Perfect Catch(79)

“Ricki? What the hell?”

“Language,” Ricki scolded. “Bad enough we let the kid go back there alone, we don’t need her picking up on your foul habits.”

Alex turned from his sister to Alice’s daughter, and there was no logical connection between the two he could make.

“What’s going on?”

“Come on,” Ricki insisted. “You know I hate long stories.”

Olivia wrenched her hand free of Alex’s and skipped ahead, staying in sight, but barely. She was so comfortable on the concourse it was like she owned the place.

Then she spotted something and ran off full tilt, disappearing from sight.

“Liv,” Alex called, terrified of being responsible for losing her. Alice already hated him, and if he lost her daughter, not only would she never forgive him, she’d probably find a way to murder him.

He went to run after her, but Ricki grabbed his arm, holding him back. “She’s okay.”

“Ricki, start talking. What the hell is going on?”

“I think someone else is better suited to explain.” She jerked her chin to the end of the concourse, where he now saw Liv standing next to a shuttered hot dog vendor, bouncing energetically in front of another familiar figure.

This woman, though, was the one he’d dared not hope to see again, but the only one who made sense given Olivia’s arrival.

Alice stood in the middle of the concourse, brushing Liv’s curls back under the cap and listening intently to whatever her daughter was telling her. When she lifted her face and met Alex’s gaze, his heart stopped beating.

He’d always thought that was a clichéd notion, how one look could make a heart stop working, but the moment her eyes locked on his he was a goner. She might have sent him into full cardiac arrest with the perfect way her lips curved into a smile. It wasn’t the joyous, beautiful smile he knew Alice was capable of. This one was hesitant, apologetic and a little sad.

But it was still Alice standing there smiling at him.

“Ricki…”

“Jesus, you idiot, go on. She’s not here for me.” His sister gave him a shove.

He stepped forward, but his feet felt like they weighed a thousand pounds each. The relatively small distance between him and Alice might as well have been miles for all the time it took to reach her, but once they were within a few feet of each other, she smiled again, and this time it lifted all the weight off him.

He touched her cheek, running his fingers through her hair. If she was going to vanish soon—which was how every dream he’d had like this had ended—he wanted to remember the feel of her before he woke up.

“Hi,” he whispered.

“Hi, yourself.”

“You’re a long way from Florida.”

“I know.”

“And you’re with my sister.”

“I know that too.” Alice laughed and raised her hand, her warm palm covering his. Her fingers were shaking, or maybe his were. It was hard to tell.

“What are you doing here?” he asked finally. He hoped it didn’t sound harsh, hoped she wouldn’t think she was unwelcome. Though a small part of him was still mad at her for how she’d treated him the last time they’d been together, a much bigger part didn’t care because she was right here.

“It’s a bit of a long story…” Alice looked down, letting her hand drop, but he caught it, holding it in his own like he might be able to keep her tethered to him. The longer she stood there, the more willing he was to believe she was real and not a dream. She lifted her face, her eyes half-hidden under her lashes.

“Alice, look at me.”

She did, and her blue eyes shone with a thin film of tears. “I’m so sorry, Alex. I made a mistake.”

“I punched your ex,” he blurted, countering her confession with one of his own.

Again, she laughed, though it hitched in her throat, coming up a little short. “I saw that.”

“Oh.”

She wrapped her other hand around his and kissed his knuckles. “I know it wasn’t you. I should have listened to you in the first place, and I’m so sorry I doubted you. I was angry about my job and I was stupid. I’m so sor—”

He kissed her.

Pulling her tight against him with his free hand, he held her captive against his body as his mouth met hers and he kissed her like it was the first time and the last time all at once. He kissed her like it was his only purpose on earth, and when she melted against him and kissed him back, squeezing his hand where it was pressed between them, he knew it wouldn’t be the last time.

No one kissed goodbye like that.

“Gross,” Liv muttered.