On my right stood Fiona. On my left stood Dan. Quinn and Ashley remained in the car downstairs. The remainder of the ladies from my knitting circle fanned behind me like a peacock tail. I imagined we made quite a sight.

“Hi,” I said.

“Hey….” He said, his eyes no longer meeting mine, but rather skimming the faces behind me and at my sides. “What’s going on?”

“Come on, get your jacket on. You’re coming with us.”

Alex’s eyes moved from Fiona to me. “Us?”

“Yes.” I nodded then gestured to my knitting gaggle. “You’re coming with all of us.”

“Where are we going?”

“You’ll find out. Come on.” I waved him forward.

He didn’t move.

Honestly, I was surprised; but I shouldn’t have been. I’d expected to show up and just ask him to come with me, and he would. I’d brought my peeps as witnesses in case I needed a cover story or a distraction—should Dumb Ass or Agent Bell be present.

I should have known better. Alex trusted me, but he trusted no one else. And it wasn’t a simple absence of trust like normal people have until they get to know someone better. Everyone in the entire world started at a trust deficit with him. His baseline was paranoid suspicion.

If I was having this much trouble convincing him to come downstairs, how was I going to convince him of everything else?

He licked his lips, scanned the crowd of faces before him. Once again, his gaze landed on Fiona’s before bouncing back to mine. “Sandra….”

“Alex, I haven’t asked for a whole lot; just honesty and sex. And now I’m going to ask you for one more thing. Get your useless jacket on and come with me.”

“That’s two things.”

“Ok, I’m your cray-cray jealous girlfriend, and I want to keep you in my sights all the time. Now get that sexy ass down those stairs. Hop to it.”

Instead of trusting me and just doing as I asked, Alex widened his stance, crossed his arms over his chest, and carefully cleared his face of all emotion. “Not until you explain what’s going on.”

We engaged in a minor staring contest. I broke it by stepping forward, wrapping my arms around his neck, and pressing my body to his. He tensed, though his hands automatically found their usual home on my waist.

“Alex,” I whispered against his ear, “I’m begging you. Come with me.” I pulled away, just far enough for him to see the urgency in my eyes.

He lifted his eyebrows, just a fraction of a centimeter; obvious surprise and concern now clouded his cobalt gaze. Then he nodded.

“Okay.” He leaned to one side, grabbed his jacked that I hated from some unseen place, and pulled it on as he shut the door. “Lead the way, cray-cray.”

CHAPTER 27

Introductions were made as we descended the stairs. He seemed to recognize all the ladies from our auspicious dinner several weeks ago. When it came time for me to introduce Dan, however, Alex cast him a distrustful once over. They shook hands, nevertheless. It was impressively brief.

Alex and I were the last two to enter the car. We had a bit of a standoff, wherein he insisted I enter first, and I demanded that he precede me. In the end, I entered but commanded him to hold my hand and move in next to me with no delay.

Once inside, door closed, car moving, Alex scanned the inhabitants with plain distrust, though all the ladies issued him friendly, welcoming grins—well, almost everyone.

“I don’t like this one bit.” Ashley sat across from Alex, her blue eyes assessing and hostile.

“No one cares.” Marie smacked her on the leg. “Your opinion doesn’t count. Only Sandra’s opinion matters.”

“One minute we’re eating chocolate peen bananas, and the next minute Quinn ushers us out the door and Fiona announces that we’re going on a boat cruise.” Ashley shook her head. “I’m not convinced of the urgency.”

Surprisingly, Ashley’s dissent seemed to help Alex relax. His eyes moved over her, his glare calculating, evaluating, sizing her up. His ghost smile made an appearance.

“If it makes you feel better, I don’t even know what’s going on.”

“No,” she replied flatly, unimpressed. “It doesn’t. It’s not supposed to happen this way.”

Marie elbowed Ashley, gave her a pleading look. I also gave her a pleading look, but she ignored us both.

Ashley leaned forward, her eyes still suspicious slits. “This woman, right here….” She pointed at me. “I love this woman. If anything happens to her, then I will fly all my brothers up from Tennessee, and they will redneck your ass. They make the Duck Dynasty guys look like Prince William’s polo team.”

