Page 45 of Cherry Picked
Could it?
“What the fuck are you thinking?” I muttered. “Of course it’s not.”
My stomach turned over again. Hawk was emotional these days. Impulsive. What if putting sex on the table between us was just another bad decision he’d made? What if he regretted it? What if giving in to what we wanted was the thing that broke our friendship apart, this time for good—
“Jack?”
My head snapped up to find Hawk standing a few yards down the trail. He looked rough and rugged from several days camping. His hair stood in sandy-brown cowlicks, and a long smear of dirt trailed over his cheek and down the front of anAverill Union BearsT-shirt that looked a couple of sizes too small for him.
He’d never been more gorgeous.
My heart knocked against my rib cage, my body ready to run to him, take him up in my arms, hold him tight, and kiss his fucking face off.
My mind froze my feet to the ground, and I could only stare at him, swallowing hard.
“Hi,” I croaked.
“You…” Hawk licked his lips, looking wary and confused. “What are you doing here?”
Right.Yes. I had a purpose. I hadn’t come here to gawk.
“There’s a storm coming,” I said.
Hawk looked up at the milky sky and the very evident, impossible-to-miss clouds that had gathered on the horizon. “Yep. Sure seems that way. And you… decided to hike in it?”
I moved closer, weighing the pros and cons of touching him just atinybit—just enough to assure myself he was alive and well and this was not, say, the beginning of a strangely conversation-heavy wet dream. Then again, touching him wasexactlywhat dream-me would do, so that wouldn’t clarify anything.
I fisted my hands at my sides and focused on pressing my nails into my palms. “I came to help you pack up. There’s still plenty of time to get back down the mountain before… anything happens.”
I wasn’t sure, at that moment, which terrible outcome I was trying to avoid—the one where lightning struck and burned one of us to a crisp… or the one where I let myself have him, andbothof us got burned.
“Oh.” Hawk’s confusion cleared, and he raised his chin. “You should probably go, then. I’m staying.”
How was it possible for him to surprise me when he said exactly what I expected him to say?
Or maybe what surprised me was how straight and strong he stood, how confident he looked, as he said it. His eyes, which had been storm-tossed and emotionally ravaged for weeks, now glowed with certainty and determination. His lean muscles flexed as he folded his arms over his chest defiantly, and the movement made light glint off the scruff on his jaw. He looked every inch like a man who knew what he wanted… and that knowledge made my stomach flip and my cock stir.
For maybe the first time between us,Iwas the unsure one of the two of us. The one with questions and no answers. The one who was drowning in a churning sea ofwantand sinking for the third time. The one whose patience was coiled together with his longing and annoyance…
The one who lashed out.
“That’s beyond foolish. What would your father say?” I demanded.
The hurtful words landed on the hard, damp ground between us in an ugly lump. Tension crackled in the air, more potent than the coming lightning. But instead of responding, Hawk sighed, and his shoulders slumped. Then he turned and disappeared up the trail to his campsite.
I had a moment to realize that his easy capitulation didn’t feel much like a victory. Then, heart pounding with a combination of excitement and dread that nearly made me light-headed, I followed him.
When we arrived at his campsite, I saw only a single canvas tote bag and a stuff sack with his sleeping bag in it.
“This is all you have?” I demanded, turning in a circle like I expected other provisions to suddenly appear. “Where’s your backpack? Your tent? Your protest signs?”
“Not that it’s any of your business, but they’re already in the cave.” He grabbed the remaining items and shouldered past me back to the trail.
I blew out a breath of relief and followed him back down the trail, over the quaint little footbridge that crossed the thickest part of Glassy Creek, mentally calculating the distance back to the parking area—
A second later, my brain finished processing his words. “Wait. What cave?”
“I’ve shown you the caves on the north side of the mountain before.”
