Mari

“Do you need a place to stay while you’re in town, Alec?” My mother pours him a cup of Folgers coffee. “You’re welcome to stay with us or we can make some hotel recommendations. There’s a Super 8 just off the highway that’s been recently remodeled. I hear good things. Has a pool and a fitness center.”

“Mom, he’s fine.” I chuckle. She’s going overboard with the hospitality today, treating Alec like the visiting King of England.

“So, Alec, you’re a marketing guy?” Dad asks, crossing his legs wide at the head of the table. “You come up with any jingles or anything like that?”

Alec fights a smile, shaking his head. “I do online marketing. Social media presence. Brand building. Search-engine optimization. That sort of thing.”

“I’ve been thinking about getting one of this Insta-macallits for my company. I’ve got a Facebook page. Think we’ve got about three hundred likes so far? I don’t post anything on there. I wouldn’t even know what to say.” Dad takes a sip of the coffee Mom places in front of him. “What do you say? I’ve never understood those websites anyway. Who cares what I ate for breakfast or what movie I saw last night. Why does everyone need to tell everyone what they’re doing all the damn time?”

Alec laughs. “It’s a bit more complex than that. If we had more time, I’d outline a quick strategy for you. Maybe once I get back to Hong Kong I can send you some notes?”

“Yeah. I’d like that.” Dad nods.

Mom takes a seat next to Alec, resting her chin in her hand as she stares at him. I can tell he notices, but he’s trying to be polite. I’d kick her under the table if I could. She needs to stop.

“I wonder whose eyes the baby will have,” Mom muses out loud. “Alec, you have dimples, right?”

“Mom.” I clear my throat.

“I’m sorry. I’m just excited. Didn’t think I’d get to be a grandma so young,” she says. “How do your parents feel about this? Will this be their first?”

Alec nods. “Yeah, we haven’t really discussed it yet. They know about it. Thanks to my sister. But we haven’t had a chance to really sit down.”

My dad frowns. “Oh?”

“So you’re working in Hong Kong,” Mom says. “What are you going to do if she goes into labor?”

He glances at me. “I plan to come back to the States by the time Mari gets close to her due date. We’ll figure it out. I’ll be there no matter what.”

Checking his phone, he takes a generous sip of his coffee before standing.

“I hate to cut out of here already, but I’ve got a flight out of Omaha back to New York in a few hours, then I’m catching a red-eye back to Hong Kong.” Alec places his phone back in his pocket.

My father rises before walking closer and extending a hand. “This situation may not be ideal, Alec, but I appreciate you stepping up to do the right thing.”

Alec gives him a tight-lipped nod. “Of course. Was a bit of a shock to me, but a good friend kind of put things into perspective for me, and I knew I couldn’t leave Mari like that.”

“I’ll show you out.” I get up from the table, heading toward the front door as my mom wraps Alec in a warm hug.

Once we’re outside, he climbs into his car, and I stand outside the driver’s window.

“Thanks again,” I say.

We spent all day together, trying to figure out the logistics of this entire thing. He says if I wanted to move back to the city, he’d ensure I had a comfortable apartment and that our child would attend the best schools. But with as much as Alec travels, I think I should stay here and raise the baby in Nebraska, where my family can help. He vowed to help me either way.

He also vowed to spend as much time with the baby as possible when he’s stateside.

I hope he wasn’t just telling me what I wanted to hear, but for now, I have every reason to believe he meant what he said.

“Hey, Alec …” I lean into his window. I hate that I’m about to ask this, but I have to know. “What did Hudson say to you that made you change your mind?”

He leans back in his seat, staring straight ahead at my parents’ garage door and the old basketball hoop attached at the top.

He exhales. “It was more in the delivery than the actual message.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve known Hudson my entire life, and when I told him about how I didn’t want to be a father and how I wanted you to get rid of it, I’d never seen him so angry. He told me to do the right thing,” he says. “And there was this fire in his eyes like I’ve never seen. He said I only had one chance to do the right thing. Those words really resonated with me after that. This baby’s coming into the world, and it’s only going to be born once. If I miss that or birthdays or anything else, there’s no going back.”

“When did he say this to you?”

He turns to me. “A few hours after you left Sea La Vie.”

I rise, taken aback.

So this man was furious with me for hiding the pregnancy … but he still had it in him to make damn sure Alec knew he should do the right thing?

“Hudson loves you, Mari,” Alec says, nodding. “I’ve never seen him care that much about anyone. Not even my sister.” He starts his engine. “Anyway, I hope you guys can work things out. It’d be a shame if you couldn’t. You guys seemed really happy back in Montauk. Like, genuinely happy.”

Stepping away from the car, I give him a wave and watch as he pulls out of the drive.

Heading back in, I slip on my sneakers and tell my parents I’m taking a walk. It’s dusk now, the sun just dipping under the horizon, and in the distance, the lights are on at the Frank Lloyd Wright house.

I don’t know what I’m going to say when I get there, but something is compelling me, pulling me in that direction.

Seeing Hudson so jealous at the coffee shop earlier and hearing how he defended me when he didn’t have to … it changes things.

I wanted to be done with him.

I wanted to cut my losses and move on.

But I don’t think I could if I tried. And god have I tried.

Five minutes later, I’m a couple of houses down from his, my heart racing a thousand beats per second.

There’s a white Mercedes in his driveway, and upon closer inspection, I spot two shadows in the front window by the door. They’re standing close together, nodding and probably chatting. It’s a woman, her hourglass curves exceedingly obvious by the shadow her body makes against the glass.

She reaches for his shoulder, then his face. Touching him. Standing closer, closer still.

A moment later, the door opens and a gorgeous platinum blonde bombshell steps out, giving him a tiny wave with her fingertips before her cherry lips spread into a sex kitten smirk. I watch as she brushes her hair from her face, wearing the smile of a woman who’s stumbled across a man who makes her feel alive again.

I know that smile.

I know that feeling.

Hudson stands in the doorway, watching her leave, and she struts down the concrete steps and paved sidewalk to her waiting car, her hips swinging with each step. Once she’s gone, he disappears inside.

Hours ago he was flying into a jealous rage at the sight of me having coffee with Alec, but it seems as though he wasted no time finding a pretty little thing to ease his pain.

The vision of him watching her walk away is what kills me.

And here I thought Hudson had changed.

This was a bad idea, and for that reason, I’m going home.