Chapter 17

Casey

The naked trees reflected in the rearview mirror as I peered out the window, laughing at one of Alexander’s ridiculous jokes. How had the first two hours of our journey to Tampa already passed? It felt as though we had just stopped at the gas station to fill the gas tank, and, here we were, with just under four hours to go. Besides Liana, I had never been able to tolerate long car rides with anyone—until Alexander.

From the moment he’d shown up at my door with breakfast and coffee three hours earlier, I knew this ride was going to be special.

“Well?” Alexander said, pulling my mind back into our conversation.

“Sorry… what was that?”

Instead of getting upset that I hadn’t been paying attention, Alexander laughed it off. Damn was he different from the assholes I’d dated in the past. “I asked if you were nervous about meeting my family.”

“A little,” I said. I gulped, knowing that I should be honest. “Ok, more than a little. I don’t know what you’ve told them about me—or if you’ve told them about me. What about the baby? What are we? Do we have a label?” I knew I was rambling but I couldn’t help it. These were the thoughts that had been bubbling under in my mind for the month since Alexander had asked me to go.

“I don’t want you to stress, babe,” Alexander said. He took his right hand off the steering wheel and placed it gently on my knee. “It’s bad for the baby.”

I turned my face away from him to hide my obvious blushing. I had butterflies in my stomach, both because he was comfortable enough with me to use a pet name, and because he was talking like a true father. “I can’t help it.”

“As far as what we are, I’d say we’re in a pretty solid relationship at this point. Boyfriend and girlfriend, yeah?”

“Yeah,” I smiled.

“I told my parents I’m bringing someone special with me,” Alexander said. “I left it at that. When it comes to the baby, I’m fine with whatever you’re comfortable with. We can tell them you’re pregnant, or maybe you can wear something less form-fitting and cover it up if you want to take one step at a time.”

I let out a breath to symbolize the weight that had been lifted from my shoulders. I was incredibly grateful to have such an understanding guy by my side. “That sounds good,” I agreed. Alexander burst out laughing for reasons I couldn’t understand. “What’s so funny?”

“I was just thinking… you probably want to leave out the part about our relationship starting as a sperm donation.”

I couldn’t help but laugh along. I had to admit, it was refreshing, given that Alexander could have just as easily been cowering in shame about the start of our relationship.

A sudden pain in my stomach had me keeling over in my seat. “Ow!” I shrieked. Before I knew what was happening, Alexander swerved onto the shoulder and put the car in park.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, concern in his eyes.

“I…umm…” It suddenly occurred to me what the pain was. “The baby just kicked!” The awkwardness of the silence that filled the car was palpable. Was Alexander already rethinking things? “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you.”

Alexander’s stoic expression formed into a thin smile. “The baby’s kicking? That’s great! That is a good thing, right?”

“I’m not really sure, to be honest,” I said.

“I bet that means he’s going to be strong,” Alexander said.

I rolled my eyes. “Or she.”

“Yeah, that too.” Alexander put his turn signal on and headed back onto the road. This was really happening. He was serious about me and this baby. Years of neglect and emotional abuse had led me to expect the worst, and I wished more than anything that I could fully let myself and my worries go. Alexander wasn’t going anywhere. I didn’t know how I knew that. I just did.

“Want to play a game?” I asked.

Alexander shrugged. “What sort of game are we talking about?”

“When I was with Liana last month, she told me there was this quiz that all couples just have to take,” I explained. “Apparently, it’ll help us learn more about each other. I know it sounds corny, but we have a few more hours to go, so I thought maybe—”

“Lay ‘em on me!”

I scrolled through my phone to find the email Liana had sent me with the link. I hadn’t ever planned on going through this stupid quiz, but I didn’t wanted to start an argument with a woman in labor. “Ah. Here it is!” I looked through the link and realized that it was more of a questionnaire than a quiz.

“So how does it work?” Alexander said.

“Well, I’ll read a question from the list, and we’ll both give our answers to it.” I felt like a senior in high school explaining the rules to a silly game to friends at a sleepover. Lucky for me, Alexander seemed to find the prospect of this game quite charming. He always had a way of reassuring me without saying a word. “Just let me know if there’s anything too personal that you don’t want to answer.”

