She rolled her eyes. “Bossy.”
“I’m heading back there.”
She flipped on the light switch and swung around. “You are?”
He frowned as he looked down at her. “You don’t mind, do you?”
“Of course not.”
“Is everything okay, Julie?”
“Yes.”
“Are you sure?”
She cocked her head to one side. “I’m exhausted, and now I’m fed. I’ll probably fall right to sleep. Even on your sofa.”
“Take the bed. The sofa is not comfortable.”
“You can say that again. But it’s better than the floor.”
He smiled as he turned away and headed down the porch stairs. “Call me if you need me. But make sure it’s tomorrow morning, okay?”
“Sorry!”
He turned back and smiled up at her from the bottom of the stairs.
Julie shut the door and locked it. Sweet was a small town but they had a lot of tourists who came through town. They always had when she was growing up. Her parents had drilled it into her head that she was to lock the door whenever she was alone because you never knew who was lurking outside.
When she’d been in junior high school, there had been a kidnapping in the next town. A girl her age had been riding her bike to her friend’s house and never made it there. Two days later the police found the girl’s bike. A month later, they found the body.
It had shaken Julie to the core. It had made her parents obsessive about her safety. It was all people could talk about in town and at school for months. They never found who did it and eventually everyone stopped talking about it and moved on with life. But the fear of it never truly went away.
Once the door was secure, she walked into the kitchen, grabbed the key Caleb had left for her on the table and put it on her keychain so she wouldn’t forget it again. She looked down at the card from Edmund, picked it up and then tucked it in her purse so Caleb wouldn’t see it.
She’d taken the week off to move to Sweet. She hadn’t really needed to since she didn’t have all that much to move. But she wasn’t used to having all this time on her hands.
The knock on the door startled her as she dropped her keys into her purse. Heading to the door, she shook her head.
“See? I’m not the only one who forgets things, Caleb,” she said as she unlocked the door. Yanking it open, she added, “So what did you forget?”
She sucked in a quick breath with surprise.
“I’m not, Caleb,” Hunter said. He had both hands rested on either side of the door jam.
She replayed what had just happened in her mind as the initial fright at not seeing her brother was replaced with anticipation at seeing Hunter.
“I thought it was, Caleb.”
“I got that,” he said smiling. “Why would he knock on his own apartment door?”
She shrugged. Of course, he wouldn’t. Everything she’d learned about safety had gone out the window with that one move.
“He was just here,” Julie said. “You didn’t see him pull out of the parking lot when you pulled in?”
Hunter shook his head. “I didn’t see him. I was thinking about you.”
And he was looking at her. She remembered that look. His dark eyes were almost black as he stood on the porch staring at her with appreciation she recognized and missed.
“Did you come by to see if my brother’s apartment is as bachelorfide as yours is?”
He shook his head. “I did forget something though.”
“Oh? What is that?”
He reached out his arm and hooked it around her waist, pulling her to him. “I forgot this,” he said in a deep voice that made her body hum and her mind go blank.
His mouth came down over hers and instantly transformed her to a time when she felt no pain and everything about life had possibilities. She melted in his arms as he moved her closer, crushing his lips against hers and breathing deeply as if drinking all of her into him.
Reaching up, she touched his cheek and felt his warm skin and slight stubble of hair. He kissed her deeply and with meaning she felt deep in her heart and soul. And when he pulled away from her, he breathed in deep again as if needing a last drop of water to sustain him. He didn’t let go. He just held her close as memories swirled around in her brain.
“I’ve missed you, Julie,” he whispered, looking down at her with a gaze she wanted to fall into and never leave. “I miss the way you feel in my arms.”
“Hunter.”
“What?”
“I don’t know if this is a good idea.”
She meant it. She wanted him to kiss her and hold her this way. Oh, how she’d missed this. But there was still so much he didn’t know. There were things he deserved to know but she found so hard to speak of.
“I’ve changed, Julie. I’m not the man I was.”
“I believe that. I do. I’m not the girl I used to be either.”
She took a step back. She could still feel his mouth on hers. She could still taste him. She saw the confusion in his expression when their eyes met again.
“There are things you don’t know about…about what happened,” she said.
“I know.”
Panic filled her. “Wha…what do you know?”
He closed his eyes briefly as if trying to hide his pain. When he opened them again, it was as if he were steeling himself for what he had to say.
“I’m not stupid, Julie. If you had had the baby, you would have moved home with a child. And since you’re here without our child you must have… Oh, God, I don’t even know. I don’t know if you had the baby or not.”
Her heart ached so much she swore she could physically feel it tear in two.
“I can’t talk about this now.
