Page 127 of The Love Haters

“What are you doing?” Hutch asked.

I paused to meet his eyes. My face was two inches from his. “I’m helping you with your seat belt.”

“I don’t need help,” Hutch said, holding still.

He seemed to be taking in the sight of me more than he was listening—right there, so close—his eyes looking all around my face at close range, lingering on my mouth.

“Yeah, you do,” I said. “I’ve watched you fumble with this thing for two full minutes.” I snapped the buckle and said, “You’re welcome.”

At that, Hutch closed his eyes, and I felt his arm come up behind my shoulders and clamp me down against him into a hug.

I let it happen. And then I lay there for a second, my head pressedto his breathing, thumping chest, until I heard him say, “You’re safe now.”

I lifted up. “Safe? Safe from what?”

“From me, dummy,” he said, turning toward the window. “I just saved us both from that hall pass.”

ON THE DRIVE,he tilted his head back against the headrest, displaying that Adam’s apple so luxuriously that I almost hit the curb a couple of times, just trying not to look.

Hutch kept his eyes closed.

“I think the alcohol is hitting me,” he said then.

“Only now?” I asked.

“Maybe adrenaline delayed the effects?” he suggested, adding an extraftoeffects.

Maybe so.

Whatever it was, back at the marina, I had to pull him out of the car like a tug-of-war.

Then I had to put my arm around his waist to steer him.

“I’m fine,” he said. “I think it’s wearing off.”

“It’s not wearing off—it just barely started.”

We got halfway to theRue the Daybefore Hutch tried to get out of my hold.

“I can take it from here,” he said.

“No, you can’t.”

“You should let me go.”

“And let you veer off the dock?”

“I’m saying it’s better if you go back to the car.”

“Once we get you inside, I’ll go back to the car.”

“You arenotcoming inside.”

“Fine. To the door, then. I’m not going to spend all night worrying that you fell into the water and drowned.”

“You know what I do for a living, right?”

“But are you drunk when you do it?”

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