23. Eloise #2
“I’m sorry I reacted that way,” I whispered.
My focus was on the surface of the water in front of me.
Needing something to do with all the pent-up nervous energy inside of me, I started shifting my hands around under the surface.
The sun caught the ripples that the movement created.
When Hudson didn’t respond right away, I peeked up at him.
“I know you didn’t mean anything by it.”
Hudson was staring at the water’s surface as well. His eyebrows were knit together like he was actively digesting my words. I wasn’t sure if he wanted me to keep talking or if he wanted me to wait for him to respond. I decided to go with the latter.
“I guess I just wanted to see you smile for once.” He paused before he slowly brought his gaze up to meet mine. He studied me before he shrugged.
It was harder to hate him when he looked so innocent. So…lost. Maybe it was because I related to that feeling. That made him human and it was hard to despise someone who was human.
I forced a smile. Hudson held my gaze for a moment before he scoffed and dropped his focus back to the water.
“A real smile, Lou—Eloise.”
I sighed and dropped my faux smile. Hudson did know me. As much as I wanted to deny that fact, it was a reality that existed no matter how much I wanted that to be different.
“Can’t get anything past you, can I?” I asked. The smile I offered him while weak, was at least genuine.
Hudson shook his head. “Nope.”
I sighed, dipped a bit lower into the water, and swished my hands around in front of me. “What do you want from me, Hudson?” I slowly brought my gaze up to meet his.
He studied me before he shrugged. “A truce?” He must have sensed my hesitation because he quickly added, “I will lay down my weapons of war if you do the same.” He held up his hands.
“It would probably help with the wedding plans. I’m sure there’s some bad juju coming Gaines and Josalyn’s way if the two people helping with their wedding are constantly fighting. ”
I narrowed my eyes. As much as I wanted to reject his hypothesis, he was appealing to my superstitious side.
Even though people were quick to discount holding your breath as you drive by a cemetery or stepping on a crack, I liked to err on the side of caution and avoid letting bad luck into my life.
“You suck,” I said as I blew out my breath.
Now that he brought that to my attention it was going to be hard for me to ignore it.
If being nice to Hudson meant that Gaines and Josalyn would have a happy, successful wedding and in turn, a happy and successful marriage, it would be selfish of me not to comply.
Gaines was my only close family member and he deserved the world.
“Fine. I accept your call for a truce.” I straightened and extended my hand out to him.
His startled expression brought out the first genuine smile in me. His eyebrows were raised and his lips were formed into a soft o shape. I could see that he was trying to figure out my angle, so I widened my smile so he would know that I was serious.
“I mean it. I’ll be…cordial.”
“Cordial?”
I nodded. “A model citizen. No one will know that we secretly don’t like each other.”
He frowned. “We?”
I was going to ignore his question. I was going to continue to live in a world where I didn’t like Hudson and he didn’t like me. It was better that way. It made despising him easier.
“I’ll find a way to work with you until the wedding is over and then we never have to speak again.” A low ache settled in my chest at that statement. Where I thought I would have felt happiness and peace at the idea of never speaking to Hudson again, for some reason, my emotions thought otherwise.
Maybe it was just the finality of it all.
Once Gaines was married, did I have a reason to come back to Harmony?
My first instinct was to say no. That Gaines was the only reason I was here.
The truth was, I didn’t want that to be the case, but what I wanted and reality were quickly becoming two very different things.
I was learning that it was better to go along with what fate had in store for me than fight against it.
“Is that what you want?”
I glanced over to see Hudson studying me.
His gaze was dark and his expression was unreadable.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about his question and in all honesty, I wasn’t even sure what I wanted anymore.
All I knew was I felt too exposed and too vulnerable right now.
Protecting my heart from anymore pain was goal number one.
“Yep,” I said with another forced smile and a resolute nod. I was determined to fake it until I made it. Whatever that might look like.
“Okay.” He started walking toward the shore so I followed after him.
We didn’t speak as we moved from the water to land.
The only sound breaking through the silence was the crash of the waves as we got closer to shore.
