Alpha Billionaire Series

MAKENZIE

Ainsley swung her legs and pointed at the grapes she wanted.

“These?” I asked, holding up the dark purple ones.

“The green ones,’ she corrected.

“I like the purple ones. How about we get both. What else do we need?”

“Bananas.”

I pushed the cart through the produce section, letting her help decide what food she would eat for the week. Not that it helped her to eat new things, but I tried. Holding up a zucchini I asked, “Will you try this?”

She squished up her face and shook her head.

“Which one will you try?” I picked up a cauliflower next, and then some broccoli.

She gave me a reluctant nod for the broccoli.

“Okay, I need you to remember that you agreed to try broccoli when I make it for dinner”

She pouted in reply.

“Ainsley?”

“Try.” She may have said other words but all I heard was an acknowledgment for trying.

I'turned out of the produce section and stopped.

“0h, you have got to be kidding me” Coming into the store behind a shopping cart was Holden.

Nantucket was a small place, but this was getting ridiculous. I couldn't get away from the man. There were people on this island I never saw, never ran into out shopping. Why couldn't he be one of them?This belongs © NôvelDra/ma.Org.

I moved in the opposite direction, keeping behind him, and just out of sight. I really did not want a repeat of the other day. I had been out sharing our grand opening information and introducing myself to my new business neighbors and he was everywhere. I couldn't shake him.

“Time for us to skedaddle,” I leaned in and whispered to Ainsley.

She gigeled, thinking I was being funny.

I kept looking over my shoulder as we waited in the checkout line. So far Holden seemed to be on the far side of the grocery store, and out of sight. Out in the parking lot, I let my guard down. Holden was inside, I was safe. Or so I thought.

I got the groceries unloaded, and Ainsley secured in her car seat and was returning the cart to the in-lot coral when I heard his voice say my name.

My head snapped up, and there he was, standing in front of me.

“We can't avoid each other forever,” he said. He shrugged his shoulders and gave me a half-smile.

Damn if my insides didn't go all gooey at the thought of an apology from him.

“I can try” At least my smart-ass attitude wasn't going soft simply because Holden Wells smoldered at me. Maybe I was fooling myself, but I was a firm believer in the fake-it-til-you-make-it philosophy, even if that meant pretending, I didn't mel into a puddle of nerves and want whenever he was near me.

“You aren't even willing to say “hi?’ Meet me halfway?"

I glanced over my shoulder at my minivan. I had the side door open, and Ainsley was complaining inside.

“My daughter is in the car. I can't hang around chit-chatting all day."

“You could introduce me."

Isighed. “I could” I should, considering everything, but I wasn't going to, not until I knew what firm ground with Holden looked like. “But I'm not going to. I explained it to you already. I don't introduce random people to her, I don’t want her confused about the men in my life, or in hers.’

I turned to go.

“Makenzie.” His brow was furrowed, and he looked so concerned.

I closed my eyes against the surge of emotions I felt. I wanted to run to him and wrap him in my arms, tell him everything would be fine. But I couldn't. I had no way of knowing if once he recovered, he would leave me again.

I didn’t want to live through that pain again. And I certainly wasn't going to introduce him to Ainsley, only to have her father vanish on her as well.

“I've got to go. I'l think about it”

I thought about it a lot when he first went away. How was I going to tell him that I was pregnant? I wrote him telling him I hay big news, exciting news. I wrote to him and begged him to please write me back. I had something important to tell him. I wrote to him and eventually told him to never mind, I guess I was going to manage everything on my own. And I stopped writing, but I kept hoping. Eventually, that died in me as well.

I5lid behind the wheel. And hit the button to slide the doors closed. “Please keep your arms and legs inside the ride at all times,” I announced like an amusement park ride.

Ainsley didn't give me her usual giggle, she squirmed and made complaining sounds. She was getting hungry. I missed not having fast food available. The best I could do on the island was a drive-thru espresso shop that also had muffins.

As I navigated in that direction, I noticed a food truck set up in the parking lot of a hotel. I pulled in on the off chance they were open and had french fries. Parking next to the food truck, I opened the side door on my van so that I could see Ainsley, and she could see me. If they didn’t have anything on the menu she would eat, I wouldn't have to wrestle her out of her car seat and back in again. Besides, I was only twenty feet away and could keep an eye on her.

“Can I help you?"

I read over the chalkboard menu and was pleased to see toddler-approved french fries and chicken nuggets.

“Yeah, french fries and chicken nuggets, please? You don't have juice boxes, do you?” I asked.

In my haste to escape the grocery store without Holden seeing me, I hadn't picked any juice boxes up. Maybe I could send Ethan out later.

“We have the pouches, but not boxes. Is that okay?”

“Yes,” I nodded enthusiastically. And because I was in a bad habit of forgetting to feed myself when ordering Ainsley her lunch I added, “I'll also have a grilled fish sandwich and a Coke.”

I paid for my order and walked back to Ainsley. “I got you some chicken nuggets, okay. Food will be ready soon” I sat on the floor of the van next to her feet and let her kick me in the back as we waited.

The young man in the food truck leaned out and yelled, “Chicken nuggets, fish sandwich.”

“I'll be right back," I said to Ainsley.

It only took a few steps to the truck before I was back and sitting by her feet again. I pulled the french fries out of the bag first. “These are hot, let's give them a second.”

I blew on the fries and pulled out the chicken nuggets. They were also hot, but Ainsley wasn't as concerned about them as she was about the fries. While I let things cool down, I punched the straw into the juice pouch and handed that up to her. My Coke made a satisfactory pop and fizz sound as I opened it. Finally, the fries were not too hot for Ainsley to eat. I handed the bag up to her and she began eagerly munching on them. Unfortunately, her enthusiasm for food quickly waned, and afte only one nugget she refused to eat any more.

“Come on, just one more?” If she didn’t have at least two, even on a day like today where she was clearly not in an eating mood, she would be a complete tyrant after her nap.

We compromised, and she ate half on a second nugget.

“More for me,” I declared and popped it in my mouth. She might not have been hungry, but I was. So, I wasn't complaining about wasting food when I was happy to have a few chicken nuggets after I had finished my sandwich.

I tossed the garbage from our lunch and drove the long way home, expecting that Ainsley would be asleep before I turned the corner.

She was completely out by the time I made it home. I left her sleeping in the car as I carried the groceries inside.

On my last trip a dark car pulled into my drive, blocking me in. Holden climbed out of the back.

I crossed my arms and glared as I watched him approach.

“What are you doing here?”

“I didn’t run into you anywhere else, so I had to come to you,” he said.

“Holden, this is stalking. It's one thing for us to be in the same place at the same time."

“Makenzie, please. I can't stop thinking about it. You have to let me meet her”

“I don't have to let you do anything in regard to my daughter. But if this means you will leave us alone, fine. She's asleep right now, and I'm not waking her up.’

“Understandable He nodded.

Iturned, knowing he would follow me.

I'stood next to the open minivan. Ainsley was limp and slumped in her car seat, completely asleep.

Holden stopped and just stared at her for a while.

“She's beautiful”

My heart clenched as I saw emotion cross his face. Did he know? There was no way he could have figured it out.

“she looks exactly like you."

“My clone, I've been told. I keep looking for any hints of her father in her face, but he's not there.”

He wasn't there when he needed to be. But he was here now, and I didn’t know what to do about him.