Page 88 of Take Me Home

Hazel could tell Ash was biting his tongue to not point out that, still, someone should have said,Wait, but isn’t there another kid?Hiskid?

“Let it go,” Hazel sang through a smile while caterers slid a two-top against the larger round table. It was a slightly lower height and rectangular, but someone was already placing an extra floral arrangement in its center, and someone else was pouring ice waters for them.

“It’s not just that. There was a truck in the lot. I wasn’t sure, but— Hazel.” He tugged her arm, making her stop helping arrange tea lights and look at him.

“What?”

“Justin’s here.”

“Justin…” she echoed dumbly. Her pulse kicked up.

He tipped his chin to some point over her right shoulder, but his eyes stayed steady on hers. “He’s coming over here.”

She felt leaden. Her usual fight-or-flight response simply never kicked in, leaving her with only freeze. She could feel every second with which she might have fled or devised a plan tick away.

It was fine. She’d seen Franny, and that turned out fine.

Ash was watching her, though, like maybe her face was saying something else. Like she lookednotfine. Then his eyes darted just over her head, his expression morphing from serious to friendly just as Justin’s familiar voice announced behind her, “Hazel freaking Elliot.”

He turned her by the shoulders and pulled her into a tight hug, swaying her back and forth so one foot lost contact with the floor and then the other. When he set her back down, he didn’t release her immediately, just kept crushing her body to his, his mouth tickling the shell of her ear as he murmured, “Been too long.”

She squirmed free with a nervous laugh and an awkward pat on his shoulder. Reaching back, she latched on to Ash’s wrist. His chest, steady against her back, grounded her as he reached around to offer Justin his hand.

“Campbell.” Justin’s eyebrows bunched together. “Uh, hey. What are you…?” He looked to Hazel for an explanation.

She shot back the same question. “What areyoudoing here?”

“I was…invited? Didn’t you—” He glanced at her father a few feet away. Shaking his head, Justin smiled, eyes scanningher from head to toe and back up her stretchy black skirt, her white button-down. His eyes didn’t quite make it back to her face, a cocky smile kicking up at one corner. “Whatever. Look at you. You grew up nice.”

That slow perusal and his lopsided grin sent Hazel further off-balance. But politeness reigned. She heard herself say, “Thanks. You, too.”

His voice dropped into the confident purr she used to jokingly call his Casanova voice, the one he used when trying to get her to go skinny-dipping or to sneak him into her room after curfew. “No, I mean…damn.”

She didn’t thank him this time, crossing her arms over her chest.

“You been working out or something?”

“Um.” She frowned down at her body. Yes, she’d been working out, at least before Dr. Sheffield’s students ruined the gym for her. She suspected her new muscle tone wasn’t what he meant, though. She swallowed loudly, fidgeting under his gaze, which she preferred to think was on her necklace, and not the extra button she’d left open at Sylvia’s urging.

“You should let me give you a workout.”

Hazel choked on nothing.

“I’m getting my personal trainer certification,” he explained innocently, but the devilish smile that followed told her he’d intended it exactly as it sounded. There had been a time when his semi-lewd playfulness flattered and excited her. Now, it made her skin prickle with discomfort. He wagged his finger. “You’ve got a dirty mind.”

Ash cleared his throat. He was still behind her, so she couldn’t read him, could only feel the contraction of tendons in the wrist she was clinging to like a lifeline as his thumb popped each of his knuckles.

“I’ve been doing CrossFit,” Justin offered, not so subtly flexing, his cocky grin spreading. “You getting to the gym at all these days, Campbell?”

Ash gave an amused grunt.

“Justin,” Hazel’s father said then, coming around the table to offer his hand. To her surprise, he added, “You made it.”

“Hey, Dan.”

Hey, Dan?

“Wait,” she said. “You knew he’d be here?”

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