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That was Hannah’s cue to go. She slipped under Raid’s arm. “You’re not interrupting. I was just leaving.”
“Wait, Hannah.” Raid reached for her.
“I’ve got to go. I have to, uh, be somewhere.” She turned away and walked off. She wanted to run, but she held herself back.
“Hannah!” Raid called out again. “Wait!”
That wasn’t happening. She thought she might just lock herself in her apartment from now until eternity.
She ran home, locked herself in her apartment, and poured herself some wine.
Then she started looking at the notifications from the dating site.
One month later . . .
Raid Malone walked into Dirty Delights and immediately searched the bar to see if she was there.
He’d spent the last four weeks unable to do much but think about her. His brief trip to New Orleans had turned into a longer stay. Jeez, his cousins were a mess. Especially Regent.
Raid wasn’t sure that Regent would survive without Raid’s help. But Raid was needed back on the ranch. Alec had been desperate for him to return.
And he’d been eager to come back and see her.
He’d been unable to stop thinking about her. And he’d come to the conclusion that there was only one way to cure that.
He was going to ask Hannah McLeod out.
There she was. She was smiling widely, her face flushed with happiness. Dark brown curls lay in a mess down her back and she was wearing a cute, bright yellow sundress with a lacy white cardigan over it.
At least he hoped they were those colors. Sometimes he had trouble with colors. But that was usually red and green.
Sweet and classy.
Totally Hannah.
He moved to the bar, needing to get a drink before he headed over to ask her out.
“Hey, Raid.” Brye nodded to him.
“Hey, you waiting on Mel?” he asked.
“Yep.” Brye winced as the girls at the table with Hannah all let out shrieks. “Jesus, my eardrums are never gonna be the same.”
Raid grinned. “They look like they’re having fun.”
“Yeah, they’re all excited about Hannah’s new boyfriend.”
What. The. Fuck.
He turned to Brye. “Her what?”
“New boyfriend.” Brye shook his head. “Some sort of hotshot entrepreneur. Loaded. Gorgeous. Smart. Those’re Mel’s words, not mine.”
“Hannah has a boyfriend?”
Brye zeroed in on his face. “Yeah. She does. And she’s happy. I mean, I was always hoping that she’d get with you.”
“You were?”
“Yeah. You must’ve known about her crush on you. Guess it’s a good thing she’s over that.”
Over that?
A good thing?
How was it a fucking good thing?
“Although I’m not sure how I feel about some guy I haven’t met yet. Like I said, I would’ve preferred it to be you. But you and Hannah probably would have been a disaster, huh?” Brye grinned at him.
“Yeah. A disaster.”
He felt ill.
He’d waited too long.
Fuck.
1
Three months later . . .
“Son of a bitch!”
Raid dropped what he was doing and took off toward the roar of pain his brother let out. They were fixing some old farm equipment.
He saw Tanner holding his hand and ran toward him.
“What the hell? What happened?”
“Nothing major. Just caught my fingers in the machinery. Shit. I think one of them might be broken.”
Raid studied his brother's fingers. Yeah. His little finger was swollen and red.
“What were you thinking?” Raid snapped.
“Guess I wasn’t watching what I was doing.”
“Alec is going to fucking kill you. Come on, I’ll take you to the emergency room.”
“Nah, I’ll just ice it,” Tanner replied.
“Are you trying to give Alec a heart attack? Because you know Mia will worry if you don’t go get checked out. And we both know how Alec reacts when Mia worries.”
Alec would murder them both if they upset Mia.
“Fine,” Tanner grumbled. “But we’re just going to the clinic.”
Raid stared at him. “The clinic? Your finger looks broken.”
“Yeah, which they can basically do nothing about. So I don’t need to see someone.”
“You’re seeing someone,” Raid said.
“Then it will be Doc or Jenna. They can x-ray my hand, do whatever is needed. I’m not going to the emergency room.”
“Fuck. Fine. Let’s go.” It didn’t make a difference to him, anyway.
After pulling up in front of the clinic, he turned off the truck. “I’ll drop you off while I go get some food.”
“You’re not coming in?”
“You don’t need me to hold your hand.”
“I came and held yours last time you were here,” Tanner pointed out.
“You serious?”
Tanner shrugged. “Yeah, why? Is there some reason that you don’t want to go in?”
His gut clenched. Hannah.
She didn’t work there anymore. She’d moved away to be with that dipshit boyfriend of hers.
Not that he knew whether the guy was a dipshit. He was just assuming.
Who moved that quick in a relationship? Not that he cared. It wasn’t like they had been together or anything. He’d moved on from his brief thought about dating her.
Brief, right. She was all you could think about while you were in New Orleans.
