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Her chin dipped low, but not in a way that indicated she was nodding. It was more of a gesture to indicate her timidness. “I’m okay. And you?” she replied.
Hanna’s words indicated she was having a conversation, but the softness in her tone revealed the truth. She was uncomfortable.
I shouldn’t have been surprised. Hanna didn’t know me any more than I knew her, which wasn’t a whole lot. In fact, we’d only met and spoke to each other once before, and our conversation hadn’t been much more than just a few pleasant greetings.
“I’m doing well. Thanks for asking,” I remarked.
There was a moment of awkward tension as Hanna dropped her gaze from mine and looked at the ground. She nervously bit her lip until something dawned in her expression.
Returning her attention to me, she said, “I think what you did for Ellery was great.”
Until she’d said that I hadn’t understood what was happening with her, but now I realized she’d been struggling to figure out what to say. There was no question about it now. This woman was painfully shy.
Smiling at her, wanting to help set her at ease, I returned, “Thanks, but it really was a team effort.”
Ellery was currently dating a fellow Harper Security Ops coworker, Kane. She’d come to our facility when she was dealing with a bit of a problem in what could only be called a forced marriage, and Kane helped her through that.
She was through the worst of it now, and there was still a lot to be done to get her completely separated from her husband, but Ellery was now on the path to getting the happiness she deserved in her life.
Ellery had been staying at the tiny home community, Short and Sweet,where Hanna worked, which is how I believed they met one another and became friends.
It was during Ellery’s whole situation that I’d wound up having that brief encounter with Hanna.
“Right. Yes. I just… well, um, I think it’s wonderful how you all helped her in that mess of a situation,” she stammered. “She deserves to be happy after everything she’s been through.”
Continuing to smile at her, I replied, “Yeah, I agree.”
“Hanna?” one of the girls called from behind the counter.
Faster than I would have liked, Hanna whipped herself around and looked away from me.
That was when the woman in front of me stepped off to the side opposite of where Hanna was, so I could move forward to give my order to Presley.
“Hey, Leo,” Presley greeted me. “Picking up something for you and the boys this morning?”
I let out a laugh. If there was one thing that wasn’t a secret, it was that when any member of the Harper Security team walked into The Early Bird, we wouldn’t be there getting something just for ourselves.
“Yeah,” I confirmed. “Well, and the girls, too. I’ll take two dozen of whatever you’ve got.”
Presley took my order, walked away from the register, and started gathering doughnuts in some boxes. Instead of watching her, I looked over to find that Hanna had gotten her order—a dozen doughnuts and two coffees—and was turning to leave.
“Heading out?” I asked, not wanting her to have to struggle with figuring out what to say.
“Yeah,” she answered.
I nodded my acknowledgement. “Okay. Well, drive safe, and have a great day. It was nice seeing you again.”
A flush crept into her cheeks. “Thanks, Leo. You, too.”
If I’d been a smarter man, I would have acted on the feeling that moved through me hearing her say my name a second time. I would have done something, anything, to stop her from walking out of there before I could at least ask her for her number.
But no matter how smart I might have been when it came to the work I did each day, for some foolish reason, I didn’t allow it to filter into my personal life just then.
I watched Hanna as she walked away, and I struggled not to run after her. I didn’t know what it was, but there was something about her that I found intriguing. Whether it was her timid nature, her stunning looks, or a combination of the two, I didn’t know. I just wished I would have made the effort to find out by doing the bare minimum.
“I didn’t know you knew Hanna.”
At the mention of Hanna’s name from a familiar voice, I turned around and saw Tarryn looking at me with a bit of a mischievous grin on her face.
