As Alice turned onto her block, her bottle of red wine in its brown paper bag rolled dangerously close to the edge of the seat. She reached down to grab it, taking her eyes off the road for a second. When she looked up again, she almost drove past her house because of the unfamiliar car in the driveway.
No, not unfamiliar. All too familiar.
Her heart leapt into her throat at the sight of the Porsche. Its rear tire had been replaced, no longer relying on the spare she’d put on. Part of her was sad to see he’d changed it, like it was a silent affront to her. How stupid.
She stopped at the foot of her driveway and stared at the house. Alex was sitting in the Adirondack chair on her front porch, his legs stretched out in front of him and a Felons baseball cap lowered over his eyes.
Was he sleeping?
And why wasn’t he in the house?
She battled with her emotions. The stupid schoolgirl part of her was thrilled to see him, excited he’d come back to her in spite of the tantrum she’d thrown the previous night.
The grown adult part of her, though, was furious he’d shown up at her house unannounced. Did Kevin know he was there? Had Olivia seen the car in the drive?
Alice’s mind started spinning up lies she could use to deflect any questions they might ask her in the morning over breakfast. Nothing she came up with sounded particularly convincing, even to her.
She pulled in beside his car and killed the engine, then sat for what felt like a very long time, watching him. She debated putting the car into reverse and taking off in the opposite direction, but reminded herself this was her house. If anyone should run, it ought to be him.
Grabbing the wine, she got out of the car. Before she’d shut the car door he lifted the bill of his cap, his warm brown eyes fixating on her. He hadn’t been asleep at all. He’d been waiting for her.
“Hey,” he greeted.
Motherfucker, did his voice have to be so soft, with just the slightest hint of a rasp, reminding her of the way his breath had hitched up when he slid inside her? Her pussy clenched at the memory, a pang of longing riding her like a shiver on a cold day.
“What are you doing here?” She hoped her voice wouldn’t give too much away, but it sounded husky to her ears. Maybe he wouldn’t know the difference between tired Alice and horny Alice.
“I know you said no more. Never again. All that stuff.”
“So…again. Why are you here?”
“Because I think you’re wrong. And I want a chance to prove it to you.”
“You think I’m…wrong? You came to my house uninvited to tell me I’m wrong? You’re not off to the best start if you want to convince me you’re a good guy, Alex.”
“No, you misunderstand. I think I freaked you out yesterday, or we freaked each other out, or something. There was mutual freaking.” At her raised eyebrow he added, “Unintentional double entendre, I swear.”
“Okaaaay.”
“I think maybe you’re convinced I only want one thing from you.”
“And you got it. So get off my porch.” Had she really become someone who said get off my porch? In that moment she felt old and more than a little pathetic. Worse still, she didn’t want him to leave. What she wanted was to sit in his lap and breathe in the smell of him. But that was crazy.
Right? It was crazy, wasn’t it?
Alice no longer had a firm grasp on where her desires departed from what was right. She’d thought of herself as smart and practical, so it was strange for her to no longer trust her own wants.
“I’m not just in it for the sex. I swear to you. If I was in it for the sex, why would I be here? I mean, not to say the sex wasn’t phenomenal, because it was,” he assured her. “But the point is, if sex was all I wanted, you gave me a pretty clear out yesterday. I could have taken it. But here I am.”
“Okay.” She wasn’t quite ready to demand he leave again. He’d appealed to her logical side, and now she was curious. “I’m listening.”
“I want to take you out tomorrow. Somewhere private.”
“Uh-huh.” She crossed her arms the best she could with a wine bottle in one hand, and scowled at him. Private was code for booty call. She hadn’t been living under a rock for ten years just because she had a kid.
“I want you to bring Olivia.”
That threw her. “What?”
“I want you to bring her. You can bring your brother too, if you want. I promise I won’t try to make a move on you the entire night. It can be purely platonic. Think of them as insurance of a sex-free night.”
“You want me to bring my daughter on a date?”
“I want to prove to you I’m interested in more than sex. When I told you yesterday I like you, I meant it, but we barely know each other. I’d like to change that. I mean, normally I like to get the question-and-answer stuff out of the way before sleeping with a girl, but if we’re doing things out of order, that’s okay too.”