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Kevin’s eyes widened. “Are you fucking kidding me?” he said.
“I don’t want to go back,” she said, her voice raw, “and you don’t want to stay here.”
He took a deep breath, clasped his hands. “All I ever wanted was to dance with you. I’m making that happen, Hal. That’s the only move I have.”
“Do you love me?” she asked.
“Of course.”
“Then trust me. Stay here and we’ll work this out. Show me I’m enough.”
She saw confusion in his eyes. Then, slowly, they hardened with resolve.
Hayley started to cry.
“Don’t do that.” He hefted his duffel. “Not when I’m trying to fix this. I … just get in the car, Hayley.”
She shook her head.
“If you don’t come with me, there’s not much point in coming back.”
“I know,” she whispered. The worst kind of calm had settled on her because she knew she couldn’t hold on to anything anymore.
He waited expectantly, and then his shoulders slumped. For the first time since she’d met him, Kevin Albee looked utterly lost.
“Well then,” he said. “I guess we’re done.”
21
Nick was hunched in his seat at the Squeaky Lion, his phone pressed hard to his ear. “Tell Rosie a cotton candy hurricane couldn’t keep me from her party tomorrow. Will that work?”
“Cotton candy.” Gavin was impressed. “Nice.”
“You know, massive, but not scary.” He told himself to breathe, to calm down. “How badly do you think I hurt her?”
“Hayley?” Gavin asked. “I think she understood.”
“Uh-huh.” Kevin had been at work every day that week and had showed no sign of leaving the company. If the move to Indiana had been postponed, then Hayley could be working here tonight—and Nick had no idea what to do about that.
“Just take your cue from her,” Gavin reassured him. “If she doesn’t want to talk to you, she won’t.”
“But what ifshe’staking her cue fromme?” Nick peered through the sea of people by his booth; the bar was packed tonight. “What if she wants to talk, but she assumes I don’t want to?”
Gavin took a beat. “What’s your goal here?”
“I don’t want to make things worse.”
“Then tell her that,” Gavin said gently. “She’ll help you figure out the rest.”
Nick hung up without saying goodbye, because Hayley was headed straight toward him. He froze, but her eyes were trained on the ground in front of her, and she hadn’t spotted him yet. Instead of gliding past patrons, she was shrinking back, like she was afraid she would get hit. She flashed wide smiles as people said hello, but those smiles slid away as quickly as they came.
Then she was looking directly at him.
In that instant, all the dread Nick felt in anticipation of seeing her tonight turned into full-blown alarm. He wasn’t just looking at a harried waitress. Hayley was smiling at him, but her eyes were dull. She wasn’t moving, and he felt sick when he realized why. Hayley didn’t know whether she was welcome.
The superstar grin wouldn’t work here; she’d think he was faking it. Nick stood up in the booth, looked pointedly at the walker, then raised his eyebrows in a question. Her eyes flooded with relief.
“Hi!” She rushed forward, and he put his arm around her shoulders to step down into the walker. “Let me help you.”
