Chapter Two #2
She took a few steps toward him. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m okay. I’m not going to make this about me. I just wanted to come and tell you I am sorry. I had no idea, and I can’t believe I didn’t know.” He ran a hand down his face.
Katie knew this couldn’t be easy for him.
She closed the distance and placed a hand on his arm. “It’s okay. Adam had ... strange requests and ways of dealing with everything.”
“He did?”
“Yeah. Some people might think I’m the biggest bitch around because I moved out of the home we shared, but the truth was, he arranged it so if I didn’t move, I’d get kicked out.”
“You’re joking.”
“Nope. Adam wanted me to be strong. He wanted me to ... move on.”
Hawk took hold of her hand, where the wedding band lay. “But you haven’t moved on?”
“Yes, I have.” She looked at the ring. “This ring and this shop is all I have of him.”
“It is?”
“Yep. I had to get rid of everything else, no exceptions.”
“I hate to say this, but I think that was a dick move,” Hawk said.
Katie burst out laughing. “Adam even said that to me in his letter. He left me a letter.”
This was so damn strange. Over the years, she and Adam had talked about the past, and the one thing her husband had said was that he had found it easy to talk to Hawk. She had never really spent any time with Hawk, and yet here she was, just talking.
“He’s a great guy, Katie. You don’t know him like I do, and trust me, that guy is sharp as a fucking whip, and he’s a lot of fun. Once you get past the fact he can be a jerk, he’s a lot of fun.”
“A letter?” Hawk asked.
She nodded. “Yeah, a letter, explaining that he loved me and wished he could have given me the life I always wanted, but it wasn’t meant to be. Twenty-eight was too young to become a widow, and I wasn’t going to have a dead husband around my neck.” She smiled at him.
“You know, it’s crazy, but that so sounds like Adam.”
She laughed. “Yeah, it did. I hated him for a bit, but I did what he asked, and now I have this place, which he helped make successful before he left. There was a lot he did for me.”
“Did you guys ... have any kids?”
“No,” Katie said.
She was not about to tell Hawk that Adam refused to have them. After his first diagnosis, and defeating it, Katie had thought they would have kids.
“I can’t do it, Katie. I’m so sorry, baby. My mom died of cancer. My dad died of cancer.”
“But you defeated it.”
“It’s going to come back,” Adam had said.
“Don’t say that.”
“I know me. I know my family. I’m not going to give this to my kid. I love you, Katie. I love you more than anything, but we can’t have kids. I can’t do that to you. You’re going to bury me, and that is going to be awful. I can’t have you burying one of our kids.”
She pulled out of the memory.
Less than three years later, the cancer came back, and this time, it was worse than before and had taken her husband. They had no kids, but they had this shop together, lots of memories, and she had the wedding band to remind her she had loved. She had loved Adam so deeply, but it had been hard.
“Do you want to go and grab lunch?” Hawk asked.
It was on the tip of her tongue to decline, but something warmed her. She didn’t know what it was, but it was a feeling she hadn’t experienced in a long time.
“Yeah, I’d love to.” She glanced back at the shop.
“We can go to the diner, or if you want, we can eat here,” he said.
“It’s fine. I can close for lunch. I usually do. I’ll just grab my bag.”
She stepped behind the counter, opened the locked cupboard, and grabbed her bag. She didn’t have a staff room, as between her and Adam there hadn’t been a need. She’d been able to manage on her own.
She walked out of the shop and locked the door, flipping the sign indicating she had gone for her lunch break. She walked side by side with Hawk, a little shocked that she was walking with him at all.
Several people stopped them, shook hands with Hawk, and offered her a smile. They were not used to seeing Hawk, and she got that. His mother had warned them all that he did have a heart attack.
They arrived at the diner, and it was pretty busy.
A mixture of locals and tourists, but they were able to find a small table in the back.
Hawk allowed her to slide into her side, and then he took the seat opposite her.
They didn’t even have chance to grab their menus before Valerie, one of the waitresses, was there to take their orders.
Katie visited the diner quite often, so she asked for the house special. Hawk did the same.
“Some things never change,” Hawk said.
Katie smiled. “Are you hating being back here?”
“Nah, I don’t hate it. It’s actually good.”
“Good?”
“Yeah, I guess it’s nice to know that some things don’t change. It’s comforting.”
“A lot has changed in Hope, you just have to have been here the whole time to know.”
“Like what?” he asked.
She told him all about the football team. How they nearly went all State, at least she thought that was what they would do. She was not a big football fan, so wasn’t entirely sure on the lingo.
There was the chili competition that had been introduced. Not to mention the pie-tasting festival.
“It sounds exciting.”
She couldn’t help but laugh. At first, she thought Hawk was mocking her, but looking into his eyes, she saw he genuinely meant it.