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CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

ROWAN

F uck, she’s beautiful.

Hadley holds Lucy up, her lips moving as the softest sounds escape her, and Hadley pulls her back down to her chest. Her eyelids flutter shut as she holds my daughter tightly, pressing her face against the side of Lucy’s before she moves her away.

“Are you sure she’s okay with you for the evening?” I ask Nova for the third time as Hadley hands over Lucy. Lincoln sits on the couch with Posey tucked in against his side, a gentle smile on his lips as he watches the three of us passing the baby around.

“Yes, Rowan.” Nova lets out a soft laugh, shaking her head as she takes Lucy from Hadley. “I promise, she will be perfectly fine.” She looks at Lincoln with a smirk before glancing back at me. “This will give Lincoln some more practice with a baby.”

My eyebrows lift at her before looking at my friend. “Whatcha need practice for, bud? ”

Lincoln gives me a sheepish grin. “Just for possible future ventures.”

“To answer your question, no, I’m not pregnant,” Nova tells me, rolling her eyes, and Hadley chuckles. “But like he said, for future ventures.”

My heart soars at the thought for Lincoln. After watching how he’s been with Posey, it’s going to be something else to see him with a tiny baby. I don’t know what his and Nova’s plans are, but I know they’ve been wanting to grow their family.

Nova walks over and hands Lucy to Lincoln, getting her settled in his arms before she turns back to the two of us. “We decided on a date,” she informs me, a smile blossoming across her face. “July twenty-eighth.”

The two of them had been going back and forth on dates and locations for what has felt like a damn lifetime. “Fucking finally.” I snort, laughter following the sound. “Did you decide where?”

“Turks and Caicos. It’s completely short notice for everyone, but we just had to pick a time and a place and everything else will happen the way it’s meant to,” Nova says, glancing back at Lincoln with a tender gaze. “Neither of us want to wait any longer than we already have.”

I look back and forth between the two of them, the connection and love they have is palpable.

It’s not something I ever imagined I would want in life, but I can’t ignore the longing in my chest.

Hadley moves into my peripheral vision, always stealing my attention, as I turn my head to look at her. I take a moment to drink her in, just like I did before we left the house. Her heeled boots give her a few extra inches, but even still, she just barely reaches my shoulder. Her auburn hair falls down her back in soft waves against her cream-colored sweater. She’s wearing a black skirt that shows off her tanned legs.

And fuck me for the blood rushing to my cock again.

It would be really fucking cool if I could stop getting hard every time I take a second to appreciate the way she looks.

My secret trick when this happens is to think about the one time I saw Gray almost cut off the tip of his finger. We were playing a stupid game in our twenties that was alcohol-induced, where you spread your fingers and tried to hit the spaces between them with a knife.

Idiotic, I know, but that’s what happens when you throw a group of young guys together and expect them to make great decisions in their downtime between hockey games.

Gray just nearly missed his finger, but caught the side of it and sliced off a layer of skin.

“Rowan, are you okay?”

I’m pulled immediately from the memory and my cock isn’t hard anymore as my expression relaxes and I give Hadley a confused look. She’s staring back at me with concern. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Are you sure? You looked like you were in pain or like you were going to get sick.” Her face is filled with concern. “We don’t have to get dinner, we can always do it another time. ”

“What? No,” I say in a rush, shaking my head at her in assurance. “I promise, I’m fine. I was just thinking about something else.”

She doesn’t look like she’s buying it and I hear Lincoln stifle a laugh as he lifts his eyebrows at Nova. “Okay, if you’re sure,” Hadley eventually says, stepping closer to me.

“I’m positive.” I glance back at Lincoln and Nova. “Thanks, guys. We’ll try not to be too late.”

“You kids just be safe and have a good time,” Nova calls out to us, her gaze linking with mine as Hadley gives her a wave and starts to walk ahead.

“Don’t forget to wear a?—”

Lincoln’s words are cut off as Nova quickly shoves her hand against his mouth. I cut my eyes at him, not sure if Hadley heard him or not as she’s already walking out the front door. Lifting my hand, I give Lincoln the middle finger, muttering a string of curses at him before I break out into a jog to catch up with Hadley.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” she questions me once more as we get into the car.

