Page 37 of Hazel and Elijah Find Out: First They F*cked Around

“I’m pretty hungry.”

A few minutes later, I stepped out of my bathroom and found Elijah March in only his slacks, taking a pan off of my rack. The lean muscles in his stomach flexed under his skin, and I thankedeverydecision that had led me to this moment.

There was a saucepan heating on the stove already.

I pulled my messy hair over one shoulder and sat in a chair at the kitchen table. The sweatshirt and shorts I’d pulled out of my drawer suddenly felt very unsexy compared to Elijah.

“Dinner and a show, huh?” I joked.

One side of his mouth lifted. “You almost missed it. I’m putting my shirt on as soon as I start heating the olive oil.”

“What are you making?”

“Nothing fancy. Sauteing some veggies, Parmesan couscous, and there’s salmon in the oven.” He shrugged. “I figured a simple dinner, and then we could put our attention to other things.”

A thrill shot through my stomach. My body already ached pleasantly from our earlierthings. “Felt pretty confident about how tonight was going to go, hmm?”

His green eyes flicked to me with promise. And it all felt so natural, having him here. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t built up the courage to text him for all those months. My memory had created a monument out of him. My unattainable first crush, and then the title of sex god—which, to be fair, he deserved—but also, he was just a really kind man.

“We’ve already proven my confidence to be correct.” He reached for his white undershirt draped over the back of the chair next to me. The fabric stretched as he pulled it on.

“Well, I’m happy not to prove you wrong on this one.”

Grinning, he drizzled olive oil on the heated pan. “Did you get everything done you wanted to when you came back today?”

I slouched and rested my cheek in my palm. The events of the past couple hours came back to me. I had hoped it wouldn’t come to this, but I had figured it would. Anxiety slithered in my stomach. “No, I kinda got wrapped up in something I should have just ignored.”

A crease formed between his eyebrows. “What’s wrong?”

“The churches are creating an uproar around our auction.”

“Why am I not surprised?” He shook his head. “I don’t want to come off cynical, but my dad’s at the top of this, isn’t he?”

With an exhale, I nodded. “Yeah.”

I’d read a couple of his posts on the community’s page, and it hurt. He had struck at my character. Citing past moments where he’d supposedly gone against his gut and believed me to be virtuous—whatever the hell that meant. The venom in his words was hard to swallow, causing my stomach to twist and my head to swim. My vision had darkened around the edges as my blood pressure skyrocketed reading my neighbors’ battle in the comments.

I knew my relationship with my mentor had been tarnished, but for him to openly condemn me made me want to hide. But I wouldn’t.

I had a mess on my hands, and a way to clean it up. I would see this auction through. I would raise the money the humane society needed, and I would not cower in front of a bully.

No matter how badly I wanted to.

Elijah pressed his lips into a thin line and swallowed as if it was the only way to keep his anger in check. “I’m sorry, Hazel. You know you have a lot of support around you, right?”

I breathed in deeply. “Yeah.”

“You wanna keep talking about it or something else?”

“Something else. I don’t want to get bogged down with it.”

He poured a plastic container of fresh veggies into the heated oil. “Have I ever told you about my friend Seb?”

“I don’t think so.”

“He’s my business partner, and the reason we started the company. He got it in his head that we could do it for ourselves, and when he’s determined about something, he doesn’t let it go.”

“Kinda like Nora?”

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