Reason Is You (9781101576151) Read Free Page A

my brain on meltdown.
    “Surprise.”
    His voice was soft and low and when my eyes popped open, his expression had gone just as soft.
    “What?”
    “Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”

Chapter 2
    “W HAT the—” I blinked, turned and walked a few steps, and turned back again. I suddenly felt too hot, and my hair smothered me. I lifted it from my neck and held it there.
    “Evidently, you didn’t know.”
    “No,” I whispered. It wasn’t meant to be a whisper, but that’s all that came out. “How—did I miss it?”
    “You need to talk to her.”
    I laughed weakly at that. He wouldn’t blink and it gave me a twitch.
    “Oh sure. ‘Honey, see that girl over there? Yeah, I know you like her shoes but don’t go tell her that because she’s dead and people are watching.’” I rubbed a hand over my eyes. “God, I shouldn’t have come back here.”
    “It’s not geography.”
    A fat, random water droplet landed on my arm and I cast my gaze toward the heavy grayness rolling overhead. “Maybe not, butit’s stronger here. Like a magnet.” I looked back at Alex. “She never did this before.”
    “Coincidence.”
    The panic rolled over me as I checked my watch for a reason I didn’t really have. “Maybe we can still go back to Dallas. I’ll—find something.”
    “Dani.”
    “I don’t want her to have to live this life,” I said as I bit my lip and lowered my voice. “I didn’t come back to have to worry about her, too.”
    “Keeping it from her doesn’t protect her, Dani, it makes her have to struggle like you did.”
    Looking into his eyes as he said that brought back those memories in a rush. Things I’d locked away and put behind me. The weight of the soggy air pushed at me, and my frayed nerves pushed back.
    “Talk to her.”
    “Okay, okay. I get it,
Dad
,” I said, folding my arms tight around myself. “Hi, by the way. Nice to see you again. Get lost, did you?”
    His mouth twitched into a smile and he pushed off the car, resting both hands in his pockets.
    “Walk with me.”
    Of course. What the hell else would I do? Typical Alex diversion. I fell into step beside him, glancing around for Riley. I heard the dog bark inside so I figured she’d gone back in with him. My head spun as the thoughts bombarded me. What had I come back to?
    “By the way—the
dad
comment? Math doesn’t work that way anymore, Dani.” He leaned closer and whispered, “You’re older than me.”
    I made a sound of disgust. “Oh, that’s just wrong.”
    “I’ve always thought older women are hot.”
    “No, you didn’t.”
    He laughed again. “No, I didn’t. But—” At his pause I looked up and his eyes set me on fire again. “I do now.”
    I stopped, ignoring the need to fan myself. The buzz—the rush that always pulled at me when around him—was the same, but I didn’t remember being
this
drawn to him before. Maybe because back then he was old.
    “Where’d you go, Alex? Where have you been?”
    There was the intensity in his eyes that I remembered, playful and dead serious at the same time. Infuriatingly hard to read. An almost-smile pulled at his lips.
    “How was college?”
    I blinked. “Uh—two decades ago,” I said, laughing for the first time since I’d seen him talking to Riley.
    “Okay, how are you doing since the layoff?”
    I felt my smile dissipate. “How do you—” I stopped and licked my lips. He wasn’t a mind reader. He wasn’t God. He never just
knew
things like movies portray. “Been keeping tabs, Alex?”
    He didn’t respond, but his expression turned soft. His left eye twitched, a sign of failing composure for him. He turned to face the water ahead of us, and I followed his gaze to the dock. Sporadic sprinkles dotted the river, and the smell was unmistakable. I looked back to see that his eyes had gone hard and faraway. He was done talking; I knew the signs. Just as I knew as I resumed walking down to the dock, he wouldn’t follow me.
    The ground was