I turn to look at her, meeting her look of concern. “Yes.” I pause, a cheeky smile forming on my lips as I tilt my head to the side. “Are you trying to get out of going to dinner with me?”

“No.” She bites back a grin, shaking her head as I see that darkness washing over her gaze again. “I didn’t know if you were having second thoughts of possibly being seen in public with me.”

“Why the fuck would I have second thoughts? ”

She shrugs as if it’s nothing. “I don’t know. It just seems like it would be easier to explain us no longer being together if no one actually sees us.”

There it is again. That stupid goddamn reminder that this is all going to end sooner than I want it to.

“I told you, I’ll worry about that when the time comes,” I tell her, swallowing back the dread that surrounds that thought. “Until then, I want the entire world to know you’re mine.”

Something unreadable dances in her eyes. “Even if it’s fake?”

I’m beginning to hate that word and the concept behind it.

Pulling my bottom lip between my teeth, I tilt my head in agreement, blinking once before allowing myself the opportunity to fully drink her in. She’s fucking breathtaking.

“Even if it’s fake.”

I can’t keep my eyes off of her the entire night and I find myself doing and saying whatever I can just to hear the sound of her laughter snaking itself around my heart.

Dinner didn’t last nearly as long as I wanted it to and as we find ourselves coming down to the end of the night, I can’t bring myself to walk her back to my car. I know we have to go pick Lucy up and get home, but I need just a little bit longer...just one more fleeting moment with her.

“Are you ready to go?” I ask as we walk out the restaurant, immediately wanting to kick myself for even asking.

Hadley lifts her head to look at me, her eyes resting on me. She pulls her bottom lip between her teeth, raking them over her flesh as she shakes her head. “Are you?”

My eyes scan her face and I swallow roughly as I take a chance and extend my arm, holding my hand out for her. “Come with me?”

Her lips part, her eyes shimmering beneath the moonlight as she wordlessly slips her palm against my own, weaving our fingers together. There’s a park nearby that has a pond in the center with a walkway around the perimeter. It’s the first place I can think of to take her and she falls in step beside me as we head in that direction.

As we reach the park, the sound of a violin and an acoustic guitar dances around us, the gentle breeze carrying the melody from the gazebo on the other side of the pond. I glance at Hadley from the corner of my eye, watching a wistful smile drifting across her face.

Ignoring the path around the pond, I let her lead me directly to the water, reveling in the way her hand fits perfectly in mine. She stares out at the ripples caused from the fountain in the center, the same wonderment in her expression as she tilts her head back to look up at the stars.

“There’re so many stars tonight,” she says quietly, her eyes scanning the constellations. I tip my chin, looking up as I find the ones that look similar to the freckles across the tops of her cheeks. “We’re so small in the grand scheme of things.”

I find a cluster of stars that reminds me of her freckles. “What do you mean?”

“There’s so much about this life and this world that we know nothing about, that we may never know about in this lifetime.” She pauses, turning her body to face me, her fingers still entwined through my own as I move my eyes to hers. “In a way, we are all insignificant, you know?”

“No, I don’t know,” I tell her, shaking my head as I pull my hand away from hers, both hands snaking around her lower back as I pull her closer to my body. “I promise you, you’re not insignificant, Hadley. Not to me, not ever.”

She lets out a soft laugh, the sound warming my soul as she lifts her arms, linking them around the back of my neck as she begins to sway to the melody shifting around us. She moves closer, turning her head to the side as she rests her cheek against my chest. “I meant in terms of the grand scheme of life.”

I hold her close, feeling her entangling herself in my soul as she listens to the sound of my heart beating in my chest. Lowering my face to the top of her head, I breathe in her scent, clinging on to the moment before it slips away.

“Can I tell you a secret?”

“Always,” she tells me softly.

“I couldn’t care less about the bigger picture, not when I already have everything I’ll ever need.” I pause, letting out a breath, my voice dropping lower. “The moon can keep the stars and the sun can keep the clouds.”

“But then what do you get to keep?”

You. I just want to keep you.

I pull away from her, my gaze yet again settling on hers. “Everything that’s supposed to be mine.”