Her throat went tight, and her eyes stung as she clung to him. Overcome by a bone-deep gratitude he’d come back to her in one piece. He wasn’t there to stay, but right then, that didn’t matter. He was there now, and she thanked every deity he’d made it back unscathed.
She pressed her nose to his skin and inhaled deeply. He smelled the same…but not. There was no longer the underlying hint of sunscreen she’d always associated with him from their childhood spent running around outside, but he still had the same freshness to him—summer rain and dryer sheets now layered withman. She wanted to do nothing but breathe him in for the next several hours. Just take him and keep him inside her the safest way she knew how.
She wasn’t sure how long they stood there like that, clinging to each other. Long enough that damn near the entire town had ventured to the football field, the chatter from the townsfolk reaching her ears all the way at the top of the bleachers.
Reluctantly, she pulled back, but not before Hudson gave her one more squeeze. Then he took the final step up to stand next to her, and she had to tip her head back—wayback—to maintain eye contact. Okay, so the half a foot she thought he had on her? It was actually more like an entire foot. And he’d sprouted a crapload of muscles too.Shiiiiit.
She allowed her eyes to roam over him, his shoulders nearly as wide as the goalposts at the ends of the football field, biceps the size of tree trunks straining against his shirt sleeves. A tattoo of three soaring pine trees drew her eyes to the corded muscles of his right forearm. And his legs, all thick and solid beneath his dark jeans… Sweet merciful fuck. Hudson Miller had certainly grown up during his time in the army.
“Who won?” someone called from below, snapping Mac out of her trance. Dozens called out their predictions, a fairly even split of both their names.
Hudson stepped to the side and gestured to Mac with both hands like he was presenting her as the prize on a game show. Mac pinched the ends of an imaginary skirt and curtsied for the crowd who hooted and laughed, applause and cheers erupting around them.
As she stood to her full height, Hudson leaned close enough that she could see the flecks of gold in his brown eyes. “I would’ve baked you a pie without the bet, you know. As many as you wanted. You only had to ask.”
His minty breath wafted over her lips, and she was momentarily dumb struck. It’d be so easy to lean forward and press their lips together. To just…fall into him, allow him to wrap her up in his arms. To hold her like she meant the world to him and fall right back where they’d left off—namely, in bed.
Dammit, she couldn’t let that happen with him. Not again. They’d had a brief lapse of judgment all those years ago the weekend before he’d left, when they’d given in to temptation and slept together. Multiple times.
But things were good between them again. They hadn’t been at first, and okay, so they weren’tgoodnecessarily, but they were passable. She’d lost her best friend somewhere along the way, which hurt like hell. But she hadn’t losthim, and that was all that mattered to her. They were able to talk once in a while through text, and Mac had finally gotten to a point where she could ask Marianne about Hudson without feeling like her insides were going to cave in on her at the mere mention of his name.
This quasi-peace between them had taken a long time to reach. Even longer considering she’d been pretending for a great deal of it. But they were there, and she wasn’t going to allow anything to mess that up. Not again.
She smiled, pressing her hand to his chest and not-so-gently pushing him back a step or two. She had no illusions that the only reason she was able to shove him was because he let her. “And I would’ve gone to supper with you, if you’d just asked.”
“That so?” He raised his brows. “All right, then, I’m askin’ now. Will you have supper with me tonight?”
Tonight? No. Absolutely not. She needed to get her head on straight before she saw him again or she’d be in his bed before she could blink. And then when he left in a day or a week or whenever, she’d be right back where she’d been all those years ago, and she and Hudson… Well, she wasn’t so sure they’d survive the fallout this time.
With a smile that felt wobbly, she turned and jogged down the steps toward where her sisters and Avery stood waiting. “Sorry, I have plans tonight,” she called to him over her shoulder. “What, since I didn’t know you were making your grand entrance back into Havenbrook after ten years and all.”
When she got to the bottom, she turned back to find him staring at her, his eyes never straying from hers. Then he inclined his head slightly. “Fair enough. I’ll get started on your pies tonight, but I expect you there tomorrow.”
“We’ll see.” She pressed her lips together and turned to walk away, ignoring the calls from several townspeople.
“Mac, hey!” Will yelled from behind her. “Wait up.”
“Seriously, slow down, girl,” Avery said, her heels clicking against the sidewalk. “If I’d known I’d be walking all over hell and back today, I’d have worn something besides these cute as fuck but completely impractical boots.”
“Keep up or shut up, ladies,” Rory said, her gait even with Mac’s. “After waving a red flag at that bull, she needs to get the hell outta here.”
Avery snorted at the same time Will said, “About that… Are you sure you wanna go down the route of playin’ hard to get with him? For one thing, you only have so much time. How long’s he here for, anyway?”
“Marianne told me a few weeks when we spoke earlier,” Rory said.
A few weeks. It wasn’t enough time. Though, to be fair, a thousand weeks wouldn’t have been enough time.
“And second,” Will continued, “you wanna giveHudsonmore of a challenge?” She snorted and Rory joined in. “Let me know how that works out for you.”
Giving Hudson a challenge probably wasn’t Mac’s brightest idea. He thrived on them, just like she did. It was their greatest source of commonality as well as dispute. So, yeah, she hadn’t really been thinking when she’d walked away earlier today. And she hadn’t intended to play hard to get. Not really. It just…sort of happened.
She’d been at work now for hours, and every time the door swung open, her eyes snapped there like a magnet. Something that didn’t go unnoticed by her pain-in-the-ass sister.
“I don’t know why you don’t just call him up and invite him over here,” Will said from her perch at the bar. She’d come in to meet Finn after he got off, but a call from a supplier was holding him up.
“Like I’ve said to you no less than forty-seven times, I’m not gonna do that because—” Mac broke off with an irritated groan. She didn’t want to say it again. She’d already said it enough. Had told Will how she’d felt completely and utterly inadequate compared to Hudson. He saved lives for a living. Fought for the safety and freedom of an entire fucking country. She got the local townsfolk their favorite alcoholic beverages and wiped down tables. Not exactly a level playing field.
“And likeI’vesaid to you an equal number of times, you’re the bravest, most compassionate, caring, and determined woman I know.”
