Page 53 of After You

“Are you talking about Hannah?” someone asked behind Derek.

Kyle looked around his friend. Mitch Dugan was helping himself to a bottle of water from behind the bar. His arms were covered in sawdust, and he had a tool belt slung low on hiships.

“Yeah. I’ve been…” Needing to see her. But that sounded stupid. And maybe creepy. “…wondering how she’s doing,” he finished, nearly wincing at how stupid thatsounded.

“Seems like she’s doing great,” a female voice added to the conversation.

Kyle looked over to see that Andi had joinedthem.

“Everyone’s talking about her acupuncture and stuff—hey!” She frowned up at Derek who had elbowed her after “stuff”.

Kyle frowned, but before he could ask what Andi was talking about, Tessa Sheridan stepped around Mitch. “She’s been out by the river just about every afternoon,” Tess said as she grabbed the coffeepot.

“The river?” Kyle asked.

“Yeah, I’ve seen her out there walking and…meditating, I guess, when I’ve been on my runs,” Tesssaid.

Tess was a marathoner and, unlike other people in this town, followed a pretty strict schedule. Kyle liked that about her. He also liked that when she came in to talk to him about muscle strains and other things that she listened and did what he told her to do. “She’s been meditating by the river?”

“If I had to guess,” Tess said with a shrug. “That’s what it lookslike.”

What else did he not know? And why did it matter atall?

“I need to talk to her,” he said, swiveling on his stool.

“Whoa there,” Derek said. “She’s here with Michael.”

“So?”

“So, you’ll be interrupting if you go over there,” Dereksaid.

“So?”

“That might irritate Hannah.”

Kyle didn’t really give a crap. Her avoiding him for four days irritated him. Now they would be even. “I’ll risk it,” Kyle toldhim.

“Come on. Just be patient for a change.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Hey, you said the first night they were in here that you made them leave and made it really clear that the after-hours thing was friendsonly.”

“So?” Derek asked thistime.

“So, you’re being really supportive of Michael Kade being in here after hours now. For the past few days.” Yeah, he wasn’t letting thatgo.

Derek scrubbed at a nonexistent spot on the top of thebar.

“Why?”

Derek shrugged.

“Don’t give me that,” Kyle said. “Why the change of heart?”

Derek sighed. “His newbook.”

“So?”

“So, he said after he gets through the next chapter, he’s going to let me readit.”

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