Page 30 of When Alec Met Evie
But Juno? She’ll want to know her father. Logically, I know I should want the same thing. I just don’t want her to know disappointment from him like I have. And I don’t know how to protect her from that.
I screenshot the text and send it to Megan, followed by an all-capsHELPand a string of question marks. When she doesn’t respond right away, I toss my phone across the couch, letting it slip in between the couch cushions.
I don’t go after it, because I’d rather it stay there anyway. I’m not going to respond to Devon until I’ve consulted with Megan,and if I don’t see her response right away, I can stop thinking about it for a while.
I reach for the remote to turn up the volume on the TV, but I pause when I hear the front door open. I streamed Alec’s game earlier, but I didn’t expect him to show up anytime soon. I assumed he’d be out with his team, celebrating their win.
He strolls into the living room carrying a bag from a local burger place and an enormous diet soda. “Dinner delivery,” he says as he sets the bag on the coffee table, then drops his duffel bag onto the floor.
“What? Really?”
“You ordered it, didn’t you?” he asks. “I met the delivery guy in the driveway.”
“Yeah. I just didn’t expect it so soon.”
“Betty’s always delivers pretty fast.” He smiles at me. “Hi.”
Heat warms my cheeks becausegood grief,the man has an incredible smile, and my heart does a little shimmy. Butno.Nope. No shimmying should happen—not based on the Instagram posts I stumbled across earlier.
It was purely accidental. I was scrolling through the Appies official account, looking at posts other people had tagged them in, and a woman named Riley popped up. Her post was relatively benign. Just a photo of her with the Appies game visible on the television over her shoulder. But the caption caught my eye, because she named Alec specifically.Watching Alec kill it on the ice today!Followed by way too many heart emojis.
At first, I thought she might be a really enthusiastic fan, but curiosity made me click through to her profile, and that’s when my stomach dropped into my fuzzy socks.
There were two posts pinned to the top, and both were of her and Alec looking extremely cuddly. In one photo, she’s kissing him on the cheek while he smiles wide into the camera.
She’s beautiful—becauseof courseshe is—something made perfectly clear by the dozen or so posts I scrolled through before Juno woke up from her nap and saved me from myself.
It is not in my best interest to compare myself to a fashion designer and influencer with more than twenty thousand followers. Not when my wardrobe is mostly stretchy pants and overalls because that’s all that currently fits. But the discovery did give me a much-needed wake-up call.
No matter how easy it is to talk to him, no matter how nice Alec is being by letting me stay here, he’s not for me.
“Hi,” I say, reaching for Juno’s blanket. I drape it over my shoulder, making sure I’m at least partly covered. Juno tends to get hot when she nurses, so I won’t cover her completely, but the way she feels about Alec’s voice, if he starts talking, I can’t guarantee she won’t pop off just to look around and see what’s going on. I’d rather avoid an accidental nipple flash if I can, so I feel better at least having the blanket close.
“Are you hungry?” I say, lifting Juno the slightest bit so I can reach for the bag without breaking her latch. “I had a hard time deciding what I wanted, so I actually orderedtwoburgers.”
Alec lifts an eyebrow as he drops onto the couch beside me. He traded his gameday suit for a pair of joggers and a pullover in Appies gray and turquoise, but he almost looks just as good in these. “You ordered two burgers?”
“Don’t judge,” I say, trying and failing to get my straw open using only one hand. “Nursing makes me feel like I’m starving. I couldn’t decide between the barbecue burger because it has an onion ring on it and hello, that sounds delicious, and the one with a fried egg and smoked gouda.”
“You should eat that one,” Alec says, reaching over and helping me with my straw. “It’s my favorite.”
“You like Betty’s Burgers?”
“Of course I do. They’re the best in Harvest Hollow.”
“You have to eat that one, then,” I say, reaching into the bag and pulling out the paper-wrapped burger marked with a scribble of magic marker that simply saysegg.
“But then you won’t get to try it,” he argues.
“But it’s your favorite. I’m sure the other one is amazing too.”
“I’ll do you one better.” He stands and takes both burgers into the kitchen. A minute later, he returns with two plates, each holding half of two different kinds of burgers. “Now you can try them both.” He looks from me, to Juno, then back again. “Are you going to be able to eat this with one hand?”
Right after Juno was born, when she first started nursing, it was hard for me to feel comfortable feeding her in front ofanyone.But it’s definitely gotten easier over the last few months, or maybe I’ve just gotten used to it? Either way, it’s notable that Alec doesn’t seem to be bothered by it. Unless he has a secret life I’ve never heard about, I doubt he’s been around a lot of breastfeeding women, but he doesn’t seem thrown at all.
“Just put it on the coffee table,” I say. “She’ll be done in a second, and then she’ll hopefully sit in her seat long enough for me to eat. But don’t wait for me. You go ahead.”
“You sure?” He reaches for the fries and dumps them all on my plate.
