“Hey, you okay?” Will hooked her arm through Mac’s as they stood up from their table, her voice full of concern. “If you’re not ready to see him yet, we could go out the back, smuggle you home somehow?”
“What she said.” Rory gripped Mac’s hand and squeezed. “You just say the word, honey, and we can make anything happen.”
“I could create a diversion,” Avery said, walking backward in front of them. How she did that in her knee-high stiletto boots was beyond Mac. “Sweet-talk old Gleaves into streaking through the Square naked, maybe.”
Will and Rory groaned, while Avery couldn’t keep a straight face and busted out laughing. God, Mac loved these women. And she knew they wouldn’t leave her side unless she asked them to. Knew she wouldn’t have to face this alone.
“I’m fine,” she said as they stepped outside into the crisp fall air. Okay, so she’d said those words approximately seventy-two times since Rory had dropped the bomb, but it was the truth. Shewasfine. She was steady as a rock. Cool, calm, and collect—
Even the subtle breeze sweeping up Mac’s hair and blowing it around her face wasn’t enough to distract her from the man her eyes immediately connected with.
It’d been years since she’d seen Hudson in anything other than pictures or on a screen, but there was no mistaking that the absolute giant who stood in front of The Sweet Spot was her childhood best friend. He’d been walking but seemed to freeze in place when their eyes connected, just like she had.
Even when someone jostled him from behind, he didn’t take his eyes off her. She couldn’t either. It felt as if all the air in the atmosphere had been sucked out and then pumped straight into her heart, bringing it to life in a way it hadn’t been for so long.
Her sisters and Avery were murmuring around her, but she couldn’t make sense of anything they said. There was a steady hum in her ears, her heart beating too loudly, and then he took a step toward her.
And she took a step back.
Dammit, why had she done that? She had no freaking idea, but she couldn’t rewind time and change it now.
Hudson cocked his head to the side, studying her with his eyes in that way that felt familiar and foreign all at once. Asking her if she was all right without saying a word. They’d always been able to do that…been able to read the other person’s nonverbal cues. She just hadn’t been sure it’d still work after this long.
She lifted her chin, speaking back to him the only way she could right now. Lord knew her throat was drier than a desert, and she probably couldn’t get words out if she tried.
He pursed his lips, completely ignoring the ever-growing crowd of onlookers who had gathered around them, all of Havenbrook appearing for the show. “What do you say to a bet?”
A…what?
Of all the things she’d expected Hudson to say, that was at the bottom of the list. Actually, it was so low, it wasn’t evenonthe list. It probably shouldn’t have surprised her, though. They’d spent their lives betting on everything, from sports games to races to who could eat the most marshmallows in five minutes. If they could make something a competition, they did.
And although it was unexpected, this familiarity was exactly what she needed.
She cleared her throat. “Depends on what it is.”
His mouth tipped up at the corners, and Mac felt an answering tug in her nipples. Oh, super. Great to know the girls were finally working again after being completely unaffected by every other single man within a sixty-mile radius.
“Used to be, you’d say yes without another thought.”
She offered a one-shouldered shrug. “Things change.”
His eyes said more than she was ready to hear—that he wanted desperately to knowwhatthings had changed, what new parts of her he could discover. But all he said was, “Bet I can beat you to the top of the bleachers on the football field.”
“On foot?”
“Yep.”
Her eyebrows flew to her hairline. “That’s all the way across town.”
A slow, cocky grin swept across his lips. “Yeah…I didn’t figure y’all moved an entire high school while I was gone. You worried all my training will have you choking on my dust? I never counted you for a quitter before the game’s even started.”
“Been a while since you’ve been here. Like I said, things change. Maybe I have too.”
“Not from what I hear.”
She cocked her head to the side, eyes studying him, the flutter in her stomach picking up speed. “You been checkin’ up on me, Hud?”
“Always,” he said, without embarrassment or hesitation. “You in or out?”
