Page 92 of Digging Up Love
Coming around behind his wife’s chair, Tre kissed her cheek.
“You’re pregnant?”
Radhika and Tre nodded in unison.
“You didn’t really think I asked you to stay for dinner just to figure out your love life, did you?” Tre beamed from ear to ear.
Quentin leaped up and went around to give Radhika a hug. Of course, mush-hearted guy that he was, Tre leaned over and grabbed him around the neck. He thumped his friend on the back. “I’m so happy for you two!”
Smoothing a hand down the front of her purple-and-white Northwestern tee, Radhika grinned. “Don’t you dare tell me I’m showing yet, Quentin. Too early. This is just the pizza.”
But Tre passed Quentin his phone and slid his hands around his wife’s belly. “Here’s the first sonogram.”
“Already showing off pictures of your kid?” He grinned down at Radhika. “Your husband’s in deep.” Quentin made appreciative noises about the black-and-white blur, then passed the phone back. “You thought of names yet? Besides Quentin, of course.”
Tre tossed out silly names, and Quentin waited for the familiar sting of resentment, but his chest expanded, filled with joy for his best friend. Tre had taken a few years of convincing, but it couldn’t have been more obvious he wanted to be a dad. He was ready.
And Quentin? Kids were great and all, but what did he really want right now?
Alisha.
He wanted her and her trust issues and prickly defenses and old-lady slang and all. Together, their broken pieces fit together into symmetry. But what about her? Did she feel the bone-deep ache of being apart? Would it be enough to make her step out and take a chance on herself?
CHAPTER 33
ALISHA
The barbell dug into Alisha’s shoulders, and sweat stung her eyes. The paleontologists were working in the backyard, so she kept the overhead doors down, in no mood for a repeat performance of the first day. But after she’d finished her set, she couldn’t bear the heat and whipped off her T-shirt, panting in black leggings and white Converse.
This morning the crew had come back to work at the dig, but like a coward, she’d spent the night at Meg’s, then hid out at the restaurant all day, burning browned butter and overworking tart dough. A wreck of a workday, but she wasn’t about to mope around the house and make herself available. Not after Quentin had ghosted her. Lizzo blasted through her headphones, but she upped the volume even more.
It’s not me who’s scared of ending up alone.Hypocrite. As if that wasn’tallshe worried about, day and night. Like a gladiator pitted against a friend in the arena, she’d had the gall to take his deepest hurt and spin it on him. All because the truth of his words had left her reeling. He was right—shewasinventing excuses to stay. But still, he couldn’t waltz into her life and push her to change everything immediately on his terms.
Never mind that she wanted the change. Never mind that she wantedhim, desperately.
Alisha turned back to the weight rack and finished another set of heavy squats, her thighs trembling at the last rep. After she’d reracked the bar, she ducked out, turned around, and froze. Quentin stood at the side door, black T-shirt covered in a dusting of dirt, a White Sox baseball hat tugged down over his brow. Pulse in her throat, she slid off her headphones but didn’t bother to put on her shirt.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt you.” He closed the door behind him, looking not at all sorry. His gaze consumed her, dark and hungry. “No one answered up at the house, but when I saw your car in the drive, I thought I might find you in here.”
Twitchy under his scrutiny, she tightened her ponytail. “Found me.”
Quentin took off his hat and ran a hand over his fresh-cut curls, the action sending a traitorous tug through her gut. “I’ve missed you so much. I’ve been dying to talk to you all day.”
“No missed calls. No texts.” She grabbed up her phone from the bench and shook it, hating herself for her catty tone.
“In person.” His brow furrowed, and the intensity in his eyes faded. He walked up to the edge of the rubber mat, twisting his hat in his hands. “I shouldn’t have reacted the way I did at the beach.” He paused and rubbed a finger under his bottom lip.
“It’s just, after Mercedes, I’m scared any woman I meet is going to pull something over on me. And the thought of you not telling your family you’re leaving until the last minute didn’t sit well with me. I guess ...” He hesitated again. “I guess I imagined them waking up and you being gone.”
A toxic brew of emotions shot through Alisha’s veins, so potent she stumbled back and banged her head on the barbell. “Like my father?”
“What? No, Alisha, that’s not what I meant.”
“Yet it’s exactly what you said.” She unbuckled her weight belt and tossed it aside, needing space to breathe.
He strode over to where she stood at the squat rack, and she backed under the barbell, the steel bar a barrier between them.
“I’m sorry, Alisha. That’s why I’m here, apologizing. I iced you out and blamed you for my own issues. That was wrong of me. I know you wouldn’t do something like that.”
