Page 38 of His for the Holiday

I glanced at Luke again. “Everyone knew? Really?”

“Of course.” He laughed, his head shaking when he realized I was genuinely perplexed by this. “It was so obvious, Hawk. I mean, the way you looked at her? Shit, even I believed in soulmates after that.”

“Get the hell out of here with that.” I scoffed. “Soulmates.”

He shrugged, but his eyes were still gleaming with laughter. “Yeah, okay. But I was afraid my girlfriend back then would get pregnant in the crossfire of the eye-fucking you guys always had going on. You’re seriously telling me nothing ever came of it?”

“I don’t know what to tell you,” I admitted, seriously stunned that they’d all known I’d had a thing for her. “How come you never said anything before?”

“We just figured it was hard enough for you to come to terms with the fact that you were in love with your best friend. Then you showed up at prom with Hailey instead of Sutton. Stunned doesn’t even begin to cover it, man.”

My head spun as I realized I truly had been living in a bubble during those years of social climbing. I squinted at him. “You were all stunned?”

“Gobsmacked. Dumbfounded. Call it whatever you want, but I still think you should’ve gone with Sutton. How is she, anyway? I’m surprised she’s even talking to you after you ditched her for Hailey.”

“She’s fine,” I said just as I spotted a mop of dark red curls from the corner of my eye. When I looked, I realized it was Winnie, skipping back and forth in front of the store across the street. “Excuse me a minute. I need to talk to that kid.”

He shot me a confused look and shrugged. “Sure, man. Handle your business.”

I jogged over to her, looking around for Sutton but not seeing her anywhere. I frowned, deciding to ask Winnie what she was doing out there all by herself. She was just a kid and I felt an alien but intense protective instinct roaring within me to make sure she was safe.

It nagged at me until I reached her, insisting that I made sure nothing and no one ever even came close to hurting this little girl.