“Of course. Long as you don’t mind squishin’ together in the cab of my truck.”
“Oh, I’d have no problem at all snugglin’ up to you,” Edna said, her eyes alight with mischief.
“Edna!” Kenna hissed. “Why are you such a dirty old woman? My God.”
All Hudson could do was laugh. The attention he’d been getting from the ladies of Havenbrook—from all walks and ages—was certainly something he wasn’t used to here. The last time he’d been home, he’d been only nineteen and wasn’t exactly on anyone’s radar. Seemed the lady folk in town had gotten thirstier since he’d been gone.
“Oh, come on,” Edna said. “Don’t ruin an old lady’s fun. Sittin’ next to all that muscle is the closest I’ll get to it. Earl may be packin’ in the nether regions, but he’s a green bean everywhere else.”
Hudson barely covered up his snort with a cough at the same time Kenna said, “You’re the absolute worst. I hope you know that.”
Edna gave a definitive nod. “No disputin’ it. C’mon now, I’ve still gotta take care of that squirrel situation, so let’s get a move on. Go on. I’m gonna grab a couple things right quick.”
With obvious reluctance, Kenna slid out of the Jeep before slamming the door a little harder than necessary. Hudson stepped back and studied her as she trudged toward him, her eyes focusing on everything but him. Or the cabin, now that he really paid attention. Was this the first time she’d been out here too? His momma hadn’t ever mentioned Kenna coming to the place, but he’d assumed she had. It’d been nearly as much of her second home as it was his.
He was so focused on Kenna that it took him a moment to realize a rumble of an engine had started again.
“Well, would you look at that?” Edna said. “Got it started back up. Must’ve overheated or something.” She locked eyes with Hudson and gestured toward where Kenna stood, her mouth agape. “Would you mind bringin’ her on back into town? She doesn’t wanna be an accessory to breakin’ and enterin’. Again.” Without another word, she waved, then sped off down the dirt road that led to his cabin.
“You traitor!” Kenna yelled toward Edna’s retreating taillights. She huffed out a breath and crossed her arms, clearly not happy about being stuck out here.
Hudson’s lips quirked at the corner. “I have one question.”
“What is it?” she asked, distrust burning in her narrowed eyes.
“‘Again’? You and Edna do a lot of breakin’ and enterin’, do you?”
She sighed and shook her head, dropping her arms to her sides. “I swear that woman didn’t get loved enough as a child or something. She needs attention all the time. She’s a senior-citizen replica of Nat.”
This time, Hudson didn’t try to stifle his laugh. It rolled out of him as he remembered all the times he and Kenna had had to go pick up her rebellious younger sister and keep her from getting into trouble—or bail her out of it after she was already knee-deep into it.
“How’s Nat doing? She still like that?”
Kenna shook her head. “Worse. Except now, I just get the details of her death-defyin’ antics after the fact.”
“Where’s she at now?”
“Where isn’t she? She’s got an apartment in Portland, but she’s rarely there. She’s a globe-trotter, like you.” She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. “Yesterday, she was in Greece, according to her Snapchat.”
“Greece, huh? Wow. I think Momma mentioned she was a photographer.”
“Yep. Published and award-winning, if you can believe it.”
“Everyone has things they’re good at, I guess. I’m glad she found hers.”
“Yeah,” Kenna said, her voice hollow and flat. “Me too.”
In the span of thirty seconds, she’d done a 180 from the fiery, irritated Kenna he knew and loved to this sullen, unsure Kenna he’d never seen before. She wasn’t the kind of person to begrudge someone their successes—and definitely not one of her sisters—so it had to be something else.
He’d dig into that later. Right now, they were alone for the foreseeable future, and he wanted to work through some of those scenarios he’d thought of earlier.
“What’re your plans now that you’re stranded out here?” He stepped closer, dipping his head toward hers. Near enough for her breath to caress his face. They locked gazes, and there was no denying the heat burning in her eyes. He licked his lips, his eyes flicking down to her mouth. “’Cause I have a few ideas.”
