Page 29 of Falling for Hailey

“Scoff all you want,” she said. “Those curls are natural.”

“I doubt it. But you can live in your fantasy world where that look didn’t require a spray tan and Botox and about a thousand dollars at a hair salon.”

“No one spends that on their hair.”

“I know plenty of women who do. You’d probably faint if you knew how much Meredith paid for hers.”

I brought a plate of food to her on the couch, and Hailey picked at it, setting it aside. Even my mom’s incredible food didn’t really tempt her, so I knew that she was still upset. After a while, I sensed her relaxing a little. She got absorbed in the movie, giving me commentary on who had been in which other movies I should have seen but hadn’t.

“Wait a minute,” she said. “You really don’t know who this guy is? He’s way too good to be playing the sidekick in this movie, for one thing, and also he’s famous. So you’re telling me that you have never even watched The Office? Or It’s Complicated? What about A Quiet Place? A Quiet Place 2? You were too busy building a world-renowned marketing company and focusing on total world domination, right?” she teased.

“No. I just run a company and teach at Berkeley,” I said, prickly about my lack of pop culture knowledge. “Also I’m elderly, just ask my clients. I don’t watch a lot of TV.”

“Then you have a giant, expensive plasma screen for no reason? Is it like a trophy?”

“When I get a chance to watch a game, I want it to look clear. Like I’m actually there.”

“You realize you could be? Actually there? I mean, I’m pretty sure you can get tickets. You could probably go to the Final Four even!” she said.

“I’ve been. It was loud,” I said.

“When did you go to the Final Four?”

“I went to Indy in 2021, saw Baylor beat Gonzaga. My buddy Aaron went with me at the last minute. I had planned to take Kyle—he’s a Women’s Studies prof at Berkley and my oldest friend, but he has a wife and kids now and one of the kids had strep throat. So he canceled on me,” I said, still a little annoyed about it.

“I can understand that. He must’ve been disappointed, because that was a great game. But it’s family. You know if Maria or your parents got sick, you’d skip whatever you needed to, and they’re adults.”

“It was the Final Four, Hailey,” I said. “It’s a major event, most people never get to experience it. I’m not saying leave a sick child home alone with no medical care. I think he could’ve gone, and his wife could’ve handled things,” I said.

“That is the most screwed up thing I’ve ever heard you say,” she laughed. “How are you friends with a women’s studies professor? His child is sick, and he should help care for that child, or the other one that’s not sick. I guarantee if he had the balls to leave her with two babies, one of whom had strep throat, he would find a pile of his belongings burning in the driveway when he got home. If she didn’t do it, her friends would. And if anyone treated Maria that way, you’d have his testicles bronzed and mounted over your TV for a trophy.”

I chuckled. “Fine, you have a point. I take it back. Maybe I have a bad attitude about it. You should know I’m the asshole that always has to buy a round to apologize when my friends and I hang out.”

“Asshole buys the drinks? That’s a fantastic rule. I love that,” she said, grinning. “Except you’re not one. It was a boneheaded thing to say, but I don’t think you even meant it. I think it hurt your feelings that he bailed on you. I’ve seen how you treat the people in your life, Rick. You’re thoughtful and generous and really good to them. Your parents are so crazy proud of you, by the way.”

I couldn’t help feeling really flattered. I liked that she saw me that way, that she could overlook my dumbass remark and see it for what it really was. I wanted to hug her and thank her for really seeing me, but that seemed---strangely intimate, even if it wasn’t inappropriate considering our situation.

“Thanks,” I said, because I felt like I had to say something in the awkward silence.

I turned my attention to the movie with a focus I really didn’t feel. I was turning over her compliment in my mind until it shone like a stone that’s been polished from much handling. A smile stayed on my face as the movie played. After a while, I felt her arm against mine as she snuggled closer. It took incredible willpower to keep from putting my arm around her. She obviously had a frightening event happen to her, and someone had violently slashed her tires after targeting her car specifically. I had my suspicions that Josh was involved, and I’d messaged the detective on the case with that information, not wanting to mention it in front of Hailey and upset her further. I just let the cop know that one of her classmates seemed to have a problem with her and I had witnessed him physically grabbing her.

I didn’t exactly give in to the impulse to put my arm around her. I just stretched and let my arm rest along the back of the couch. Hailey nestled in against me with a sigh, and I looked down at her. She was asleep. Tucked in against my side, her cheek just below my shoulder. I took a slow breath and shut my eyes for a minute and let myself soak in this feeling. She was asleep curled up beside me on my couch, trusting me, safe and warm and whole. She hadn’t been hurt in the attack on her car. She just leaned against me and slept. It felt amazing, just knowing that I was the person she turned to for comfort, that she could sense on some level that I’d protect her.

I felt my breathing sync with hers, matching the soft rise and fall of her body as she slept. It was a deep sense of relaxation, of connection and closeness. I didn’t think I'd ever felt anything like it.

Nothing, not even counting backward or trying to remember accurate NCAA championship scores, helped push away the arousal in my body. It wasn’t like the ordinary feeling I got when I saw an attractive woman and got turned on. This was not casual and wouldn’t be driven away by any combination of distraction and willpower. I was so hard that it was painful to sit there with my jaw set and my body tense. The inner struggle went on as I summoned images from graphic battlefield scenes from war movies and the hideous memory of a hungover student vomiting on my desk in class. Nothing dissuaded my maverick body from overriding any manufactured disgusting images. Every cell seemed to be trained on informing me of my irresistible attraction to the woman who was curled up sleeping against my shoulder. It was really uncomfortable, ethically as well as physiologically.

At least she slept peacefully and didn’t know about the crisis of conscience and burgeoning arousal going on beside her. Gingerly, I withdrew my arm to try to move away from her. She stirred, her fingers flexing on my shirt and gripping it as her sleepy eyes blinked once, twice as she looked up at me. She smiled drowsily and tried to hold on and snuggle back onto my shoulder. I made a shushing sound and tried to move again. She made a little sound of dismay, a murmured, ‘no.’ She looked at me then, eyes open and awake. She held my gaze and I watched her beautiful lips curve in a smile.

I thought I might be having a heart attack because my chest felt tight, I had a hard time getting my breath when Hailey looked at me that way. I started to shake my head, but she reached up and touched my face. Her fingertips were at my jaw, coaxing me to turn my face down toward her. I didn’t need any persuasion at all.

I brushed my lips against hers, savoring the way her lips clung to mine, the wistful sweetness that gave a bittersweet edge to the passion igniting at that first touch. I was utterly lost. My hands were in her hair, tilting her face so I could get better access as I slid my tongue into her mouth, stroking her curves, exploring and tasting her. She mewled, a sweet, soft sound that made my heart seem to clench in my chest. I meant to stop, to pull away and say it was wrong, but I kept kissing her like I could never put an end to it.

CHAPTER21

HAILEY

Aflood of tenderness threatened to drag me under as Rick kissed me. Rick Esperanza, star of my favorite TED talk, marketing impresario and my professor at Berkeley, not to mention my best friend’s off-limits older brother, was kissing the hell out of me. The man was doing something with his tongue that ought to be illegal. He stroked the roof of my mouth with the tip of his tongue, and it made my toes curl.

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