Page 127 of Unexpected

The soft candlelight reflected off Hazel’s dress as she bit her lower lip scouring the menu. It appeared by the deep furrow in her brow that she was having the same trouble I was—I could barely pronounce half of the words and had to decipher the eloquently written descriptions of the dishes to have any possible clue what they were.

But whether she was worried or confused or angry or frustrated, she looked breathtaking.

“What do you think about trying the bruschetta and the mushroom strudel to start with?” She pulled her eyes away from the menu to find her answer, but I was too taken aback by the light dancing in her eyes.

“Sounds great, whatever you want.”

She rolled her hazel eyes and closed the menu in front of her, peering around at the other patrons enjoying the food, drinks and the “ambience.”

I brushed my fingers against the back of her exposed neck and placed my hand there just beneath the small curls that didn’t fit into her bun. She seemed to relax into my touch and watched the opposite corner of the restaurant where a woman with long gray hair was playing a baby grand piano. Each note and stroke of the keys was soft, but the whisper of music perfectly matched the rest of the restaurant.

“Here we are,” Ronnie said, setting the drinks in front of us both. “A cabernet for the lady and a Macallan neat for the gentlemen. Have you had enough time to decide on your appetizers for this evening?”

I ordered the appetizers with a nod of approval from Hazel.

Ronnie scurried away as quickly as a man who was probably pushing seventy could as I palmed my glass in my free hand. With my other, I gently squeezed the back of Hazel’s neck to grab her attention, enjoying the way her skin felt beneath mine.

She picked up her glass and turned to me slightly and just enough that I could see the curve of her breasts beneath the velvet of the dress and along the deepVof the neckline.

“This place is amazing,” she whispered, her eyes darting around the restaurant once again.

“I’m glad you like it, but why are you whispering?” I asked, whispering just as she had.

A laugh bubbled up from her throat, but she clamped a hand over her mouth to stifle it. “I don’t know. It just feels like a place where you whisper. Like speaking too loudly would disrupt theambience.” She mimicked Ronnie’s earlier words which made me laugh, but I didn’t try to stifle it.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a few heads turn in our direction, but we both ignored them. We were in our own little bubble in our circular booth, and it was going to stay that way.

I held up my glass to hers, thinking back to our first night together and remembering her words. “To new memories.”

Her smile returned and she watched me with unyielded happiness in her eyes before she sipped the wine. She groaned in approval and took another decent-sized sip. “Even the wine is good. If the food sucks, I’m going to be sorely disappointed.”

“You can blame it on Reed. He’s the one that recommended this place.” She nodded and relaxed farther back into the booth. She crossed one leg over the other, which hiked her dress farther up her thigh.

I placed my hand on her exposed thigh and began rubbing small circles over her smooth skin with my thumb. Small goose bumps erupted over her flesh, and I smiled to myself, taking another sip of my drink before placing it back on the white tablecloth and in front of the large candles in the center of the table.

“Did you hear from Becky today?” I asked, trying to distract myself from anything but the dirty thoughts running through my head. It was the first topic I could think of that wasn’t as intense as telling her about the third letter from Valerie.

Partially living together didn’t leave much room for keeping secrets. When I came home the days before after having just received the first two letters, Hazel knew the moment I walked through the door that something was off. She’d guessed it was Valerie, and although I hadn’t wanted to burden her with the truth, I couldn’t keep anything from her. The compassion in her eyes and the sweetness of her words were always my undoing.

But it went both ways—I couldn’t hide anything, and neither could she. After we’d discussed the second Valerie letter only a short time ago, I could tell there was more going on with her.

Apparently, Becky had texted her and asked if she could watch Emmy during the day. Even in the middle of a workday, Hazel couldn’t tell her no. She’d been Emmy’s safe place from her parents’ bickering for so long, she couldn’t strip that away from her then.

We also both suspected that something more was going on between Becky and Chris, and if being there for Becky meant taking care of Emmy, she would do it.

Emmy had stayed at Hazel’s apartment from ten in the morning until well after five that evening, and when Becky both dropped and picked up Emmy, she had little to say besides profusely thanking Hazel.

“Yeah, she may bring Emmy by sometime this weekend, but she didn’t say much more than that. It’s just so interesting to me that Emmy wouldn’t tell me much either. She’s usually so talkative and has no problem telling me about when they fight, but she had nothing to say on the subject the other day. Even Lexi tried to get her to talk, but nothing.”

Lexi, Hazel’s neighbor, had apparently come over to help Hazel with Emmy while she had a meeting with her boss. Hazel had talked up Lexi’s help, and even Emmy requested that Lexi play with them the next time she came over.

When I’d first heard Hazel mention Lexi as more than a neighbor and a potential friend, my hackles went up. In the middle of the day, I called the leasing office and prayed Savannah would answer the phone.

When she did, I turned on the charm and laid it on thick. I only felt a little guilty because ultimately, it was to protect Hazel and I didn’t actually mean anything I insinuated.

After promising to come by the office next time I was around, she verified that Lexi Johnson, or Alexandra, was Hazel’s next-door neighbor and had moved in a few weeks prior. Even though my charm helped a lot, I knew that without a reason or a warrant, I wouldn’t be able to get much more information.

I’d even gone as far as to investigate Hazel’s coworker, Stephanie. All the women in her life eventually checked out and my paranoia eased.

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