“You look…” He cleared his throat. The space in his sentence had its own zip code. It stilled my heart. My breathing.
His mouth flattened as he took a small but purposeful step back. “Adequate,” he muttered. “You look perfectly adequate.”
I stared at him, my legs turning to jelly. His words were at odds with the electrifying stare I felt directly between my legs. I straightened my spine, tilting my chin up. “Well, thank you, Beau. Perfectly adequate was exactly what I was going for.” I forced a smile, my eyes doing a slow crawl over his perfectly tailored suit, groomed beard, stormy eyes, and smooth hair.
“You look …. perfectly adequate yourself.” My tone was teasing, but my knees trembled in response to our closeness and the power of Beau’s gaze.
We lingered, staring at each other, me wondering if there was something underneath all of this. Something I could grasp on to.
“Hannah?”
I jumped, turning to look at Lori who was getting out of a car. She blatantly ignored the man opening the door for her—Finn, the police chief.
His eyes were glued to her as she walked the short distance from the car to where Beau and I were standing.
Beau pointedly stepped back from me before Lori pulled me into a hug. The gesture was maybe too familiar given we didn’t know each other well. But we’d been in a minor car crash, we’d shared secrets. We knew each other well enough. We were friends. So the hug felt natural. It was a relief to have a true friend here.
“Are you okay?” I asked her, scanning her body.
She nodded. “Totally fine.” Her gaze darted down to her belly for a second. “We’re both fine.I don’t need to be babysat.” She said the last sentence louder, her head tilting to the man who had started speaking in hushed tones to Beau.
She looked mad—her cheeks pink, nostrils flaring. Finn’s eyes never left her for long.
I swallowed a smile. “I suspect there’s a story there.”
She frowned at me. “There is no story there, and there never will be.” She sounded certain.
I raised a brow in question.
“Is there a storythere?” she asked directly, not so subtly gesturing to Beau.
Heat filled my cheeks. “Touché,” I replied with a wry grin.
“Let’s go get food I might be able to stomach.” She linked her arm with mine. “And forget all complications with a Y chromosome.”
As we started walking toward the house, I swore I could feel Beau’s gaze drilling into me.
Pretending, I reminded myself. I was just pretending.
thirteen
HANNAH
Rain pounded on the windows.My tea was steaming hot. I was getting to the good part in my book. Enemies were about to become lovers.
I’d gone back on my plan to stop reading romance books, devouring them with more desperation than ever. Reading them was the only way I could channel this … feeling. This tension coiled in my body, pulled tauter since Halloween.
Cole had sent me a package not long after he left. There were gifts for Clara—all sorts of cool things from the museum, like a fossil that looked too real to be from the gift shop. Then there was a separate package with a note reading, “Open in private.”
In the immaculate box was silk lingerie and a vibrator, along with some very expensive looking skincare and body products.
Heat had flushed through my body just looking at it, despite being alone in my room.
I yanked out my phone, closing the door to my room as I tapped on Cole’s contact.
“You got me lingerie and a vibrator?” I whisper-yelled at him, eyes darting to the door again.
“You’re welcome,” Cole returned, sounding smug.
