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Seriously.
“Shit,” she muttered under her breath, casting a quick glance around to see if anyone was paying attention. Could she grab her kid and go without causing a scene?
Her hands gripped the grocery cart, and she bit her lips as she considered her options. Was she really going to hide from him like a weak little schoolgirl? Really? She inhaled and straightened her shoulders. No. Rebecca Draper was done hiding. She’d been done for a while.
Pushing forward, she made a beeline to the pair and was proud of herself when she didn’t break eye contact with Hudson when he turned to her. Dressed in faded jeans, boots, and blue-and-red flannel over a white T-shirt, he looked way better than she would have liked, but Rebecca ignored his dark good looks and paused in front of him. The words she’d wanted to say the other night bubbled beneath the surface, wanting out, but she didn’t think taking a strip off Hudson Blackwell in the middle of the grocery store and in front of her son was a smart idea.
Choices, her brother Mackenzie always said. Smart choices.
His thick, dark hair was kind of messy, as if the wind had pulled at it, or some woman’s fingers had run across his scalp. And that rugged mouth of his was slightly open as his eyes widened. There were smudges beneath them—as if he hadn’t slept all that much, but she chose to ignore them. What did she care?
He looked at Liam and then back to Rebecca. For a moment, there were no words, and then he spoke, his voice low and with a hint of rasp. Just the way she remembered.
“I should have known this was your kid. He looks a lot like Mac.”
She nodded and managed to answer without sounding as if she was bothered by his presence. Which she was. Big-time. “He does.”
“You know my mom?” Liam asked brightly, unaware of the tension between the adults.
Hudson dragged his gaze from Rebecca and smiled at her son. “I do.”
Liam tossed a package of ground beef into his basket. “Like from school and stuff?”
“Yes,” Rebecca answered curtly. “From school.” She paused, her eyes never leaving Hudson even as his gaze swung back to her. “And stuff.” She tried like hell to keep the bitterness from her voice but knew she’d failed miserably when Liam cranked his head around in surprise.
“You okay, Mom?”
“Yes, Liam. I’m perfectly fine.” In fact, the slow-burning anger that bubbled beneath the surface since she had spied Hudson two days earlier was slow burning no more. It swept over her like a wave crashing against the shore, and before she knew it, she was diving under.
She was not perfectly fine. Not by a long shot. And that was what pissed her off even more. The fact that Hudson Blackwell could still make her feel this way made her angry. And after all this time. She’d worked too long and too hard to get to a place where things were good. No way was she letting him take that away from her.
He was just a ghost from the past. A ghost who’d nearly broken her, mind you, but a ghost nonetheless. He didn’t matter anymore. Of course, if Rebecca had been thinking clearly, she would have realized that all the feelings coursing through her told the exact opposite story. He might be a ghost from the past, but he was also a thread that had been left dangling. One that had never been tied off. Hudson mattered. The story behind him and her mattered. She just didn’t want to acknowledge it. At least, not right now.
Exhaling slowly, she ran a hand over her cheek and tucked back a thick swath of hair. “How long are you staying in town?” She knew she sounded rude, but didn’t care, noting the full grocery cart in front of him.
If Hudson was surprised by her tone or question, he didn’t show it. In fact, he seemed as relaxed as ever as he ran his hand through that mess of hair atop his head. The tattoos on his forearm were visible, and for one second, her vision blurred and she was back in a place she never thought she’d be.
“Huds, my dad will kill me if he ever sees this tattoo.”
“Then don’t let him see it.” His kisses made her ache, and she bloomed beneath the touch of his hands. It was early morning, and the sun was just coming up, lighting their tent afire and sweeping the shadows away. Outside, th
e birds were already awake, singing to each other and celebrating a new day.
His mouth trailed a line of fire down her stomach until he reached the small tattoo on her right hip. He’d gotten the match on the inside of his wrist. “This is only for me.”
His fingers sank inside her, and she nodded as her body began to hum. “Only for you,” she whispered.
As she blinked rapidly, Rebecca’s heart beat so fast she heard it in her ears and shook her head as the memory faded. Hudson and Liam were looking at her strangely.
“What was that?” she asked.
“My dad’s not well,” Hudson replied slowly. “I’m not sure how long I’ll be around.”
Right. Of course. Lips pursed, she didn’t say anything.
“None of my brothers could be here, so…” He shrugged, his face now devoid of any kind of emotion, save for the hardness around his mouth. She knew there was no love lost between the Blackwell boys and their father. That was common knowledge. She just didn’t know the why of it. It was, among many things, something Hudson had never shared with her.
“Right. Well, we should go.” She nodded to Liam.
