No. He really couldn’t. His job required him to check up on her regularly. Plus she’d agreed to model for Megan.
With a groan, Matt started the car and dropped his head against the steering wheel. He was fucked. And not in a good way.
Matt tossed his keys on his dresser and hung his coat on the back of the desk chair in his room, his phone vibrating in his pocket. He pulled it out to see a text from Hannah.
Sorry about the crowd. A few of them were already there when I got there and invited me to join them. They wouldn’t take no for an answer.
He sighed, trying to figure out how he should navigate this situation. No problem. It’s a popular place. I should’ve thought about that when I suggested it.
I still have your sweatshirt.
Moving to the kitchen, he grabbed a beer out of the fridge, even though he’d just had one at the restaurant. He took a long pull before responding again, trying to decide what to do. Should he invite her over? Offer to go get it? Tell her to keep it until she came over to model for Megan? He should choose the last one, Janine’s warning fresh in his mind.
But he’d been aching to see her since Friday, and the brief touch in the hallway outside the break room when she almost ran into him didn’t cut it, much less sitting across a crowded table from her where they couldn’t even talk. Fuck it. He was going to invite her over. What Janine didn’t know wouldn’t hurt anyone.
Want to bring it over? I was just about to figure out dinner. You could stay and eat with me.
He forced himself to set his phone down on the kitchen counter and take a few steps away instead of checking it every three seconds like a crazy man, willing her to respond. Instead he leaned against the counter on the opposite wall, drinking his beer, staring at it like it might explode.
He’d finished his beer by the time her text came in. He reached for it with steady hands, despite the anticipation coiled tightly inside of him like a spring about to snap. I can’t tonight. I have an early class tomorrow and lots of reading to get through. Matt’s heart fell at her words, the tension releasing with a twang that he felt in his gut.
Then another text came in. A single word that renewed his hope.
Tomorrow?
Chapter Ten
Hannah took a deep breath before turning off her car. She checked her phone again to make sure the number on the little brick house she’d parked in front of matched the address Matt had given her. It looked familiar, but with her nerves she wanted to be sure. Everything looked different in the fading twilight than it had Friday night. Plus, she hadn’t been paying close attention to what the house looked like, too distracted by Matt to care.
Checking her back seat, she reassured herself that she had Matt’s sweatshirt as well as her backpack with a change of clothes and a couple of her textbooks inside. She kind of suspected that she might end up spending a while at Matt’s house this evening. Much longer than it would take just to drop off his sweatshirt. He’d invited her for dinner the day before, so she assumed that he was planning for that again when he’d accepted her suggestion that she come over today instead.
She’d brought the change of clothes and homework because she figured that if she were going to hang out for a while, she didn’t want to stay in her work clothes. But she still felt kind of presumptuous for bringing them along. So she just grabbed the sweatshirt and made her way up the driveway to the front steps, watching where she walked on the cracked concrete, dark gray with age.
Matt answered the door almost immediately, like he’d been standing on the other side waiting. Her eyes drifted over him, from the messy blond hair that still reminded her of the surfer boy she’d met three summers ago to the piercing blue eyes, over the broad shoulders and carved chest hidden by a faded blue T-shirt that said Steepwater Surf Shop, down to worn-looking jeans that hung low on his hips. His bare feet peeked out under the hems, and Hannah sucked in a breath at how delicious he looked in casual clothes. She also felt awkward and overdressed in her fitted green sweater over a white button-down blouse, gray dress pants, and low-heeled black shoes, topped with her gray pea coat.
He stepped out of the way, holding the door open for her, his eyes raking over her in the same way she’d done to him. “Come on in.”
Once he’d closed the door, she thrust the sweatshirt at him, holding it out almost like a shield. “Here’s your sweatshirt. Thanks again for letting me borrow it.”
He took it from her hand and smirked a little, like he was amused at her nerves. She had no idea why she felt this nervous about seeing him again, but she’d barely been able to eat lunch. And it had only gotten worse as the day had gone on. She’d been distracted at her internship, and her supervisor had to repeat herself on more than one occasion. Hannah had been able to brush it off as being distracted by a big test coming up at school, but she knew she couldn’t let herself keep getting that thrown off just by the prospect of seeing Matt again.
But here she was, with the guy she’d been halfway in love with three years ago. It seemed unreal and overwhelming at the same time. Even though she’d seen him yesterday and spent time with him Friday, it hadn’t sunk in yet
