Page 84 of Promise Me Nothing
But I also know that wanting her here is probably the last thing I should be doing.
I can make out some of what they’re saying from here, their hands moving in flurries as they giggle and share. Stuff about the house and how their days have been so far. But I turn away from them and head into the kitchen to make the three of us some drinks.
I’m just finishing putting together a vodka soda, Shirley Temple, and three fingers of scotch when Ivy comes barreling into the kitchen, nearly knocking me over.
Can we grab a bathing suit for Hannah from the guesthouse? I invited Hannah to go swimming.
“It’s okay if it doesn’t work out,” I hear Hannah say from behind me.
I turn to look at her.
“A dip in the pool after a run like that sounds awesome, but I don’t want to impose.”
I’ll go get her a swimsuit,Ivy says, then darts out of the room.
Hannah walks over to where I’m standing and gives me a soft smile. “If it’s trouble, I swear, it’s really not a big deal. I can totally go home.”
“No, no. You should go in the pool.”
“That sounds like a wonderful idea!” Vicky comes waltzing into the kitchen with a basket of laundry. “That pool doesn’t get enough use. I’ll go help Ivy pick out a suit for you.”
I smile. “Hannah, this is Vicky. She’s everything to us. Like another mother. Vicky, this is Hannah.”
Vicky grins and continues bustling through towards the door out to the courtyard. “Nice to meet you Hannah! Gimme five minutes and you’ll be dipping into that cool pool water.”
“She’s friendly,” Hannah says, giggling. “Is she your… nanny? Or maid?”
“Yes,” I say, and we both laugh. “She’s been around since my brother Ben and I were babies. She’s housekeeper, nanny, assistant to my mother, and a bunch of other things rolled into one. She’s family, though.”
Hannah smiles. “I like that.” Then she pulls her phone out of her pocket. “I’m gonna let Lucas know I won’t be home for a while.”
“Invite him over, if you want.”
She nods. “Sounds good.”
Then she wanders off, her phone pressed to her ear.
I shake my head.
Never did I ever think Hannah Morrison would be in my house, hanging out with Ivy, and dipping into our pool.
Life is fucking crazy.
A little while later, I’m dropping a stack of towels out on a lounge chair when Hannah walks outside in the bathing suit she borrowed from the sets we keep in the guest house.
It wouldn’t matter what else was happening right now… a parade, a drum banging in my face, literal fireworks… I can’t tear my eyes away.
She’s in a white bikini, the triangles at the top fitting her breasts perfectly, the bows tied at her hips enticing. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a woman in a bathing suit before and felt like someone was choking me. But that’s how I feel right now.
Because she is absolutely breathtaking.
And when her eyes find mine, she stops moving. They dip down, over my bare chest and down my swim trunks to my feet before coming back up to gaze at my chest and arms. Over the tattoo on my bicep that I got while I was in college.
And then when she realizes she’s been gawking, she flushes and turns away, reaching for her drink that’s been sitting on the patio table and probably melting in the hot sun of this May afternoon.
“I’m glad the suit fits,” I say, wandering in her direction, wanting a closer look at her curves. And that’s when I notice a tattoo on her left side. “Is that a tattoo?”
Hannah turns, moves her arm out of the way and glances down. “Yeah. I got it on my eighteenth birthday. It was a gift from my friend Sienna.”
