Page 45 of After You

Kyle texted Derek back. You better hope you don’t come down with some terrible disease anytimesoon.

I feel great. Never better.

It wouldn’t take much for me to start a rumor that links you and ED in the same sentence.

ED? I’m not familiar withthat.

Erectile Dysfunction.

I know what it is. I’m just not familiar with it myself. If you know what Imean.

Kyle ground his teeth. Is. She. There?

Just remember, you told me not to tell you this stuff. Andyes.

Kyle shifted into drive. It was after closing time, but Derek had been letting a few people hang around after it got quiet in the bar, and according to the rumor mill, Michael Kade was one of them. Kyle could only assume that, since Hannah was nowhere else in town, she was there withhim.

Kyle sighed. If he walked through that front door, he was going to have to tell Derek about this plan to make Hannah miss Sapphire Falls. And Derek would assume that Kyle also wanted her to miss Kyle. And Derek would be right. The most annoying thing about Derek was that he had a scarily accurate bullshit meter. Kyle couldn’t lie to him. Not that Kyle ever had much need to lie tohim.

Untilnow.

And only because Derek would tell him that this was a really stupid idea and a dangerous game. And he would be right about that too. And Kyle really hated when Derek was right about something that Kyle was wrong about. And he had definitely been wrong thinking he could get by with kissing Hannah even once and not want it over and over again. Forever.

And he’d kissed her three times. Already.

Fuck.

Kyle pointed his truck for the Come Again anyway.

Sure enough, Hannah was at a table on the far side of the bar. With Michael FuckingKade.

She saw Kyle the second he stepped through the door. He gave her a simple eyebrow raise. She rolled her eyes. So Kyle decided to plant his butt at thebar.

It wasn’t like he could avoid Derek anyway. And maybe he’d just wait and see what Hannah did with him here. He’d been working, of course, the last few days. But he hadn’t run into her at the diner or the bakery or the gas station. He’d stopped by Alice’s each evening after work as well, but Hannah had already left by the time he got there and didn’t come back during the hour or so he’d hung out. But she also wasn’t at Ty’s when he’d stopped over there. Not in the hallways or the bathroom or the kitchen or even in her room, at least according to the ever-helpful Chase. He hadn’t seen her, or so he’d reported.

So that left only one conclusion. She was avoiding Kyle. And he thought he’d been pretty clear that she wasn’t supposed to dothat.

“She’s been in town less than a week and you’re already up to your ass in trouble?” Derek asked, pushing a cup of black coffee across the bar toKyle.

“I’d appreciate it if you could act even a little surprised,” Kyle muttered.

Derek scoffed at that. “I don’t blow sunshine up your ass. That’s one of the things you love aboutme.”

Kyle scoffed at that. It was true, of course, but he tried to keep from telling Derek he was right as much as possible.

“I wouldn’t exactly call this trouble. I know what I’m doing.”

“You’re coming up with excuses to torture and kiss Hannah McIntire,” Dereksaid.

Kyle couldn’t stop his grin. “You heard about the kissing?”

Derek gave him a don’t-be-a-dumbass look. “You did it in a big picture window onMain.”

Kyle nodded, suddenly feeling a little better. “That’s the point. I did it that way on purpose. As part of my plan.” He wanted to be sure his friend knew that he was on top of this. “The whole town is supposed to know and talk aboutit.”

“To remind her that you can’t do anything here without everyone knowing your business?”

“So it gets back to Alice, so she knows I’m doing my part to make Hannahstay.”

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