Page 93 of The Wedding Favor

I stared down at the phone and fought the lump lodged in my throat. Had anyone ever taken the time to learn this much about me?

I realized something I liked very much about Abe: he didn’t pretend. Not when it came to the important things. He said what he meant, but he also listened. Truly listened. I’d spent a good part of my life feeling like my voice wasn’t ever heard. My father hadn’t even bothered, my mom had been so busy and stressed and then sick, Mae was always right even when she was wrong, and Aidan was just Aidan.

But Abe was different.

“I smell like maple syrup?”

“I like maple syrup.” His smile was small, even a little shy, as he reached over and gently pulled the phone from my hand, his fingers brushing against mine and making my breath catch.

Suddenly, Hallie jumped up from her seat. “Can I have money to play the games? Please.”

Abe pulled a ten-dollar bill from his wallet. “That’s all you get.”

“Yes!” Hallie snatched the bill and turned to me. “Tell him about the thing.”

Without waiting for my reply, she scampered to the back of the restaurant where there was a decent-sized arcade.

“What’s the thing?” Abe crossed his arms and drew my eyes. The sleeves of his t-shirt should get an award for their work in containing his arms. Best Strength of Material. I’d never thought much about a man’s arms. Aidan had always been long and lanky, like noodles. But Abe’s muscles were hard at work just existing.

My eyes snagged on a tattoo that started on the back of his hand, a tree with root tendrils that slid around his arm. On the trunk, there was a heart with TH in the middle of it. Something about that tree felt familiar to me.

I let out a small gasp when it came to me. “Is that a tattoo of the Legacy Tree?”

“Yeah. I’m surprised you noticed that.” He stretched out his arm and I took that as permission to look at it more closely. “That’s the first big one I ever got when I moved away. Wanted something to remind me of home, I guess.”

“T.H.” I traced the letters with a featherlight touch. His skin was warm, a few shades darker than my pale shade. His arm tensed. I pretended not to notice. “Two Harts.”

“I traded with the artist, this tattoo for a brake job on his car.”

I glanced up at him. “Very resourceful.”

He huffed a laugh and pulled his arm back. “Probably really stupid. Money to do things like eat would have been better, but…”

“But this will live with you forever. What’s a few missed meals considering that?”

“I guess so.”

“Do all your tattoos mean something?”

He pushed his plate aside and laid both arms on the table. “A lot of them.”

Hesitantly, I reached out to trace the words on his other forearm. I moved slowly, giving him plenty of time to stop me. My fingers slid across his skin. It was warm, sprinkled with dark hair, and utterly touchable. Maybe addictively so. At his wrist, I could see his pulse beating fast. His breath caught but when my eyes darted to his face, it revealed nothing. Must have been mistaken.

“‘It is still a beautiful world.’ I like that,” I said, my voice breathier than I’d ever heard it.

“It’s from a poem called ‘Desiderata.’ I like the reminder, especially when life knocks you down.”

He let me look a little more and ask questions, patiently explaining each one. When I’d exhausted all the tattoos I could see, I pulled my hands away.

“Are you done stalling? You going to tell me what’s going on now?”

“There’s been some issues with girls in her group at camp.”

“What kind of issues?”

He looked ready to storm out of the restaurant and ride his white horse into town to take care of business. It was adorable.

I shushed him. “Keep your voice down. She doesn’t want you to know. I wasn’t keeping it a secret and I thought they’d moved on to someone else. But today the group leader pulled me aside.”