“Are you going off the rails?”
“I haven’t embarrassed myself today yet, so there’s hope. I know my sister means well. It’s just hard to take.”
“She loves you.” He grinned. “And it never hurts to have a bulldog for a sister. We should all be so lucky.”
“I finally told her about Tommy dumping me. I blurted it out at a bad moment and walked off. She’s been avoiding me since.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It was my own fault. In trying to spare her any extra pain, I only caused more.”
“She’ll forgive you.”
“We’ll see.” Dana sighed. “Do you have any brothers or sisters?”
“No.” Alex paused. “I wish I did, though. My parents were in their forties when they had me. They’d both spent a lot of time concentrating on their careers and when they finally decided to start a family, there were problems. My mom’s never talked a lot about it but she told me there were several miscarriages before I came along. After me, they stopped trying for other children.”
“I can imagine. That must have been hard on your parents.”
“I’m sure it was. To lose a child, at any stage…”
“Are you okay? You spaced out there for a second.”
He grasped her hand. It felt smooth and cool in his own and he enjoyed stroking his thumb over her palm. “I’m all right. Really.”
“I didn’t mean to bring up a difficult topic.”
“You didn’t. Our little family might not be what my parents envisioned, but we were happy. I’m one of the lucky ones. I grew up loved and healthy and supported. If I’m fucked up in any way, it’s my own fault, not my parents’.”
“You’re close to them.”
He chuckled. “Yeah. In fact, my mother calls me at least once a week to ask me when I’m going to give her grandbabies. I’ve assured her at least six of the seven will be named after her.”
“So youdowant kids? You know, one day?”
“One day, yeah. Kids would be great.”
Dana’s face turned grey.
“Hey, are you okay?”
She reached for her coffee cup and brought it to her lips. When she sat it down again, it clattered. “Still a bit hung over, I guess.”
“Listen, you didn’t come here for my life story.”
“I just really wanted to apologize for my behavior. I should go.”
When she reached for her handbag, Alex grabbed her hand. “Don’t leave. We need to talk. Please.”
She set her handbag back down.
“I can’t stop thinking about you.”
She stiffened. “That’s a shame. A busy man like you must have lots to do. I’d hate to get in your way.”
“You’re not. I like thinking about you.”
“Alex, don’t.”
