Page 296 of How to Kiss a Hawthorne Brother
“He’s here,” she says softly, her eyes darting in every direction. “Here.”She presses a hand to her stomach and shakes her head. “Ohh, Lennox, I don’t like this surprise.”
I reach out and place my hands on her shoulders, squeezing them gently. “He also has some paperwork.” I fight to keep my tone neutral. “He said you’re ready to sign.”
“What? No, that’s not—Lennox, I didn’t ask him to come here. I swear I didn’t. I don’t want to sign anything.”
A sense of relief pulses through me, but this moment isn’t about me. It isn’t even about us. “I believe you,” I say, my tone as neutral as I can manage.
Tatum’s breathing slows and steadies. “I’ve got to go talk to him, don’t I?”
“I think you do.”
If she asks me, I’ll stay right here beside her. Hold her hand while she faces her father, squeeze her fingers if she starts to waver. But something tells me Tatum needs to fight this battle on her own.
I hope there will be a thousand decisions we make together. A thousand compromises. A thousand sacrifices that I make for her or she makes for me.
But this choice has to be Tatum’s and Tatum’s alone.
She needs to own it so she knows that she can. She can make choices independent of her father, but she can also make them independent ofme.
She studies me for a long moment, her brow furrowed. “Are you leaving?”
I look at her, my expression pleading, willing her to understand. “Just taking a walk.”
But ask me to stay. Ask me, and I’ll be right beside you.
Her eyes are full of questions, and for a brief moment, I think she might waver, but then she nods and pulls her shoulders back. “I’ve got this,” she says.
I offer her a small smile, pride swelling in my chest. “Atta girl.”
I slide my hands down her arms, stopping to give her fingers one more quick squeeze.
Then I let her go.
I push through the back door, my long stride quickly carrying me across the parking lot. I hate that I’m leaving her. But I love that I’m leaving her, too.
“Lennox?”
I turn and see her standing on the loading dock, her expression clear, her eyes blazing. The sight of her takes my breath away. She’s so beautiful—so achingly, stunningly beautiful.
“I’ll find you,” she says.
Warmth spreads across my chest, and I lift a hand, pressing it against my heart.
“I know you will.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Tatum
It’s all I cando not to run after Lennox, but I understood the words he wasn’t saying out loud.
I need to do this on my own.
On my way to the Hawthorne dining room, I take a quick detour into my office to grab Mom’s notebook. It’ll help for practical reasons during the conversation I need to have with my father, but there’s a part of me that just wants to have it with me, too. I look down at the worn cover, my mother’s handwriting curling across the top right corner. She only wrote three words, all in French, but they weren’t hard to translate.Recipes. Journeys. Stories.I press the notebook against my chest, a sense of warmth spreading through me.
You’ve got this, Tatum.
The words pulse in my brain—Lennox’s words—except this time, it’s my mother’s voice saying them.
