But not that day.
She held her breath for a second while the prickling settled.
“My mom was funny, too. Like your dad, not in the goofy-boomer-parent way. But just truly funny. Unlike your dad, however, no one would ever dare call Lisa soft-spoken. She was a fucking force. You knew when she entered a room and when she left. Sweet as hell, but she bit when necessary.”
Milo smiled. “What about your dad?”
Hanna glanced at one of the neon signs on the wall as feelings much older and much less accessible to her made an appearance at the table. She tried to think of the last time she’d even talked to him.
“Ah, yeah, they divorced when I was pretty young. I’m sure it was hard for him in a way, but they hadn’t spoken in like two decades.”
Milo’s lips twisted. “You keep your therapist busy, huh?”
“I believe I’m saved in her phone under Job Security.” Her eyes snapped to the far end of the bar as the door swung inward and three older gentlemen strolled in, nodding at the bartender.
“It’s been about a year, right?” Milo asked.
“Just about to the hour,” she whispered.
“Goddammit, Hanna,” Milo exhaled. “I’m torturing you. The movie, making you relive it. I’m so sorry.”
She wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. “Hey, love means never having to say you’re sorry, right?”
Milo dropped his eyes to hers. “I told you not to fall in love with me,” he whispered dramatically.
Hanna blushed. “I was quoting the movie?—”
“Relax,” Milo chuckled. “I was referencing A Walk to Remember. One sad terminal illness movie to another, I figured it would translate.”
Hanna hesitated to confess, “I’ve never actually seen it.”
Milo leaned his head back against the peeling vinyl behind him.
“Why would you have? It’s only one of the most iconic love stories of our generation!”
“I missed my window!” she cried. “I never saw it as a kid and then the whole mom dying of cancer thing kind of put a damper on it. Plus, you just spoiled the ending.”
“Nah,” he shook his head, grinning against the edge of his glass. “When you’re ready to stop doing this suppress-all-tears nonsense, you let me know. We’re watching it.”
“Gimme a few days to recover from Love Story Gate.”
“Deal,” he murmured and swiped her empty glass. “You got another round in ya?”
“Yeah,” she said, shaking off the emotions clinging to her arms. He strode across the bar and she couldn’t help herself—she watched the muscles beneath that damned T-shirt ripple.
“Where you been, hotshot?” One of the older men bellied up to the bar and clapped his hand on Milo’s shoulder. She couldn’t hear his reply, but it sparked a roar of laughter between them.
The bartender pointed to Hanna and asked a question to which Milo nodded. He plucked two more glasses off the back of the bar and filled them with something new.
“Your ma know you’re seeing other women?” the man asked, moving his hand from Milo’s shoulder to pinch the skin at the back of his neck. Milo batted him away playfully.
“Don’t tell her she’s prettier,” he said, winking as he snagged the glasses and returned to the booth.
“Friends of yours?” Hanna asked, taking the whiskey from him.
“Kind of,” Milo said, sliding back into the booth. “Uncles.”
“Oh, seriously? Your family hangs out here?”
