Page 51 of Whenever You Call

She glanced at me, studying my face in its entirety until she said, “Forty-two.”

“Wow. Our friendship is over.”

She laughed, a real look of happiness taking over. It was only a second or two. A pure moment in time where I caught a glimpse of who she could be and who she probably was before she had her world ripped out from beneath her feet.

It made her impossibly more beautiful.

“I know how old he is,” Bella said, her focus still on the skyline.

“You do?” Hannah said.

“Yeah, he’s thirty.”

I glanced down at her, nudging her with my thigh. “Good guess, short stuff.”

“How did you know that, bug?” her mom asked.

“It was obvious. You and Logan are the same. The only difference is one’s a boy, and one’s a girl.”

“What do you mean?” Hannah smiled with curiosity.

Bella shrugged like she didn’t really care about the words that were about to fall out of her mouth. “You’re both warm people. You smile at the same things. Frown at the same things. Listen to me the same way. It made sense you’d be the same age.” Her nose wrinkled, and she scratched at it. “And the boy always has to be older than the girl in stories, so that means he’s thirty.”

“Stories?” Hannah asked.

“Yeah. Like the princess and her prince stories.”

At that, Hannah’s smile dropped, and a look of pain mixed with confusion creased her brow as she turned back to the city, lost in her own head.

I opened my mouth to say something—make light of it and break Hannah from whatever thoughts had taken away that spark in her eyes—but quickly closed it again when another voice interrupted the conversation.

“Hey,” Livia said, slightly out of breath, as she came up behind Bella and placed her hands on her shoulders. “Sorry about that. Had to take a call.” Livia glanced at me, and I saw the apprehension on her face. “Didn’t miss anything, did I?”

I shook my head and turned away from her, taking in the view like everybody else. “Not a thing.”

But I could feel the weight of her stare upon me.

The air of judgment, too.

Livia didn’t trust me, and I had to be okay with that. I didn’t trust myself, either. At least with her around, I could be certain that Hannah had someone looking out for her. Someone who cared and would always do what was best because I couldn’t be that person anymore.

The best thing would be for me to walk away and never come back, and I couldn’t fucking do it no matter how hard I tried. And that made me a selfish bastard.

It only took one last look at Hannah to know I was right.

Wisps of her short blonde hair blew across her face. She pushed them back behind her ear, and the faintest blush-pink rose on her cheeks before she turned my way and our eyes met again as though she hadn’t been expecting to catch me staring so openly.

The pull I felt toward her grew stronger—a tangible force I couldn’t ignore even if I wanted to.

Maybe Bella was onto something.

Maybe her mom and I were the same.

By the timewe made it back to Hannah’s place, she seemed like a different person.

She didn’t look all around her when she opened up the electric gates from the comfort of her car. The frown lines between her brows had softened, and she smiled freely, as though the air outside her home had given her new life.

Bella had fallen asleep in the back—her head lolled to one side while the seatbelt kept her body upright. When Hannah went to lift her out, I offered to do it instead. Carefully carrying people from one place to the next was practically a part of my job description.

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