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Tildy blushed and waved him away. “Stop,” she said. “The stars are better.” As she looked up again, she gasped. Hawk followed her gaze.
“Do you see it?” she whispered, as the shooting star left a white-hot trail across the night sky. “Wish for something,” she told him and closed her eyes. When she opened them, Hawk was looking at her again.
“Guys don’t make wishes, Tildy.”
“Why not?”
He shrugged. “We just don’t.”
“Well, you should. How else will you get what you want?”
His gaze darkened, and she swallowed hard. He stepped closer to her. “What did you wish for, Tildy?” he asked quietly.
She was held by his gaze a moment before shaking her head. “I can’t tell you, especially since it was for somebody else.”
He smirked at her. “What would you want-”
“For you to kiss me again,” she blurted out.
She was in his arms before she could register that’d he’d moved. His kiss was soft, not demanding, but it melted her insides all the same.
When he finally released her, she dragged long breaths of cool air into her lungs, trying to get her heartbeat to slow. “What did you wish for?” she asked him again.
“I don’t make wishes,” he repeated.
Tildy looked up at him. His face was framed in the moonlight. He still looked dangerous, but in a completely different way.
“Liar,” she told him.
Chapter 31
Hawk’s phone rang for the third time that morning. At this point he didn’t even need to look at the screen. As he stood up, he caught Shooter looking at him from across the garage bay. He sighed inwardly. It wasn’t doing anyone any good to keep ignoring it. He slid the phone out of his pocket and tapped the screen.
“Hey!” Garrett crowed through the phone. “Finally!”
He didn’t sound upset but Hawk immediately felt guilty about putting him off so long.
“What’s up?” Hawk asked.
“Just haven’t seen you is all. Wondered if you could knock off early and we could-”
“Can’t,” Hawk replied, cutting him off before he got going. “We’re on a schedule here, and I can’t get behind.”
Garrett was silent a moment, no doubt trying to regroup. “Well, how about tonight? Can’t work all night, can you? You get finished there and we’ll-”
“I have plans,” Hawk told his cousin. Garrett was silent again, making Hawk feel like shit. He glanced up at the clock on the wall. “Listen, how about lunch? Can you make it? I know the lumber yard is-”
“Shit yeah, man!” Garrett cried. “Yeah, no problem. I’ll skip on out of here. The foreman most likely won’t even notice and I’ll get one of the guys to clock me back in. Where you wanna meet?”
Hawk frowned. “Garrett, if you can’t make it, I’ll see you on Sunday for dinner. I don’t want you to get in trouble at your job.”
Garrett scoffed. “Shit job anyway. Who cares?”
Hawk debated the merits of arguing with Garrett about the fact that it was one of the few jobs an ex-con could get. He decided against it. It was likely to just piss Garrett off, and who knew how the weekend would go after that.
Hawk told Garrett to meet him at Maria’s and ended the call. As he replaced the phone, he saw Shooter looking at him again. “I won’t be gone long,” he assured his boss.
Shooter gave him a sympathetic look. Hawk knew this close to the Sturgis rally they couldn’t afford to get behind. He washed up at the utility sink and headed out to his bike. He’d have a quick lunch, check in with Garrett, and then shag ass back to Burnout.
The blistering heat of the day gave way to the dark, air conditioned cave of Maria’s. Hawk nodded at the waitress and chose his own table by the door. Milo was at the bar working on a sandwich and gave him a jerk of the chin. Hawk grinned at him. The old man was a hoot. When he died, Maria would have to stuff him and mount him on a barstool; otherwise, customers were apt to feel like something was missing every time they came in.
Garrett showed up just after Hawk ordered his lemonade and double burger. He grinned at Hawk and slid into the booth across from him. “Jesus,” he said, wiping his brow with a napkin. “It’s killing me out there.”
“Yeah, it’s a rough summer,” Hawk concurred.
“Hey, darlin’,” Garrett called out to the waitress angling toward him. “Give me a Bud.”
She nodded, but Hawk shook his head. “It’s barely noon,” he told Garrett.
Garrett shrugged and shoved up the sleeves of his shirt. “Hot as fuck out there, bro. Gotta get me some relief.”
The waitress set down a draft in front of Garrett, and he drank half of it before he’d even ordered any food.
“He’ll have the same as me,” Hawk told her. “And another basket of fries.”
