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I’m so lost in thought I forget to bring Hudson lunch, and I don’t remember until he shows up at the Ferris wheel later that night.
I’m checking in on my mom again, feeling like it’s weird that we continue to pass each other like ships in the night.
I feel like falling apart when I see Hudson.
“Oh my god, I’m so sorry! I can’t believe I forgot to feed you!”
He smiles and shrugs. “I ate leftover M&M salad.”
We both laugh.
r /> “So I figured we should talk,” he says.
“Yeah.”
Here it comes. He’s going to tell me it was a mistake. We shouldn’t have fallen so hard so fast into the physical relationship without talking it out first. Before talking about what each of us wants out of this. To find out if what we want is mutual.
My employee, Amethyst, shows up to take over the wheel, allowing Hudson and me to walk and talk things through.
“You go first,” I say as we sidestep a group of teenagers stopping in the middle of pedestrian traffic to look at something funny on someone’s phone.
Hudson grabs my hand, giving me butterflies in my stomach. I love it. I can’t remember the last time someone gave me butterflies. It’s the loveliest feeling, and I wish for it to last forever.
“First of all, I’m sorry I sprung that on you. But I’m not going to sugarcoat it. What I have to say is important, and I’ve given it a lot of thought.” He pauses in front of Madame Lovehart’s Fortunes, where a happy, giggling couple exits the tent, chattering over their psychic reading.
“Frenchie, I love you. I want to marry you, and I want to start having babies with you as soon as possible. And if that scares you, I’m sorry. But that’s where I’m at. I should have tried having this conversation first, but I’m not good at this sort of thing. I’m not good at opening up.”
I pull him to sit down with me on a park bench. “I know,” I say, studying his face in the lights from the Ferris wheel. “I don’t think I’ve heard you say that many words about what you want, all at one time, like, ever.”
“Does that freak you out?”
I bite my lip. “Here’s the thing. I want those things, too. But I have questions. Why would you bring this up? Why would you let all this happen just days before deciding to take a job that would force you to leave me for the entire summer?”
He nods slowly. “Frenchie, I’m going to be so lost without you. I knew it as soon as Captain Jack made me the offer.”
Tears well up in my eyes. Now I’m sad and confused.
“Why would you make me fall in love with you just days before deciding if you want to take a new job?”
He smirks. “Would you not miss me either way?”
I nudge his knee with my flip-flop, and he responds by grabbing my feet and pulling them into his lap. His palms warm the tops of my nearly bare feet. He’s behaved like this many times before. Just taking charge of my comfort, and I love that about him. Still, he’s trying to distract me from being annoyed with him. His rough hands feel good on my tired feet, so the distraction works for a second or two.
I sigh, “But you’re leaving, and you’re never coming back to Cherry Falls. Not after that trip.”
Hudson knits his brows together and looks at me like I’ve lost all my marbles. “Of course I’ll come back. You’re here.”
“It’s just… what’s going to happen?”
Hudson opens his mouth to answer, but I hear a text arrive from my mom. Hudson hears it too and says, “Oh, that’s another thing…”
He trails off while I read the text from my mom. “She says she’s just finished giving Peanut his injection, and she says she needs to talk to me.”
Hudson clears his throat. “Yeah. That’s kind of what I needed to talk to you about. I think your mom…
“What?” I ask, curious what Hudson might have to say about her. I know how protective he gets of me when it comes to her.
“Well, I think she…I went and talked to her earlier today, and I told her what happened to us on the boat. She was really unbothered and unsurprised by the whole story.”
