“You should take more time for yourself,” he stated as he slid a bowl of soup in front of her. “You need to take care of yourself as much as you need to take care of the other people in your life.”
She shrugged. “It’s hard to find time between work and Kier.”
“But you aren’t a single mother anymore.”
“Right, cause you stopped the adoption.”
Alex winced, not exactly where he wanted this conversation to go. “That’s not what I meant.”
“It’s what happened.” She asserted wryly as she picked up her spoon.
“You aren’t going to goad me into a fight.”
“You aren’t going to seduce me with a bowl of soup and toast.”
Alex got a bowl of soup for himself and circled the island to sit beside her. She wanted to fight because if they weren’t fighting, they were getting closer. He wasn’t going to follow her down that path. This was a battle of wills, and Alex needed to win. He needed to work on chipping away at her defenses.
“This isn’t seduction. This is me trying to take care of my friend.”
He put down his bowl and stepped into India’s personal space. Crowding her, so she had to look up at him as he leaned in until their faces were inches apart.
“This is seduction,” He murmured softly before he kissed her.
CHAPTER SEVEN
India touched her lips absently before shaking her head. When he kissed her, it was like she’d been struck by a bolt of lighting. Every nerve in her body reacted to the touch of his lips on hers. It had been a long time since she felt that for someone. Even longer since she felt that for Alex.
He was as dangerous as ever. When she was around him, more and more of their past kept rearing its head in her mind. She had spent the last few weeks avoiding Alex ever since. India knew spending too much time alone with Alex would only end with trouble for the both of them.
He had a way of getting under her skin, and she could not let that happen. Just the mention of their past brought back memories. Not just the sad ones or the angry ones, but the memories of when they were happy, young and in love. She couldn’t help but think back to their teenage years. As crazy as they drove each other, they had some amazing times together.
Alex asked her out for the first time in Frankie’s diner. He’d been hanging out with a group of boys from school. When she had walked in with a group of friends. She must have been around thirteen?
Maybe fourteen?
Either way, she was a freshman and entirely unsure of herself and her newly developed body. Puberty had hit her hard and her curves had come in full force. For the first time in her life, she found herself attracting a lot of attention from girls who wanted to be friends with her and from boys who wanted to test out the new curves on her.
It was odd to say the least. She was used to being ignored by boys. India was a wallflower. A nerd, not something the boys usually took the time to look twice at. Smart and into her studies, she didn’t have much of a reputation for being fun or all that interesting.
Alex had been one of those boys, though his approach had been less than smooth. All awkward silence and stilted sentences, he could barely get the words out. She found him utterly adorable. His last name hadn’t mattered to her. Not back then.
It took her awhile to realize just how different the worlds they came from were and to fully understand just how crazy his world was. Her family was solidly middle class. They didn’t struggle for anything, but they weren’t taking private jets to private islands. Or spending spring breaks on yachts.
She embraced the ordinary. His family seemed to do everything possible appear extraordinary. They had enough money to take a good stab at it. It was hard to go around town and not see the Saint Clair name on something or other.
Alex’s family treated most people like they were beneath them. The only reason she and Alex even went to the same school was because Westbrook had the best public school in the Country. There was no point in putting him in the prep school the next town over.
India slipped out of bed and walked over to her bag to pull out her laptop. They had set up Kier’s nursery the first week she moved in. Both she and Alex had baby monitors in their room just in case he woke up in the middle of the night and needed something. He slept through the night most nights, so she usually worked for a few hours before going to bed.
Slipping down onto the floor, she opened the computer and logged on. Just a few short keystrokes and she was looking at old pictures on facebook. Alex had always had a slim build, chocolate brown skin, and dark brown eyes. He kept his hair cropped short. Back then, his wardrobe had consisted of a lot of tan khakis and polo shirts.
Slowing clicking through the pictures, she felt a wave of nostalgia. In high school, she had been a jumbled mess of fearless and completely self-conscious. Everyone felt like they had something to prove. They had been so young.
So sure of themselves and what they thought they wanted. No one could tell them anything different. He was going to take his father’s company and blow it up to epic proportions. She was going to be a writer and a mother. India always knew she wanted a family like the one she had grown up with.
Chuckling, she clicked on a picture of the two of them dressed in costume for a Halloween party. He had dressed up like George Jetson, and she had dressed up like Jane Jetson. They looked utterly ridiculous in their orange-red wigs and futuristic clothing, but they had so much fun that night.
For all his grumbling, Alex enjoyed dressing up. Smiling down at her with his arms wrapped around her waist, he made the red wig look good. They looked happy together. She bit the inside of her lip as she studied the photo. They were always happy when they were together.
That night would be etched into her mind forever. It was one of the few times she managed to get Alex to forget who he was and just be a kid with her. Sometimes he was so wrapped up in being a “Saint Clair” he forgot to be a teenager. Ambition is great, but it was not something to build a life on.
India remembered laughing a lot. They had eaten their body weight in candy and danced with a group of their friends. They made out behind the giant mâché paper pumpkin that night. Mrs. Night, their American History teacher, had caught them and lectured them for ten minutes before letting them off with a warning.
She remembered thinking she never wanted to go home. Not if it meant leaving him. Sighing, she clicked on another picture. He used to be her favorite person. Even when he was driving her completely nuts, she wanted to be near him.
****
“Hold still.” India warned him as she slathered her boyfriend’s face in product.
“Why did I ever agree to let you do this,” Alex asked as he sat on the floor of her living room with his head tilted back against the couch cushion. “This isn’t exactly how I thought we would be spending the afternoon.”
India rolled her eyes as she stood over him and continued to slather his face. She had spent the last five minutes mixing up a facemask for the both of them. It was a hot summer day and Alex had insisted on coming over, despite her warning him she wouldn’t be going out in that oppressive heat. She wanted to spend the afternoon watching movies while eating popcorn and giving herself a facial. He could have stayed him.
In fact, she had told him he could stay home… repeatedly. She grinned at the obvious irritation in his voice. He should be happy, she was letting him impose on her.