Alec's Dream

by Riley Edwards

  Holy Christ on a cracker. That wasn’t fast, that was hair-on-fire fast.

  “Jameson and I had some issues to work out in the beginning. Mainly his bad attitude.” Kennedy smirked and shook her head. “Anyway, we ironed out the kinks, he was staying with me while I was going through my thing with crazy Reggie and he’s never left.”

  The light started to dawn and I understood where she was going with her explanation.

  “So what you’re saying is, Alec’s gonna want me to stay.”

  “I’m thinking, yes.”

  “I can’t stay.”

  “Why not.”

  “Well, we both have kids.”

  Her mouth twisted in a way that looked like she was biting back a retort. It also looked painful.

  “Spit it out,” I invited.

  “He has a kid that calls you mama. And just to say, I know you have her five days a week, but I see Jocelyn a lot. I’ve been around since she first came to live with Alec and she does not call me mama. Nor does she call Silver or McKenna, mama. Just you, sister. And I’ll also note, you are the one holding her because she walked to you, not her Aunt Kennedy who snuggles her all the time. And as you can see, Aurora and Caleb look very happy to be spending time with him.”

  “That’s a lot of ands,” I mumbled.

  “I’ll give you one more. And, they’re all out there smiling, laughing, genuinely happy less than a week after they saw their mom with bruises on her face, and days after their home was riddled with bullets. That is what I think you need to be thinking about—not how much time has passed. When something is right, it is right.”

  Sage advice, but I still had a nagging worry in the back of my mind.

  “Thanks for helping me sort my head.”

  “That’s what friends do. Now that all this crap is done, you and the kids are safe and free to resume your normal life. We’re all getting together next weekend.”

  “Perfect. My parents will be home and I know they’ll be dying for some Caleb and Rory time.”

  “Whatever you want to do, but your kids are always welcome.”

  God, she was sweet.

  “Thanks. Means a lot.”

  We fell into a comfortable silence and watched Rory roll around with Tank as the boys continued to toss the ball.

  It was after dinner. The kitchen was clean, Jocelyn was down for the night, and both kids were settled on Alec’s couch for some TV time before bed.

  Aurora’s eyes were drooping, exhausted after running around with Tank for hours. Caleb not the slightest bit tired even though he and Alec had been outside playing football for the entirety of my visit with Kennedy.

  Alec didn’t look worse for the wear and he’d had a day packed with police, bad guys, and body slams.

  I was emotionally spent. I needed to sleep for a week but didn’t have that option, I needed to go back to work, needed to sort my house which Rory had declared she never wanted to go back to—which I agreed, I didn’t either. What’s more, I didn’t ever want my kids there again. That meant I also needed to figure out how I was going to afford to fix it to sell, or just list it as is. Then I had to make plans for all the living room furniture to be hauled away, because no way in hell my children were ever going to sit on a couch with bullet holes.

  “Baby?” Alec wrapped his arms around me from behind, one over my shoulder, one tight around my waist. “What’s got you in knots?”

  Damn. I really needed to work on not being so obvious.

  “I’m just tired,” I semi-lied.

  “After the kids go to bed, we’ll talk. Get it all out of the way.”

  I thought about Kennedy’s advice. It was sound, emotions were high and I wasn’t in the right frame of mind to make any decisions. But I knew I’d never get to sleep with all the shit swirling in my head.

  So I nodded my agreement.

  “I want a dog like Tank,” Rory announced.

  This was not a surprise. Actually, the proclamation took longer than I expected. I figured Tank would be the topic of dinner discussion.

  It hadn’t been mainly because Alec had told Caleb and Rory that the “bad guy” who’d hurt me had been caught. At the news, Caleb smiled huge and he did it aimed at Alec like he was the Second Coming. Rory was so excited she’d jumped out of her chair and hugged Alec. My guess was their reactions had nothing to do with Josh Malone being behind bars, therefore, we were safe from bullets, beatings, and threats. The last of which they didn’t know about. But because Alec had made a promise and kept it. Something neither of them was used to when it came to a father.