I watched Alex’s profile, his expression calm but perplexed. “What is Duck Dynasty?”

Ashley stiffened, but then her expression mellowed. Her gaze moved over him as though he were something novel—like he was a new species.

“Don’t you watch TV?”

He shook his head.

“Not even online?”

He shook his head.

I volunteered, “He has no computer.”

“Oh.” She lifted a single eyebrow, glanced around the car looking for help. “Well, what do you do?”

“Read.”

“You’re a reader?”

I loved how Ashley asked the question, like being a reader meant that he was in a defined class of people. He may have won her over with that single word.

Quinn grumbled something, I could sense his impatience; Janie placed her hand on his knee and snuggled against his shoulder. This seemed to calm him.

“What do you read?” Kat asked.

Alex moved just his eyes to Kat.

“Mostly books on global currency theory, algorithms for the prediction of tertiary structures, and James Joyce.”

I laughed. “I knew you were going to say that.”

His eyes shifted to me, and I was graced with his small smile.

Ashley stuck out her hand to Alex; most of her hostility had been replaced with reluctant acceptance. She sighed as if she were resigned to her fate. “Well, I’m Ashley, your maid of honor….”

“My what?”

She ignored his question. “And I guess I’m pleased to meet you, fellow reader.”

Her eyes shifted to me, and I hoped that my expression communicated all my affection for her. Because I loved her.

“Okay,” Fiona announced, interrupting the moment. “Now you know Ashley. You know everyone else from upstairs except the big guy over there. Quinn, this is Alex. Alex, this is Quinn.” Fiona gestured to Quinn then to Alex.

“Hey,” Alex said, nodding his head in a subtle greeting in that way guys do when they aren’t paying attention.

Quinn responded in much the same manner.

“Hey.”

Then, the unthinkable happened. Quinn added, “It’s nice to meet you.”

I looked at Elizabeth, Elizabeth looked at Fiona, Fiona looked at Marie, Marie looked at Ashley, Ashley looked at Kat, and Kat looked at me. It was like looking in a six-way mirror of shock and awe.

Quinn Sullivan thought it was nice to meet someone…. You could have knocked me out with a cupcake.

“You too,” Alex replied, obviously thinking nothing of it. Because why would he? He didn’t know that Quinn might never have uttered those words to another person before in his entire life.

In just this small exchange, I had another cloud-parting moment. Quinn Sullivan admired Alex. How many other misanthrope computer geniuses had a nerdy hard on for my future husband?

Alex might have picked up on some discord in the car, but he ignored it in favor of leaning against me and asking quietly, “Can you tell me now where we’re going?”

“Yes. But first,” I held my hand out to Fiona and she retrieved my reusable grocery bag from the bench beside her. I dug inside and pulled out the object of my search. “First, you need to put this on.”

Alex frowned at the black garment, turning it over so he could see the front. “What is this?”

“It’s an occasion T-shirt. See, it’s even black. It has short sleeves so you can just put it on over what you’re already wearing. Do you like the bow tie?”

“Sandra….” He blinked then opened his mouth. Closed it. Opened it again. “This says, I married Sandra Fielding, and all I got was this lousy T-shirt.”

“Yep.”

“Oh! I remember that shirt.” Janie bounced a little on her seat. “We gave that to you last summer. How fun that you get to use it now.”

Alex’s eyes moved between Janie and me. “What is going on?”

“You’re getting married tonight—to her,” Ashley said. Her disappointment in not being consulted was replaced with satisfaction at being the one to break the news.

“What?” I’d never witnessed a stunned Alex.

I faced him. “You don’t want to marry me?”

Alex appeared quite suddenly claustrophobic and frazzled. He glanced out the windows and eyed the door. I’d never witnessed a frazzled Alex.

“Yes, no…I mean, yes, of course. Yes, I do want to marry you. I’d have married you months ago.” His gaze met mine, and after a pause, his features relaxed. “You know how I feel. But, why are you doing this?”