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“Good night, Hadley.”
“Wait… Did I say something wrong?”
He told himself to walk away.But like earlier, he couldn’t.“Yeah, you did.”
“I’m sorry, I’m not following.”
Of course she wasn’t.Because he was so far off her radar she didn’t see even him.Same as in the old days.“Forget it.”
“Tell me.What did I say wrong?Bryson?”
“What if she’s right?”
“Who?My mom?Right about what?”
“What if I am interested in more?In you?”
He’d shocked her with the question but no more than he’d shocked himself with saying the revealing words aloud.Thinking it was one thing, but actually telling a woman like Hadley that he was interested?Attracted to her?
“I-I… Bryson—”
“Go home, Hadley.”
“No.I-I’m flattered.Truly.It’s just… I don’t know what I’m doing.You know that, right?I don’t know how tobethis person.Not yet.”
Her choice of words left him wanting more insight.“What person?”
She stood and moved several steps toward him.“Single.Divorced.Alone.It’s all so new,” she said softly.“The kidsjustleft to go to college before I came here, and I’ve hidden the truth from my parents for so long it’s like…it feels like a lot of it’s just now sinking in.I’m only now processing some of the emotions because I haven’t had time to figure them out so if… I wonder who it is you’re interested in, because right now I don’t even know who I am.”
The truth in her words resounded with him, and even though she didn’t see herself as a whole, he did.And he liked what he saw.“You might not.But I do.And for now I suppose I can accept that.”
He remembered his state of mind after Tish had passed.The fog and grief and finding his way through the days and weeks and years that followed.
“Do you mean that?”
“Yeah.I get it, Haddie.I do.”
“So…we’re okay?”she asked, the tentative question a reflection of the lack of confidence she felt in herself.
“We’re fine,” he said with more conviction than he felt.“All good.”
She took another step closer.
“And you’ll ignore my mom?”
He watched Hadley smile at the face he made.“I’ll have to get back to you on that one.”
Hadley slowly held out her hand, and Bryson eyed it before he took her soft palm in his, unsure of how he was going to keep his thoughts and interest in her in check but determined all the same.
She stepped toward him and brushed her lips over his cheek, quickly moving away before it could turn into anything more.
“Thank you,” she whispered.“Good night, Bryson.”
