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He reached out and gently grabbed her arms, holding her where she was. "Then let's do other things," he said easily. "I'll do other things."
He was utterly desperate. He felt in his bones that he should not let go of Grace. He would stop at nothing to get a second chance with her. She was leaning over him, and he did his best not to shake with love, desire, and regret.
"Grace, please," he begged.
She made a resigned but fearful face. "I'm the one who should be beggingyou," Grace said.
He heard and felt the resignation in her voice, and he smiled. She wanted to give in.
"One dinner," she said.
She started to straighten up, and before she could, Alec pulled her in and put a kiss on her mouth.
"One dinner, Alec, and no more of this kissing stuff. This is strictly off-limits, ever again." But she was smiling as she shook her head, and she didn’t mean it.
"I mean it," she said, making a more serious face. "In fact, let's do breakfast instead of dinner to prevent it."
"Fine. Breakfast. I'll take what I can get. How's tomorrow morning?"
"No. Next Saturday. Or Friday I could do lunch. I work in the morning on Fridays, but I'm on call after that. I don't go back to school unless someone needs me."
"Friday lunch it is," he said. "I don't want to wait a whole week, but I will. Where?"
"Waffle House?" she asked. "Breakfast for lunch?"
"Fine," he said.
"Okay. I'm going to write down my number. Just text me next Thursday if you still feel like working it out, and we'll see what's going on. It was great seeing you, Alec, but I don't want you to feel bad if you have to cancel. I really don't want you to feel like you have to meet me again just because we ran into each other like this."
She was being nonchalant, and Alec couldn’t take it. He ached to hold her. He tugged on her arm again. She could have easily resisted, but she went to him. She leaned down like she was going to kiss him, but she stopped short of his mouth and kissed his cheek. She took a deep breath as she stood again. Alec desperately needed more.
"I need to put this mask in a bag for you so it won't scare any of the kids," she said. "Oh, and look, I have a customer coming." She shoved the mask in a school tote bag and tossed it at Alec absentmindedly. "My goodness what happened?" she said, making a concerned expression at the family who was approaching.
The father was holding a crying girl who looked to be eight or ten. She was a little too big to be carried comfortably, but she was crying and obviously not able to walk on her own.
"She was racing and fell," the dad explained.
They were followed by a lady and a few other curious children.
Alec had an aversion to leaving Grace. He had never been as comfortable with a woman as he was with Grace Bailey. He had lost sight of that, but he knew it, clear as day, as he stared at her in that tent.How could he possibly want anything different?He wanted more than anything to stay in there with her. He wanted to watch her work. But space was limited, and it would have been rude for him to stick around.
Alec started to tell her he would come back, but she was bombarded, and he did the right thing and just walked out and gave them space. He stepped around the edge of the tent, but he stuck close enough to make sure Grace didn't need him for anything. He heard her reassuring the girl and telling her she would get all fixed up in no time.
