But Scarlett doesn’t look hurt or angry at all. Instead, she smooths my hair and wraps me in her arms, squeezing me tight. “Tomorrow, when we do hangover brunch, you have a lot of explaining to do. For now, go have fun. I love you!”
She punctuates her words with a hard kiss on my cheek, and all the tension I’ve been carrying around falls away like a suit of armor I no longer need.
“Thank you. I love you too.”
“Oops, I got lipstick on you.” She laughs, licking her thumb and rubbing it away. “Go get him, girl. I’ll find Penelope and actually get her on the dance floor with me this time.” With that, Scarlett turns on her heel and heads back toward the table, where I’m sure she’ll give Wolfie hell for hogging our favorite new friend.
I smooth my dress of any wrinkles and make my way past the tables of drunken clubgoers, all the way to the back where I find Hayes, leaning against the wall with a quizzical expression on his face. When I’m close, he reaches for me, tucking a loose strand of hair behind my ear, his hand lingering to cup my cheek.
“You okay? I thought you got lost.”
“I’m great.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
“Good,” he says, leaning down to kiss me firmly on the lips.
He tastes like bourbon. One hundred imaginary bucks for me.
The kiss turns fiery as I open my mouth, letting his tongue explore mine with the same curiosity as the first time we kissed. His hand ventures from the side of my face to my ear, sensually tracing the shape of it before sliding behind my neck, deepening the kiss. I press myself intimately against him, feeling him vibrate at my touch, his other arm wrapping tightly around my lower back.
My feet are nearly hovering off the ground when he breaks the kiss to ask, “You wanna get out of here?”
“For good?”
“Not if you want to come back.”
“Okay,” I whisper, capturing his perfect mouth in another searing kiss. I’d kiss this man 24/7 if I could.
Eventually, we untwine ourselves from each other long enough to find the exit into the alley, walking hand in hand toward the quieter, intersecting street lined with trees, coffee shops, and liquor stores. I lean against the brick wall, inviting Hayes to join me with a coy smile and a beckoning finger.
We’re entangled in moments, a flurry of hungry mouths and greedy hands, pushing and pulling with the familiarity of long-time lovers. When my fingers press over the firm bulge in the front of his jeans, he catches my hand in his, a breathless laugh warming my neck where his kisses have stopped.
“What’s wrong?” I ask, lifting one leg to wrap around his, pulling his hips closer.
He releases my hand, bracing against the cold brick, and rests his forehead against mine. “Not here, dove.”
“Why not?” I ask, grinding against him with a smirk.
“C’mon, Mare . . .”
“No, tell me why,” I demand, pulling my hips back. “I know you’ve gotten frisky with other girls in places like this, so it’s not a principles thing. What is it?”
“Maybe I’m not trying to fill some void inside me anymore.”
I scoff, more confused than upset. “What does that mean?”
He sighs, his voice low and pained. “I was only with those other girls because I knew I could never have you, Maren. But it never worked, because they weren’t you. And now . . . well, things are changing for me. For us. I’ve never felt like this before.”
The air between us is fragile, like it could catch fire or shatter like glass at any second.
I gently press my hands against his chest until we can look each other in the eye. With my heart in my throat, I ask the question that’s been hanging in the air between us since that night at the lake house.
“Do you have feelings for me, Hayes?”
His eyes are stormy in the glow of the streetlight, their normal lightness darkened with inner turmoil. He doesn’t look away, though, or clench his jaw, or fall back on any of his other avoidance techniques. He just looks at me. For a long time.
“Hayes?”
“I’m afraid if I say it, your brother is going to kill me.”
“Scarlett knows, and she doesn’t care. Wolfie won’t either.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Yes, I do,” I say, grasping his shoulder tightly. His hands fall from the wall, his arms hanging limply at his sides, instead of around me where they’re supposed to be. “Just say it.”
Hayes drops his gaze to the cement, and I know all at once that I’ve pushed him too far. Now he’s going to shut me out again, close the door for good to this beautiful thing we’ve discovered. But even if it crushes me, I need to hear the truth.
With a numb heart, I release him, taking one staggering step away. Before I can move another step, though, I’m tugged back, spun around, and captured between two strong arms.
Hayes buries his face in my neck and whispers, “I love you.”
My heart lights up like a firecracker. I kiss him hard, gripping his hair between my fingers like it’s my only tether to the ground, or else I’d rocket into the sky. When I look into his eyes this time, I don’t see a storm. I only see the future.
“I love you too, Hayes Ellison.”
21
HAYES
My phone rings, cutting off the song I was blasting mid-chorus. Wolfie’s name flashes across the screen. He probably wants to talk about the shop schedule or the new product line. I press ACCEPT and wedge the phone between my ear and my shoulder.
“Wolf, what’s up, man?”
“Hey,” he grunts, and then there’s silence on the line. Leave it to Wolfie to call me and not tell me right away what he’s calling about.
I release a slow breath and search
