Until the email. Until “vacation.”
That’s when everything changes.
CHAPTER 28NOW
August 5, third day of “vacation”
“You were quiet tonight,” Alex says. He’s rubbing a towel over his wet hair, his threadbare shirt sticking to his skin in places where he missed it when drying off.
I ease onto the bed and slip beneath the sheets. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be,” he says. “That’s not why I brought it up. I was just… worried about you. Quiet isn’t really your thing.”
I narrow my eyes at him playfully. “Coming from you.”
He eases onto the edge of the bed, the far side. It’s not far enough. It’s infinitely too far away. “We’re two Chatty Cathies. Part of what makes us good friends. Never a quiet moment. Or a dull one.”
I smile as I roll toward him beneath the sheets and clasp his hand. “It made me happy,” I tell him, “seeing you and Jen spend time together with Mia today.”
Alex is quiet for a moment, turning his hand inside mine, rubbing our palms together. “It made me happy, too. We should havebeen doing more of that all along. It…” He blows out a breath, clears his throat. “It means a lot to Mia. That’s what we should have been focused on—her, not us.”
“Yeah,” I whisper. “But you were both hurting. Healing takes time.”
He nods, staring down at our hands. “We had a good talk tonight. About trying to do more of that when we’re back home. Just, you know, brief outings. A meal here and there, taking her to activities together at school.”
I squeeze his hand. “That sounds amazing, Alex.”
“You think?”
I smile. “I know.”
He smiles, too, and then his gaze drifts toward the sliding doors leading out to the small balcony off the bedroom, the dark sky, the ocean rolling beneath it. “Don’t think Ethan will share your enthusiasm, but he can get fucked, as far as I’m concerned.”
I roll onto my back, anger churning through me.
Alex glances back at me. “What?”
I shake my head.
“Ted.” He leans in, then winces.
“Lie down,” I tell him, lifting back the sheets. “Please?”
Alex searches my eyes. “You sure?”
“Very much, yes,” I tell him.
A spark of light hits his eyes, a flicker of joy. So many shared memories between us.
He eases down, carefully sliding his legs beneath the sheets. A long, relieved sigh gusts out of him. Alex peers over at me, lifting his arm. “Cuddle talk?”
I scooch toward Alex, careful not to jostle him as I settle in, as I rest my head on his shoulder. His hand finds my hair,fingertips grazing along my scalp like he’s done so many times before. “What’s going on, Ted?”
“Ethan,” I say quietly. “He really pissed me off today.”
Alex freezes. “What did that fucker do.”
“Relax.”