Page 78 of Hazel and Elijah Find Out: First They F*cked Around

“Hi,” I responded, to my surprise. I hadn’t realized I was currently verbal.

“Can I join you?”

I chewed on the inside of my cheek, considering all my options for a brief moment before nodding.

He unzipped his coat, it was warm and practical, but hinted at his athletic figure below. I resented him for making winter attire look sexy. I looked like a human-shaped trash bag in my winter coat.

He tossed it into the booth before sitting across from me.

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

I remembered last time when he’d told me,The woman I like is here, so I’m here. I remembered the thrill it’d sent through my body. Was he remembering it, too?

“I saw your post.” He searched my face, but I couldn’t tell if he found what he was looking for there.

“Did you come so I could thank you in person?”

One corner of his lips quirked upward. “No. I came to say sorry.”

“About?”

He pulled at the cuffs of his baby blue button-up shirt. After crossing his arms on the table, he tugged at his shirt again. His hand scraped over his beard, but not before I caught his grimace. “I don’t know if there’s a big enough apology for what I need to apologize for. I had a four-hour drive here to think about what to say, and I still don’t know where to start.”

I lifted an eyebrow. Externally, I portrayed a woman in control, while internally, I begged him to say all the right things. To ask me to give us another chance. To make me feel safe loving him.

“I’ve struggled to believe that I’m good for you. Or that someone else wouldn’t be better. But then I started seeing signs that I wasn’t, and that you knew it.”

“What signs?”

He rubbed the back of his neck. “Uh… Dennis being around you so much, helping you—”

“I’m Banjo’s vet,” I interrupted.

He winced. “I know. I know. But he’d talk like he was still the man you should rely on. Or talking about your work ethic like I don’t know how hard you work. That heknewyou better than I did, knew your needs better than I did. And you… You never contradicted him.”

I shook my head, shocked that I could have missed how all that would have made Elijah feel. But then, I wasn’t responsible for the feelings he said nothing about, just like he wasn’t responsible for the feelings I didn’t share.

“I don’t think you read all the Dennis stuff correctly. He is… not a deep thinker,” I explained. “I don’t think he’s capable of manipulation.”

Elijah raised a skeptical eyebrow.

“Seriously.”

“He wants you back.”

I threw up my arms. “We. Were. Never. Together.”

Elijah looked like he wanted to argue, but stopped himself. “Fine. You know him. I don’t. And honestly, this isn’t about him.”

“No, it’s not.” I held his gaze. “No one has ever found solutions to my problems the way you did. I mean, that community fund—Elijah, I hope you know what a kindness that is. Theentiretown will benefit from it.”

He shifted as if my praise fit uncomfortably around his shoulders. “I wasn’t thinking about anyone else.”

His words wrapped me up and tied me into knots.

He pushed his hair off his forehead. “Anyway, other people insinuated or outright said you two made more sense.”

“Who?” I leaned my head back as the realization dawned. “Shane Briar.”

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