22. Hayden
Chapter twenty-two
Hayden
I wanted to look cool and sophisticated by ordering the oysters, but it proved to be a stupid move. Her immaculate beauty kept distracting me anytime I tried shucking one of them open.
For heaven’s sake, I just about catapulted one across the room at one point.
“Everything okay?” she asks me while smoothing the cloth napkin on her lap.
I sigh and put all the utensils down.
“Honestly, no.”
“Oh. Did I do something—”
“No, no. Well, yes. But nothing wrong.” I reach for her hand and glide the pad of my thumb across her knuckles. “You just look so beautiful that I’m having a hard time paying attention to much else.”
She smiles and looks down bashfully.
That’s another thing she and Luna have in common. They both make that similar face when getting a compliment. Now, as a child, her daughter seems a little more receptive to them, but she still gets a teeny bit shy.
Another thing I realized they have in common today is little tints of red hair, which I assume they got from Addie’s dad. I saw a picture of him years ago, and I remembered that he was a ginger when I was holding Luna in the pool earlier today.
And I can see the same shiny, auburn reflections coming from Addie’s head as we enjoy our dinner by candlelight.
“Thank you, Hayden.”
“You’ve very welcome. And thank you for coming.”
Her eyes lift back up and meet mine. “Honestly, I wasn’t sure if I was going to.”
I click my tongue and lift my glass. “Either way, I’m so happy you did. I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed an evening as much as this one. Cheers.”
“Cheers.” She clinks her glass against mine.
Raising an eyebrow, I ask, “So you agree?”
Addie takes another sip. “Agree what?”
“That this has been a pretty darn good night?”
“Oh.” She adorably bites down on her lower lip, and twinkles sparkle in her eyes. “I guess it’s been alright.”
I give her a look, and she immediately starts giggling.
“I’m kidding. Of course, I’m kidding. It has been a wonderful evening. Thank you for everything.”
“My absolute pleasure.” If anyone deserves a night being wined and dined, it’s her.
When we’re finished with our meals, the server in his long apron comes over and removes our plates.
“Can we tempt you with any gougères , raspberry clafoutis, or perhaps some cherry and chocolate B?che de No?l ?”
I’m completely stuffed, but I look to Addie to get her reaction. But when she inflates her cheeks out and pats her stomach, I know she feels the same way that I do.
“ Non merci, monsieur ,” I reply, saying no thank you.
“ Très bien .” He swings his arms behind his back and bows.
After he walks away to attend to another table, Addie leans over our table a bit and confesses, “I have no idea what any of that meant.” Then, her face scrunches up.
“That’s right. When it comes to sweets, you’re much more of a Pio Quinto , Rosquillas , and melcocha kinda gal.” I’m much more confident in my pronunciation when it comes to French words, but I try my best.
“No way. You remember Abuelo’s melcocha ?”
“Are you kidding? I still have dreams about it.”
She smiles.
If I recall correctly, it translates to “marshmallow.” Despite that, it’s actually a very thick and hard candy.
“You know that took him days to make.”
“That’s right.”
She smiles. “’ Un trabajo de amor,’ as he’d say. Gosh, what I wouldn’t do for some of that right now. I mean, I know I said I was stuffed, but a Latina—even a perceived gringa, such as myself—can always go for some.”
With that, I try to be as stealthy as possible when I take out my phone, hold it against my thigh, and search for any vendors serving the dish around the city.
Perfect.
We pay for our meal, she thanks me profusely for picking up the bill, and then I ask her, “Care for a walk?”
Lionel is on standby to come pick us up, but I’m sure he won’t mind a little delay. Besides, he’s getting paid either way.
“I’d love that.”
Fortunately, it’s a gorgeous night, and the temperature is just right.
“Wow,” she comments after we pause on a perch overlooking the bright city lights. “I forget how beautiful this city can be.”
She has a pashmina wrapped around her shoulders, and I make the somewhat bold move of placing my hand on the small of her back. It’s been there before, but this time, it feels different.
Instead of the hot sensation, my fingers and palms feel cool. But in a good way.
We continue to admire the view until Addie pulls out her phone. “Do you mind?”
“Nope.” I release my grasp and instead cross my arms.
“I just want to say goodnight.”
“Hey, no explanation needed.” I’ve been around her enough at this point to know what I was getting into when I asked a young, single mom on a date.
“Hey, baby!” She walks a few steps away from me, but I can still hear her loud and clear. “How are you? Are you having fun with Sam?”
She eventually finishes the call and returns to my side.
“Sam is your friend?” I ask.
“Yeah. My best friend.”
All night, I’ve noticed how she hasn’t been as fidgety or restless as she was when we were out with Randall the other night.
“You really trust your daughter with her, huh?”
She nods her head. “Oh, completely.”
I yearn to get that kind of certitude from her when it comes to Luna.
“Anyway.” She puts the device back in the tiny purse that’s hanging from her arm, and then she looks up at me, with her blue eyes blazing.
I feel sweat pooling in my palms.
On the other side of us, there’s a beach. Remembering how much she loves the water; I ask if she’d like to check it out.
“I’d love to.”
But in order to get there, there are quite a few steps that have been carved into the mountainside. So, after watching her walk in front of me and noticing how beautifully the moonlight reflected off her alabaster skin, she stopped and took off her strappy sandals.
“There we go. The last thing we need to ruin a perfect night is for me to take a rolling tumble.”
Then, a memory floods my brain.
