“Kenna?” Avery whispered. “Who the hell is Kenna?”
“That’s what he’s called her since they were kids,” Will whispered back. “Now, shut up.”
I had been so lost in Hudson, I’d completely forgotten it wasn’t just the two of us out there. I glanced around, noticing the eyes of at least three dozen people volleying back and forth between Hudson and me. At least I knew what was going to be on the gossip circuit for the foreseeable future.
“You stock my freezer with homemade pies,” I called to him.
“Done.”
“Not homemade by Marianne or Lilah. Homemade byyou.”
“Fuck me running, hebakes, too?” Avery whisper-yelled.
He dipped his head in a nod. “Homemade by me. When’s the clock start?”
“You want to greet your adoring fans first?” I gestured to the crowd around us, and he did exactly what I’d hoped.
He dropped his eyes from mine for a second and glanced around. And I took my chance.
I sprinted east in the direction of Havenbrook High, not looking back when the whoops and cheers went up behind me. Didn’t turn around even when Rory said, “For heaven’s sake, you’d think they were ten years old again.”
I wasn’t an idiot—there was no way I could beat Hudson in a physical race. Not when he had at least half a foot on me. Not when it was his job to be a finely honed machine. So I used his long absence to my advantage.
I didn’t take the obvious route the two of us had taken hundreds of times before, instead cutting through lawns and side streets. My feet pounded over the grass of the park that had taken the place of the set of crumbling buildings from our teens, and I ran toward the back of the stands rather than the front. I didn’t want to dodge any students outside for gym class, not to mention I’d probably collapse if I tried to run up the length of the bleachers after flat out sprinting this whole way.
Instead, I’d climb.
My blood was thrumming too loudly in my ears to hear anything as I bounded toward the field and the looming silver bleachers. I used my speed to propel me up a ways, leaping onto the first horizontal bar I could get good purchase on. I didn’t focus on how close Hud was, if he was already up there, or what it’d mean if he were. All I thought about was getting to the top of these bleachers as fast as humanly possible.
And if I lost and had to have supper with Hudson…well, there were worse things in the world.
I wrapped my hands around the railing at the top, heaving myself up. I kicked first one leg over and then the other, my feet thumping on the top stair, Hudson a single step below me.
“Beat ya,” I said through panting breaths.
He pointed an accusatory finger at me and narrowed his eyes. “Cheater.”
I shrugged, still attempting to catch my breath but trying not to show it. The dude didn’t even have the decency to be winded. “You never specified a route. Besides, I’m not stupid. You’re a soldier in peak physical condition. And while I’m no slouch, you’d have squashed me.” I sucked in a huge lungful of air andblew it out slowly. “Sometimes the challenges are as much up here—” I tapped my temple “—as anything.”
He cracked a grin. “You think I’m in peak physical condition, huh?”
I blinked at him. “That’s really all you got from that?”
“It’s been a while, forgive me.” And then he reached out, grabbed the hem of my shirt, and tugged me straight to him.
I didn’t even try to put up a fight because…well, because I was tired. Tired of waiting and wanting and dreaming about him. Tired of aching to hold him and not even being able to remember what it’d felt like the last time I had.
Without conscious thought, I wrapped my arms around him while he squeezed me, his nose in the crook of my neck.
“Missed you,” he murmured, his breath ghosting across my skin and making my knees weak.
My throat went tight, and my eyes stung as I clung to him. Overcome by a bone-deep gratitude he’d come back to me in one piece. He wasn’t here to stay, but right then, that didn’t matter. He was here now, and I thanked every deity he’d made it back unscathed.
I pressed my nose to his skin and inhaled deeply. He smelled the same…but not. There was no longer the underlying hint of sunscreen I’d always associated with him from our childhood spent running around outside. But he still had the same freshness to him—summer rain and dryer sheets now layered withman. I wanted to do nothing but breathe him in for the next several hours. Just take him and keep him inside me the safest way I knew how.
I wasn’t sure how long we 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 my ears all the way at the top of the bleachers.
Reluctantly, I pulled back, but not before Hudson gave me one more squeeze. Then he took the final step up to stand next to me, and I had to tip my head back—wayback—to maintain eye contact. Okay, so the half a foot I thought he had on me? It was actually more like an entire foot. And he’d sprouted a crapload of muscles too.Shiiiiit.
