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“I would, but only in the name of science.”
“In that case, let me think about it.”
“You have three seconds from now.”
“Three seconds? Tough crowd.” I can’t help but smile. “It was great growing up with no siblings because my parents made it great. They loved me and they made sure I knew it. That’s not to say I didn’t want a brother or a sister, and I was super jealous of my friends who had them. But they always used to complain about how annoying they were, and at the time, I thought it was better to be the one and only. I got to do lots of stuff with my parents, like going bowling, or heading to the shooting range.”
“The shooting range?”
I shrug. “It was Texas. What can I say?”
“Fair call.”
“Then, when my mom died, it was just Daddy and me. It was…different. Harder, I guess. It got better over time.”
Alex reaches for my hand and gives it a squeeze. “I’m so sorry, Maddie. Losing a much-loved parent must be so hard, especially when you were so young.”
“It was no picnic,” I reply with a laugh that masks my pain. “She died when I was on the precipice of womanhood, as Dad put it. But you know what? My dad’s the best. He must have been hurting real bad when she passed, but he never showed it. He’d say things like ‘shine bright while you can because life's shorter than a firefly's glow on a July night,’ and ‘don't sit waiting for the rain to pass because life's about learning to dance in a thunderstorm.’”
“He sounds poetic.”
“He’s Texan, through and through. Did you meet him while he was here?”
“I did, actually. I asked him how he liked the weather in Malveaux, and he told me to stay away from you.”
My mouth drops open. “He did?”
“He did.”
“What did you say?”
“I told him I had no intention of going anywhere near you, because at that point you had already punched me in the face and told me exactly what you thought of me. You were the last person I wanted to be near.”
“Thanks a lot,” I reply with a laugh.
“Come on, admit it. You didn't exactly enjoy my company either.”
“I hated you,” I say simply. “No offense.”
“As long as you don’t hate me now.”
I bite down on my bottom lip. “I don’t hate you, Alex.”
“I don’t hate you, either,” he replies, his voice soft and tender, doing things to my heart.
Tension crackles in the air between us.
Has it suddenly gotten hot out here?
I concentrate on finishing my ice cream before I ask, “What made you decide to put in effort with me? I mean, you could have simply gone back to Ledonia and gotten on with your life, but you hung around, attending all my functions, wearing me down until I stopped hating you.”
He pauses for a beat, then splays his hands in front of himself. “Full disclosure, my father instructed me to get to know you.”
My heart drops to the ground.
“Oh.”
“That may have been my initial motivation, but I never expected to like you. You were an enigma I wanted to work out.”
