“Yeah. So?”
I let the silence settle for a beat, then asked gently, “Why did you do that?”
“Because you’re a guest.” Hudson’s eyes darkened. He leaned against the counter, arms crossed. “Why are you here, Matt?”
I blinked, fumbled for a response. “Ivy deserved her ice cream.”
“Bullshit.” His voice was quiet, but his face was tight. “You’ve been circling me for days. One day you’re mad at me, and the next, you’re climbing on top of me. You come close, then you back off, and I don’t see you for three days. I don’t know what the hell you want, and I know I shouldn’t make demands of you, but this back-and-forth is killing me.”
My heart clenched. “I want to talk about everything. Starting with what happened four years ago. I’m ready to listen.”
Hudson stared at me like I’d knocked the wind out of him.
For a beat, he didn’t move. Didn’t blink. Just stood there with the rag hanging limp in his hand, like his brain couldn’t process what I’d just said.
“You…” His voice cracked slightly, and he cleared his throat. “You want to listen?”
He said it like it was a foreign concept. Like no one ever had. Like maybe he didn’t think he deserved to be heard anymore.
His jaw flexed, lips parted, and for the first time since I’d stepped into his house, his mask slipped. He looked ready to cry.
“Ivy’s missing her mom.” He exhaled deeply. “I’ve been racking my brain to figure out why she’s latched on to you, and that’s the only thing I can come up with. She’s using you to fill that void left by her mother. Matt, please, you have to keep your distance from us unless… It’s not fair to her to get attached to you.”
The words hit like a punch I hadn’t seen coming.
My throat tightened. I hadn’t even thought of that. Not really. Not beyond the fact that she was cute and liked me, and I liked her right back. I hadn’t stopped to consider what my presence meant to her, what kind of space I might be occupying in her tiny world. A space that maybe didn’t belong to me.
A flicker of fear rippled through me. Panic, even. What if I was making it worse for her? What if I was messing up something delicate, something still healing? What the hell was I even doing here?
I opened my mouth—maybe to apologize, maybe to backtrack—when small feet pattered into the kitchen.
Ivy.
She came barreling in, cheeks sticky from ice cream and eyes wide as though she thought I’d left. Her whole face lit up when she saw me. She gave a little hop right over to me.
“Maah!” she squealed, grabbing my hand with both of hers. “Come. Let’s watch!”
I looked down at her, at the joy in her eyes, the way her fingers curled tight around mine, and something in my chest cracked wide open.
I glanced up at Hudson, who looked like he was bracing for me to pull away.
“Later,” I told him quietly. “We’ll talk later. Stop worrying. It’ll be fine.”
Then I let Ivy lead me back to the living room, her tiny hand warm in mine, and… I let myself stay, knowing it might mean the beginning of forever despite the ugly truths we would have to face that night.
15
HUDSON
Istood outside Ivy’s bedroom door, back pressed against the wall like a coward. I told myself I was only there to check on her bedtime routine, to make sure she’d settled down after all the excitement of having Matty around. But that wasn’t the truth.
The truth was, I couldn’t stop listening to Matty’s voice.
He read to her with the same cadence and softness he used to use on me when I got wound too tight to sleep. She’d insisted thatherMaaaatt read her a bedtime story in that bossy tone she’d developed lately, and he hadn’t hesitated. Hadn’t even blinked. It was so easy to think he’d been doing this all her life.
What was he doing? What wasIdoing?
I shouldn’t encourage Ivy to get attached to him. Not when there was no future for us.
