Page 21 of Alec’s Dream

“Love you more. Now go tell your brother to come in here so I can say goodbye to him, too.”

“Okay.”

Rory flounced out of the kitchen the way only a carefree six-year-old could and my dad smiled at me.

“Thanks for the talk, Dad.”

“Open your eyes, Macy. You’re doing a great job with them. They’re happy. It’s time for you to be happy, too.”

“I am happy, Dad.”

“No, you’re not. You’re happy with them.” My dad gestured to the door Rory had disappeared through. “You’re happy being a mom. You’re happy when you see them smile. But, you, my beautiful daughter, are not happy.”

And I’d never find the kind of happiness my father was referring to. I rolled the dice once and came out a loser. I’ve since thrown those fuckers in the trash and decided I’d never play that game again. All I needed was Caleb and Aurora.

They made me happy.

8

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were plotting murder at a one-year-old’s birthday party,” Jameson said.

“Not murder, just bodily harm,” Alec told him honestly.

Jameson chuckled and shook his head. “You serious?”

“Yep.”

“Shit.”

Alec glanced around his packed living room and spotted Jocelyn sitting on McKenna’s lap eating a cupcake. By Alec’s calculation that was Joss’s third one, and as much as he wanted to tell McKenna if she fed his daughter one more sugary treat he was sending Joss home with her, he thought better of it. Not because he wanted Jocelyn up all night but he figured McKenna would start force-feeding his daughter cupcakes so she had an excuse to skip out with Joss. That, and Jocelyn’s smile was so huge as she shoved more frosting in her mouth he didn’t have it in him to take it away.

He was a sucker for his daughter’s smile—sleep be damned.

“Have you ever met Jonny’s brother, Doug?” Alec asked Jameson.

“No. I didn’t even know he had a brother. Why?”

“Just wondering.”

“Weird thing to wonder unless this Doug guy is who you’re plannin’ on puttin’ the hurt on.”

“Who’s puttin’ the hurt on who?” Nixon asked, joining Alec and Jameson.

“Some Doug guy,” Jameson answered.

“Fuck,” Nix muttered. “I didn’t see you yesterday when you picked up Joss. How’d that go?”

“Not well. The guy’s a bigger assclown than I thought. I rolled up and he was in her face.”

“Come again?” Jameson growled.

Alec didn’t acquaint himself with men that were not like him, therefore, it wasn’t a surprise that Jameson would be pissed-off on behalf of a woman he didn’t know.

It took a few minutes but Alec filled both men on what happened. By the time he was done, Nix and Jameson looked like they’d be happy to skip over the bodily harm and go straight to murder.

“Little Macy? Seriously, she took him down?” Nix asked.

“Fuck yeah. It was beautiful. Bloodied his foul mouth and his nose. It pained me to pull her off, she was beatin’ on him good.”