of beach on the south end of town that were more popular with tourists, but Mariella had told him to meet at a somewhat remote area, just behind the Furever Friends animal rescue property.
He’d thought about adopting a dog but had never gotten around to it. Even that had felt like more of a relationship responsibility than he was willing to take on in the early months of launching the company.
He’d met Meredith, who ran the rescue, several times and she’d told him that whenever he was ready she would help him find the perfect pet. The woman reminded him of a matchmaker for animals. And that might be part of the problem.
Sad as it was, Alex no longer had much confidence in his ability for lasting commitment. Even to a dog.
He parked his Land Rover behind Mariella’s car. It looked like she’d arrived and already headed down to the ocean. He drew in a deep breath of the salt air as he walked along the weathered pier. Nerves and anticipation coursed through him. But at the same time, he found it difficult to hold on to any anxiety as the wide expanse of sea greeted him.
