Page 29 of The Homemaker (The Chain of Lakes #1)

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Murphy

Trust is unrealistic.

It’s how foolish people pretend they have control.

Eight Years Earlier …

It was official. The night before Alice had to leave, I took her on our first date. In honor of the occasion, I made reservations at an upscale Japanese restaurant. And I wore a suit and tie since she seemed to enjoy how I looked the day of my grandfather’s funeral.

Cologne.

Perfect hair.

And a small bouquet of pink dahlias.

I knocked on the front door instead of the back door, and she slowly opened it.

“What are you doing coming to this door?” she asked before her breath caught, then her grin swelled when I handed her the flowers. “Murphy,” she whispered, failing to hide the emotion in her eyes as she stepped aside to let me in. “They're beautiful.” She took the bouquet and kissed me.

I slid my hands along her silk kimono robe, grabbing her backside. “What’s under this?”

She shook her head, retreating from my grasp. “You’ll find out later. Let me slip on my dress and shoes.”

“I’m rethinking this date.”

Alice laughed from the bedroom. “ All I’ve been thinking about is this date, except the bowling. You should absolutely rethink that part.”

Her enthusiasm and humor calmed my nerves. All I’d been thinking about was her leaving me the following day with nothing more than a promise to come back.

When she stepped out of the bedroom in a black mini dress with buttons down the front and thin straps, the nerves returned in full force. I didn’t want her to leave. The risk of not seeing her again hurt too much.

“I’m speechless.”

Her cheeks turned pink. “That’s what I was going for.”

I held out my arm. “Shall we?”

She took it. “We shall.”

We bowled, wearing warm rentals, and as expected, she won. I didn’t care. It was her laughter and nonchalant shrugs after bowling a strike that I knew I’d never forget. After two rounds, we headed to dinner.

The restaurant was on the thirty-fifth floor of a bank building with a stunning view of the city.

“You know food is my love language. And right now, I could orgasm,” she said after the server filled our table with dishes of Japanese fare that looked like art.

I sipped my Negroni. “Do you want to orgasm now ?” My gaze said I’d happily slide into her side of the booth and hike her dress up her legs to snake my hand between them.

She squirmed in her seat and wet her red lips while nodding. “But I want to wait. It’s more fun this way.”

“You mean wait until I’m ripping that dress off you because I’m too impatient to unbutton it?”

She pinched the nigiri between her chopsticks and lifted it to my lips. “I look forward to it.”

Why did I wait so long to ask her out on a real date? I couldn’t get enough of her flirty grins and unbridled laughter where she tipped her head back and rested her hand on her chest.

“No pouting, mister,” she said halfway through dinner as I tapped my chopsticks on the side of my plate.

I glanced up at her. “I’m not pouting. I’m …”

“Pouting.” She smiled enough for both of us.

I pulled my phone out of my pocket. “I don’t even have your number.” I brought up a new contact and slid my phone across the table.

Alice stared at it. “I thought you were waiting for me?”

“I am. Does that mean I can’t have your phone number?”

She continued to stare at my phone. “We’ll exchange numbers when I get back. Trust me.”

After a few seconds of inspecting the flicker of worry across her face, I pulled my phone away from her and slid it back into my pocket. “Feels like you’re not coming back.”

“Are we getting dessert? Please say yes.”

Dessert? My appetite was gone. How could she think about dessert?

As only an actress could do, Alice pinned a smile to her face and filled the rest of the meal with meaningless conversation. I wasn’t as dedicated as she was to pretending everything would be just fine, but I gave it a half-assed effort anyway.

“We should go dancing,” she said, hugging my arm as we strolled to the car in the parking garage.

“My toes hurt just thinking about it.”

She giggled. “Give yourself a little more credit. You’ve taught me to dance.”

I unlocked the car. “I’ve taught you to sway so you don’t have to step on my toes as much.”

“That’s what I said. You taught me to dance.”

I tried to grin instead of pout, but damn the clock continued to tick.

Dancing wasn’t going to change that. And by that point, I just wanted to crawl under the sheets with her and convince her to tell me everything or invite me to come with her—something more than blind faith that she’d return.

I wasn’t religious enough to feel comforted by that.

“I didn’t know rain was predicted,” she said as we pulled onto the street and droplets splattered against the windshield.

“Me neither.” I turned on the wipers.

The gravity of our last hours together seemed to leave us without anything to say. I opened my mouth to speak more than once, but each time, I closed it just as quickly because the right words weren’t there.

As we approached a bridge over the river, I saw something in the road and slowed down. When I realized my car was hydroplaning, I let up on the brakes. Still, the car drifted a bit to the side, and Alice lost it.

“Noooo!” She lunged for the steering wheel.

“What are you doing?” I tried to push her away before she steered us down the embankment or into the water. I had things under control. There was no need to panic.

Before I got the car stopped along the side of the road, she unbuckled and opened her door.

“What are you?—”

I reached for her, but she rolled out before I got to a complete stop.

“Alice!” I called, shoving the car into Park and running after her as she slid on her butt down the embankment.

“Chris!” She yelled over and over before diving into the water.