Page 38 of Me and Mr. Just Right

“You’ve lost him again.” Jules lightly knocked Haydn on the side of the head. “Earth to Haydn.”

Haydn blinked and tried to get his head back into the present. The problem was, he didn’t want to. Because after tomorrow, he and Lia wouldn’t see one another again. She’d fly back to Nashville and her private life there, and he’d head to Petersburg—and either work on his feature article or go back to taking photos for the magazine of the same places he’d been to dozens of times before.

Eventually, probably sooner than he hoped, he’d be a mere speck in her memory. An interesting side note of a time spent in Alaska.

While he knew he’d never forget her.

Bennett nudged him, a little harder than Jules had.

“What’s to figure out?” Haydn said, annoyed. “This was one of those summer romances, and when she leaves, it’s done.”

“Nope.” Bennett shook his head firmly. “What you two have is real.”

“I agree,” Bennett said. “Which means the vote is two against one.”

“My love life does not come with voting rights.”

“Oh, but it does,” Jules said. “Because we have to deal with whoever you end up with, and we like her.”

“A lot,” Bennett added.

They were giving Haydn a headache. He lowered his forehead to his hands.

“Do I have voting rights?”

At the sound of Lia’s voice, Haydn reared his head back so quickly, he cracked his head against Bennett’s, and both of them fell back against the couch.

“I’m bleeding,” Bennett said. “Dang it. You hit my nose.”

“Is it broken?” Haydn asked. His head throbbed, and he blinked to clear his vision.

“I don’t know.”

“Let me see.” Jules had broken his nose at least twice while playing basketball in high school. He was a magnet for stray elbows. He studied Bennett’s nose, and a moment later, Lia handed him a damp towel to give to Bennett.

Bennett took the towel gratefully. “I knew you were hardheaded, but …” He attempted to joke as he dabbed at the blood.

“Doesn’t look broken,” Jules declared. “But it does need some ice, and it’s going leave you with one heck of a headache.” He paused in front of Haydn and said in a low voice, “I’ve got this. You two should talk.”

Lia stood in the doorway with a closed-off expression, one he hadn’t seen since her first day at the cabin. He imagined Rosie slapping the back of his head.She was just starting to trust you, and you’ve gone and blown it.

But weren’t they on the same page when it came to being together? They had some insurmountable things that would keep them apart—and he’d assumed she was just in it for the week too. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to keep seeing her. He couldn’t even think about the moment she’d leave the island without feeling like when his old football coach had him running sprints until they collapsed.

He didn’t want to have this conversation. But even more, he couldn’t bear to think that he might have hurt her. He winced as he recalled what she might have overheard. “Are you up for a hike?” She didn’t respond right away, and before she could formulate an excuse, he said, “I want to show you something.”

She lifted a brow. “Do I get a vote inthat?”

He cringed. “If you’d rather not—”

“Of course I want to come.” She shook her head and went into her bedroom without another word.

“Dude,” Bennett said in a nasal voice, shaking his head. “Sometimes you make life hard on purpose.”

“No, I don’t.”

“Uh, yeah. You do.” Jules started counting off on his fingers. “Staying at a job you don’t love because you’re afraid to leave us. Helping Rosie with her lastthreedoomed-to-fail fundraising schemes. Resisting being in a relationship with the perfect girl for you.”

Jules … wasn’t wrong.

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