Chapter 37
THIRTY-SEVEN
DALTON
With my hands shoved deep into the pockets of my swim trunks, my feet pound the pavement.
The coastal breeze that's now in full effect rolls through the thin fabric of my t-shirt and shorts, making me wince. If it wasn’t for my so-called best friend, I’d be driving home in my truck—the heater on full blast.
But nope.
I’m left instead to think about all the ways I’m going to get Hudson back for not giving me my goddamn keys.
At least the wind chill isn’t like this back in California.
My body stills, halting me in my tracks. Fuck.
I’m supposed to get on a plane in seven days. Commit to another four years in the Marines. Another four years traveling all around the world, leaving for months at a time. Can I do it again? Can I go back to that solitary life? I begged Savanna tonight to ask me to stay—do I still mean it?
My stomach hardens, tension radiating down my spine.
I can’t even believe this is my life now—I'm a father now, for fuck’s sake. To the most extraordinary, spunky, charming little girl I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting.
Drew’s perfect.
I swallow hard, picking up my pace.
Just three more miles.
My throat feels like I’ve swallowed chalk, my eyes sting—thinking about everything I’ve missed in Drew’s life. All the memories I haven’t been a part of are framed neatly on the walls of Savanna’s bungalow.
I’m so in my head, focused on the road ahead of me, that I’m not paying attention to the cars driving by. The hair on the back of my neck stands when I feel someone tailing me. My situational awareness from the military suddenly kicks into high gear.
Glancing behind my shoulder, I spot a truck a few yards back, driving extra slowly.
Fucking great.
Someone’s following me.
I stop. The truck stops, too.
I pick up my pace. The truck picks up its pace, too.
Jesus Christ, could this night get any worse?
I’m about to make a run for it when the truck speeds up and comes to a screeching halt. The passenger side window rolls down slowly, revealing the person in the driver’s seat.
Oh, great, this night can get worse.
“Get in,” Hudson says, tapping his fingers on the wheel. He snaps his gaze away, turning his attention back to the road in front of him.
I shake my head. “No.” My tone is sharp. There’s no fucking way I’m getting in the truck with Hudson right now, especially after he made me freeze my ass off the last two miles.
I continue walking. Hudson eases off the gas to keep up. From the truck, I hear an exaggerated sigh. “Get in the fucking truck, Dalton.”
“Nope.” I stare straight ahead, ignoring him.
Out of my peripheral, Hudson cocks his head, then shakes it. “Has anyone ever told you that you’re a stubborn little shit?”
I shrug, still not looking at him.
“If you don’t get in this fucking truck, Dalton, I swear to god I’ll tail your ass all the way to your mom’s house.”
“Sounds great,” I spit.
“Perfect. I'll make sure to go to Savanna’s straight after and let her know you’re being a little bitch.”
Hearing Savanna’s name leave his mouth makes me stop in my tracks, heart rate spiking.
Hudson smirks from the driver's seat. “Maybe I’ll even invite Chad over there, pick him up on the way to bask in all your bitchiness.”
My steps falter, eyes sharp when I turn to look at Hudson. “You wouldn’t.”
Hudson chuckles, eyes lightening up. “Oh, I fucking would, Dalton. Try me.” His voice comes out in warning.
At this point, with tonight’s turn of events? I wouldn’t put it past him to pull some bullshit like that.
I grunt, and before I know it, I’m tugging on Hudson’s passenger door and sliding into his truck. His heater hits me full blast.
“Jesus, man. You look freezing. You really shouldn’t be walking in this weather,” Hudson snickers, pulling onto the road again. Folding my arms across my chest, I give him a glassy stare, making his lips curl into a sneer.
“Oh, that’s right, someone took your keys,” he snickers, like the last hour never fucking happened.
My head is reeling from Hudson’s sudden whiplash. Just a half hour ago, he told me he was about to put me in a shallow grave. Now, he’s snickering in the driver’s seat of his truck like a goddamn schoolgirl.
I stare out the passenger window, ignoring him. When he misses the road to my mom’s house, I sit up straighter. Shit, maybe this is a trap. Maybe he’s going to put me in a shallow grave tonight after all.
I clear my throat, glancing at him. “Uh, where are you going? You missed the turn.”
“Nope. We’re going in the right direction.”
My eyes dart around in the dark surrounding us. “No, we’re fucking not.”
Hudson chuckles, giving me a sideways glance. “Relax, Dalton. You’re staying at my apartment tonight.”
