AllFreeNovel
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“Hannah?”Damn you, asshole. Damn, damn, damn you for so easily being distracted by that one name when the two others are just as important. “Why am I groveling to everyone?”
“Because June’s mad, I’m mad, and Hannah is basically best friends with Raul these days.”
My head shoots back with disgust. “Raul?”
“Yeah! You’re an ass and left us high and dry, so now Raul is the new Axel. But it’s not the same.” A soft whimper rolls from the back of her throat. “Not even a little bit the same.”
“Raul’s not the new me. No one is me.”
“Yeah, well… you tell that to Raul. And Math Genius Alan. And the fricken’ flowers that get delivered every damn day. Oh, and Jenson! Who thought he could ask Hannah out, since she’s not pining after you anymore.”
“Jenson asked Hannah out on a date?” Too much information.Too much to process!“Delivery driver Jenson? He asked Hannah out?” Where I expected myself to be angry, a choked laugh steals the breath from my lungs. “Raul is her best friend, and Jenson asked her out? Seriously?”
“This isn’t funny! We’re drowning over here in flowers and secret admirers and delivery drivers who are always in our space. Hannah is beautiful and single and flirty with ninety-nine percent of the male customers who walk in here. Which is fine. Her smile sells cake. But dammit, Axel, I’m sick of seeing basic, white, middle-aged men in here, trying their luck.”
I bark out a laugh that touches the very bottom of my stomach.
“It’s cruel!” she almost sniggers. “She doesn’t want them, but since she keeps saying no, they’re getting bolder. It’s like there’s one crystal slipper, and all the dudes are lining up to try it on for size.”
“Raul is her best friend,” I snigger. “And Jenson grew balls. And…” Then I frown. “Flowers?”
“Math King Alan, who sells kayaks for a living, drove an hour last night for a date with Hannah. He sent flowers first—which were beautiful, by the way. But this is a bakery. It’s supposed to smell like sugar, not a florist.”
“So…” I drop my free hand into my pocket and kick rocks as I wander. “She’s dating?”
“A lot. Like, alot. I don’t know where she gets the energy, especially with our early mornings. But I honestly can’t remember the last time she had a Friday or Saturday night free.”
“Different dudes each time?”Stop caring, dickhead. Stop asking. It’s no longer your business. “Or is she doubling up on some because she likes them?”
“I don’t know.” Something crashes on her end of the line. A pan hitting the floor. A door slamming closed. “She doesn’t talk to me about her dating life except to complain about it. What happened between you two, huh?”
Stunned, I stop in place and look toward the sun breaking over the horizon. “What?”
“You and Hannah! You were practically best friends. Always talking. Always flirting. Then, it just all…” She slams another door. “Went away. You left town, and she…”
“What?” I chew the inside of my cheek. “Hannah what?”
“She stopped talking. Stopped flirting. She hasn’t danced with the mop in forever. And it’s… it’s so sad, Axe.”
“You just said she flirts witheveryone.”
Sirens go off around me so I spin with a jolt as men emerge from every doorway across the base. But I’m off-duty for the next twelve hours, which means the second shift runs toward the storage shed.
They grab their chutes. Their tools. Dispatch announces over the speaker system where the crew is flying to. What the danger is. How many acres are lit up.
I place my hand over the mouthpiece of my phone, if only to reduce how much Nicole hears.
I wait for the sirens to lessen, and for the roar of twin engines to fire up.
Only three or four minutes pass, from first alert to wheels up, but Nicole stays on the line. Working, but listening. Alert, but on task as she makes her way through her morning to-do list.
“Is everything okay?” she murmurs after the Casa takes off and leaves nothing but dawn silence behind. “Those sirens are pretty loud, huh?”
“Everything’s fine. I just got back a couple of hours ago, which means I’m not on-duty for a while. Now go back to the Hannah thing.” I’m a glutton for punishment. An idiot of the worst kind. “You contradicted yourself with your comment about her flirting.”
“She flirtsnow,” she sighs. “She’s good at it, so she can turn it on without trying. But she didn’t for a long time after you left. And even now, it’s not there in her eyes.”
“Her eyes?”So beautiful. So deep and thoughtful… windows into who she is beneath the chatter.
