Page 26 of Alec’s Dream

I only thought the fuck so it didn’t count as cursing in front of Jocelyn.

Alec easily pushed his way into my house now that my arms were full of cuddly baby and shut the door behind him.

The nerve.

“What’s happening?”

Alec didn’t answer but he did look at my coffee table.

“Have you eaten dinner?”

“What?”

“Dinner? Have you eaten?”

“Well, I was eating dinner but you interrupted it.”

Alec glanced back at the table and when his gaze came back to me he did a top to toe scan.

“Popcorn?”

“Yeah, popcorn.”

“Popcorn is not dinner, Macy.”

Jeez, what had his Jockey’s in a bunch?

“As much as I appreciate your concern for my nutritional intake maybe you wanna tell me why you’re here.”

Jocelyn thought this was the perfect opportunity to fist my necklace and yank. Something she did every time I was holding her.

“No, no, sweets, don’t pull.” I gently disengaged her fingers and kissed them until she was smiling then looked back at Alec.

He was staring at me strangely, as a matter of fact, it was a look I’d seen from him a lot. Sometimes I caught him out of the corner of my eye watching me with Jocelyn. Sometimes, like now, I saw the look full-on. No matter how I saw it, it always gave me pause.

Contemplative.

A little sad.

I couldn’t exactly put my finger on it but I didn’t like it. Not because it was creepy, but because I didn’t like to think of Alec as being unhappy.

“Alec?”

“You’re good with her.”

I forced my body to stay still even though I wanted to recoil from his dejected tone.

“I’m sorry.”

I wasn’t exactly sure what I was apologizing for but I felt the need since so much sadness had crept into his voice.

“Nothing for you to be sorry about.” Alec cleared his throat and schooled his features. And suddenly I hated that he was trying to hide from me. “Wanted to see if you wanted to grab dinner.”

It took me a moment to process what he’d said. I was still stuck on why I cared that he’d cleared his face of any emotion. Jocelyn wiggled, reminding me I was holding her. Not that holding her was unusual—I did it nearly every day—but I’d never done it outside of daycare hours and never while standing in my living room.

Grab dinner?

Was he crazy?