Page 26 of Cross Check Hearts

“Yeah. And who are you?” I ask directly, wondering where the hell this is going and why this guy thinks it’s okay for him to barge into someone else’s conversation.

“I’m Hannah’s boyfriend,” he says, and my brows shoot up my forehead.

I’m not sure I heard him correctly at first, but his smirk widens at my reaction, so he must not be joking. My eyes shoot to Hannah, who’s clutching her drink in both her hands and determinedly staring at the table.

A cold weight settles in my stomach.

Why didn’t Hannah ever think to mention she was seeing someone, now or six months ago? Not that I would’ve been entitled to the information back then, but we’ve spent hours together today, so she had plenty of opportunities to bring it up, especially if she was uncomfortable with giving me private lessons.

Confusion and disappointment war within me, my mind racing. Is this the real reason why she’s been so reserved around me? And was she already seeing this guy when we hooked up that night at Opal and Oak, or did he enter the picture after?

“You know what? I should probably get going,” I tell Hannah and slide up from the booth to fish my wallet out of my pocket and throw some money down on the table for the drinks and onion rings.

Aaron is still smirking at me, so I shoulder past him, putting a little more force in it than I probably should, and stride out of the bar with a heaviness in my chest and my mind buzzing like a hive.

Chapter13

Hannah

I watch Declan go with my stomach twisting itself into a painful knot, unable to get the look on his face out of my head.

“What was that all about?” Aaron asks, and he starts to sit down across from me like he’s been invited to my time and didn’t just crash my meal with Declan, but I jump to my feet, and he raises his eyebrows at me. “Where are you going?”

“I’ve got homework to do,” I say and brush past him before he has the chance to try to talk me out of it. I can’t leave things like this with Declan. He moves just as fast off the ice as he does on it, and I catch a glimpse of him through the window striding around the corner back toward where he parked his bike, so I hustle out after him.

Aaron calls after me, but I ignore him as I push out the door and run around the corner. I spot Declan halfway across the parking lot to his bike.

“Declan, wait!” I call, but he doesn’t stop walking, so I run as fast as I can to catch up with him. He’s just kicking a leg over his bike when I reach him, but I grab him by the elbow. He turns to face me, his jaw clenched, and glares down at my hand, so I let go of him.

“I didn’t know you had a boyfriend,” he says with an edge to his voice as he reaches for his helmet.

I shake my head hard. “I don’t. Not anymore.”

Declan stares at me as if weighing the truth of my words. “Doesheknow that? He sure wasn’t acting like it.”

“Listen, just let me explain. It’s not what you think. He’s an alumnus of the law program I’m in, and we met at school. We did date for a while, but we broke up like eight months ago.”

“Then why is he still calling himself your boyfriend?” Declan asks as he lifts his helmet to put it on, but I grab it from him and hold it under one arm so he can’t take off.

He looks me up and down and I can’t tell if he’s impressed or annoyed, but either way, it doesn’t matter. As long as he can’t leave without hearing what I have to say, that’s all I care about.

“He’s been wanting to get back together lately and asked me to take him back. But that doesn’t mean we are together. I never said yes.”

Declan dismounts his bike, and I step back to make room, but he moves with me, closing the distance between us and stealing back his helmet. He hooks it on the handlebars, then locks his intense gaze on mine.

My heart hammers in my chest because I’m not sure what he’s doing, but he’s so close to me that all I can focus on is him. The way he smells like cedar and spice, the quiet confidence in the way he stands, the almost effortless way he snatched his helmet from me—the same way he could just as easily take whatever else he wants from me. The breeze catches his dark, wavy hair, and his intense, amber-flecked brown eyes bore into mine, robbing me of my breath.

“Do you want to date him again?” he finally asks, and my tongue flicks out to moisten my lips. My heart stutters at the way he’s looking at me, like he can see right through to the truth I’m trying to hide.

“I don’t know,” I answer honestly. “I—I feel like I should. My parents really like him, and we made sense together.”

Declan lifts a brow at me but doesn’t back away. “You made sense together?” His hand rises to the side of my face where he drags the back of his finger down my cheek with deliberate gentleness. “Did this Aaron guy treat you like a princess? Pay attention to every little detail about you?” His finger traces the edge of my jaw. “Could he make you fall apart until you were a shaking, breathless mess?”

I swallow hard. Declan has somehow moved even closer to me without me realizing it, but how could I focus on anything other than the words dripping like honey from his mouth and the fire of his finger on my skin?

The worst part is that the answer to every single one of those questions is no, but somehow, it still feels fucking impossible for me to tell him that.

Because as much as the answer is burning on the tip of my tongue, I’m afraid of what comes after if I say it.

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