  Doug made tons of promises and never followed through.

  “Know you do, baby girl. Let's wait until after winter than we’ll talk about it,” I told her.

  “But—”

  “Rory, honey. If we get a puppy now, that means you’re going to have to walk it in the snow. And it’s gonna be too cold for it to go outside and run around. We’ll talk in the spring.”

  My daughter may’ve only been six but she was her mother’s daughter and did not like the snow. Not even a cute, cuddly German Shepherd puppy would make her bundle up and go out in it longer than needed to walk through it to get to where she wanted to go.

  “When we get our puppy, he and Tank are gonna be best friends,” Rory continued. “And now that we live here, when it’s not too cold I can run over to Miss Kennedy’s and play with Tank. That way I’ll know all about how to take care of our German Dog.”

  I heard Alec’s chuckle in my ear, felt his body shaking with mirth, both filling me with happiness. Too bad I couldn’t enjoy his warm breath fanning across my neck, or the way his arms had banded around me, pressing my back to his chest. I couldn’t appreciate the heat, the safety, or the thrill.

  Because I wasn’t breathing—not since my daughter had declared: now that we live here.

  That was when my lungs seized and the rest of me turned to granite.

  “It’s a German Shepherd,” Caleb corrected.

  Then my son’s gaze came to me, which really meant it came to Alec and me since Alec was holding me. My child did not bat an eye at this.

  “When can we go back to the old house and get more of our stuff? Alec said he’d help me practice tackling, but not until I had my pads.”

  That statement took me from granite to something stronger, heavier, maybe something that hadn’t even been dug up from the earth yet.

  “We’ll sort that in the next couple of days, bud.”

  My body came unstuck with a jolt.

  “Alec—”

  “Later, babe.”

  He gave me a squeeze.

  A freaking squeeze.

  “We need to—”

  “Later.”

  The thrill, the heat, the happiness, all vanished as I got pissed. I did not like to be silenced and barred from speaking to my child. Especially when both of them were under the misconception we were now living with Alec.

  And I seriously was not happy he was maintaining the fantasy by telling them we’d be sorting out football pads.

  I would, of course. I’d sort out what I was going to do with our belongings. But I’d be doing it after I found us a place to live.

  In an effort to keep my cool in front of Aurora and Caleb, and since my head was on the verge of exploding, I announced, “Time for bed.”

  After a few back-and-forth protests, with the addition of Rory whining that she wasn’t tired, Alec stepped in.

  “Your mom already gave you an extra half-hour to finish your show. Not cool repaying that with arguing.”

  I wasn’t sure how I felt about him acting as a stand-in father-figure. Then when Caleb stood and mumbled his apologies, and nudged his sister to do the same, I really didn’t know what to feel. I’d never had a co-parent.

  I’d always gone it alone with the kids. Even when I was married to Doug and we all lived together, he never stepped up and helped with anything. Not even something as simple as telling the kids to go to bed. Nor would
Doug have ever thought to gently reprimand them for arguing with me.

  If I was being honest, it felt amazing. But I was in the middle of a snit, therefore, I wasn’t in the mood to give Alec even the barest inch.

  Obviously, Alec hadn’t picked up on the shift in my disposition. Either that or he didn’t care, because before I’d walked the kids upstairs, he’d kissed me hard, albeit closed-mouthed, on the lips and gave me a smile.

  I found it difficult to believe that Alec being as perceptive as he was hadn’t noticed the air around me had gone artic. Which meant he didn’t care I was pissed and that pissed me off more.

  I didn’t use the time I had upstairs putting my kids to bed to calm down. As a matter of fact, I used it to nurse my irritation. Therefore, when I went back down and found Alec calmly sitting on his couch, one arm stretched out resting on the back, other hand holding a beer, long jean-covered legs in front of him crossed at the ankle, I just about lost my mind.

  There he was relaxing, having a brew, lounging, watching the news. Though his eyes did come to me when I rounded the couch.

  Yep, I was gonna lose it.

  “We need to talk.”

  “I can see that.”

  Alec’s lips twitched and my blood pressure rose into the danger zone.

