The following afternoon, I walked along the curving sidewalk in our tucked-away section of Fairmount Park ten minutes early and spotted the empty park bench. My pulse kicked up a notch from excited to frenzied, and I broke out in a cold sweat. Anxiety and I had never gotten along very well.
“Calm the fuck down, Cade,” I muttered. “You’re no good to her dead from a coronary.”
Ava trotted alongside me, happy to be in the middle of so much activity buzzing around, but amazingly mindful due to Mase’s new leash training. And I couldn’t decide which I wanted more: Ava running in every direction chasing grasshoppers and butterflies or the pup on her best behavior. The latter seemed easier on me, however, and I was grateful. Besides, best behavior seemed to be the theme for the day.
I sat down on the park bench, watching the sidewalk in the most likely direction Hannah would come from, and Ava sat beside my left leg. Not even thirty seconds ticked by before I stood and began pacing. Misunderstanding my actions, Ava scampered up and followed for two circuits of pacing, before giving up, sitting down, and watching me wear a groove in the sidewalk.
A gravelly deep voice sounded out behind me. “Have a seat. She’s going to say yes.”
Blinking, I turned around. An elderly man leaned on the top back slat of the park bench. “How do you know—”
He snorted. “A man this nervous? Only a woman could make a man so crazy. Relax. Breathe. And speak from your heart. Women understand that language.”
Distracted by the man, my erratic pulse began to calm. I arched a brow. “You seem wise.”
A hard laugh was followed by a rattling cough. As I took the seat he suggested, he clapped me lightly on the shoulder with his frail hand. Ava settled next to my leg again.
“Only fools play the game of love. The lucky few get caught by it and never let go.” His bony finger pointed along the sidewalk. “There she is, my boy. Go get her.”
And there she was.
I sucked in a breath, my heart jumping at the sight of her walking toward me in a bright yellow sundress. Her hair was pulled up into a high ponytail, a few dark wisps catching in the breeze, teasing across her pinked cheeks.
In the first brief second, I could see she fared well, if perhaps a little on the thin side, but my focus lingered on her tentative smile. Ava broke all her good behavior and bolted toward her, yanking the leash out of my hand. I laughed and stood, glancing behind me to thank the older man.
He’d vanished. I scanned the park behind me and off to the side where I’d come from, but he was nowhere. Furrowing my brow for an instant, I wondered if he’d been real.
Soft laughter chimed out from the sidewalk reunion, and I spun my attention forward again. Hannah’s megawatt smile struck me.
She knelt down, then laughed as Ava licked her face. “I’ve missed you too, girl. Yes, I have. Oh yes, I have.”
A pang of jealousy speared through my heart. But I banished the nuisance feeling as quickly as it had come.
The innocent deserved unconditional love.
The rest of us had to earn it.
Ava’s new red leash trailed along the cement as Hannah lifted the gangly puppy into her arms. “She’s almost too big to pick up now.”
Unsure if I’d be able to keep my hands to myself if I let them hang free, I shoved them into the pockets of my jeans. “Yeah. Mase’s been feeding her some kind of premium organic puppy chow.”
She nodded. Her smile softened as her gaze lifted to meet mine. Hesitant hope reflected back to me in those bright green eyes. She threaded her hand through the loop of the leash before plopping Ava down onto the sidewalk. They walked the rest of the way to the bench. “Don’t forget how he loads his plate with extra food, just to be able to drop her table scraps.”
I snorted. “Delinquents.”
Hannah sat on the bench, and I pulled my hands out of my pockets, lowering to sit beside her.
Her eyes narrowed as she examined my face. “You look too skinny. And very tan.”
“Yeah. No appetite.”
Her eyes softened. “Cade, I—”
“Hannah—”
We both laughed quietly out of nervousness.
I took a deep breath. “You first.”
She nodded and dropped her gaze down, staring at her folded hands in her lap for a moment. After a slow inhale and exhale, as if steeling herself, she raised her gaze to meet mine. “Cade, I was so wrong to do what I did. Cut you off like that. Running from the best things in my life had been an idiotic thing to do. I panicked and closed in on myself. But most of all, I hurt you in the process.”
I blinked. So not how I imagined our reunion going. “Hannah, I’m the one who was wrong, on multiple levels. I was an idiot to begin with, not putting you first above the business. Above everything. I should have removed you from harm’s way with the threat of an ex who we knew could cause problems. On that night, after your note—when I left—I didn’t feel worthy of you. You trusted me to keep you safe, and I failed you.”
Her clasped hands moved from her lap, the fingers of one hand reaching out to touch my knee. “But you came back.”
I glanced up. Her expression was unreadable. Open, but nothing more.
“I did. On the beach, a fight rose up from my gut and into my heart that hadn’t been there before. I left for you, because I didn’t think I could be what you needed me to be.”
“And now?”
“Sitting on that sand for days on end gave me clarity. The man who fell in love with you wants to fight for us, not for selfish reasons, but for you. If you’ll give me another chance, if you understand sometimes I’m an idiot and slap me upside the head, I will fight to be worthy of you.”
Tears welled in her eyes, threatening to spill over.
A cramp choked my throat at the sight of her barely held emotions. My vision began to blur from building tears.
“I’ll give you a second chance Kincade Joseph Michaelson. I’ll give you a second, and a third, and on and on. But only under one condition.”
A tiny flame of hope flared to life, and I exhaled in relief. “Name it. It’s yours.”
“The next time I run. And there will be a next time; I am going to run—this we’ve established.”
