Page 49 of Feels Like the First Time
Hawk felt like a jerk. Ali hadn’t been mad about his disappearing act, she’d been hurt—and worried.
For him.
He’d figured her withdrawal at the party had something to do with their kiss, but looking at her now, the shy way she was avoiding his gaze, he realized it had everything to do with what happenedafterthe kiss.
“I just needed some time to process,” he said honestly. “In a space that didn’t smell of signature cocktails and mixed signals.”
Still looking at the box, she said, “You could have told me that.”
“I could have, and next time I will,” he promised earnestly. “But, sunshine, I don’t remember my phone ringing either. Not even when you found out the good news.”
Those expressive eyes of hers darted up, and then down to the box, as a faint blush tinted her cheeks.
Yeah, it takes two to successfully avoid someone in this town.
“How did you hear?” she finally asked.
“You mean besides Loraine running down Main Street, waving the envelope around, and screaming, ‘She got it, she got it!’? Your dad called to tell me the good news, so I came into town to congratulate you. You weren’t there.”
“I was with my dad and Bridget,” she said, watching for his reaction to the news.
It was the same reaction he’d had when Marty dropped that bomb on him earlier. Bitter resentment. Apparently she and Ali had gotten into some kind of heated argument. Marty didn’t say what the topic was, but Hawk had a pretty good idea he was at the heart of it. And he was one unexpected appearance away from reminding Bridget of exactly what terms she’d agreed to in the divorce.
That Destiny Bay was his town.
“My dad took us sailing,” Ali said.
Which explained the sunbathing, the sun-kissed skin, and look of utter exhaustion on her face. Balancing the line between letting Marty live his life and making sure Marty had a life to live was difficult. It was as unpredictable as running across the ice in church shoes. But every day Ali laced up and stepped onto the ice, knowing that she was going to wind up skating in circles or flat on her ass.
Yet he’d never once heard her complain. Not even when he knew she had to be at the end of her rope.
“So let me guess. You talked doctors’ orders and fishing lures on your big day.” Man, she deserved more. “I bet there wasn’t even a burger on the premises.”
She cracked a small smile. “Does low-sodium turkey jerky count?”
“Even worse than I thought.” He leaned in, and placed his hand on hers. “Want to talk about it?”
“God no.” She clunked her head down on the countertop. “I am so talked out, stressed out, argued out, familied out. Sometimes I just want…” She met his gaze, hers horrified and filled with regret. “Out. Does that make me sound like a horrible person?”
“No, sunshine. It makes you human.” A side of her she rarely allowed people to see. She was too busy proving she had everything handled. “We all need a break every once in a while.”
“Even you?”
God, the hero worship in her voice had him wanting to be the kind of man who was deserving. “Even me.”
“It’s been so long since I’ve had a break, I wouldn’t even know where to go,” she said and the wistfulness he heard in her voice drew him in.
Hawk had lots of breaks in his life. Good and bone shattering. But for every painful break that life had dealt him, there was a silver lining right around the corner. His dad hadn’t given a shit about him, but Luke’s parents had stepped in and offered him the kind of childhood and foundation most kids could only dream of. And sure, his marriage to Bridget hadn’t worked out, but he’d experienced love, in all of its forms, and walked away from the divorce with more people to call family.
And for a guy who, up until age ten, could count his family members with a single finger, usually the middle one, that meant something.
But Ali? She had too many people placing their happiness on her shoulders for her to even see the silver lining. Something Hawk was more determined than ever to change.
“Good thing I know the perfect place.”
She looked at him for so long, he thought she was going to shoot him down. But then she smiled. “Fine, but if you tell me it’s in your pants, I’m out.”
“Sunshine, you couldn’t handle what’s in my pants.” With a wink, he pulled a to-go bag out from under the heating rack, and a bottle of cold hard cider out from under the counter.
