20. Ryder #2
“Come on, let’s go bid on some things.” She grabs my sleeve and pulls me as we’re being ushered away. When she lets go, the back of her hand brushes against mine. What I wouldn’t give to lace my fingers with hers. To really walk around this event and have everyone know she’s with me.
“Do you come to these types of events often?” she asks, looking up at me.
“No. Just a couple over the years, and usually I’m entertainment, not as a potential donor.”
“What do you mean?”
“Like tonight, I’m here as a representative to the Tarpons. I’m not here to spend a lot of money.”
“Well, maybe we should.” She grins at me while looping her arm through mine.
“Maybe you should. I’ll give a donation, but there’s nothing here that I want.”
“You don’t know that,” she teases.
“Yes, I do. I looked over the auction items earlier today.”
She pulls back a little to look at me. “And you didn’t find anything?”
“There are puppies.”
Her jaw drops, and her face lights up. “No. Way.”
“Yep.” I grin back.
“Oh, we have to go see them.”
“That’s what I thought you would say.”
Walking into the separate room, themed “Oh, the Places You’ll Go,” we slowly make our way by each item as we head toward the far corner of the room.
There’s already a crowd, so to squeeze in, I pull Alice in front of me.
I want to place my hands on her shoulders, but touching her isn’t really allowed.
She gasps in delight at the three different furry golden puppies.
“Would you like to hold one?” a volunteer asks. Alice nods. “Yes, please.”
The lady in the enclosed area scoops up the smallest one with the light pink collar and gently passes it over.
“Her name is Holly. She is an FB1 medium golden doodle. She has hypoallergenic qualities, doesn’t shed, and will grow to about forty pounds.”
“She’s the sweetest,” Alice coos, cuddling the dog and tucking her face down. The puppy squirms a little and then looks up at her. It gives her a tiny lick on the cheek and then settles in.
“I can see why this would be a huge hit at an auction,” I say under my breath.
Alice glances over her shoulder and smiles. A true, genuine smile, not one of the fake ones that she gives others.
“Me too,” she whispers, turning so she’s kind of cuddling the puppy against my chest as well. Of course I pet it. How could I not? And when my fingers happen to touch hers, neither of us moves away.
We never talked about owning a dog. Is this something she would want one day?
Handing my phone to the person next to me, I ask them to take a photo of us. We need pictures for our own social pages, and this is as good as any.
Eventually, she hands the puppy to the next person, and we step back out of the way. I had mentioned the puppies to Camden earlier in the evening, and he told me they easily land in the five figures at a charity auction. Who knew?
“Do you have any pets?” Alice asks, as we watch in the background as the people ooh and aah.
“I do. I have a cat named Felix.”
She turns to look at me. “You got a cat? You don’t even like cats?”
Historically, I haven’t. I shrug. “Well, I like this one.”
She thinks about this and frowns. “How long have you had him?”
“Since May. Found him under my truck one day.”
“So, is he still a kitten?”
“I’d say more teenager, and he one hundred percent acts like it too.
Loves to knock things down, bites me when he wants to play, and then he crashes hard.
You would like him.” I can’t help the small smile that forms when I think about him.
He is kind of a terror, but somehow, he fits in the house. He fits with me.
He would fit with her too.
“Huh,” she says, still frowning.
“Do you have any pets?” I ask, wanting to know more about her too.
“No. Not yet.”
Leaving the auction room, the lights are a little dimmer and the band is a little louder. I know it’s a bad idea, but I can’t stop the words as they come out of my mouth.
“Will you dance with me?”
I hold out my hand for her, and she looks down at it. Please, Alice, don’t think too hard about this and just take the offering.
While watching me, she slowly slips her hand into mine. And I feel like I’ve won a million dollars.
We make our way onto the dance floor, where I spin her to face me. Beautiful chocolate eyes and thick lashes stare up at me. They’re vulnerable, and I know I’ve done this to her.
I look down at the ground, my eyes dragging over the shimmery fabric of her dress to her perfect little toes, with the bright-pink polished toenails peeking out at the bottom. Her shoes must be high-heeled tonight, as her head falls under my chin.
“Alice, this is hard for me, but I am trying,” I tell her. I don’t know what I’m necessarily trying to do, or say, but maybe it’s to call a truce?
One step at a time, she closes the distance between us, and her free hand, the one not wrapped in mine, slips around my back. Mine does the same where I pull her close so her body can mold with mine. Again, my hand is on her skin, and it’s soft, it’s her. Together we start swaying to the music.
“Why is this hard for you?” She tilts her head back to look at me. Her hair is done in this wavy old-Hollywood style, and it’s long enough that it brushes against my fingers. Having her this close, her sharp edges are gone, and she looks unguarded.
“You know why.” My thumb swipes back and forth. She arches into me the tiniest bit, and my lower stomach clenches.
“Do I?” She frowns. “Seems like there are a lot of things I don’t know.”
Breaking eye contact to end the conversation, she turns and lays her cheek against my chest. I pull our joined hands closer and rest my chin on top of her head.
Lavender wafts my way, and my eyes slip shut to memorize this moment.
I know it’s stolen. I know we probably shouldn’t be seen this close together, but I don’t care.
There are unresolved issues, but none of that changes the way I feel about her.
Deep down, she will always be my Alice. It wasn’t a slip up what I said to Sully. It was the truth.
And I’m always going to love her.