That he was tired of being just her friend. That he wanted more.
“Hud wants me to go with him to the lake cabin this weekend,” she said.
Will stared at her for long seconds, then shook her head as if to clear it. “Wait…what?”
“He asked me when he dropped me and Nat at home.” She bit her thumbnail and glanced up at her sister. “He was gonna tell me something under the bleachers. Before you interrupted.”
Will narrowed her eyes. “Something like what?”
“I’m not sure, but I think…maybe…” Mac didn’t need to say anything else. Will had been on the receiving end of Mac’s wishes for more for…well, ever.
“And you think Momma and Daddy are just gonna let you go off to the Millers’ lake cabin with a boy?” Will shook her head. “Even if y’all’re best friends, Daddy’ll lose his—”
“Course not. Which is where the favor comes in.” Mac reached out and wrapped her hand around Will’s ankle, gripping it tightly. “We can tell ’em we need to head up to Starkville early. That there’s a special tour for the new freshmen. Or that you don’t think we’ll have enough time to get settled in with only a couple days before classes start. I honestly don’t care what it is, as long as it works.”
The room was silent for long minutes as Mac held her breath and let Will do her Will thing and think everything through.
“You know this is crazy, right?” Will sat up, bringing their faces closer together. “You could be gettin’ all excited and worked up, when all he wants to do is go fishin’. It might be nothing. It’sprobablynothing.”
She had a point. On the probability scale, Will’s thinking was more than likely closer to reality than the hundred different scenarios that’d been going through Mac’s mind, all of which equated to the same thing. That Mac might finally get what she’d wanted for so long.
“Maybe,” Mac said, her voice low. She glanced up at her sister, not attempting to conceal the hope shining in her eyes. “But it might be everything.”
Will stared at Mac for long moments, her gaze filled with all those emotions Mac had been so sure she’d let burst out. Instead, she just sighed. “Fine, I’ll do it. I just hope you’re not settin’ yourself up for heartbreak.”
Hudson’s whole day had gone to shit.
He’d planned to spend it poking and prodding Kenna until she finally called in that favor from Will. They were supposed to meet at the lake cabin tomorrow morning, and she still hadn’t told him if she was in or not. Which meant she still hadn’t worked up the nerve to ask her sister for help.
Instead, he’d spent the day at the bakery filling in because the closing shift employee was out with the flu. When his momma had first opened the bakery, there hadn’t been enough income to allow hiring someone to share the load for several years. That meant she’d worked fourteen-plus-hour days all by herself.
Fortunately, those times were long gone because she didn’t have it in her to work those crazy shifts anymore. Since she was at the bakery bright and early by four a.m. every day, she was down for the count by early afternoon. So, despite her protests, he’d sent her home with assurances he could take care of everything on his own.
And everything had gone according to plan. Except, well, his plan.
He rolled to a stop in his driveway and put his truck in park. With a sigh, he dropped his head back to the headrest. All he’d been able to think about the whole day he’d been helping out his family was that this wasit. In hardly any time at all, he wouldn’t be here to pick up the slack when they’d need it, and he wouldn’t be for a damn long while. He couldn’t stop the worry creeping in about what would happen the next time they needed him and he wouldn’t—couldn’t—be here. And then the guilt seeped in.
Because leaving was his choice and his alone.
His phone buzzed in his pocket, and he fished it out to glance at the screen. Kenna. If anyone could pull him out of his mood, it was her. He just hoped she had good news.
“Cuttin’ it kinda close, aren’t ya?” he said instead of answering.
“You think? I figured I had another twelve hours or so before it got down to the wire…” The smile in her voice carried over the line, and he couldn’t help but mirror it.
His shoulders relaxed, the tension in his body easing simply from her voice. “Can I assume since you aren’t swearin’ up a storm, Will agreed to our nefarious plan?”
“You would be correct.”
Hudson blew out a breath and ran a hand through his hair, unsure which emotion to focus on first. A multitude buzzed inside him, happiness and trepidation and excitement and dread. He’d get two uninterrupted days with his favorite person in the world, but those days came at a cost. One he was going to have to pay sooner rather than later.
He opened his door, stepped down from his truck, and strolled around to the back of his childhood home. “Y’all know when you’re leavin’?”
“I figured we’d head out around eight?”
He nodded, even though she couldn’t see him. “I was plannin’ on leavin’ then too, so that sounds good to me.”
Kenna hummed. “Tome,it sounds like a race waitin’ to happen.”
