Page 184 of Huckleberry Hill
“Seriously, Hadley. Were you going to tell him who I was? Or tell him anything about me if I hadn’t shown up?”
“No. I wasn’t going to tell him about you or the baby.”
“Why the fuck not?”
I looked at him, my brow furrowing. “Because it wasn’t about you or the baby. It was about me.”
He swallowed. “Go on.”
“He wanted me to go back to New York with him. He wanted to pick up where we left off, start all over again or whatever. And I told him that he walked out on me the minute things got tough. He thought he could tell me how much he missed me, and that Italy wasn’t the same without me. He thought I still felt the same way about him that I had before. But I don’t. I really don’t, Declan. I didn’t tell him that after I fell in love with you I realized it was never like that with me and him. There’s no reason to hurt him like that. What’s done is done.”
I fell silent and looked at the bakery bag. And then I spoke again. “I think I fell out of love with him the moment he left me. Because I never once begged God or the universe or whatever for him to come back to me. I never wanted him to come here. You have to believe me, Declan. I love you. And I love you in a way I never loved Gianni.”
“I believe you,” he said gruffly. “I just needed to hear it.”
I laughed. “If anything, seeing Gianni in person made me realize how much I’ve moved past it all. Past him, past that life. Past the loss of what could’ve been.”
I looked at his hand. “I want to hold your hand, but your knuckles look swollen.”
“They are, but it doesn’t matter.” He took my hand in his. I made sure to hold it loosely.
“So about you not being possessive or jealous . . .”
He arched a brow. “He had it coming.”
“Oh, he definitely did.” I gasped. “Shit.”
“What?” Declan asked.
“I was in the middle of a conversation with the girls when Gianni showed up. They keep bugging me to open the rest of my boxes.”
“Let’s go,” he said, rising. He opened the cabin door and Tempest trotted out onto the porch.
I picked her up and we walked back to the main house. It was quiet. Dad hadn’t returned yet and Muddy had made herself scarce.
We went up to my bedroom and I set Tempest down onto the bed. Declan dragged the few remaining boxes out of my closet and sat on the edge of the mattress.
He handed me his knife and I cut open a box. Shoes. I cut open another. More clothes. The third box . . . jackpot.
I held up a black lace teddy.
“No,” Declan said, his eyes darkening.
“Oh, yeah.” I peeked into the box. “A whole box of lingerie. Neatly stacked and folded with tissue paper.”
Declan groaned. “God, it’s been forever since I’ve been inside you.”
“Call it foreplay, Declan,” I said with a laugh. I felt around in the box, wondering if there was anything else I hadn’t seen yet.
An envelope was at the bottom of the box. I glanced at Declan and opened it and took out a heavy piece of cream stationary.
Dear Hadley,
* * *
I love you and hate you at the same time. I know you’re happy, and the right choice was to leave New York, but I miss you every day. It’s not the same having you across the country, but I get it. My life is here, yours is there. I’ll come home for a visit when the distance is too much, and I have to see you.
The girls and I got you every piece of lingerie we saw on your private not-so-private Pinterest board. Seriously, get a stronger password.
