The corners of my mouth kicked up involuntarily. “Sure.”
As if she thought I’d change my mind, she rushed me, her slender arms locking around my waist. Her head fit justunder my chin, cheek resting on my chest. Slowly, my arms lifted to embrace her, one resting around her shoulders, the other landing in her hair. She smelled like coconuts. I held her, not wanting to move until she did. When my eyes started to sting, I blamed it on the wind. Until I heard her sniffling.
I pulled back to look at her. “Why are we crying?”
“I don’t know!” she said with a blubbery laugh. I brushed the tears out of her eyes with my thumbs. “I don’t know, I guess I didn’t think this would be it. I want more time together. I wasn’t expecting you to be so… nice.”
“Give me five minutes alone with Raleigh and I promise you’ll hate me and never want to speak to me again.”
Hannah sniffed again and scrunched her face up. “If you’re my dad, does that basically make them my uncles?”
I sighed. “I promise I’ll pay for therapy.” A laugh escaped her. “Go on, otherwise you’ll miss your flight.”
The wind caught loose strands of her hair and sent them across her face, but I tucked them back behind her ears. She took a deep breath. “Okay.”
I pulled her in for one last hug. “I’ll figure this out.We’llfigure this out—together. I promise.” I gave her forehead a soft kiss, then pulled back again.
“Thank you for everything.”
“Don’t mention it.” I nodded to Kian as she got in the car, then turned and went inside.
I locked the front door and tidied up behind the bar. In the privacy of the empty room, I let the tears flow freely, pausing every few seconds to wipe them away. I was carrying handfuls of glasses to the dishwasher and using the back of my hand to clean my face when I heard the doorway to the guys’ apartment open. I scrambled to make myself look presentable. Raleigh knew I wasn’t a crier.
When I rounded the corner into the bar area though, it was Angel standing behind it.
“What are you doing here?” I asked. “It’s early.”
His fingers tapped away on his phone. “I saw Hannah leave on the cameras. I came down to tell you the good news: we won the contest!” Only then did he look up, the smile on his face disappearing as he took in my appearance. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong,” I automatically deflected. “That’s great about the contest. Congratulations.”
“Forget the contest, Ryder. You’ve been crying. You don’t cry. I’ll ask one more time, otherwise I’m getting Raleigh. What’s wrong?”
“You’re right: I never cry. Therefore I haven’t been crying. I’m fine.” He kicked off the bar and made a move for the door. “Wait, okay!” I pushed a hand through my messy hair. “I may not have been entirely ready to say goodbye to Hannah.”
“Aw, look at the proud father.”
“Shut. Up!” I kicked in his direction, but he hopped out of reach. “Seriously, Angel. What if I don’t do this, and I miss out on something? Or what if I do, and I mess her up? I don’t know the first thing about kids.”
“Keeping them alive is a great start.” At my glare, he sobered. “Ryder, I know I act like I don’t like you. Truthfully, I don’t like most people.”
“You like Raleigh.”
“Sometimes.” I snorted, waiting for him to continue. “I do care about you, and I know you’re a good person.” He nodded toward the camera above the bar. “I watched the two of you. You’re great with her. If being a part of her life is something you need to do, why are we still talking about it?”
I gazed at my feet, keeping my head down as another tear escaped the corner of my eye. “How do I know if it’s what I need to do?”
I flinched when Angel unexpectedly reached over to brush his knuckle along my wet cheek. “I think you already know.”
Frustrated, I sucked in a deep breath and straightened, scrubbing at my eyes. “What? Am I supposed to just up and leave? I can’t do that to you and Raleigh.”
“We’re grown men. Of course it’ll suck to lose our best bartender. But you’re our best friend first, and we love you. It’sbecausewe love you that we want what’s best for you. Right now, that might be Hannah. We both saw how happy you two were. You need to chase that.”
I paced in a circle, scrubbing the back of my neck. “How am I going to tell Raleigh?”
A deep voice came from behind us. “You could try these funny little things called words.”
I spun around to see Raleigh, then turned a look on Angel. “How do you live with him creeping around like that?”
