Page 9 of Hayrides with Hank
He didn’t say a word, just pulled me into his arms and crushed his mouth to mine in a searing, possessive kiss. I could taste myself on his lips, and him on mine, and the mingling of us was the most perfect thing I’d ever known.
He turned me in his arms, my back to his chest, and wrapped me tightly against him. We stood there in the shadows, breathing heavily, watching as the couple by the lookout point ambled back toward their truck.
“You think they heard?” I asked, my voice hoarse.
His chuckle was a warm puff of air against my ear. “I think if they had, they’d have come looking. Or called the cops.” He nuzzled my hair. “You’re not exactly quiet, sweetheart.”
A blush heated my cheeks, but it was a blush of pride.
We waited until the red taillights of the truck disappeared down the mountain road, swallowed by the darkness. The coast was clear. The spell was broken, but the aftermath was a warm, sated glow that clung to us both.
We dressed in a comfortable, slightly awkward silence, our clothes feeling strange and restrictive after the freedom of skin on skin. He handed me my underwear with a soft smile that made my stomach flip.
We snuck back to our abandoned picnic like thieves, the blanket damp with dew, the cheese and fruit looking abandoned under the moonlight. We didn’t speak as we packed up, just moved around each other in a new, easy synchrony, our hands brushing, his lingering on the small of my back.
He folded the blanket, slung the basket over his arm, and took my hand. His palm was warm and sure around mine.
“Come on,” he said, his voice low and promising. “Let’s go home.”
He led me to his truck, and I followed without a second thought. We were heading to his cabin. We were going to spend the night together.
As we drove away from the lookout, the windows down, filling the truck with the cold, clean scent of the mountain night, I knew with a certainty that shook me to my core that nothing would ever be the same again.
6
HANK
“Ican’t fall in love with you.”
Maddie’s voice slammed into me as I was tightening up one of the rails on the hay trailer. I couldn’t believe they’d taken this thing around the property for a full day with the railing wobbling around like it was. Someone could’ve gotten hurt.
But at her words, I stopped everything and spun to face the woman of my dreams. The woman I’d been thinking about all morning.
“I want to,” she said, her face softening as I stared at her across the dozen or so feet that separated us. “In fact, it’ll take everything in me not to. I probably will spend the rest of my life regretting walking away from this. But I can’t become my mom.”
Until that very moment, I hadn’t realized just how invested I was in this new relationship. I never let my guard down this much.
I should’ve been ready to slam that wall up again. To lock up my heart like it’s Fort Knox. But no. There’s no way I could do that. No way I could walk away from here today and forget this ever happened. I had to fight for her until I was sure she didn’twant to be with me. Only then would I walk away with my heart shattered into a million pieces.
“Come on,” I said, gesturing for her to follow as I dropped my wrench into my bag of tools by my feet. I walked around to the back of the hayride and helped her up onto the trailer before climbing up myself. Then I led us to the hay bale nearest the tractor that pulled it.
When she wiped a tear from her cheek and sniffled, I realized this went deeper than just being a little upset. She was crying. If she didn’t have feelings for me, that wouldn’t be the case.
“What’s going on here?” I asked gently.
“When I turned twenty-one, I bought this RV,” she said. “I’d been making my metal sculptures for years, even starting in high school. I tried them out at a few local craft fairs. They did well. So I decided to use it as an excuse to travel, as long as I could pay for fuel and find a place to park for free. Now I’m actually earning a good living.”
I frowned. All of this was great, but I didn’t see how it related to what she’d said earlier about her mom.
“You don’t want to be stuck in one place,” I said. “You feel like being with me means giving up traveling.”
She nodded and swiped at her other cheek with the back of her palm. “She was trapped. She always wanted to travel the world. The farthest she got was Florida. Her plan was to go on some trips with my grandma once we were grown. But she got cancer when I was in high school and never had the chance. I promised her I’d see the world.”
My heart broke for her. Losing her mom in high school had to have been tough. I still had both my parents, thank God, even though I didn’t get to see them very often.
“You think being with me would get in the way of that?” I asked. “You think you’ll be like your mom, trapped at home?”
“She had three kids. I don’t think she would have done anything differently if she had the chance.” She sighed. “And I know I would be the same. I’d get married, have a kid, then two, and love everything about my life. But I’d be breaking my promise to her.”
