Page 60 of 2204 Hunter Lane
“Take a drink with me and I just might.”
Fair enough.We tapped glasses and down the bitter whisky went, burning the insides of my throat with ease.
“Go on,” I encouraged, feeling the buzz of today reappear.Or maybe it never left… God, I’m such a freakin’ lightweight.
His cheeks were a tad more flushed than before, so I could tell he was feeling it too.Maybe now he’ll start talking.
“I dated a girl –”
“Hold on, hold on.” I put a finger up. “I reminded you of your ex?”
“You want the story or not?”
I leaned back into the bed, giving him my full attention. “Sorry, sorry, continue.”
“I dated a girl back when I played baseball in Iowa, an she was from Chicago – big city like you. Played me like a fuckin’ fiddle that one. Always made me feel like I needed her to move forward in life, that she was the best damn thing that’s ever happened to me.”
An evident regret swept his features, those crystal eyes darkening by the second. I almost stopped him but he continued, downing his drink in one go.
“When I saw you, lookin’ the way you do and that, I thought you were another one of ‘em. Stuck up, fuckin’ asking the most from people who didn’t owe you nothin’. I just don’t got that kind of sympathy for people.”
My heart hammered in my chest as I tightened my fingers around the crystal cup, taking a large sip of whisky. “When did you start seeing me differently?”
The corner of his lips turned up a smidge as he met me with glossy eyes. “Bout the same time as you did.”
I remembered the moment at Rivertown Bay, when he was drunk out of his mind and Dex practically shoved him away for breaking the glass. He’d called Hunter a mess and he responded with something that broke my heart in two.For once you noticed.
I think that’s when it all changed for me. Even after Payton told me about his mom, I’d still harboured so much resentment for Hunter that my best efforts couldn’t pull me out of my head. But when I saw the look in Hunter’s eyes, the pleads of neglect he’d suffered since his mom past away… I’d never seen someone so broken.
“Do you still hate me?” he faltered, his voice hushed under his breath.
My mind began to swirl into a kaleidoscope of thoughts, brushing against one another in unison. But the answer to his question was definite.
“I wish I did,” I admitted. “It would make things a lot easier for me…”
The air between us thickened, heavy with tension and warmth. That same warmth that I’d felt when I hugged him.God I want to hug him so badly.
I don’t know if I imagined it, or if the alcohol was causing my brain to animate my desires, but I could’ve sworn his fingertips grazed my leg.And if they didn’t, I wanted them to.
Before I could open my mouth to speak, I felt the bed shift and Hunter stood up, running his fingers through falling locks of hair.
“I’ll uh,” his Adams apple bobbed. “I’ll take the whisky upstairs and let you get some sleep.”
The words escaped my lips before I could capture them. “Stay.”
My whole body was a caged inferno, staring at him in his god form with his muscly body and holy hotness.Fuck, fuck, fuck.
“Darlin’…” His voice, an echo, rattled against my brain. “If I stay, I ain’t gon’ wanna leave.”
My head hit the pillow beneath me as I stretched out my limbs and yawned.
“Where’s the issue?” I slurred, laughing harder as the soft fur of the blanket tickled my neck.
When the mix of ceaseless alcohol consumption and tiredness took over my senses, I faded into a dream land of Christmas bells and Christmas songs and cloudy white skies, reindeers dancing and singing and chirping my name…
“Goodnight, Bambi.” A low voice murmured.
“Goodnight Rudolph.” I crooned.
