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“You were the talk of the town a few weeks ago, and I was surprised to hear you and he were engaged. It happened all so quickly, didn’t it? Sometimes, men can jump into things without giving it a lot of thought.”
I shift uncomfortably, my stepmother’s voice starting to drip with that all-too-familiar tone of condescension.
“It must have been such a whirlwind for you, dear,” she continues. “But Hawk’s world… it’s different from ours. It’s better if you let it go. He’ll probably be relieved you’re no longer a complication for him.”
I bristle at her words, anger burning inside me. “You make it sound like I’m a liability to him.”
She raises an eyebrow as if concerned. “I just mean, you’re from different worlds, and sometimes, those words don’t mesh well together. It’s probably easier this way for both of you.”
A heavy lump forms in my throat, her words cutting deep. “I don’t want to talk about this, especially to you.”
Without another word, she gracefully strides out of the room. The door clicks shut behind her, and I’m left with an explosion of emotions assaulting me.
Tears stream down my face, and as much as I despise her for saying those things, a small voice at the back of my mind whispers that maybe she’s right.
Why else hasn’t Hawk contacted me?
CHAPTERELEVEN
SAPPHIRE
Knock, knock.
I sit upright on the couch, where I’ve been lounging and bingeing on a crime show with my dad, while my stepmother’s in the other room feeding her dogs.
“Someone’s at the door,” I say, scrambling to my feet.
I cringe at how excited I am as I cling to the ridiculous hope that it’s Hawk. But I keep reminding myself to calm down because I’ll just be crushed again when it isn’t.
Still, I can’t stop from running to the front door and swinging it open. In front of me stands a young guy, maybe in his late teens, with the DoorDash logo on his shirt. He’s holding several filled bags.
“What’s this?” I ask, my chest deflating with disappointment. “We didn’t order anything. You must be at the wrong house.”
Of course, I got my hopes high for nothing.
The guy glances at his phone, then back at me with certainty. “Delivery is for this address, for Sapphire.”
I scratch my head and peek into one of the bags. The delicious aroma of Papa’s Pasta meals wafts out, and I instantly recognize my favorite dish—mac and cheese. A million questions squish across my thoughts, but the most pressing one is… could it have been Hawk?
“What’s going on?” Dad asks from behind me, and I hear my stepmother’s footsteps closing in, too.
“Who ordered—” Before I finish my question, my gaze drifts to movement at the front gate, and my breath wedges in my lungs.
There, in black pants and a crumpled shirt, stands Hawk. His gaze, intense and exhausted, fixes solely on me. He’s wearing that sly smirk as if he’s about to get away with anything he sets his mind on. His face is lined with exhaustion, and he looks like he’s been traveling for most of the day. Did he just fly into the country?
My legs are wobbly, and my throat is thickening with the emotions erupting in my chest. To see him at my house after all the silence feels surreal, too good to be true, and I still don’t believe he’s not here for something else.
The delivery guy hands the bags to my dad, then wanders down the front yard and gives Hawk a nod as he passes him.
I don’t know what to say, but I’m frozen in place as he pushes open the gate and saunters toward me. Everything else around me pales in significance. It’s almost overwhelming, and my heart is struggling in my chest, my eyes pricking, but I won’t cry. The rush of emotions is disorientating.
Part of me wants to leap into his arms.
He skips up the final steps, and his grin is addictive because I’m suddenly smiling like a fool.
“Hawk…” That’s all I can muster up to say before I choke up.
“I’ve told you before, Sapphire, how it crushes me when you leave. When I returned and you weren’t there, I felt like I was losing my mind.”
