Page 39 of Daydreaming at the Boathouse Cafe

So she would force herself to think of Alex as the friend he had always been. And that would be the end of it, wouldn’t it?

20

Alex wandered into the empty café and walked across the floor, still feeling in somewhat of a daze.

He had planned that one day, he was going to take Hannah in his arms and kiss her. One day. That day had sure been a long time coming, ten years, in fact.

And yet, despite all his dreams, she had kissed him first. Then she had spent the day hiding from him and scurried from the room whenever he found her in one. So now she was running for the hills and the tentative closeness that they had built up had dissipated.

Or had it? He knew that everything had changed for them both with that kiss. And that Hannah would never do anything about it, despite whatever connection lay between them. There was no way that she was interested in him that way.

He would just have to continue being happy to be her friend. His heart lurched. He wanted to be so much more to her than friends.

He grabbed an alcohol-free beer from one of the delivery boxes, making a note to replace it later. Then he went to stand by the open doors, looking out across the lake.

The sky was incredible, hues of blue streaked across the sky in every shade. And yet he couldn’t see anything other than Hannah flinging her arms around him and lifting her head to kiss him.

Despite the future looking less than rosy, he couldn’t help but smile to himself when he thought about their kiss.

‘Are you going to stand there all day with a goofy grin on your face or are you going to offer me a beer as well?’

Alex spun around to find Jake sitting on the furthest corner of the balcony.

‘What are you doing here?’ he asked.

‘Still waiting for that beer, apparently,’ drawled Jake, nodding at the bottle.

Alex handed his friend his unopened drink before going inside to grab himself another from the box. Normally he would have been happy to see Jake but his mind was still preoccupied with Hannah.

He sat down at the table with Jake and they both raised a bottle at each other before silently taking a sip. The cold beer slid down his throat but it did nothing to settle his racing thoughts.

‘I’d like to ask if it was a bad day at the office but considering the view I don’t see how that’s possible,’ began Jake. ‘I mean, I’m stuck in a kitchen with no windows day in, day out and here you are with all this.’ His hand waved across the magnificent view as he paused before speaking again. ‘So what’s happened with Hannah?’

Alex gave a start. ‘What do you mean?’ he spluttered, almost dropping his bottle.

Jake raised an eyebrow at his friend. ‘You really want to play this game? With me of all people? Me who knows you better than anyone?’

Alex looked at him nervously.

‘Me, who’s known you for far too many years,’ carried on Jake. ‘And for every single one of those years you’ve had a crush on Ben’s little sister.’

Alex drew in a breath but didn’t reply. Jake had teased him once about not asking Hannah to dance at the Dragonfly Dance earlier in the year but he hadn’t realised that he had been so obvious in his feelings. Which made him question how much Hannah knew about them as well.

Jake raised an eyebrow at his friend. ‘I’ve respected your feelings for a long time, you know, but we’re all over thirty now and time’s marching on. Mate, you’ve been mooning over her since we finished uni.’

‘Does he know?’ asked Alex, before taking a small sip of beer.

‘Ben?’ Jake thought for a moment and then shook his head. ‘I don’t think so. And why would it matter?’

‘Because he’s very protective of her.’

Jake nodded. ‘And rightly so. She’s sweet and lovely and if you were ever to hurt her, I’m not sure which one of us would drown you in the lake first.’

‘I would never hurt her,’ protested Alex. ‘I couldn’t.’

‘I know.’ Jake threw him a look. ‘So what happened last night that you can’t tell anyone but me?’

‘She kissed me,’ Alex told him, feeling the smile play on his lips at even admitting to such a thing.