Me
Like I found my calling.
Lydia
Maybe you did.
You have my permission to never tell me what happens on this, the Lord’s day, after 11:30.
Me
Yes ma’am.
“Who are you texting?”
I slide my phone in my pocket as we climb the steps of Hannah’s front porch. “Your mom.” The statement rolls off my tongue, smooth and casual.
She scoffs in disbelief. “Veryfunny.”
My side-eye stops her in her tracks on the middle step. “If you say so.”
Her jaw goes slack as I breeze past her to the top. “Oh my god, you’re texting my mother!”
“Yeah, that’s what I said,” I bark, spinning to face her.
All goes still for a beat, a calm before the storm. Then, like a bull launched out of a chute, Hannah lunges, hands reaching for my pockets. I deke and dodge to let the girl have some fun before I wrap her up, back to my chest, arms pinned over her front.
“Rowan!”
“Hannah!” I laugh.
I release her and she spins around with one palm open. “Let me see your phone.”
So cute when she’s riled up.
“Never,” I reply.
Hip jutted, she hauls in a long breath through her nose. “Maybe I’ll steal your phone while you’re sleeping. Better watch your six, big guy.”
I smirk. “Is that your way of asking me to stay the night?”
Her eyes flicker with uncertainty a moment before she pulls them away. Everything bright and beautiful drains from her face in an instant, and I know I’ve inadvertently crossed a line. She buries a hand in her purse.
When she finally retrieves her keys, she turns them over in her hands while I silently curse myself for saying the wrong thing.
I nudge her chin with my finger until those gold-flecked irises find me. “Hi.”
“Hi,” she breathes in a voice too wounded for comfort.
“You set the pace here, okay? I’m sorry if it sounded like I was pressuring you. That wasn’t my intention.”
She squeezes her eyes shut, shakes her head. “No, it’s not that. I…” Her thought trails off until only silence remains.
I want to say something, to fold her up in my arms, to kiss the tight lines of those lips away until they’re soft again. But I refrain. She decides what comes next.
“I—” She swallows hard. “I want you to stay, but…”
“But what?”