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I let out a quiet groan. Of course, the Lord wasn’t going to help me hide from the man I should be confronting. If anything, the Lord probably pointed him right at me.
Stopping, I plastered a smile on my face. I could do it. Or at least I could talk to him for a couple minutes without breaking down.
I waited as Alex hurried toward me.
“Hey,” Alex said, his face slightly red from the running.
Being close to Alex was dangerous. I realized this as I took in his muscled arms and handsome face. This was the man I’d lusted after for years and shared a perfect night with, a night that had lived up to everything I’d expected.
I swallowed. No. I wouldn’t lust after Alex Kline anymore. I couldn’t. I loved my daughter, but she hadn’t been planned. I had let that handsome face and those firm muscles control me, and I needed to make sure that didn’t happen again.
“Hey.” I shrugged. “Nice seeing you again, Alex.”
He watched me for a second before speaking, uncertainty on his face. “Remember what I said the other day?”
“Uh …” Alex had said something about talking, but I couldn’t quite remember all the details, so I decided to go with brutal honesty. “I’m sorry, I forgot. It was kind of hectic with me dealing with my daughter. Is there something you needed?”
Disappointment spread across his face, stabbing at my heart. I tried to remind myself that Alex was the one who hadn’t so much as picked up a phone in three years, so I didn’t need to feel guilty.
If he’d called shortly after his accident, that would have been one thing, but he hadn’t done that. I wasn’t the ass here. He couldn’t stroll back into town and demand I pay attention to him anytime he felt like it.
Still, there was something about him, standing there, with his blond hair and gray eyes, the little hint of rebellion with his pierced ears, and those tattoos running up his arms. I remembered seeing his complete tattoos when he was shirtless, running my hands over them.
Again? No. No. No. The last thing I needed to be doing was lusting after the man who’d knocked me up and didn’t talk to me for three years, even if just the thought of him inside me made warmth pulse in my center.
“Well, I wanted to talk to you,” Alex said. “Somewhere private so we can discuss some things. I was waiting for you to call me, but, well, you forgot, so maybe we figure something out now. Maybe later tonight?”
My heart kicked into overdrive. The last thing I wanted to do was be alone with Alex when I didn’t even have the excuse of work to run away.
I sighed and thought about it. The truth was, I couldn’t keep running from Alex. Livingston wasn’t like Nashville. We were bound to keep running into each other again and again. The longer I avoided him, the weirder it’d be when I finally had to sit down and talk to him. Telling him the truth would end up more painful for both of us.
“Sunday,” I blurted out. “How about Sunday at 8 in the morning? At the coffee shop. I’ve got church later and need to spend some time with Mama.”
“Okay. The coffee shop in the morning. Sounds good. It’s the one where you worked at in high school?”
I swallowed once. That was the problem with Alex. Even though we’d barely seen each over the years, he still knew so much about me and my past.
“Yeah, that one. Switched owners, but it’s still a nice place.”
Alex nodded slowly and just stared at me like he had something he wanted to say right then.
“Um, okay,” I said. “I’ll see you then.”
“It’s kind of important.” He continued staring.
“Look, I get that, Alex,” I said. I nodded toward my mama’s house. “But I need to help Mama now. You …” I sighed. I didn’t want to start snapping at him on the sidewalk.
He blinked as if my words had snapped him out of a trance. Alex nodded quickly.
“You’re right. Sunday. Okay, see you then,” he said. He waved and started down the sidewalk away from me.
Heading into my mama’s house, I found that it wasn’t relief that entered me when Alex left but unease. Why was he so insistent on talking to me?
The guy had been gone three years not making any attempt to send me so much as a text, and now it was important we talked? It was almost as if he already knew. Had Carl squealed?
It was hard to know. I kind of doubted Alex would be willing to wait if he knew the truth. But I had to be sure.
I stepped into my mama’s house. The sound of squealing and laughing children came from the back.
