Page 64 of A Lifetime of Afters
“Lou said I could come back and knock on your door.” His eyes shifted down to my phone and a sexy grin stole over his face. “Are you playing Pokemon Go?”
I looked down at my phone, my tiny virtual pet ready to rumble. “Uh, yeah?”
“Fuck me,” he laughed. “You’re adorable. Where are you going all bundled up? It’s freezing outside.”
His unexpected presence, his words, that cologne, his sexy smile, and worst of all, getting caught with my Pokemon out, befuddled my mind.
“Uh, I just needed to get out for a bit…” I trailed off.
“Come on,” he invited, throwing his arm around me for a second and giving me a brief squeeze. “I’ll take you out for a coffee.”
“Um,” I tried to think.
He stopped and faced me. “You wanted to get out, right?”
“Well, yes,” I nodded.
“Right,” he adjusted my scarf around my neck. “Let’s go. Your timing is perfect.”
Before my brain could catch up, I found myself sitting across from him at The Beanery sipping hot chocolate and chatting away as the afternoon sun sunk low in the sky. I began to laugh.
He raised his eyebrows, his mouth tilting up. “What?”
“You’re very smooth,” I accused.
He grinned unrepentantly.
I laughed but the awkwardness of the situation could not be ignored. “I’m, uh, at least I think I’minvolved-”
“Noelle,” he began. “I’m sorry to cut you off. I don’t want you to be uncomfortable. I know things are complicated at the moment. I just wanted you to know, if they become less complicated, I intend to be here. In this spot. Across the table from you. As well as in other places. In close proximity to you.”
My mouth fell open and I sat staring at him, my mind a tangled mess. Questions I’d asked and answered a hundred times over the years came surging back to the forefront of my mind.
Could he be the one?
What if things with Hawk never worked out? Did I want to be alone?
What seemed like a simple but grand plan, love him, proved to be anything but in its execution.
And across from me sat a man I’d crushed on as a teenager. A man who looked like a rock star but taught kindergarten. A man who was tender and nurturing, and unless my radar was off, that nurturing would take good care of me under many different and exciting circumstances. He expressed his interest and intentions clearly. No games. Here was a man I could easily fall for.
If I didn’t already love Hawk.
I looked into my nearly empty mug. The man across the table stood for the past ten years. Running from the hard stuff. Safeguarding my heart. Afraid to go all in with what I truly wanted.
But, oh the sweetness of being pursued.
Feeling wanted.
An intoxicating aphrodisiac.
One I would have to resist if I wanted any chance at all with Hawkley.
I raised my chin and met his eyes.
His beautiful lips pressed together momentarily, then he stood and rounded the back of my chair, pulling it out like the gentleman he’d always been. “I’ll drive you home now,” he murmured.
Touching his forefinger to my chin, he pushed it upward.
