Page 77 of Reclaim Me

Once on the first floor, I let the bond I work so hard to ignore when I’m around Hunter lead me to him. It’s a silent tugging of my heartstrings that moves my arms and legs, turning me into a lovesick marionette. When I find him outside on the patio with a glass of sweet tea in front of him and a glass of red wine waiting for me, I feel less ridiculous for giving in to that bond because he was clearly listening to it, too.

“Thank you,” I whisper, feeling shy as I take the seat beside him. “I didn’t know you kept wine in the house.”

“I don’t. I bought it for you,” he says, stretching his long legs out in front of him. He showered at some point, probably when I was upstairs deciding whether or not I wanted to come down, and I’m delighted to find that he still wears a black tank and shorts to bed.

Picking the glass up, I note that the wine has been chilled, which means he planned this little rendezvous. “Does it bother you? Because I can have something else.”

“No.” He turns a dark gaze on me, catching me off guard. “You know alcohol has never been one of my vices.”

The way he says it makes my throat dry, so I bring the glass to my lips and take a sip before turning my focus to the dark expanse of land in front of us. Hunter eventually moves his attention to it, too, and we fall into a comfortable silence that reminds me of how easily we used to exist together. We could sit in silence for hours, wrapped around each other, trading kisses and touches but not words. I miss the ease we used to have, especially because I’ve never found it with anyone else.

“Was Riley disappointed she didn’t get to see the treehouse?” Hunter asks, breaking into my thoughts.

“A little bit, but I told her you said we could walk down tomorrow morning, and then she was fine.”

“I love having her here,” he says, his voice low and rough with emotion. “I love having you here.”

“We love being here.”

There’s no point in lying about it. No point in trying to make him feel like he isn’t single-handedly responsible for the best day we’ve had in New Haven since we moved here.

“You can be here whenever you want, for however long you want.”

“Careful,” I chide, infusing levity into my tone. “If you let Riley hear that, we’ll be here all the time.”

Hunter’s eyes glitter with an intensity that melts the forced smile right off of my face. “I wouldn’t mind that. In fact, I’d prefer it.”

I don’t know why I’m stunned. The man isn’t exactly good at hiding his feelings. I see the way he looks at me, the way he looks at Riley. I hear the things he doesn’t say lingering between the lines of the things he does. I know him, and I know that every day he’s spent getting to know his daughter has also been spent falling back in love with me.

Maybe he never stopped.

Because I didn’t, I never stopped loving him.

Maybe we’re just destined to live forever like this, unable to love anyone else because our unresolved feelings for each other won’t let us. I mean, that has to be what’s happening with me and Aaron, right? We didn’t start falling apart like this, all of our broken pieces and frayed edges exposed, until Hunter was back in the picture, dragging my love for him up to the surface, making everything complicated and messy. The way it always is with us.

I take another long pull of my wine. “Pretty sure Aaron wouldn’t be happy about that, though. Not that he’s happy with anything I do these days.” When a full minute goes by without Hunter responding, I shoot him a look. “Are you really not going to say anything?”

“You said you didn’t want to talk about Aaron with me, so I’m trying to respect your wishes.”

I wave a dismissive hand in the air. “That was earlier. Now I’m on my way to being wine-drunk, and I’ve changed my mind.”

He arches a thick brow at me. “You haven’t even had a full glass yet.”

“I’m a mom now, Hunter, which means I’m a lightweight.”

We both know that even if I was a lightweight, I haven’t had enough alcohol to impair my judgment or make me change my mind about something I was just dead set on a few hours ago. Even if I had, Hunter doesn’t look like he’s in the mood to take advantage of my preparedness to break my own boundaries.

“Sunshine, we can’t talk about Aaron until you’re ready to do something about Aaron. Until then, save all your complaints for Dee and Jayla.”

Ouch.

Hunter must see the hurt on my face because his features soften just a bit. “Talk to me about something else, anything else. Just not him.”

I press my lips together, fighting against the sudden urge to cry and racking my brain for something to say that has nothing to do with Aaron, or even Riley, something that just has to do with me, something that’s all mine that I can give him.

“Oh!” I shift in my seat, pulling one leg up to face him. “I finally decided on a name for my school.”

Hunter’s entire face lights up, and my chest goes warm and fuzzy. This. This is the energy I want to be met with when good things are happening for me. Not the negative and, oftentimes, lackluster reactions I get from Aaron.

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