Page 69 of Spencer and the Younger Girl
“Because I know what it looks like when a mom gives up on her kid.” She imagined her mom sipping wine at some glitzy hotel in Paris, not sparing a thought for her daughter. Hadley hadn’t just seen it, she’d lived it.
“Please,” she whispered. “Don’t go.” She wasn’t sure why she needed to put the Lees back together so badly, but she felt it in her bones it was the right thing to do.
For them.
But also for him.
“What do you want from me, Hadley?”
She approached his back, stepping around him to wedge herself between him and the door. Her chest bumped his as she looked up at him through her eyelashes. “I don’t know.” It was the truth, but a confusing one.
“I’m not staying in Gulf City.”
“I’m not asking you to,” she breathed, reaching up on her toes, her eyes meeting his in challenge.
Their breath mingled as they stared at each other, both waiting for the other to make a decision.
And Hadley was tired of waiting. “Screw this.” She reached up, winding her arm around his neck and pulled him to her, pressing her lips to his. They fit like the final piece of a puzzle locking into place.
All the anger and fire between them blazed like an inferno, refusing to be put out as he returned her kiss, pushing her up against the door.
His body flattened against hers as his large palms held her face in place.
It was both the hottest and sweetest moment of her entire life, putting every kiss before it to shame. She slid her hands down his chest to hook into his belt loops.
He bit her lip before kissing the pain away, and she never wanted him to stop. His hands wound through her wet hair, pulling on her ponytail to tilt her head back.
His lips trailed her cheek and down her neck.
“Spencer,” she whispered.
He nibbled on her earlobe, his breath warm on her skin. “Happy birthday, Hadley.”
She grinned against him, and he kissed his way up to her smile. “Best. Birthday. Present. Ever.”
“I want you,” he whispered. “I’m done fighting it. I don’t care that you’re in high school or that I’m leaving eventually.”
“For now, you can have me.”
The for now of the scenario almost killed her to say, but it was all they had.
She pulled back to look up at him. “I’m going to have to thank my grandfather.”
A smirk appeared on his too-handsome-for-his-own-good face. “And why is that?”
“He’s the only reason I’m working here.”
He looked to her in question, but Damien’s voice broke them apart. “Hadley, where’d ya go?”
Hadley’s face flushed as Spencer jumped away from her and pretended to be examining the coat hook. Yeah, that wasn’t suspicious at all.
Damien entered the room. “What are you guys doing?”
Spencer cleared his throat. “Hadley is just being annoying as usual.”
Hadley snorted. “At least my natural state isn’t jerk.”
Damien scowled at his brother. “You should really be nicer to her. Maybe if you got to know Hadley, you’d even like her.” He turned to Hadley. “Lunch is ready. You hungry?”
