Chapter Fourteen
Hayes
She won’t look at me a second longer than she has to. She won’t talk about the night she stayed in my bed at the sanctuary.
She doesn’t want to talk about her stalker either.
I stay in her driveway all evening, always watching, waiting for anything to go wrong.
If she cares, she hasn’t said anything. But I suspect it would only end in an argument regardless.
That’s the only thing we can accomplish when we do speak. I’d hate to face her in the courtroom. She has a way of lunging for your throat when she wants to get her point across.
It thrills the hell out of me.
If I knew my presence wasn’t upsetting her, I’d make her mad at me on purpose just to hear her voice. More so to experience her fire.
She did it. She grew up to be a powerhouse and achieved her dreams. She has a successful career, and people who love her. I couldn’t be prouder.
I only wish there was a small corner for me. Not that I deserve it.
I hear an engine slowing before I see the vehicle, and I watch it closely as it pulls into her driveway. My shoulders ease when I see who it is.
Thea and Jesse get out of their car and exchange a quick word with one another before they split. He goes to the backseat to get the baby, and she walks over to my SUV.
“Hi.” She waves because she probably can’t see through my window tint. I lower my window, and she smiles warmly, but hesitantly. “We’re here for dinner. Jesse can keep an eye on her for a while if you want a break,” she offers. “Liv said you’ve been here late every night.”
Ah, so she has noticed.
“I don’t mind. I don’t have anywhere else to be.” That’s not true. I have a shit ton of responsibilities I’m slacking on at the sanctuary.
“You should come in and eat with us.”
“She wouldn’t want that.” I smile stiffly at her, and she tilts her head, observing me thoughtfully.
“Come inside, please. I’d like to get to know you better.”
“Why?”
“Because she means a lot to you, and that matters to me.” She turns away from me, joining her husband and baby on the porch where they’re waiting, and that’s when I see Liv watching from the doorway.
I don’t follow. I don’t know that I should. Not until they disappear inside and Liv gives me a subtle nod.
She doesn’t wait to see if I take the bait, but of course, I take it because I’ll take any inch she gives me.
I walk into a house of radiant joy. Jesse and Kate are rolling around on the floor. Thea starts collecting dishes as Liv prepares dinner. They’re dancing around each other in the kitchen, speaking to each other, and having two conversations at once.
It takes me thirty seconds to figure out that they’re talking about a disaster meal from college and simultaneously whether or not they should call Natalie to ask her a question about what Liv is cooking right now.
“But if I put it back in the oven, it will get over-cooked.”
“If you don’t put cheese on it, then it defeats the whole purpose of the meal.” Thea crosses her arms like she means business. “Hayes,” she turns to me suddenly, expecting me to forge an opinion about the casserole dish Liv is holding.
“Cheese,” I say after glancing at the somewhat colorless chicken and rice. “If you put it under the broiler for a few minutes, it won’t ruin anything,” I add.
“Fine! You both better eat it, then,” she relents.
“Liv hates to cook,” Thea divulges. “She only offered because she’s afraid to leave her house after dark now to come to my house.”
“Hey!” Liv rebuts her friend’s honesty.
“You could have told me. I can take you to Thea’s anytime you want.”
“I wouldn’t ask you to do anymore than you already are, Hayes.”
More like she doesn’t want to ask me.
“I’m here to do whatever you need,” I promise.
“See, there you go.” Thea shrugs, and I realize this is one of those conversations they’ve already had that I’m only now becoming privy to.
“Just because you know he used to be my friend doesn’t mean you guys can gang up on me.” Liv narrows her eyes at her, the throat lunge comes next…
But Thea’s face beams, completely undeterred. “You’re only mad because it’s working and you hate to lose.”
“Of course, I hate to lose. Who likes losing?” Liv glances at me, but her attention falls to my mouth quickly. I hadn’t realized that I was smiling while watching the exchange. “What?”
“Nothing.” I missed this.
Her.
Almost as if she could read my thoughts, she busies herself in the kitchen again, actively avoiding any opportunity to look in my direction.
“So, Hayes, Jesse told me that you helped them find Dec last year when he was lost at the sanctuary.”
Dec is Natalie’s brother and Sheriff Malec’s new little brother-in-law.
“We all did. As soon as we found out he was in with the bears, none of us hesitated.”
Thea sits down on the bar stool at the kitchen counter and pats the counter top opposite her, and I feel like I’m taking my seat for an interview.
“After I saw how you guys operated, Lochlan did me a solid by hiring Curtis on,” Jesse says. “He swears he’s still glad Lochlan gave him the job, even after everything that happened.”
