Page 136 of Square Deal

32

HANNAH JANE

Iwanted to vomit.

Isaac had slipped out of the pool house while I was talking about wedding details with Marissa. Jake told me he stepped out to take a call, but I went looking when I didn’t see him nearby.

My mother caught me around the arm as I made my way to the house. “Sweetheart, look at you. Pretty as a peach, but it’s time to stop acting like a child and do what needs to be done to secure your future. You don’t want to be working all your life, do you? Now that you’ve passed thirty, you should think about seeing my esthetician. Wrinkle prevention starts early.” She eyed my father’s study. “Better lock that one down before he gets away. Even if—rumor has it—he has wandering eyes. At least it’s better than being alone. You look polished now, but we both know that your looks are so fleeting—they come and go. Heaven forbid you get pregnant before you sign a marriage license. One baby, and you’ll lose that figure of yours, and he won’t want you anymore. Don’t be foolish, girl. I’m just being honest with you.”

That was my mother’s specialty: cruel words disguised as tough love.

The old saying about sticks and stones never applied to the Hayes household. Words hurt far worse than broken bones.

I wanted to scream. And cry. Probably both, simultaneously.

More than anything, I wanted to grab Isaac and get out of the twilight zone as fast as I could.

I had peeked through the cracked door just in time to hear Isaac say, “I’m going to make this crystal clear. I’m not pursuing marriage. It’s not on the horizon. It’s not in the near or distant future. I have been clear with Hannah Jane from the start. We have an understanding, and while I love her very much, I do not intend to marry her—not that that’s any of your business.”

My father’s gaze met mine, but he quickly looked back at Isaac. I wasn’t sure what hurt the most: Isaac’s words or my father’s silentI told you so.

Act like a lady and remember your manners. Don’t be foolish, girl. No one will want to marry you if you don’t sit still and look pretty,my mother used to say.

My father’s version was much more succinct.Be seen, not heard.

Funny—they never said those things to Jake.

The flight from the airport in Charlotte back to Beaufort was quiet. Isaac’s words played over and over in my head—a constant loop, reminding me how foolish I had been to believe he would change.

Isaac had been clear from the start: a few orgasms and nothing more. He wasn’t one to stick around.

But I had also been clear. I wanted to get married. I wanted to be husband and wife. I wanted kids. I wanted the happily ever after.

How stupid was I to think that when he said he was willing to give this—us—a shot, that he meant to give us a shot with an end goal in sight. Not just an indefinite relationship.

Foolish.Justlike my mother said I was.

I stared at the window as we descended over the airfield in Beaufort. Isaac hadn’t stopped holding my hand since we left Jake and Marissa’s engagement party. Thankfully, the flight was short.

“You okay, Princess?” he asked as we hopped into my car and pulled out of the airfield.

I folded my hands neatly in my lap and crossed my ankles, one behind the other. “Just fine, thank you. It’s been a long day.” The luxury of skipping the ten-hour round-trip drive by flying private did nothing to stave off the emotional exhaustion. I felt it deep in my bones.

Isaac eyed me suspiciously as he drove toward downtown Beaufort. “Don’t do that to me, Hannah. Don’t shut me out.”

I placed my hand on top of his where it rested on the center console. “Thank you for going with me today.”

“Hannah,” Isaac growled, turning sharply into my drive. He slammed the car into park and cut the ignition. “Talk to me. I can’t fix whatever it is if you don’t fucking talk to me. What’s going on?”

My hands were trembling. Tears were rushing in. Everything had been so perfect, but this? We couldn’t come back from this. We were at an impasse.

“Did you mean what you told my father?” I asked softly, thankful that my voice didn’t waver.

Isaac ran his hand over his hair. He sighed and sunk back against the driver’s seat. “Like I told you before—I don’t lie. I don’t know what part of that conversation you heard, but I meant what I said.”

I sniffed back a tear and looked down. “So, that’s it? You were just going to lead me on until you got bored?”

“Hannah, where is this coming from?”

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