“Anytime.” She smiled before pointing the spatula at me. “But I meant what I said over the phone. You can’t come in and highjack our routine when you’re only home for a few weeks. Not when it’ll be just me and Lilah again after you go on back to the base.”
Her words didn’t carry any malice, but I still felt a pang in my chest over the thought of leaving. I’d been feeling it more and more lately—something calling me home. I’d thought it was just me tiring of deployment like usual. Except this was different somehow.
I wasn’t itching for just American soil. I was itching forHavenbrook.
And because of that, I’d used the renovation as an excuse to break my own rule—that I wouldn’t come back home until I could come back home toher.
Kenna. Childhood best friend, first everything, and the only girl I’d ever loved.
That had all been good in theory, but when the timing had aligned that I’d be on leave when the renovations started, I couldn’t dismiss the opportunity. After all this time, I wanted to see if what Kenna and I shared was real or if I’d built it up in my mind over the years to this unattainable connection. Because God knew I’d never felt anything like it since I’d been away from her. Not even a whisper of it.
And now, more than ever, I needed to see her. Felt it like an actual tug under my skin.
After two more helpings, I stood from the table, rinsed my plate at the sink, and put it in the dishwasher like I was taught—my momma had enough to do without cleaning up after my ass, too. As I closed the appliance door, I felt her eyes on me and glanced over to find her staring, eyebrows raised.
“Ma’am?” I asked.
She rolled her eyes and tossed a towel over her shoulder before shooing me out of the kitchen. “Don’tma’amme. Standin’ here, actin’ like you’re not crawlin’ outta your skin to go see a certain someone.”
Caleb’s low laugh rumbled out of him so quietly, it might’ve been missed by anyone else. In answer to the look I shot him, he shrugged. “She’s not wrong. You’ve talked about thatcertain someoneso much, I can tell you her blood type.”
So, I’d talked about her to my copilot and best friend. Sue me. And yeah, I wanted to see her. Was desperate for it, even. But I had no idea how I’d be received. I was a few months early for the pact we’d made all those years ago when I’d enlisted—apromise that I’d be back for her on my twenty-ninth birthday—and I hadn’t exactly warned her I’d be coming now.
In fact, I’d dropped that bomb on my momma only days before in hopes it’d help staunch some of the gossip of my return. It’d been years since Kenna and I had talked in more than sparse text messages or handwritten notes in sporadic packages sent back and forth between us.
All I knew was that I had only three weeks in town, and I didn’t plan on wasting a single day away from her.
CHAPTER THREE
MAC
I hadno idea how I made it through lunch—and actually ate anything—without bailing. Or puking. Though, to be fair, maybe I didn’t eat a single bite and/or puked up my lunch, because I didn’t remember a damn thing after Rory had dropped her bomb.
Hudson fucking Miller. Here. In Havenbrook. Six months ahead of schedule.
On the one hand, I was desperate to see him. Wanted to knock on every door in town just to find out where he was. Wanted to feel his arms around me, breathe in his Hudson scent, and listen to my name roll from his tongue in the deep timbre of his voice.
On the other hand, I wanted to run away as far and as fast as I possibly could. I’d thought I still had time before he came home, before our pact was in full effect. Time to do something other than sling drinks at the local watering hole. Time to rack up a couple accomplishments—or, hell, evenone. Time to get my shit together.
But I wasn’t like my sisters. I didn’t make things happen like Rory. I didn’t work my ass off for them like Will, mostly becauseI didn’t knowwhatI wanted. And, as much as I wished it were true, I didn’t not give a fuck like my younger sister, Natalie.
So, ofcourse,Hudson would come home without notice. And, of course, he’d do so months ahead of the planned date I’d been simultaneously not watching and obsessing over for the past several years. And, of course, on the day he decided to show up, I’d be wearing a long-sleeved threadbare T-shirt with an owl screen print, its huge eyes placed directly over my boobs, and my holiest jeans that’d give anyone who cared to look a glimpse of my hot pink underwear. Of fucking course.
“Hey, you okay?” Will hooked her arm through mine as we stood up from our 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 my 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 us. How she did that in her knee-high stiletto boots was beyond me. “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, I loved these women. And I knew they wouldn’t leave my side unless I asked them to. Knew I wouldn’t have to face this alone.
“I’m fine,” I said as we stepped outside into the crisp fall air.
Okay, so I’d said those words approximately seventy-two times since Rory had dropped the bomb, but it was the truth. Iwasfine. I was steady as a rock. Cool, calm, and collect?—
Even the subtle breeze sweeping up my hair and blowing it around my face wasn’t enough to distract me from the man my eyes immediately connected with.
It’d been years since I’d seen Hudson in anything other than pictures or on a screen, but there was no mistaking that theabsolute giant who stood in front of The Sweet Spot was my childhood best friend. He’d been walking but seemed to freeze in place when our eyes connected, just like I had.