  “Something funny?” I asked.

  “Babe, you have yourself worked up into a tizzy—”

  “A tizzy?”

  “Yep. A tizzy, and it’s over nothing.”

  “Nothing?” I parroted chiefly because I could feel the vein in my neck pounding and I couldn’t think of new words to say.

  “Yeah, Macy, nothing. Got word your ex-dickwad will no longer be an issue for you, what’s more, no longer be an issue for Aurora and Caleb. Malone screwed up, called you, which means he saved us a boatload of time searching for him. So instead of it taking hours or days, we only had to sit there for thirty minutes while the jackass wasted a shit ton of ammo taking shots at us. Now he’s been arrested, you and the kids are safe, and we can settle in.

  “All in all, it was a good day that got even better when I picked up the kids brought them home to you and Joss. Got to spend time with Caleb. Rory ran around with Tank. You and Joss got some time with Kennedy. And the first really great day I’ve had in a long time, is ending with Rory and Caleb upstairs sleeping in the room next to Jocelyn, this after we all sat at the table and had a family dinner. So yeah, Macy, you’re in a tizzy about nothing.”

  Okay, so I decided to shelve my serious pissed-offness in order to shift through some of what Alec said. The first super-scary, heart-pounding revelation was that he’d been shot at.

  “Josh tried to shoot you?”

  “Not me specifically. He’s not very smart and was spraying bullets, not taking aim at any of us.”

  “You were shot at!” I repeated, this time not a question.

  “Babe—”

  My hands went to my hips and I leaned forward. “You were shot at!”

  Alec relaxing on the couch was a thing of the past. His ankles uncrossed, his feet were on the floor, elbows to his knees, and he was sitting up, eyes assessing.

  “Baby,” he cooed. “As you can see I’m fine. Nothing happened.”

  Nothing happened? Josh fucking Malone happened. He beat me up, perforated my couch with bullets, narrowly missing Jocelyn, Aurora, Caleb, Alec, and myself, then he threatened to kill Caleb if I didn’t pay Doug’s debt. And if all of that wasn’t enough—he shot at Alec.

  That was not nothing. That was a whole lot of somethings. All of it fucked-up and totally insane. I’d gone thirty-five years without being shot at and I’d never had a black eye either. The vast majority of the population was never shot at because it was fucking crazy.

  Not until Doug Spencer gambled away all of his money, went into debt, then Josh Malone decided I was the one that was going to pay.

  30

  Alec stayed seated and watched with rapt attention as Macy processed.

  There was a lot to work through, and by the look on her face, the thoughts were racing pretty damn fast.

  “Baby,” he called.

  “If you say the word ‘nothing’ one more time, I swear my head’s gonna pop off.”

  “Noted.”

  “This isn’t amusing,” Macy brusquely scolded.

  She was wrong, it was mildly amusing how worked up she was getting, not understanding in doing so she was unwittingly helping his argument. The one they were undoubtedly going to have when he told her—Aurora was correct and they were living with him now.

  If Macy thought her head was going to pop off at the news dumbass Josh had shot in his direction, he was worried what might happen when he explained to her now that he had her and the kids under his roof, he wasn’t going to allow them to leave.

  “Come sit down. You’re right—we have stuff to talk about.”

  “No, we don’t.”

  “It was your idea, Macy. You in here all rarin’ to talk. Let's get everything settled now so we can enjoy the rest of the night.”

  Hopefully, that meant he’d be enjoying her in ways that made her alternately moaning and begging.

  “We don’t need to talk as such. I just need you to listen.”

  Luckily, Alec found it sexy as hell when she was chockfull of attitude. Any other woman spoke to him like that, he wouldn’t find it cute and certainly not sexy.

  “Next time I got something to say to my kids, you do not interrupt me, you don’t try to shut me up, and you do not lie to them.”

  “Lie to them? I’ve never fuckin’ lied to either one of them.”