Curtis was badly injured by Jeremiah Porter when he terrorized the sanctuary.
“How’s he doing? I haven’t made it to the hospital in a while.” I sigh. “If I were a couple of minutes faster, I would have been there, and he wouldn’t have been alone. Hell, it should have been me.”
“Still a long road to recovery, but he’ll get through it. He always has good things to say about you guys. He respects you a lot, Hayes.” Jesse pats me on the shoulder, and I nod my head in appreciation.
“He’s one of my key witnesses,” Liv says from her corner of the kitchen. “If he’s well enough to testify.”
“He’s hard-headed. He’ll be ready,” Jesse assures her.
I feel tugging on my pants and look down at the head full of blonde curls. “Hi,” I say softly, hoping not to startle her. I don’t know if she meant to grab me or if she thinks my leg belongs to her dad.
Her big green eyes stare at me as she bounces in place, gripping my leg. I put my hands out, and she reaches for me instantly, accepting it as I pull her onto my lap.
“I think she was feeling left out,” Thea coos at her daughter. “She just started trying to walk, but luckily, she isn’t much of a climber yet.”
Her little palms beat on the counter, and she squeals. “I think that means she’s hungry,” Jesse says suggestively since Liv is the dinner host.
“Oh, right.” She pulls her eyes off of baby Kate and me. “Let’s eat!”
* * *
12 years ago…
“You know what I think?” Liv states suddenly, curling her knees up in the center of her bed.
“What?” I throw my crumpled paper ball again, trying to get as close to hitting the ceiling without actually touching it.
“I think the boys at school are too immature for me. I need someone older.”
The paper ball comes down and smacks me in the face. My hand is still open.
“Excuse me?”
“I’ve always been wise for my age, that’s what everyone says. An old soul. Why not date someone older?”
“Because you’re 17.”
“So?”
“Liv, be serious. You have no reason to worry about dating when you’re about to leave for college in a few months.”
“I don’t need to date for marriage. I can have a fling.”
“I’m going to be sick.”
“Just because you see me as a sister doesn’t mean I don’t have needs.”
“A sister? You think I see you as a sister?”
“Well, yeah.” She doesn’t have time to scream as I grab her ankle, yanking her down the bed towards me.
“I wouldn’t have wet dreams about my sister, Olive.”
Her mouth gasps for breath. “What?”
“You’re my best friend, and I respect that, and I respect you. But don’t get it twisted. I think you’re gorgeous and sexy as hell. That’s why no man deserves you.”
Her mouth opens and shuts as she stares at me with wide eyes.
“So you’d rather me die alone and miserable because I’m too good for anyone?” She twists her body, trying to put distance between us, but I anchor my arm around her waist until she can’t budge.
“No, I want you to live your life. Make bad choices, get drunk in college, and I want you to find yourself without giving anything up for some guy.”
She finally stops fighting to get away from me. “I’m not your mom, Hayes. I won’t end up with someone like your dad.”
“I know.” I sigh into her shoulder. “I know.”
“If you think I’m so… Hot,” she mumbles as if she had a hard time saying the word. “Why haven’t you ever told me?”
“You deserve better than me, dove.”
“Shouldn’t that be my choice?”
“Of course, it is.”
“Then kiss me,” she breathes, searching my eyes.
God, I want to. “If I kiss you, then one will never be enough.” My thumb traces her cheekbone as she swallows thickly.
“Okay,” she whispers, letting her eyes flutter closed.
“I’d ruin your life.”
“What?”
“I’ll consume your every thought,” I utter against her neck. “I’ll demand all of your time.” She gasps as my teeth scrape her tender skin.
“But worst of all, I’ll never let you out of my sight. All of your dreams would take a back seat because I’d make you fall madly in love with me.”
Her eyes blink, grasping for rational thought when my lips trace her jaw line. “I’d make you drown in this feeling that I’ve been struck by since the moment I laid eyes on you.”
“Jensen,” she utters my first name. The one that few people have the privilege of using.
“If you still want me to kiss you in, let’s say, ten years, I will. But only after you’ve accomplished all of your dreams and are ready to settle for a loser like me.”
“Ten years?” She gasps.
All part of her perfectly curated life’s plan.
Go away for undergrad.
Complete some sort of graduate program.
Be done with school by 25.
Engaged by 28.
Married by 30.
Kids by 33.
A silly conversation we had one evening swinging at the rusty playground that I haven’t forgotten for a second. The bullet points are fundamentally a part of me now.
“Yeah, dove. I’ll be waiting at the altar when you’re 30.”