Alexander chuckled. “More personal than having a baby together?”

“I’ll give you that,” I said with a smile.

The questions started off simple, asking about favorite foods, colors, and singers. The only interesting—and new—tidbit I really learned was that, besides loving Bruce Springsteen and Bon Jovi, Alexander had a soft spot for Elton John. We both loved lasagna, and Alexander preferred oatmeal raisin cookies over white chocolate macadamia. I decided to let that one slide. I could try to convert him later.

“What are your worst habits?” I said, reading from the screen.

“Hmm…” Alexander said. “That’s a good one. Let me think. You wanna take this one first?”

I flipped my hair back over my shoulders. “Sure. Probably my worst habits are overthinking things and procrastinating. I’m pretty last-minute about things. Ok, very last-minute.”

“Then I guess it’s a good thing one of my worst habits is being annoyingly punctual,” Alexander said with a laugh. “Also, I’m a big-time pen clicker. All through meetings, click, click, click.”

“Nooooo! You’re one of those people?!”

Alexander flashed his teeth at me. “I’m sorry to say I am.”

Another issue I would have to let slide, at least for the time being. I supposed that, if Alexander’s worst qualities were his cookie preferences and writing instrument habits, we were in good shape.

“What was your first love like?” I asked. Alexander swooped his hair back, something I had picked up to be a nervous habit of his. I could tell this was something he didn’t want to discuss, and the last thing I wanted was to make him uncomfortable, especially since we were trapped in this car together for another few hours. “Never mind. We can skip this one. What’s your—”

“Her name was Allison,” Alexander said, his gaze focused on the road in front of him. “We dated for two years while we were in college and had honestly planned on spending our lives together.”

I wasn’t sure if I felt sorry for him that this had seemingly impacted him so much, or jealous that he’d had such a deep love before me. “What happened?” I asked.

“I had this big plan for Valentine’s Day, which was also our second anniversary,” Alexander explained. “Since we were juniors in college, we didn’t have a whole lot of money and we lived in dorms. I’d spent days making little love notes to hang all over the walls of her dorm room. You know, things I loved about her, quotes from love songs… that kind of thing.”

“That’s really sweet, Alexander.” I rested my hand on Alexander’s shoulder as a gesture of understanding. His voice was growing increasingly quiet, but he almost seemed relieved to be opening up. I knew all too well what he must be feeling.

Alexander let out a loud sigh. “I thought so, too. Her roommate had given me a key to their room, so I just had to wait for the perfect moment. While we were hanging out the night before, she told me she had a meeting with one of her professors at noon, so I decided that was when I’d go.” He paused, and I nodded at him to continue. “Well, when I got to the room, Allison was there.”

“Uh oh,” I said.

“Under another guy,” Alexander said.

Gulp. That was a punch in the gut. I could feel Alexander’s sadness just listening to him talk about it. Of course, it had worked out well for me that he had broken up with Allison, but that was years ago. The thought of Alexander hurt made me sick to my stomach. Allison was definitely the one who’d lost out. Alexander was everything a girl could dream of. “I’m sorry.” I knew that sounded lame, so I searched desperately for words to make him feel better. “If it’s any consolation, she missed out on an incredible guy.”

“Thanks,” Alexander said, the frown slowly fading from his face. “I found out she’d been cheating on me for months with some guy from her lit class. Broke my heart. Bet you’d be shocked to know that big macho CEO over here couldn’t leave his bed for three days because he was so devastated.”

“Wow.” He was wrong about that, but now wasn’t the time to tell him. I was shocked the first time I saw the emotional, sentimental side of Alexander, but now it was just another facet of him that I loved.

“It was a long time ago, but it still hurts to think about it. It took me a long time to trust again,” Alexander said.

“I get it,” I said. “Just know that you can always trust me.”

Alexander squeezed my hand in his. “I know. Damn lucky, too, because I’ve fallen pretty hard for you.”

I felt the blood rush to my cheeks. “Good to know.”

“Tallahassee,” Alexander said, reading a green sign on the side of the road. “Your neck of the woods.”

“Want to see where I grew up?” I asked, following a newfound confidence inside of me. Alexander jerked the wheel to the right and took the next exit.