Her eyes widened as she rotated out of my arms to take it all in with her new knowledge. “How long have you had it?”
I shrugged. “A little over a year. Lottie’s mom sold it to me at a discounted price before she passed for helping her around the place. It wasn’t part of their original farm. Something Lottie’s grandparents had purchased when she was young.”
“It’s beautiful. The river, the view. A girl could get lost in her thoughts out here.”
My heart took off, a race of satisfaction drumming inside. I stepped up behind her, tucking her back into my chest, my arms snug around her. She clung to them, holding on tight. I kissed along the skin of her neck, wishing she was that woman she spoke of.
I had plans for this land. Build a small home and a family. One that hopefully included two kids. One I could see Hannah being a part of. A dream that wouldn’t happen.
I was starting to believe dreams were only meant for chasing, not obtaining. At least, for me.
Nestled in my arms, soft curves to hard planes, we laid back in the bed of the truck, looking up at the black canvas hanging over us with a sprinkling of bright stars. I stroked the backs of my knuckles along her spine as she rested her head on me, never wanting to leave this spot, this moment. If I could, I’d make it last forever. The evening had been perfect—the food, the flirting, the woman in my arms.
“You never told me you played baseball.”
Her words weren’t an accusation, just an observation, one that interrupted my content thoughts. Pulling her a little tighter, I tucked my other hand behind my head.
“I guess it just never came up that night.”
“Seems like it was a big part of your life.”
“At one time…it was.”
She lifted her head, resting her chin over her hands on my chest, her eyes full of something I couldn’t quite interpret. “What happened? They say you were being recruited by the MLB.”
“They?”
She rolled her eyes with a wry smile. “The people in this town.”
I sighed, shifting her from my arms to sit up, not wanting to discuss it. The truth was, I never told her about it that night because I didn’t like to talk about it. To think about it. Being so close to a lifelong dream just to have it torn from your clutches wasn’t something I liked to relive. My biggest failure in life.
She sat forward with me, her eyes on my profile as I stared straight ahead, resting my arms on my bent knees. The defensive wall protecting my pride built up between us.
“I’m sorry,” she said, sensing the shift in the air, her hand caressing my back. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want.”
Hell. Hearing the understanding in her voice had my defenses crumbling. She was the woman I wanted to claim wholly. I wanted every piece of her. The good and the bad. There was no way I could deny her the same.
I cleared my throat, still unable to meet her eyes. “It was an injury my senior year of college ball, my last season. It came at the worst possible time in my career. I tore my rotator cuff. It put me out of commission for the rest of the season. I had surgery and fortunately, I recovered from it. Unfortunately, not soon enough. In the eyes of the recruiters, it was too big of a risk to wait and see if I did, so they moved on.”
I roughed a hand through my hair. My chest tightened. Reliving the loss of that dream, while chasing after another that sat beside me, so close to being in my hands, but knowing it was just as fleeting, tore me up inside.
Her own tone turned somber as she wrapped herself in her arms, knees pulled to her chest. “I’m sorry, Billy. I know what it’s like to have a dream be taken from you.”
I looked over at her, wanting to take away the sadness in her eyes as she stared ahead. I draped an arm around her shoulders, tucking her into my side, dropping a kiss on the crown of her head.
Her cheek nuzzled into my chest. Her next words were so quiet I almost missed them. “I lost my job.”
Remaining silent and still, I waited for her to continue, not fully sure I’d heard her correctly.
“Right before I came here… It’s like one day I was working at my dream company, steps away from getting my dream position, only to be pushed out the door without a second thought.”
“Damn, baby. I’m sorry.” I squeezed her tighter, wishing I could somehow make it better for her.
She lifted her head to look at me, a struggle in her eyes I wasn’t used to seeing from her. “I haven’t told anyone, not even Lottie. I think saying it out loud makes it more real, you know? I have no idea what I’m going to do. I feel like a fish out of water right now, floundering my way around, with no direction.”
“We’ll figure it out, Han. You’ll land on your feet. I’m sure of it.”
I just wished those feet would land here with me.
Chapter 10
HANNAH
“Hannah?! Hannah, dear, you still out there?”
I lobbed my head backwards, rolling my eyes toward the ceiling. Of course I was still here. Where else would I be?
“One minute, Mrs. Fitzgerald!” I hollered from the cashier counter, where I’d been hunkered over my laptop submitting my resume to another potential employer.
I already knew what she wanted: whatever she was trying on this morning in another size. The seventy-year-old woman came into the store at least once a day, always picking out clothes entirely too small for her to try on. I didn’t know if her eyes were so bad that she couldn’t read the labels, or if she just thought she was smaller than she was. Either way, she had me constantly running back and forth between the racks and dressing rooms for at least an hour a day every day. To top it all off, she rarely bought anything.
I snapped my laptop shut with a sigh after finally hitting send. It was my final resume to submit. There were only a handful of jobs available unless I decided to relocate. Leaving Seattle wasn’t something I wanted to do. I loved the city, had lived there my whole life, but at the end of the day I had to make a living.
The front door of the shop opened, and Leighton came strolling through with an exhausted look on her face and two iced coffees from Ida’s in hand. It’d become a ritual for her to show up here after she got off work, bringing me my afternoon cup of iced coffee.
“Hey. Thanks, I’ve been craving one of these,” I said, taking the cup she offered to me. I took a long sip of the much-needed caffeine before asking, “What’s going on?”
“Remind me again why I chose this profession.” She sagged against the front of the counter, taking a drink of her own.
“Um…because you have a heart of gold and love all those adorable little faces?”
“Right. That.”
“Hang in there. It’s your last week and then you’ll have the summer to recoup.”
“Hannah!” the impatient old woman called again.
“Coming!” I yelled, fighting back my annoyance and plastering on a smile.
Leighton smirked.
“And you thought you have it bad,” I grumbled, waltzing over to the wall where Tucker had built Lottie a bank of dressing rooms with pipe fittings draped with thick white curtains. He’d done a beautiful job building out a rustic modern space for her boutique—a combination of brick, wood, and metal, softened by the clothes she displayed and the chandeliers above.