Page 54 of Promise Me

“It’s just a flare-up. It happens when I’m more active than normal.”

“Oh, well, let's go sit down then. That wasn't that hard.”

“Right, because every woman wants to hear that the manshe’s with needs to sit down because his leg hurts when they're in their thirties.”

I laugh lightly, taking a seat on the bench right across the street from his bar.

He sits, too, and I can hear his breath letting go the moment the pressure is off his leg.

“Good for you that I’m only—noooooo.”

I suck in a breath and cover my mouth with my hands.

Without moving them, I say, “I turn thirty in a few weeks.”

Hudson starts to chuckle and then cuts himself off with a closed fist to his lips.

“Yes, you do.”

“Oh my god. Oh. My. God.”

Tears start to sting my eyes.

When they fall, there is no controlling them. I expect Hudson to comment that crying still bothers him, but instead, he wraps a hand around my shoulders and pulls me close. This time, he doesn’t tell me to stop.

“I was beginning to think you were too calm over all this,” he says softly.

“Denial is real.” I inhale. “Everything seems the same, but it’s not. It all looks the same, but on the inside, it’s not. How am I supposed to deal with this?”

“One day at a time,” he answers quickly. “Just one day at a time.”

I’m unsure how long we sit together, but we stay here until my stomach growls. Then we go back to his apartment to make grilled chicken and sweet potatoes. After, we watch a movie and fall asleep on the couch.

I might not have remembered anything new today, but I will remember today.

And I owe it all to Hudson.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

HUDSON

I woke up before Sadie today. She was still asleep when I left for the gym.

I needed the space.

It’s not that I don’t enjoy having her around.

I do, which I see as a problem.

Especially after my body reacted to her at the bar yesterday.

It’s almost as if all the emotions I had toward her turned from annoyance and fight into … hell, into the complete opposite.

She was the first thing on my mind when I woke up today. Not the bar, not the fact that my life wasn’t the way I planned, not that I was back in Lovers, not … normal.

Instead, I wondered if I should wake her to get breakfast, ask whether we should take another walk around town to see if today brings something back to her or see if she just wanted to be awake with me because I like being around her.

So I grabbed some gym clothes and left.

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