Page 103 of The Love Haters

“But that’s bananas!”

“Yeah. He fired me as best man and went on with the wedding as planned.”

Huh. I didn’t know Cole was married. He didn’t give off married vibes.

But then Hutch said, “It didn’t last, of course. They broke up within the month. But Cole hasn’t talked to me since.”

“Wow.”

Hutch looked over at me. “I didn’tentrapher, by the way.”

I snorted a laugh.

“What does that mean?”

I frowned. “I guess it meansof courseyou didn’t entrap her. I bet you’ve never entrapped a woman in your life.”

Hutch’s frown got deeper. “What doesthatmean?”

I waved my hand in his general direction. “Just the idea of you having to do that much work. It’s laughable. I mean,lookat you. I can’t imagine you have to do anything at all. I bet women just leap into your arms like flying fish.”

But Hutch’s frown deepened. “You seem to have an outsized opinion of my appeal to women.”

“I think I’m qualified to judge.”

But Hutch shook his head. “Women don’tleapinto my arms.”

“If you say so.” I wasn’t going to fight about it. “I’m just saying I agree with you. You’d never entrap a woman in the first place. But also—you’d never have to.”

Hutch looked genuinely puzzled.

“I’m not saying it’s your fault.Shegot drunk and grabbed that karaoke mic. I’m just saying, I get it.”

Hutch looked away.

“I’m not blaming you. You can’t help it. But—you do know how handsome you are, right? That can’t be news.”

Hutch didn’t say anything. Just looked back over with those big, dark eyes.

“Hutch?” I asked. I needed a response. “Do you know you’re handsome?”

“I guess I’m okay.”

“Okay?”I demanded, like now he was just being insulting. “You’reheartbreaking.”

Hutch shook his head like I must be joking.

I needed to make my case. “It’s the eyes, I think. Those big, serious, sad eyes—so earnest. The way you look at people when you’re listening. The way you pay attention. Or the nose, maybe? You have a thing called a Roman nose, did you know that? It’s, like, what all the people who get nose jobs ask for. And then”—I counted off on my fingers—“there’s the tallness, and the washboard stomach, and that Adam’s apple for the Guinness Book. Plus, is there a pheromone for good-heartedness?” I wafted the air with my hands like I was taking in the aroma of something simmering on the stove. “Because there’s something going on there. It’s a lot, Hutch, is all I’m saying. It’s a lot for the women of the world. Gah. We’re only human.”

Hutch looked down at George Bailey, who had conked out. Then, like he couldn’t stop himself from asking, he said, “Is it a lot for you?”

“Of course!” I had meant it to sound declarative—just stating a scientific fact. But it came out a little softer. Wistful, even.

Hutch sat with that for a while, but I didn’t take it back.

Then he looked over at me with an expression a lot likelonging. The more he looked, the more I got this feeling that he might kiss me.

Hecouldkiss me. We weren’t that far apart. One upward shove with one of his powerful shoulders and one quick lean in my direction—and we’d be face-to-face. It could happen. It really might.

---