His dad reached across the table and put his hand on Alec’s shoulder. “What makes you think you didn’t?”
“She left. She made it clear that she’s not into me,” he said. “I sound like a complete dumbass, right? I should be able to say I’ve moved on. It’s been six weeks, Dad, and I’m still not over her.”
“Love’s not like that. You don’t get over it,” he said. “Especially if it’s real. Look at your brother and Hadley.”
“I can’t. Dad, I’m turning into a really nasty person on the inside. I hate that everyone else seems to be able to find happiness and I can’t.”
His father nodded. “You will find it.”
“Not with her,” he said at last.
“Not with her. Your mom told me a little bit about her family and it seems like she has her own issues to sort out,” his dad said. “And you’ll figure out how to move on. But your mom and I think you should raise the baby. We will help you.Your brothers will help you. And that child will probably help you, too.”
Alec leaned forward, putting his elbows on his knees and then his face in his hands. Raise the baby? That’s what Scarlet wanted and he honestly had been so consumed by her rejection he hadn’t spent much time allowing himself to think about the baby. But now that his father said it like that, he hated the thought of a Velasquez being raised by anyone else. He wasn’t sure what he was doing but he’d figure it out.
“Okay,” he said at last. “I’m not going to pretend I know what I’m doing but I’ll let Ethan know I want custody.”
“Good. Now about the girl,” his father said, pouring two more shots of tequila. “What can we do there?”
“I don’t know, Dad,” Alec said. “She said she’s not good at relationships. Hell, I’m not a poster boy for them, either.”
“No, you’re not. Maybe you need to show her what it would mean, being in a relationship with you.”
His father had a cagey look on his face and Alec wasn’t sure what his father had in mind.
“How?”
“Your mom’s going to kill me for suggesting this, but why don’t you move to New York and make sure she knows you’re there.”
“I don’t know. I don’t want to seem like a desperate loser,” Alec said.
“Don’t, then. Be there for the pregnancy and the baby. That’s it. Once she sees you, she’ll change her mind.”
“I’m not so sure. I love her but is that enough to convince her?”
His dad smacked him on the back of the head. “Dammit, Alejandro. Love is the most powerful thing in the world. You just keep loving her until she realizes she loves you back.”
“You think that will work?” he asked his father. Thoughhe had seen firsthand how Diego and Mauricio had both won the women they loved.
“How do you think I won your mom over? She wanted a city slicker, not a horse rancher. Not even one who played polo. But I wore her down. Just kept asking her to marry me until she said yes.”
Alec shook his head. It wasn’t a bad plan, he thought. If he’d learned anything in the last six weeks, it was that his feelings for Scarlet had grown, not disappeared.
So that was it, then. He had a plan and some hope for the future. His dad had been right about being closer to Scarlet, but not in New York. That was her turf. He’d agree to raise the child but only if she came back here until she delivered. That would give him the home-field advantage, and hopefully the remaining time in her pregnancy would be enough to convince her that they were stronger together. He didn’t allow himself to lose hope. He loved her too much for that.
Scarlet wasn’t feelingit today but her film crew was due to arrive any minute. Since the shows were all filmed six months before they aired, she’d asked the crew and the film company to keep her pregnancy under wraps. And they agreed. She needed to figure out the situation with her child, and she needed to keep her pregnancy private to do that. Alec still wanted them both to be involved in the baby’s life, and the longer she was carrying her child the harder it was to think of letting anyone raise the baby but Alec. In the middle of the night she sometimes pictured herself and Alec with the baby, but then the dreams twisted into that lifeless image of Tara when she’d died.
Her partners in the subscription box business loved the idea of a wedding/bride theme, but since she was pregnant they were pushing for her to do an expectant-mother-themedone, as well. The only problem was she didn’t want to concentrate on that. The almost seven weeks since she’d left Cole’s Hill hadn’t been easy. Each day she missed Alec—and how was that even possible?
She’d left friends and homes and family a million times in her life and just moved on without looking back. Now all of a sudden she couldn’t stop thinking about him. She had decided to communicate only through lawyers and by letter because she was afraid if she heard his voice she’d change her mind and run back to him.
And if it was just the two of them, she might risk it, but there was the baby to consider.
She put her hand on her stomach, which was definitely getting larger. She’d taken to wearing clothes in her apartment that showed off her baby bump. She liked the thought of the child, which was its own kind of torture. Billie had recommended that she reconsider giving the child to Alec. And the truth was she was reconsidering a lot. Life wasn’t any easier now that she was back in New York.
“The film crew is here. Do you want to go down and get them?” Billie asked. “I think they want to do some outside shots.”
“Will you go for me and tell them I can’t do it today?”