“Why?” I ask, cocking my head to the side, brows furrowing. “You’re not planning on killing me in my sleep, are you?”
Hudson sucks in a laugh, his head tilting side to side like he’s weighing his options. “Nah, thought about it,” he says, eyes darting toward me. “But I came to the realization I’m too pretty to sit in jail.”
His mouth curves into a smile while laughter booms from my chest. Shaking my head, I sneak a glance his way. “Yeah, you probably wouldn’t last.”
He snorts. “Could you fucking imagine? With these dimples, and this white smile?” he says, pointing to his face.
“No, I really couldn’t.”
“Plus, I think my sister would probably murder me if I murdered you,” he lightly teases, testing the waters when he mentions her name.
I don’t respond.
I doubt she’d care.
With the look on her face, her eyes slicing through me when I demanded she tell Hudson the truth, I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t mind if Hudson murdered me tonight.
I close my eyes, heaviness creeping in my chest. My head hits the headrest, images of Savanna from tonight flashing like rapid fire in my mind.
I told her I loved her tonight.
Something I’ve wanted to do my entire life.
I know I still mean it. Because after everything that’s happened tonight, the only place I want to be is with her.
Behind my eyelids, my mind keeps replaying the moment Savanna stood up, pacing in front of me. Her body caving in on itself, confessing I wouldn’t love her once I knew the truth.
That I would leave her.
And I did just that—called her selfish and left her.
My eyes open as Hudson pulls into his parking spot, his truck coming to a stop.
Setting it in park, we hop out of the truck, walking to his apartment in silence.
Once we get through the front door, Hudson throws his keys—along with mine onto his entryway table.
He makes a beeline to his refrigerator for a beer, leaving me to stand there, unsure of what to do.
There’s no way we aren't talking about what happened tonight.
I don’t think this is a slumber party.
I shove my hands in my pockets and look around his living room. Since Hudson moved back to the island after living in Athens, the apartment is still rather bare, with just some of his old baseball memorabilia and a leather couch filling the space.
Making his way into the living room, Hudson rolls his eyes when he sees me standing stiff. “Jesus, Dalton. I’m not going to fucking bite,” he says, setting two beers down on his coffee table before taking a seat. “Unless you’re into that sort of thing.” He smirks.
I grunt, taking the seat opposite him.
Hudson takes in my humorless face, sliding me a beer from across the table. Sitting on the edge of the couch, his knees spread wide, a beer dangling from his fingertips. “Do you want to know why I picked your ass up and didn’t let you freeze your nuts off walking home?”
I keep my eyes on the beer bottle in front of me. Registering my silence, Hudson continues, “Well, it took me about ten minutes after you left to come to the realization that if I could have picked anyone to be Drew’s father, it would have been you.”
My head snaps up, eyes meeting his from across the couch. I can feel my throat swelling, his words rendering me speechless.
“And if there’s anyone I can trust in this world to take care of my sister and my niece, it’s you,” he says, pointing the neck of his beer bottle at me, his voice cracking.
Looking away, my eyes turn misty at Hudson’s words.
He doesn’t hate me.
“So the question is, do you want to take care of them? Do you love my sister and Drew?”
Without hesitation, my head jerks in his direction. Adrenaline courses through my body when I think about somebody else taking care of them. “Yes.”
“Alright then. Well, it looks like we’ve found ourselves in a little bit of a situation,” he says, leaning back into the cracked leather of his couch.
He crosses his leg over his knee, getting comfortable.
“Because on one hand, I want to kick your ass for getting my sister pregnant in the fucking first place. But then, on the other hand, I love my niece and think she’s the greatest thing to walk this earth. ” He takes a sip of his beer.
“So, start talking.” He sighs.
Clearing my throat, I lean forward and grab the beer off the coffee table, taking a sip to numb my throat. “Well, I just found out that Drew is mine.”
Hudson rolls his eyes, “Yeah, no shit. I think we all did, Dalton.”
My teeth sink into the inside of my cheek, fingers twisting around the neck of my bottle. “I thought Savanna was with someone else for all these years after that phone call with you when I was away at basic.”
Hudson rears his head back, forehead pinching together. “What phone call?”
I hesitate, not wanting to drag Hudson into this whole mess. Savanna’s words from earlier sound like an alarm in my ears—that it was my fault for listening to him in the first place.
“Uh…” I stammer. “Well, I called home after basic, and you told me Savanna was pregnant.” I avert my eyes, staring at the beer hanging from the tips of my fingers. “And you mentioned she was with a guy now or something like that...”
