“Me?”
“Yeah. Do you think I should text him?”
It’s a stupid question, especially today, especially this morning. Still, I think a part of me does it intentionally, pushing the boundary to see just how he reacts and how honest he is about it being justone night.
“Do you want to go on a date with him?”
“I don’t know him, so I’m not sure.” A moment passes before he shrugs, grabs his plate, and stands.
“I mean, if you don’t care either way and it would get Wren off your ass, it probably couldn’t hurt,” he says, back to me as he scrapes the remnants of a pancake into the trash.
I force myself not to feel that flash of disappointment and fail miserably.
It’s what I wanted. It’s what I asked for, actually.
I should be happy he’s acting normal now that this is out of our system. And Iamhappy. Right?
I’m lost in my own pondering as his own phone dings with a new message.
“Shit,” he says with a sigh. My head lifts. “I thought Emma was getting picked up at twelve, but it’s eleven.” My eyes move to the clock over the oven to see it’s ten.
“Oh, I’ll help you clean up a bit and then head out.” He shakes his head to argue, but I refuse. “I’ll get this, but can you just, uh, get my swimsuit?” A blush burns over my face as I remember that it’s probably still floating in the hot tub. He lets out a laugh.
“It’s in the dryer. Sometime last night, I grabbed it.” I try to pinpoint when he could have done that, but that requires me to think about rounds and breaks, and my mindcannotgo there right now. I nod. “Leave this. I’ll grab it. Just get your things together, and I’ll walk you home,” he says.
“You don’t have to,” I say with a shake of my head, but he just glares at me. Knowing better, I don’t bother to argue, insteadgetting my things together and letting Jesse walk me to my house.
“Thank you,” I say when he stops at my door, the words spilling out even though I tried to keep them in. His head tips as he turns to me, his face a mask of intrigued confusion.
“For what?”
“For…yesterday.”
He lifts a brow. “I don’t know, Hal, I feel like I should be thanking you.”
I laugh, happy for the moment of levity, and shake my head. “I meant before all of that. I was having a shitty day, and you made a shitty day much better.” His face softens, and he steps closer, pushing a piece of hair behind my ear. He hesitates for a moment, then seems to win the battle in his head as he pulls me in for a hug.
“Anytime, Hallie. I mean it.”
I take in a deep breath as my face settles into his chest, his familiar leather and pine smell enveloping me and relaxing me for a moment before his body goes still.
“Hallie,” he whispers.
“Mmm?” I ask into his chest. He shifts slowly, pulling back, and when I look up at him, his eyes are focused somewhere behind me and wide.
“Turn around.”
“Huh?”
“Hallie, turn around. Slowly.”
I do as he commands, his hands staying on my waist, and when my back is to him, I notice the deer from yesterday ten feet away.
“Oh my god,” I whisper, then gasp when she meets my eye and comes even closer. Jesse’s fingers dig into my hips, and I whisper over my shoulder at him. “Go inside and get celery.”
“What?”
“Go in my fridge and get celery, Jesse. For the deer.”
