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His hair molds to his scalp as it’s still damp. His facial features are highlighted, making him look devastatingly handsome and so out of reach. Then he smiles, and my heart starts to beat like crazy. My reaction to Alec scares me, and I turn away to serve the food.
“Done,” he says.
He hands me two large plates, and I serve our food, giving him a generous helping of everything.
“Thanks,” he says when I set the food in front of him on the island. “I can’t remember the last time I ate such a meal at home, if ever.”
I grab my plate and join him on the island. “I love cooking.”
“It shows,” Alec says, dicing up his chicken.
“Thanks.” I glance around his kitchen and admire it for the hundredth time.
“So, tell me, Ivy,” Alec says, my name rolling off his tongue. “Which is your favorite place to visit? Beach or the mountains?”
I don’t blurt out the first thing that comes to my mind, which is that I’ve never had extra money for vacations, but I hope that will change as my writing career grows.
I adopt a thoughtful expression as I ponder his question. Once a long time ago, when we were kids, my parents took Molly and me to a cabin in the mountains. That was the most idyllic period of my life. I loved the sound of the birds and insects in the mornings before everyone woke up. But what I loved most was going on hikes. The winding trails and the towering trees made me feel so small but still a part of nature.
“A cabin in the mountains,” I tell Alec.
“Me too. I love the beach too, but the mountains do something to my soul,” he says, sounding thoughtful and faraway.
I’d love to be in a secluded mountain with Alec with nothing to do but be together. That thought is shocking, and I shove it out of my mind. I’m about to be a mother. An adult. Adulting. Not fantasizing about going on vacation with my baby’s sperm donor.
Still, I can’t stop imagining Alec relaxing in a hammock under a tree, wearing a pair of shorts and a sleeveless T-shirt to show off his muscular arms. “You do look like a mountain guy,” I tell him.
“We did a lot of camping and hiking as a family when I was growing up,” he says.
That surprises me. “Your mother doesn’t look the type to enjoy the outdoors.” It’s wrong to judge people, but I can’t help it with Mrs. Anderson. She wears higher heels than I do, and every time I see her, she looks so elegant and classy. The kind of woman who enjoys spending whole days shopping in designer stores.
Alec laughs. “You would be surprised at how much she loves the outdoors. Both of them do. They have a vacation home in the Rockies.”
“Oh, how wonderful.” I clearly need to know his parents better before putting labels on them. I’m enjoying getting to know Alec. “It’s my turn to ask a question.”
He looks up with twinkling eyes. “Go ahead.” He looks so relaxed. So unlike the serious sexy surgeon who takes his work very seriously and whose patients would be shocked if they saw him now.
“What would you have been if you hadn’t become a doctor?”
He cocks his head to one side. “A drummer in a band. Preferably a rock band.”
His answer is so unexpected that I burst out laughing, thinking it was a joke.
“I’m dead serious,” Alec says. “I had a drum set as a kid. It almost gave my parents a fit. They dedicated the rest of my teenage years to converting me into a doctor.”
I start to look at him differently. “I can actually see you in a rock band with long hair, earrings, and torn jeans.”
He chuckles. “Drop the earrings, but the rest is on point. These days I content myself with attending concerts when I can.”
There’s so much about Alec that I don’t know. “I love rock music too. Who are your favorite singers or bands?”
“Enough about me,” he says. “Tell me, what’s the scariest thing you have ever done?”
“That one’s easy. The scariest thing I ever did was to decide that I would chase my dream of being a writer no matter what. I could have chosen to get a safe job, but I knew if I did that, I might as well have been giving up on my dream.”
I find myself telling Alec about the various jobs I’ve had over the years. He laughs at my descriptions, which makes me tell him more funny stories just to hear him laugh.
“I can’t believe that it’s eleven,” Alec says later on.
