Page 34 of Whenever You Call

I studied her profile, seeing every bit of nerves she so desperately tried to hide.

“It’s just a drive. Nothing else,” I told her, careful not to spark a reaction.

She turned my way, and her eyes searched mine, seeking out the lie before she gave me a small nod. I reversed out of the electric gates, back out onto the street, and Hannah glanced around to search for any vehicles or press that may have been waiting. A clear sign that she’d never really gotten to grips with this lifestyle, no matter how much her husband may have wanted her to. Despite living in a neighborhood that prided itself on privacy for the rich and famous, Hannah still lived on the edge of her nerves, her life a special dance of when to step forward and when to step back to keep her and her daughter safe.

“There’s no one around,” I assured her, facing the road. I figured the less I looked at her, the more she’d relax, even if turning away killed me because Hannah Moore was fucking gorgeous, and my thoughts were starting to head in a direction I needed them to stay away from. “It’s just us now.”

“Just us,” she said in a soft sigh.

The rest of the journey remained quiet. The two of us were practically strangers, and the fact we were, for the very first time, locked together in such close proximity, and not on the other end of a call, seemed to hit us like a ton of bricks. Neither of us knew what to say, so we let silence do the talking for us.

And I heard every fucking word.

This is weird.

This is awkward.

We don’t belong together like this.

We should probably go home.

But despite the growing tension, I kept on driving until she told me to stop. I kept on going as her head twisted to look out of the window with every street we turned upon, as though she was seeing the outside world for the very first time. I caught her watching the streetlights when we drove under them. I caught her taking in the other millionaires’ homes before we left Beverly Hills and headed toward Van Nuys. I took the long route to our destination, giving her a chance to bail out any time she felt the need to. But when we reached the lookout point that I’d hoped and prayed would be quiet, and I parked my Outback next to the railings that overlooked Los Angeles, Hannah’s shoulders finally sagged, and her back curled into her seat.

“Isn’t this the kind of place teenagers bring each other to make out?” she asked.

The thought of making out with Hannah made the muscles in my jaw tighten and my nostrils flare. “Thank God we’re not teenagers anymore.”

“Couldn’t think of anything worse.”

I turned to look at her profile, trying like hell not to get lost in how beautiful she was, which seemed impossible. “I get the feeling life hasn’t always been easy on you.”

“I live in Beverly Hills, in a house big enough for three families. I have no reason to feel sorry for myself.”

“Money doesn’t equal happiness or take away the stuff going on in your head.”

“No,” she said, turning to face me. “But it can buy you a hell of a lot of distractions.” And as soon as she set those words free, I could tell she didn’t mean them. That wasn’t who Hannah Moore was.

Her eyes searched mine only briefly before she tugged on the sleeves of her hoodie, pulling them down over her knuckles, and she studied LA’s skyline again. “Why here?”

“Well, when the world feels too big and overwhelming sometimes, I drive out to places like this and see how small we really are. It’s like flying on a plane. You can be carrying a thousand worries on your back, but the minute that plane takes off and you look out of that tiny window and see the world below you for what it really is, a lot of those worries drift away. We’re just dolls in a big fucking dollhouse. The shit we let destroy us is more often than not far more insignificant than we realize.”

“You’re deeper than you let people believe, aren’t you, Logan?”

“Not usually.”

“I don’t believe you,” she said with a soft smile. “But thank you… for bringing me here.”

“Anytime, Hannah.”

And even though I meant it, I also knew being at her beck and call wouldn’t end well. Neither would being this close to her when she smelled so good and looked so vulnerable.

I was placing myself in the middle of a fucking car crash, but I couldn’t do anything to take my foot off the gas and slow the hell down. Maybe I deserved to crash hard at the end of all this.

I just had to make sure I didn’t take her down with me when it happened.

Chapter15

HANNAH

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