Page 39 of Craving You

“My turn to get ready. You can look up everything to do right on the TV. See if there’s anything else you might enjoy.”

Over the next few minutes, she did, but it was all basically what he had already told her. When he joined her again, they decided that they’d see how they felt after dinner. “I hope I’m not dressed too casually. I didn’t give it much thought when we were shopping, but after looking at all the pictures of the restaurant on the TV, everyone looks like they are dressed a wee bit fancier than we are.”

“Don’t worry about it. You look wonderful, and we’ve got the business casual thing going on. We’ll be fine.”

They were both in black pants. Hailey had on a sapphire blue sweater, while Max’s was charcoal gray. After one last glance in the mirror, she told herself to just relax. “Okay. Ready when you are!”

When they got down to the restaurant and checked in, they were told that their table was ready. Following the hostess, Max kept his hand on the small of Hailey’s back as she marveled at the atmosphere—the dark paneling, the massive stone fireplace, the soft music. It was exactly what she was hoping for.

Holding out Hailey’s chair, Max waited for her to sit before taking the seat beside her. “This is nice, isn’t it?”

She nodded. “It’s even better than I thought it would be. That fireplace is amazing! We already know the food is good—last night’s dinner was freaking amazing—but I bet it’s going to be even better when it’s served here instead of on a tray!”

After that, they talked about the menu and decided to try something different tonight. Hailey went for the stuffed chicken breast and Max went with the ribeye and crab cakes. Conversation moved smoothly to food favorites and then onto movies and music. There was never a lull or any awkward replies. They talked as if they’d known each other forever. It was comfortable and enjoyable and she couldn’t remember ever having this kind of connection with any other guy.

After dinner, they opted to skip the movie and went to the arcade, where they competed in a bunch of different games while laughing hysterically. When they had exhausted all the options there, they went back into the hotel and opted to have some G-rated ice cream sundaes in the café before heading up to their room.

“Max,” she began as she slid her shoes off. “This was a perfect night. I had so much fun and…thank you.”

Sitting down beside her, he gave her that boyish grin that she found so attractive. “Well, it was only perfect because I was with you.”

Her heart did a funny little flutter at his words, but she refused to let herself believe they really meant anything. Sure, they were getting along great and had an undeniable attraction, but…it couldn’t be anything more, right?

Max’s hand caressed her cheek and after talking for the last several hours, Hailey was ready to simply relax, talk a lot less, and touch a lot more. His words from earlier today popped into her head:

…take that time to keep getting to know each other and maybe getting all the sex out of our systems.

She knew she was failing miserably at it because she wanted him just as much now as she did a month ago. If anything, the more she got to know him, the more she wanted him.

But when he leaned in and pressed his lips to hers, Hailey swore that was all a problem for another day.

Sunday morning felt oddly somber.

And a little like déjà vu.

This time it wasn’t just Hailey who was feeling apprehensive about heading back to Marcus and Billie’s; Max did too.

The entire Donovan family was coming over for dinner today and while Max typically got along great with all of them, he had to figure they were all going to be looking at him a little differently now. He was certain everyone knew about the pregnancy, but since they had put themselves in the no-reality bubble, they had figured nothing out and had literally zero answers to anything they might ask.

Was she moving here to Sweetbriar Ridge? And if so, when?

No idea.

Co-parenting was the logical choice, but was that what he really wanted?

He had an answer to that one, but he didn’t think it was something Hailey would be open to it.

He wanted to marry her.

Would it be solely for the sake of the baby? No, although that was definitely part of it. From the moment they first met, Max had been drawn to her. It was more than just lust—although there was a lot of that—it was a total connection. They had a lot in common, plenty of interesting conversations, the same moral compass, and on top of it all, he genuinely liked her.

A lot.

Was possibly already in love with her.

For his entire life, Max had never been the type of person who believed in love at first sight or anything particularly whimsical, but what he felt for Hailey was a little bit of both. It didn’t matter that they’d only spent a total of a week together; he already knew his feelings for her were only going to get stronger.

Unfortunately, he already knew how overwhelmed she was with the entire situation and him suggesting they get married or him telling her he was falling for her more than likely wouldn’t help.

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