She paused, and the corners of my lips twitched as I fought a smile.
Her hand squeezed my knee. “You have to chase me. I’m so fucked up when I’m lost in the middle of a panic attack, I don’t think. I can’t think. You have to think for me. Chase after me. Always fight for us, even when I can’t.” Her voice fell to a pleading whisper, her tears spilling over onto her cheeks. “Promise me.”
My tears fell too, not manly, but I didn’t give a fuck. Hannah was here, pouring her heart out, asking me to love her.
I lifted a hand to cup her cheek, wiping away her falling tears with my thumb.
“I promise, Hannah. I promise to think for you when you can’t, I promise to chase after you when you run, and I promise to fight for us no matter what obstacles come our way.”
She inhaled a shaky breath. “We need to remove an obstacle now. Before I feel comfortable moving forward, we need to be on the same page about something.”
Warring emotions gripped my heart. Panic. Hope. I wanted to soothe her fears, and there was so much left to say, but I needed to listen first. I held her gaze and gave her a firm nod with my full attention.
“We have to talk more. I need you to know what we need to talk about. In fact, don’t decide what is and isn’t important to share with me, it all is—from the mundane to the shocking. If something upsets you? Tell me. Make me a part of your life in such a deep way that I don’t feel separate from it. I don’t ever want to feel like you’re keeping things from me again, even if it’s unintentional.”
A choking cramp locked up my throat again at the pain I’d caused her even as I exhaled a relieved breath at what she needed from me. “I agree. One hundred percent. On the island, I realized we could’ve avoided all the heartache if I’d made more time for us, not just hang-time or sex, but real time where we connect and share. Things got so busy, I let us fall through the cracks. The time we make for each other is where we solidify us, where we communicate. I’m going to fucking communicate like you wouldn’t believe.” I took a deep breath. “Can I ask you one favor?”
She nodded.
“Please be patient with me. Sharing every little thing is new for me. I want to be everything you need me to be, but they don’t make an instruction manual. I’m learning as I go. Just trust in me, no matter what.”
“I will. I do.” She gave me a hesitant smile, and it was all the invitation I needed. I leaned forward, capturing her lips with mine. Warm, salty, trembling, both a reunion and the seal of a promise, the kiss was the best of my life.
When I pulled away, she smiled brighter than I’d ever remembered. I grinned, the happiest man on the planet. “That’s why I came back.”
Laughing, she tilted her head. “My soaking wet kiss?”
I tapped her nose. “Nope.” I arched a brow. “Although I do like you wet…”
She shoved at my chest with little force. “Neanderthal.”
“You know it.” I grinned again. “I came back because I want to be the cause of your smile, every lucky day of my life.” Remembering I had a gift for her, I grabbed her hand and tugged her up off the bench. “C’mere. I’ve something to show you.”
Nervous and excited at the same time, I led her down the walkway to the opposite side of this section of the park. As we rounded the bend, her surprise edged into view.
She gasped the moment she caught sight of the spectacle. Her smile widened and she squealed. “Oh my God…Cade!”
A meadow of rainbow-colored snapdragons in small clay pots stood in rows, stretching across the grass. The hill rose up on the far side, and the flowered pattern on the grass canvas formed the irregular shape of a heart.
Children ran along the edges, playing among the flowers. Butterflies flew above the blooms. Even a few iridescent dragonflies glided by, finding perches on the peaks of the flowered stems.
Instead of running into the middle of the flowers like I’d expected her to do, she pressed against my side, lacing her fingers together with mine. I sighed, comforted by the gentle gesture, happy she wanted to be here with me.
“It’s amazing, Cade.” Her soft words held the tiniest tremble. She sniffed, and I looked down to find her crying.
“Hey, hey. No more tears. Only happiness, okay? I hoped this would make you smile and laugh.”
A choked laugh came out. “It does. I am happy. I’m just overwhelmed. What an incredible bouquet of flowers. It’s just…I’m the luckiest…” She buried her face against my chest when her words started to croak out.
I held her tight. “No, Maestro. I’m the lucky one.”
We stood there for an eternity, both of us holding each other tight. Even Ava respected our need for privacy by stretching out in the long shadows of the flowers for a late afternoon nap.
Finally, I rubbed a hand up Hannah’s back. “Might be hard to stick ‘em in a vase.”
She huffed out a soft laugh, turning toward her snapdragon meadow. “We can collect a few favorite pots. Maybe Chloe and Daniel can deliver the rest to friends and family.”
“I like that idea: share our celebration with others.”
I smoothed my thumb up her arm and tilted my head. “I could’ve done a meadow of cupcakes and run naked through them. But I bake for shit, and arrested for streaking seemed like the wrong message.”
She busted up laughing—music to my ears.
She gazed up at me, her sparkling eyes bright green in the sunlight. “Some fantasies are better left to our imagination.”
My face fell into a pout. “But I like the idea of the cupcake meadow. I’m looking forward to licking frosting off your body.”
Mischief danced in her eyes, and she bit the corner of her lower lip. “I’m looking forward to that too.”
Unable to believe Hannah was really here with me, I pulled her into my arms again, burying my face against her neck, inhaling the tropical scent I hadn’t realized I’d become dependent on until just now.
With soft tender kisses, her lips trailed a line up my neck. Teeth tugged at my earlobe. “What do you say we go back to my place?”
Exhaling, relieved to the point my knees nearly gave out, I squeezed her tighter.
“I say yes.”