Page 37 of When Alec Met Evie
Her expression warms, and for a split second, I imagine what it would be like to kiss her.
“Come on,” she says, tilting her head toward the stairs. “Let’s go watch a movie.”
“Are you sure?”
Evie nods. “Yeah. I’m sleepy, but the idea of spending time with grown-ups sounds pretty nice.”
“We’re calling the twins grown-ups?”
She chuckles. “Practice grown-ups?”
“Better.” Halfway down the stairs, I add, “So just putting this out there. I’ll happily put Juno to sleep any time you need it.”
She looks at me over her shoulder and grins. “Already so smitten.”
Completely,I think, as I follow her into the living room.
And not just with Juno.
CHAPTER 10
EVIE
Alec has only been gonefrom Harvest Hollow for a couple of days, and I already feel a tiny bit unmoored.
Which is silly. I’ve been on my own for months, and I’ve been doing just fine. There’s no reason to suddenly be clingy and needy now. But for the last few days, in a new state, in a new town, there’s been something stabilizing about Alec’s presence. Knowing he was coming home went a long way to keeping me in a good mood.
I lift my hand to adjust my rearview mirror to check on Juno. She’s been fussy and cranky this morning and probably needs a nap, but I’m supposed to meet my soon-to-be boss for lunch, so I’m crossing my fingers Juno falls asleep in the car and stays asleep when I take her carrier into the restaurant.
“It’s just you and me, Junebug,” I say to her reflection. “Let’s make it a good day, yeah?”
Except the other night, it wasn’t just Juno and me. It was Juno and me andAlec.
I plug the name of the restaurant into my phone’s GPS, then slowly back out of Alec’s driveway.
It’s hard to fully quantify what it did to my heart to see him holding Juno. To see my daughter relax into his arms and fall asleep.
Not that I can blame her. And honestly, considering how many times I’ve used videos of Alec’s deep voice to soothe her, it’s not a wonder.
But still. He was so gentle with her. So genuinely enamored.
It was a new side of him and did not help my efforts tonothave a crush.
Which, speaking of…
I stop at the exit to Alec’s neighborhood and call Megan. I bet she’ll have the answers I want.
“What do you know about a woman named Riley?” I ask as soon as she answers the phone.
“Well, hello to you too,” she says back.
“Sorry. Hi. How are you? How was your pharmacology test?”
“I got an A, and I’m fabulous,” she says. “Thank you for asking. Riley who?”
“I have no idea,” I say as I make a left turn out of the neighborhood. “That’s why I’m asking you.”
“With zero context?” Megan asks. “You’re just randomly throwing out a woman’s name and expecting me to know something? I think there was a Riley in my third-grade class. Is she who we’re talking about?”
