Page 20 of Edging Desire

Rolling my eyes, I push her into the coffee shop. “Come on. Let’s get in here before you have everyone in town knowing my business.”

Before we can reach our favorite table in the back, Hanna stops and gasps. She grabs my arm, her eyes going wide. “Oh my gosh, it’s Brad.”

“Huh, what? Wait, how did you know?” I ask, confusion etching my voice. How in the world did she guess Brad was the one I slept with? So much for hoping to get out of answering her question.

“What? No, I mean it’s Brad. He’s over there with Monica,” she says in a stage whisper.

I glance over her shoulder, and sure enough, Brad’s sitting at a table and drinking coffee. Sitting across from him is Monica, the town realtor. But she’s not just the town realtor, no. More importantly, she’s one of Brad’s ex-girlfriends from back in the day.

“We should go,” I say immediately. Seeing him with Monica sends an unexpected jealousy raging through me. Please don’t see me, please don’t see me, I silently beg. If he notices me now, I’m afraid I’ll have to confront him, and I think that’s a terrible idea right now.

Guess Brad is making his rounds. From one ex-girlfriend to the next. Right from my bed into hers. Wow! The nerve of the guy.

Hanna must’ve noticed something in my demeanor because she opened the door and beacons me back out onto the street.

“Are you okay?” she asks. “You’ve gone pale.”

“I’m fine,” I snap, my voice warning her to drop it.

“What did you mean in there? You asked how I knew. Knew what?”

Her keen eyes narrow sharply, and I realize she’s not going to let this go. The gig is up. It’s time to fess up to my stupidity.

“Brad and I slept together last night,” I blurt.

Just saying the words brings back the visions of him naked on top of me, the muscles of his arms flexing as he moved in and out of me. The way we came together in a culmination of ecstasy that brought me to my knees.

Hanna is looking at me in stunned silence. She shakes her head. “You’re sleeping with Brad? I don’t know what to say. I’m scared for you.”

“We’re keeping it casual, Hanna. There’s nothing to be scared about.” The lie almost sticks in my throat.

“Casual,” she scoffs. “You don’t have that in you. And let’s be real. You’re still half in love with Brad. You’re going to have this affair and then just watch him walk away again?”

I shrug as though I’m not at all concerned. “I don’t know. But he’s in there with Monica. So, whatever I’m feeling for him is not being reciprocated.”

Hanna cocks her head to the side, a thoughtful look on her face. “I don’t know what they were doing in there together, but it didn’t look like some secret lover’s tryst. It’s not like they were sitting next to each other, holding hands or anything.”

“Yeah, maybe,” I say without any confidence.

Hanna sighs. “Look, I think it’s probably a terrible idea to start a relationship with him when he’s leaving soon. I don’t want you to get hurt. But, regardless, you need to confront him about this and find out if he’s seeing her.”

Her words give me pause. “You’re right. I’ll talk to him today. I don’t want any more misunderstandings between us. We owe each other that, at least.”

She nods in agreement. “Good. Girl, please, just promise me one thing, though.”

“Okay. What?” I readily agree.

She looks away for a second. When she looks back, her expression is serious. “Just don’t fall in love with him.”

Fall in love…with the man who I’ve loved in some capacity since the day we met? With a man who melts my heart with one steamy, I-want-to-eat-you-for-breakfast look?

As much as I want to tell Hanna that I won’t let that happen, I can’t.

The reason I can’t make that promise is simple.

“I think I’ve already fallen in love with him…again.”

Chapter 8