Page 44 of Hazel and Elijah Find Out: First They F*cked Around

She squeezed me tighter. “You’re here.”

“Yeah, baby. I’m here. I’ve got you.”

And god, she had me. I was so wrapped up in her. Tangled in her threads. Weaving into me, pulling out my better fibers.

After one more slow exhale, she pulled back. “Oh no, I ruined your shirt.”

I looked down to see black mascara smudged on the loose cotton. I cupped her cheek and lifted her chin to meet my eye. “Who cares?”

“I really liked it.”

“You can have it to sleep in. You’ll look cute as hell.”

She snorted. “Maybe after I clean up.”

I pressed a kiss to her forehead, taking in her pinkened nose and cheeks. “You’re cute as hell now.”

She leaned her forehead on my shoulder. “What if the backlash continues to grow, and people start canceling their appointments?”

Her concern was legitimate. “Cancel culture” had been a long-standing tradition here, well before it was acknowledged and named by society as a whole.Conform to our beliefs, or else, had been the reigning unspoken threat.

“You think Nora would stand for that?” I asked.

Hazel let out a watery laugh. “Thank god, she’s on my side.”

“She is.”

Turning her head, she rested a cheek on my chest. “I just wish everyone would stop talking about me, you know?”

I snorted. “Yeah, I know.”

I didn’t know a solution, and all of the comforting words I could say felt trite, so I just held her as her heart rate continued to slow to its normal pace. I hoped that the world faded away for her, the way it did for me, when she was in my arms.

Chapter 14

Elijah

“You’vebeenbusy,”Momcommented with a lift of her eyebrow. It was a strange déjà vu to be in this town, with my mom insinuating she knew something about me I hadn’t told her. Only this time, I wasn’t in trouble… and I was a grown man.

The espresso machine sputtered, steaming milk for someone else’s latte. A mom and dad with two small children sat on two teal loveseats, their North Face coats marked them as tourists. On the coffee table between, their drinks were forgotten in a mad dash to clean a hot chocolate spill. Warm and colorful, it was the kind of cafe that felt lived in—someplace a spill would be cleaned up and nothing was forced to be pristine.

“I guess so. Just hanging out with Hazel before I have to go back to Detroit in a couple of weeks.” It was true. But it didn’t express how I was constantly preoccupied thinking about her. Or how being with her felt…right. I didn’t know how to explain it—and I wasn’t going to try.

How two weeks was too short a time to have left of these moments.

The past few days, had been hard on her. But the sermon was already growing distant—much to Sterling’s efforts.

I lifted my latte to my lips and looked out the cafe window at the dark blue waters of Grand Ridge Lake. Autumn leaves floated on its flat surface, and a teenage couple sat on a bench by the beach. Their mannerisms were jerky and awkward, the way young people were when they didn’t know how to behave with someone they liked. It was sweet.

I could see how people fell in love with this place. I was beginning to feel like it was possible for me, too.

“Oh, I don’t mean your time spent with our lovely veterinarian.”

We both knew exactly what she was insinuating, but I was working very hard to keep that a secret.

This town was not made for secrets.

I needed my plans to remain quiet for one more week, that was it. At that point, I’d have it all set up and I could tell Hazel about the community fund I’d established with the help of the town clerk and head librarian. It would benefit households that weren’t able to afford vet care. It’d require charitable events or crowd funding from time to time, but it would take some of the burden off of Hazel.

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