  “We’ll sort that in the next couple of days, bud,” Macy repeated back what he’d told Caleb then crossed her arms over her chest. “That was a lie. We aren’t doing shit. I’m going to sort my house and find us somewhere to live. Now because you interrupted me and I didn’t get a chance to correct Rory’s assumptions, she went to bed thinking this is her new house.”

  “Good!” he stated, losing the stranglehold on his temper.

  “Are you crazy?” Macy growled, obviously losing her temper as well.

  Alec surged to feet, tagged her hand, and pulled her through the kitchen and into the laundry room, closing the door behind them.

  “What are you doing?” Macy snapped and stepped away.

  “When we’re having words, and those words are about to get heated, we do that in private where the kids cannot hear.”

  Macy rocked back on her heels, some of the anger sliding from her eyes, but she once again crossed her arms over her chest in a gesture that pissed him way the fuck off.

  “You do not need to protect yourself from me.”

  “What?”

  “You got your arms wrapped around yourself tight, holding yourself together. We may disagree, shit may get heated. We both got tempers. But what it will never be is ugly. Now, unwrap yourself, because you never gotta do that with me. Now tell me what’s got you so worked up.”

  “We’re not moving in.”

  “Why not?”

  At this juncture Alec was pretty damn pleased he was able to keep his voice calm.

  “Because it’s too soon.”

  “Bullshit. Known you nearly ten months.”

  “You have not.”

  “Yeah, Macy, I have. First time I saw you, I wanted to ask you out. But I knew I needed to get my shit straight and get Jocelyn settled so I needed to wait. Then I spent months watching you with my daughter, with your employees, with the other parents, and I liked what I saw. I liked it so much I was biding my time, waiting for the right time.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes, really. And I know you were interested in me, too.”

  Wisely, Macy didn’t deny it, she knew she was shit at hiding her emotions, so she was smart enough to know she hadn’t hidden her interest in him.

  “That doesn’t mean you know me.”

  “Yeah, it does.”

  “You—”

  “Babe, I might not know your
favorite color, what foods you hate, what kind of music you like, but I know the important shit. I know you’re a great mother, you’re good with Joss. You’re kind, sweet, cute, a good cook, you always do what you think is right even if it means you get shit on in the process. I know you’re stronger than you think, proven by the way you’ve handled the last week, especially the last two days. I know your kids adore you, your friends love you.

  “You’re fucking gorgeous, you’ve got great legs, a fine ass, tits that make my mouth water, and a pussy that is so fucking sweet I’ll never get enough. I know your eyes go soft when your kids smile and you light up when Joss is in your arms. I know you’re into me, I know you’re falling in love, I know you’re scared as shit because of that. I know you catch fire when I kiss you, and you go wild when you’re taking my cock. What else you got, Macy, because I know all I need to know about you to know I want you and your kids in my house, and I want it right now, and I want it forever.”

  “Alec,” Macy whispered, her eyes going soft and lazy.

  The sound of her voice, the way her chin dipped so she was staring at him from under her long, dark lashes, the way her body had relaxed, was playing havoc with his libido. His cock started to thicken in a way that would be visible in under two seconds if he didn’t find a way to control it.

  “Seriously, Macy, what other excuse do you have?”

  “I want to come to you strong,” she mumbled. “Not because I was desperate and needed protection. You have to know I’m here because I want to be, not because I don’t have any other options.”

  “Do you have other options?”

  “Yes.”

  “Do you want to be here?”

  There was a long pause before Macy’s eyes lifted to meet his and he braced for her denial, which would’ve been a fucking lie that would’ve gutted him because he thought they were past the bullshit.

  “Yes.”

  Thank fuck.

  “Then explain to me why you’d want to take Rory and Caleb, move them somewhere new, only to wait some arbitrary length of time before you move them back here? In case you missed it, honey, neither of them had a problem being here. Rory straight out said she was living here. Caleb wanted to know when the rest of his shit would be hauled over. Jocelyn gets you every day with the addition of the kids, you know she’s fine with it. I want you in my bed. I want Rory and Caleb here. You said you wanted to be here. So we got no problems, Macy. And just for the record, I will always protect you and those kids—whether you think you need my protection or not.”