THREE
Morgan
His words echoed around my skull.
Never? Did he really mean never?
“I thought you were just here for a break. Don’t you have a big fancy career to get back to?”
His eyes softened for a minute, his hand falling from my chin and leaving tingles in its wake. Everything about him turned me on, still did. Only now, I hated him for it. “Not going back.”
“Ever?”
He only shook his head. As if he didn’t owe me more of an explanation. Of course, he owed me an explanation. This was my town; he’d up and left us all. I was the one who was left behind to make a life here.
“Fucked up my shoulder.” He rubbed at the muscle, and my instincts pushed at me to touch him. Massage him. Ease away the ache. But those days were gone. I wasn't his anymore, and he certainly wasn’t mine. “I’m officially retired.”
“Shit.” I blurted the only word in my head.
“Something like that,” he muttered, eyes trailing around the small diner.
It wasn’t much to look at, the floors dingy, the seat cushions cracked, but Dan had been good to me. Always flexible with hours, understanding when Emerson was sick. And this was just about the only place to work in this town. Anything else would require driving into the city, a good forty-five minutes, and doing that every day with my junk car would be bad news.
We were okay. I could make rent on the wage Dan paid, and if I picked up additional hours, I had enough to buy extras at the grocery store, like ice cream for a treat, or a new pair of sandals for Emerson in the summer.
Life was tough, and looking at Hawk now, I could see he’d left this life far behind.
His shoes were high-end sneakers, brand-new jeans hung just right on his hips, and he wore a designer T-shirt I was sure he paid more for than what I spent a month in groceries. Hawk and I may have grown up together, but our lives sure were different now. His dad had always said I wasn’t good enough for him, and it was part of the reason I’d told Hawk to walk away—because it was true. I couldn't hold him back when his only dream had ever been to play pro ball. I wouldn’t be the weight on the end of his balloon. Hawk deserved to fly. He was the best quarterback Greenville had seen in over a decade. Of course, he was drafted his sophomore year of college, and no way would I be the girl to keep him from chasing his dreams.
I loved him enough for that, at least.
Even if he didn’t see it, standing across from me now.
“Talk to me. Just fifteen minutes,” Hawk breathed against my neck.
Dan’s voice called from the back of the kitchen then, asking me to lock the doors.
“I’ll wait for you outside. Please talk to me.” Hawk’s eyes burned back at me, dark, pleading.
I nodded quickly, ushering him out the door before locking it behind him. He turned, waved once, then leaned against the brick wall, looking sexy as fuck. How was it possible Hawk was back and he was waiting for me to get off work, just like it used to be? I’d fallen into a time warp, except this time, it was all different. This time, I had Emerson.
I breathed deeply, steeling my spine before buzzing around to the tables and counters and giving them one final sweep with a damp cloth. Untying my apron, I went in back to find Dan.
“Headed home for the night?” He barely looked up from the stack of papers on his desk.
“Yup, unless you need anything else?” I stalled, dreading walking out those doors to face Hawk. Who knew what kinds of questions he might ask me. And I wasn’t ready to tell him anything. Not yet, maybe not ever.
“I’m good. Thanks, Morgan.” Dan dismissed me with a wave of his hand, and I trailed on soft footsteps out the back door. Shrugging my purse onto my shoulder, I made my way around the building and bumped chest-first into Hawk.
His arms came around me instantly.
My body wanted to melt into him, let him soothe away all the anxiety just like he used to do, but I’d gotten good at standing on my own two feet. Just because he was back now didn’t change anything.
“What do you want, Hawk?”
“I want to know about you,” he said simply. I’d missed that about him. So many people used so many words to fill their conversations without saying anything of value. Hawk’s words were short and to the point, and you never had to guess how he was feeling.
“Well, I’ve been waitressing here for almost three years—”
“Not that shit.”
I frowned, growing frustrated. “Then, what shit?”
“Don't bullshit me, Morgan.” He caught my elbow, hauling me a little closer to him. My stomach fell, my knees weakened, stubborn arousal chugging its way through my veins and landing between my thighs. Just the brush of his skin against mine was like a hit of heroin coursing through my veins. I hated being so at his mercy. I hated that he still knew that about me.
“Bullshit you? Why would I even?” I yanked my arm out of his grip and walked down the sidewalk.
“Talk to me.”
“You keep saying that without asking a damn question!” I screamed, speeding up.
“Christ, can’t we go somewhere private?” His face contorted into a frown.
“No! I mean, not my place. The babysitter is there.”
“Then mine.” His hand was at my elbow again, pulling me against him.
I shook my head, not because I didn’t want to, but because the fog his touch sent clouding my brain was almost too much to handle.
“It’s just a block and a half away. Give me fifteen minutes. And I’ll walk you home when I’m done.”
“I don’t want you to know where I live.”
“What? Why not?” His brow furrowed, offended.
I shook my head, feeling a little more helpless every minute. I wasn’t sure what I was doing here, the only thing running through my head that I was standing across from my best friend, and following him anywhere felt like the most natural thing on Earth. I sighed, “Fifteen minutes at your place. That’s it.”
He shook his head, hand looping with mine as he guided us the opposite way down the street. His fingers intertwined with mine made my stomach swim, my knees weak, the taste of his lips on mine still intoxicating.
Hawk took another turn down a side street, weaving farther away from my and Emerson’s house—at least he wasn't my neighbor. Small mercies for that.
My heart stuttered to a halt when we approached a small, very familiar apartment complex. The very same apartment complex we’d lived in together for the first two years of college.
The two years before he left.
The two years before my entire world changed.
“You live here?” I asked in disbelief.
He only nodded, hand firmer in mine as we walked across the parking lot. He pulled a key out of his pocket and unlocked a door on the bottom floor. “Only temporary. Got a place outside of town. This place had good memories, though.” He looked at me, a half grin turning his lips.
That grin.
Jesus, how could I have forgotten that grin?
It sent cartwheels flipping in my stomach every time.
What was I doing here?
I should have gone straight home.
“Seeing you today made me realize something, Morgan. Something that’s been buried a long time.” He was moving closer, his other hand catching mine. “I may have walked away from you then, but you’re just as much mine now as you were all those years ago.” His words crept up the curve of my neck, teeth nipping at my earlobe.
Oh. God. Yes.
“I shouldn't have left you here. I should have dragged you kicking and screaming along with me.”
A part of me wished he would have.
“Or I should have stayed, Morgan. Fuck, every day I kicked myself for not staying.”
“W-what?” I stammered, brain fried with the way his hands were crawling up my waist, slipping under my shirt and making me putty in his hands.
“I never stopped loving you, Morgan. Not a day went by that I didn’t love you.”
His words sucked the air from the room.
My vision darkened, my muscles weak before his hands were at my hips and pulling me against him.
He hitched my legs around his waist. His hands were forcing their way into my hair, ripping out my ponytail and sending my hair in a cascade around us. Heaving pants of desperate breath racked us both as our lips attached, our sanity gone, our love beating stronger than it ever had.
I hated him.
I loved him.
I needed him.
I needed this.
“Oh, Hawk,” I sighed when his hand slipped under my skirt, fingers working against the fabric of my panties. I was aching, desperate, hungry for his body against mine.
“Missed you, baby girl,” were the last words he said before his fingers slipped inside my panties and his lips covered my moans.
I was lost.
Hawk was back, and I’d already fallen down the rabbit hole.