Page 45 of Take Me Home

“That’s not why I brought it up.”

“We’re friends now, though. Right?”

“Yeah. If you want to be.”

She nodded once. “I want to be.”

He stuck his hand out, and she laughed, shaking it with an affectionate eye roll. But as quickly as her amusement rolled in, it ebbed away. “So, I should take you home.”

It wasn’t a question, but she sounded uncertain nonetheless. Did she not want to drive after getting pulled over? Did she not want to part ways just yet? Hope fluttered in his chest.

But when she checked her watch, the flutter died. It was only midafternoon. She just didn’t want to go home yet.

“Come hang out at my place. I’ll follow you back later with the tree in my dad’s truck.”

Even as he spoke, alarms rang out in his head. Inviting her back to his house was a terrible idea. All his sisters were there. His mother. He swallowed hard. He hadn’t ever found a way to tell Hazel about his dad’s injury, partly because he didn’t know what he was coming home to, and partly because offering the half-truth that his father had broken his hip without the full context of his MS felt more explicitly deceptive than saying nothing at all.

Hazel played with her curls, uncertain but…hopeful? “You don’t have to do that.”

“You seem to think you’re forcing yourself on me here. You’re not, okay?” He squeezed her shoulder, intending only to reassure her, but his thumb swept of its own volition into the dip of her clavicle, and…

Damn, didn’t he know by now touching her was dangerous? He was suddenly back in the dark Lovebird Suite, when she’d pressed her freezing fingers to his neck, and he’d grabbed her hands to warm them, emboldened by the cover of darkness. He’d rocked forward on his toes, barely stopped himself from crowding her back, all shadowy lines and curves in the blackout. She hadn’t pulled away, hadn’t cracked a joke to ease the pulsing tension, and he’d wondered, fleetingly, achingly, if shewas waiting for him to do just what he’d barely managed not to before breathing warmth into her fingers instead.

He wondered it now, too, as her tongue darted out between her lips. Her chin dipped closer, like she intended to lean into the contact but caught herself, and that tiny move made him swipe once more with his thumb. She didn’t retreat. Their bodies were twin flares:Come to me. No,youcome to me.

The thing was, Hazel’s problem withafterswasn’t just an abstract concept to him now, wasn’t just something she did with other people. Sure, he was relieved to finally clarify his intentions, both the night of that party and in the last weeks she’d dated Justin. But she’d avoided him all the same since, erased all the possibilities the last four years may have held. All this time, they could have been friends.

The other thing was, if she had any idea how he’d felt at that party, how freeing it was to finally relax, to behimselfwith her, she’d understand just how deep this went for him—well before she came to the café, before they’d even left Lockett Prairie. He thought the attraction simmering between them now was mutual, but new, reciprocal interest was an entirely different beast than one-sided lust that had been hibernating for years. If she sawall that, she might bow out of this little dance. She couldn’t have made herself any clearer: nothing could change.

He dropped his hand from her shoulder. “I’ll take the tree for you whenever, whether it’s later or right now, but you want to kill some time, right?”

She looked like she wanted to disagree, or clarify some point, her head tilting to one side, mouth pinching. But after some thought, she said, “Okay.” Then, she pulled back onto the road.

Toward his entire family of nosy, oversharing sisters, his mother who so desperately wanted him to find a serious girlfriend, and his walker-bound father.

“So, listen. There’s something I should probably tell you.”

My whole family knows I had a crush on you in high school.

“My dad had this accident at Thanksgiving. He broke his hip and had surgery, so he’s using a walker.”Maybe indefinitely.“Temporarily.”

“Oh my God. Is he okay?” The sudden deep concern etched between her eyebrows told him that theotherconversation about his father would be way too heavy.

—

Unlike the day before, when Ash led Hazel into his house, it was brimming with the loud, joyful voices of his entire family and upbeat Christmas music playing on the kitchen radio. Half of them shouted the standard Campbell greeting, an indiscriminate, “Hello! Come on in!” before they realized it was him.

He fidgeted under the collective double take from his mother and sisters at the sight ofa womantrailing close behind him. Then, there was the silent but obvious “Is thather?” look from Maggie, and the “Itoldyou” look from June, who had undoubtedly blabbed about Hazel picking him up that morning.Ash’s Hazel.That was what June had called her in high school afteroneslip, one mention of the cute girl from the volunteer field day he’d had to leave early. He prayed June had the sense not to repeat it now.

He debated ushering Hazel straight back out the door until Cosette tore through the room and launched herself at him, her hands, arms, face, and hair dotted with glitter. She scrambled back down out of his arms just as quickly, and Hazel picked errant sparkles from the shoulder of his jacket. Maggie was the first to cross over to them under the guise of wrangling her child. “You must be Hazel.”

“And you must be Maggie.”

Maggie flashed an impressed look at Ash, straightening with pride at having warranted a mention. She reached to ruffle his hair, and he ducked away, his ears burning.

From their positions around the kitchen island and dining table, his family each greeted Hazel before resuming their various tasks. The little kids were making construction paper Christmas cards. The twins were stringing popcorn and cranberries on fishing line and arguing about the ratio of each while his father ate from the bowls. Ash’s mother monitored the whirring KitchenAid mixer. June did a piss-poor job of tucking paper liners into muffin tins because she was watching Hazel and Ash, likely plotting an ambush.

“I didn’t realize you guys were having a party,” Hazel said apologetically.

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