“. . . like the time you fell down the old winding staircase your grandfather had in the house?” It was the most bizarre design, as the stairs were in a random coroner they never actually went anywhere. However, that didn’t stop her from reenacting scenes from The Princess Diaries.
When I bring that up to her, she rests against the nearby beam and puts her other hand on her face. “Oh, God.” Then, she parts her fingers to reveal one eye. “I told you about that?”
“You did. Granted, you were a few pi?a coladas deep at the time.”
She groans. “That’s so embarrassing.”
“Not nearly as embarrassing as when you ruined your grandfather’s dinner party, though. Or at least I wouldn’t imagine so.”
Finally, she reveals all of her face again.
“No, that day certainly takes the cake in terms of me making an absolute fool of myself. Have you ever seen the movie?”
I’m not sure if it’s all the time that’s passed, the amount of alcohol she had in her system at the time of the retelling, or a combination of both that’s causing her memory loss.
“I hadn’t at the time. But you insisted that that was the most ridiculous thing you’d ever heard in your life. So you made me sneak back into your room later that night, and we watched in bed together.”
I remember those few hours like they happened yesterday. She was already in comfy pajamas when she opened the window, which I’d thrown about twenty little pebbles at. Then, after haphazardly climbing up the uneven bricks along the wall, I made it up, and she pulled me the rest of the way in.
“Oh, you’re going to absolutely love it,” she slurs after luring me next to her in bed, grabbing my arm, resting her head on my shoulder, and curling her toes under my thigh.
Of course, it didn’t take long for her to fall asleep, but I watched the whole thing.
“Anyway,” I say, ending my thought. “Shall we?”
“Sure.” She smirks at me for a moment, and her hair blows in the wind.
God. How is it that one human being can somehow be the same but also so remarkably different than she was before? In many ways, it’s as if she hasn’t aged since I knew her way back when, but she also has a newfound confidence and elegance about her. I’m sure some of that naturally comes with age and motherhood, but I can tell there’s a part of it she learned all on her own.
“Let’s go.”
Again, she goes first, and then I follow.
“Ah!” she squeals once we reach the bottom. “This is one of my favorite feelings in the world.”
When I look down, I see her toes aggressively squishing in the sand.
“Come on! You try it!” Unlike her, I still had my footwear on. And at this point, she could probably tell me to rob a convenience store or something much more sinister than just getting my feet a little dirty. So I discard them and pull off my socks. “Woo! That’s it!” she encourages.
“Last one in the water is a rotten egg!”
She gasps, but then takes off running, kicking sand up in her dust. And once she gets to the wave marks, she stops as if she just approached a high cliff and walks backward on her tippy-toes.
“What’s wrong?” I catch up to her about two seconds later.
She grabs the sides of her dress and looks down at it.
“This is Sam’s, I can’t ruin it.”
“Oh, please. I will personally pay to dry-clean it. I promise, it will be fine.”
Her mouth opens to say more, but I quickly distract her by picking her up like a baby and carrying her into the water.
“Hayden, no!” She kicks and screams, but I’m relentless.
Before she can protest more, we’re both soaked.
“Oh, my God!” After a wave rushes over us, she sits up and wipes her wet hair against the back of her head.
Oh, shit. It’s around then that I remember about her crippling fear. You’re such an idiot, Hayden. Since she’d dared me to get in, I managed to forget about that phobia.
I rush to help her get out, but she surprisingly resists me.
“No, no. I’m okay.”
“Really?” I take a few steps back.
She nods. “I like it. I mean, if Luna can do it, I can too.”
I let her swim around on her own for a bit, but once a rushing wave comes in, she rushes to put her arms around my neck.
Thank you, mother nature. I’m not happy she’s afraid, but I am grateful for the nearness of her.
“Um.” While she’s only a few inches away from me, she bites down on her lips and blinks slowly.
Fuck it. I can’t resist it anymore, and I kiss her.
She doesn’t fight me now, and she even grips my shoulders tightly.
Our mouths continue their attach to each other, and I’m soon pawing at her drenched clothes.
Once I realize what I’m doing, I pull back momentarily. She’s breathing heavily, and I’m doing the same.
I want nothing more than to ravage her. But I’m now acutely aware that we’re in public, and that there are other people on the same beach.
“Should I call my driver?”
“God, yes.”
***
As if an almighty power answered my prayers, I soon learned that my Lionel had privacy screens installed, and he raised them up as soon as we got in the backseat and continued our rendezvous.
Her tight dress clung to her even tighter due to the moisture, but we did our best to get it all off.
Mine weren’t much easier to remove, but again, we got there.
“Is this really happening?” she asks, leaning against the door.
“I sure to God hope so.”
Next thing I know, I’m kissing her neck and trying to angle myself to enter her.
I never thought the first place I’d have her again would be in the back of a car, but it feels oddly right. It’s like we’re just the same bone-headed twenty-somethings that we used to be.
“Oh, Hayden,” she purrs as I slide in. But after only two or three thrusts, she wriggles her arms free and grabs either side of my face.
“What?” My eyes dart from one pupil of hers to the next, and I thought I was gasping for air before, but now I feel as though I’d benefit from an oxygen mask.
“Before we go any further . . . It’s Luna. You’re—”
Oh. I let out a sharp exhale from my nose and let one side of my mouth curl up.
“I know.”
Her brows scrunch. “What do you know?”
“I just know.”
After that, she kisses me deeper than ever before.