Hudson releases a heavy sigh. “Fuck, Dalton. I don’t remember that at all. My whole first year of college was a fucking blur, man. Between baseball and partying with Sanders too much…”
Hudson pauses, meeting my gaze. “So, that explains why you didn’t come back after your graduation like everyone was expecting.” He clears his throat, studying me. “And why you practically cut everyone off when you left?”
My hands get clammy against the frosted bottle, a wave of guilt washing over me. I manage a slight nod, my body sinking into the back of his coach.
“So, you never came back, and Savanna never told you about Drew?” Hudson asks, shaking his head, chuckling lightly. “Well, that’s some fucking Dr. Phil shit.”
I grunt, not finding it as humorous as he does.
“And to think you were the one trying to give me love advice a few days ago,” he snorts.
I swallow the lump in my throat. “Yeah,” I say, gravelly.
Hudson let out an amused laugh. “Fuck, I knew something was off at game night. It’s like I was being ganged up on by two Daltons.
You would think I would have figured it out a long time ago, huh?
You and Drew look practically fucking identical.
” He pauses, his shoulders lifting in a half-shrug.
“I guess I didn’t see it until you came back here, and you guys were in the same room together. ”
My heart throbs, warmness filling every pore of my body, thinking about how I get to be a father to that little girl. That’s if Savanna lets me after the shit I said tonight.
Hudson takes another sip of his beer, the bottle popping from his lips. Like he can read my mind, he laughs. “Bravo, by the way, putting my sister on the spot like that in front of everyone tonight.” He shakes his head, his words settling deep in my gut, making my stomach turn.
“The look she gave you?” Hudson’s eyes widen, his face pulling tight. “Let’s just say I wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of one of my sister’s death glares.”
Shit.
Standing up from the couch across from me, Hudson snickers, watching my shoulders tense, blood draining from my face as panic engulfs me. “Well, on that note, I’m fucking starving. Are you starving?” he asks, pointing at me. “It looks like you could eat,” he chuckles.
Grabbing his phone, he makes his way into his kitchen, leaving me to stare blankly at the sterile white walls of his apartment.
I groan, my head falling back against the couch. I press my palms into my eyelids, forcing myself to see stars. How the fuck am I going to make this right?
“Oh, and hey man?” Hudson yells out from the kitchen.
My eyes pop open, vision blurred.
“Now that I know you're Drew’s dad, you definitely better be my brother-in-law one day.”
I swallow what feels like gravel, a gargling sound stuck in my throat. I can’t talk right now, apparently. Now that I have a daughter.
Especially when it relates to marrying Savanna.
A bark of laughter leaves Hudson’s chest. “Cat got your tongue there, Dalton?” he asks, handing me another beer.
Grabbing the remote, he takes a seat, flipping to the sports channel to catch up on tonight’s baseball highlights.
Taking the beer from Hudson, I rub my jawline. A labored breath leaves my lungs. “Yeah, I guess so,” I mumble.
When Hudson gets an alert on his phone, he pulls it out of his pocket and frowns. Shooting off a quick message, he slips it back into his shorts. “Your future wife made it home, by the way. In case you were wondering.”
My head snaps to his. “Was that her?” I ask, my stomach bottoming out.
Hudson shakes his head. “Hailey. Sounds like they're doing the girly version of this,” he says, waving his hand between us.
I quirk a brow, heart rate spiking. “Ice cream, wine, and Channing Tatum," Hudson laughs. “That was all the text said.”
“Oh,” I mumble, looking down at my hands. The feeling of longing creeps its way inside me, sitting like a weight on my chest.
I want to be there–with her.
Savanna curled into my side, drinking wine and eating her cherry ice cream.
Sinking back into the couch, my eyes glaze over, zoning out on the sports channel, listening to Hudson’s disgruntled commentary.
After a few more beers and once I force myself to eat the pizza that Hudson ordered, I make my way into his spare bedroom to call it a night. Crawling onto the mattress he has on the floor, I lie back, my arm resting behind my head. I stare at the ceiling fan rotating clockwise above me.
As I lie awake, unable to sleep, it brings me back to how I felt six years ago—when I was lying in my shitty bunk at boot camp thinking about Savanna.
But tonight, instead of that one night on the beach with Savanna replaying in my mind on a continuous loop, it’s the culmination of the last two weeks with her.
The last two weeks with Drew.