I had to adjust my weight to brace myself for the force of water that threatened to push me over.
I pulled at my wet clothes to keep them from clinging to my body once I was fully out.
“You couldn’t have waited until I was in a swimsuit?” I asked.
I stood a few feet off, wringing the water from my shirt and watching it drip onto the ground in front of me. My hair was stringy and clumped to my face. Desperate to rectify my appearance, I hastily wiped at the underneath of my eye and cringed when I saw that my fingertips were tinged black.
I was certain I looked a mess.
“You could have just looked for shark teeth with me,” Hudson retorted as he lifted his left hand and gripped onto the collar of his shirt.
Before I could react, he’d pulled it over his head and his bare stomach, chest, and then shoulders became fully exposed.
It took a moment for me to realize that I was gawking at him but how could I not?
He’d added to his tattoo collection since the last time I saw him.
But it wasn’t just the tattoos that had my entire brain screeching to a halt.
He looked like he spent more time in the gym than whipping up sugary baked goods.
How was I supposed to process any of this? So much was going on right now with my wet, clinging clothes, the sand between my toes, and Hudson’s naked chest.
“Geez, Lou Lou, you definitely know how to make a man blush.”
My gaze snapped up to his as I slammed my lips shut. Apparently, sometime between when Hudson took off his shirt and my brain short-circuited, I’d dropped my jaw like some ridiculous cartoon.
I was an idiot.
“Um—what?” I stumbled through my words as I physically willed myself to focus. Beach. Water. Wet clothes. Hudson. I was going to ground myself in facts until I could think properly again.
“My eyes are up here, Hamilton.” He brought his two fingers from his chest to his eyes for emphasis.
“I know that,” I said like that was all it was going to take to make him forget that I had just been ogling him. Pretend that nothing happened long enough for people to start to believe that nothing had happened.
“Um, okay,” he mumbled before he took his sweet time methodically wringing out his shirt.
Once again, I lost all control of my brain and my eyes and all I could focus on was the way his muscles rippled in his forearms from the movement.
I was no better than a man.
Needing to get control of the situation, I sighed. “You about done?” I asked.
Hudson glanced over at me, the smirk on his face made my blood boil. “Almost,” he said as he shifted to a different spot on his shirt and began to twist that portion.
“Oh, okay. Then let me join you,” I said. Two could play at this game.
I criss crossed my arms and gripped the bottom of my shirt. Just as I exposed the bottom half of my stomach, Hudson reached out.
“Don’t,” he commanded, his hand landing firmly on my forearm.
I glanced up at him with an innocent expression. “Don’t what?” I asked.
His gaze was firm as he stared down at me. He didn’t have to answer that question because I knew what he meant and he was not amused. But I’d gotten a rise out of him so I was going to count that as a win.
“You know what,” he said as he started to loosen his grip on me.
I quirked an eyebrow and started to move my arms upward once more, so he tightened his grip on my arm.
“Eloise.”
I tipped my head to the side. “Mhmm?”
“We can go,” he said as he kept his hold on me while he shook out his shirt with his other hand. Once he found the bottom hem, he slipped his arm in, shaking it like he was trying to find the arm hole.
“We can go?” I asked, my innocent expression returning.
He glared at me. “We can go.”
“Okay.” I shrugged and dropped my arms.
Hudson held his focus on me like he didn’t believe that I was going to give up that easily before he slowly lowered his hand and finished pulling on his shirt. I stood there, waiting for him to be ready. He nodded in my direction and we both started making our way back to his truck.
Just before we cleared the sand, something black and triangular caught my eye. I stopped, reached down, and picked up a shark tooth. Someone must have dropped it on their way back to the car. That was the only explanation as to why it was so far away from shore.
“What’d you’d find?”
I straightened and turned toward Hudson’s voice. With the tooth snuggled deep into my palm I glanced up at him. I watched as realization passed over his face and I couldn’t help but smile.
Gran had thrown me a bone from the afterlife.
“Looks like you owe me a banana split.”