Page 41 of Cross Check Hearts

The waitress grimaces at him. “We weren’t planning on this, but something has come up that makes it necessary.”

Aaron stares at her with his jaw hanging slack like a fish out of water, but I raise a hand to tell him to back down and smile at the waitress. “We understand. We’ll finish up our drinks and get out of your way so you can close.”

“Thank you for understanding. I’ll bring your check and a cork for the bottle in just a second so you can take it home,” the waitress says and steps away looking relieved, to go tell her next table the same news.

I feel sorry for her having to deliver the bad news to all these well-to-do people who I know aren’t going to take it well, but I’m just as puzzled as Aaron is about what’s going on. Did a piece of equipment in the restaurant break down or something?

I can’t think of anything else that would make the management decide to close the whole restaurant abruptly like this—it’s going to cost them thousands of dollars in lost business—so it must have been something along those lines.

Although I’d never say it out loud, I’m secretly relieved that we won’t have to endure a full dinner together.

Aaron sits chugging his wine and stewing while we wait for the waitress to bring the check, but I don’t touch my glass. I wasn’t planning on drinking much of it anyway, so I feel a little guilty that he’s going to be on the hook for paying for an expensive bottle we aren’t even going to finish, but I didn’t ask him to do this.

“Aren’t you going to drink yours?” he asks as he finishes his.

“No. Do you want it?” I push it across the table to him, and although he scoffs, he lifts the glass and starts sipping from it anyway.

“I can’t put it back in the bottle, so I might as well.”

The waitress comes back with the check and cork and thanks us both profusely again before Aaron forces his credit card on her. She runs it quickly and brings it back with the receipt to sign. To his credit, he actually tips her generously and tucks the bottle under his arm to push away from the table.

I follow him and head to the door where all the other disgruntled patrons are shuffling outside, but there’s still no indication of anything being wrong.

“Do you want to go somewhere else?” Aaron asks hopefully when we’re outside.

My stomach tightens with guilt. Part of me feels bad because the night got cut so short, and that I should take him up on the offer. But another, much louder part of me is grateful that I have an excuse to duck out on a dinner I never should’ve agreed to in the first place.

“I appreciate the offer, but I should probably call it a night. I’ve got studying I should probably do,” I tell him, and although his expression falls with disappointment, he nods.

“Alright, I get it. I don’t want to stand in the way of you and that degree. We can’t be a power couple without it,” he says, smirking, and opens his arms for a hug. I give him a quick one and then step back quickly, not wanting to give him the wrong idea.

“Good night. Drive home safe,” I tell him when we part.

“‘Night,” he says with a casual wave, then turns on his heel with the bottle of wine under one arm to walk down the sidewalk. He must have parked on the street a block or two away instead of finding a spot out front like I did.

I move to head toward my car, but as I glance up, my breath catches in my throat, and I freeze.

Declan is leaning against the side of a building across the street, his silhouette cutting a perfect figure against the night as a smile plays at the corners of his lips.

Chapter19

Hannah

My heart nearly stops at the sight of him, my breath catching in my throat. As our eyes lock, Declan pushes away from the building and starts to cross the street toward me, moving with an easy confidence that makes my pulse race in a way it never did with Aaron.

Was he waiting for me all this time?

I shake my head at the thought because it sounds crazy. Sure, he knew when and where I was going to be meeting Aaron tonight because he overheard my call with him at the studio the other day, but that doesn’t mean he came here because of me.

Does it?

As he steps over the curb and approaches with that irresistible half-smile, something clicks in my brain. Him being here and the restaurant closing aren’t isolated incidents. I don’t have the proof for it—not yet anyway—but the more I think about it, the more positive I am that Declan had something to do with this. There isn’t another reason that comes close to making sense. But would he really go that far just to crash my not-a-date with Aaron?

“It was you, wasn’t it?” I ask without preamble, and he shrugs, chuckling.

“I hated the idea of you being out with another man, date or not,” he says, his amber and brown eyes flashing in the dim light from the restaurant’s exterior. “And if you didn’t want to be there either, I figured I’d put both of us out of our misery.”

I can’t help but laugh at that. It’s a totally ridiculous thing to have done, but he’s right. I didn’t want to be there at all. I just went to make my mother and everyone else happy and get them to stop hounding me about giving Aaron another chance. I couldn’t bring myself to tell Declan that when he asked me directly the other day, but just like he always seems to do, he saw right through me.

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