Page 64 of All the Beautiful Things
“Some.” She kissed my cheek and I leaned in where her lips lingered. “Did you buy me the bagels?”
“Yeah. Knew you liked them.”
“You’re a sweet guy, Hudson, you know that?”
“Trust me. You’re sweeter. And I miss it.” It’d been two days since we had sex. Now that the floodgates had opened it felt like a year with how long the last two days had been.
I should have kept my mouth shut. I liked her for a hell of a lot more than sex. The burn on her cheeks was worth it. She swatted my shoulder and headed toward the coffee.
“Gross.”
“It’s anything but that. Trust me.”
She shook her head. Let her think I was a fool.
Her smile and the light in her eyes made every foolish statement a reward.
She poured her coffee and once she did, she settled against the counter next to me, cupped the coffee mug in both of her hands. “I was thinking of Shawn this morning.”
“In the shower?” I teased.
“No.” She rolled her eyes. “And not that way, trust me. But I think I decided to let him go on seeing if he can find an address.”
“You sure?” I froze. With how she’d originally reacted, I’d expected her to change her mind.
“No, but I think like what you said, if I have that information, it’s my choice. And if I do decide to reach out one last time, this way I at least know they get it.”
“And if they ignore it?”
“Then I let them go.”
We both knew it wasn’t that easy. I let her pretend it was though. It wasn’t any different than me pretending I was doing okay with Dad being sick.
“I wouldn’t imagine it would take long.” It’s not like they were in hiding, just had a private, unlisted address. Given his stature in the community, I’d imagine his contact info would be pretty damn easy for Shawn to get.
“Doesn’t mean I have to reach out right away.”
“No. It doesn’t. And you know I’m here, however you need me to be.”
I parroted her words back to her from last night. Partly to reassure her I was, partly to let her know how much they’d meant to me.
How much she meant to me.
“Then it’s settled.”
She was absolutely not settled. “Yep.”
“Good.” She turned and slid her bagel into the toaster, keeping her back to me.
I again let her have her little lie. We both knew things weren’t settled at all, in more ways than one.
20
Lilly
“I’m surprised you wanted to come here,” I said to Ellen as she walked through my door, bags of Chinese takeout in her hands. When she told me she was bringing dinner to me, all I could remember was the food from the Walking Wok where Hudson and I had eaten out a few weeks ago. I hadn’t been back and was craving it. “Why not a restaurant?”
She set the bags down on my small table and began unpacking them. “Thought I’d kill two birds and do your monthly home review while I was at it.”