IT LOOKED like Mac was going to end up in jail today after all. Because the next time she saw Edna, she was going to kill her. She couldn’t believe that old witch would just…abandon her. Completely desert her in the one place she had absolutely no business being.
Being at the cabin where everything had happened was bad enough, but add in the mix an extremely gorgeous Hudson, with his worn jeans and T-shirt that was too tight to be legal and his new delectable tattoos begging to be touched, and she was a goner. A damn goner.
She glanced down at Hudson’s mouth, so close to her own, and had to force herself not to lean forward. Not to just melt into him and let his lips break her fall.
“Looks like you’ve got some ideas, too,” Hudson said, his voice thick and rough.
“No ideas here,” she whispered, but her gaze belied the words because she couldn’t drag her eyes away from his mouth. She wanted it. Wanted to feel it against her own, wanted to feel it trailing down her neck, over her breasts…between her thighs. And every other inch of her body that hadn’t been touched like that in so long.
She jerked back as if she’d been electrocuted and averted her gaze, bouncing it to the cabin, then the shed, then the hammock hanging between the two huge trees in the yard. She wasn’t sure if it was the same one from years ago or not, but the sentiment still remained. One awful memory didn’t taint all the good ones she’d shared here with Hud. When they’d been young and had their whole lives ahead of them. When she’d known what she wanted out of life. When she hadn’t been such a failure.
Without a word, she walked over and sat down in the hammock, leaning back to let it cradle her. She’d unintentionally left room for Hudson to her right, and she wasn’t surprised in the least when he relaxed into place next to her. With their feet on the ground, they pushed back and forth in a slow rhythm, both their gazes locked on the lake and the kaleidoscope of fall colors surrounding it.
The sight brought a pang to her chest, an overwhelming longing sweeping into her bones. She’d missed this place. It’d been as much a part of her childhood as her own home had been, and after she and Hudson had said their goodbyes on that fateful weekend so long ago, she’d never looked back. Never once come out here. She couldn’t. Not without Hudson.
They sat and rocked slowly, their bodies lined up perfectly, pinkies interlocked—when had that happened?—and shoulders pressed together. Her entire right side was lit up from the inside out, sparking at every touch of his skin against hers. She’d missed this, yes, and she’d missed him. But she’d also missed this casual affection from her once-best friend that she hadn’t been able to replace. Hadn’t tried to.
After long minutes of nothing but the call of a buzzard and the wind through the trees, Hudson asked, “You ever think about the pact?”
Did she ever think about the pact? Only every day of her life for the past ten years. Some days it felt like she could do nothing but think about that stupid pact.
“Sometimes,” she lied, as if the promise they’d made to each other, right here on this lawn, wasn’t seared in her brain for eternity.
“It’s coming up, you know. Few months is all.”
“Is it?” she asked, her voice tight and too high as she tried to play off like she didn’t have a freaking mental countdown to the day on a constant loop in her mind.
“You planning to show up?”
“You’ll have to wait and see, I guess.”
He turned his head to stare at her, though she continued gazing out toward the lake. She co
uldn’t look at him—not now when everything was surely written all over her face. How the pact brought forth emotions she’d rather keep under wraps—fear and excitement and nervousness and dread all rolled into one giant ball of anxiety.
The pact date was the deadline she’d given herself to get her shit together. To do something with her life other than pour shots and wipe down tables at the local bar. So she could be worthy of someone like Hudson. A real-life hero who sacrificed for his friends and family and his country. Who dedicated his life to doing so.
She swallowed down her unease and finally met his gaze. His eyes burned into hers, bouncing all over her face as if trying to read her.
“You been thinkin’ about the pact?” she asked, though she wasn’t sure she wanted the answer.
Of course, he had other things to think of, to worry about. He wasn’t fixating on the stupid promise they’d made to each other when they were only—
“Every day, Kenna. Every day.”
The earnestness in his voice took her breath away. Sincerity was written all over his face, and she couldn’t doubt his words for a second. Had he really been thinking about it as much as she had?
“We don’t have to wait for that arbitrary date, you know,” he said. “We can dive headfirst into this thing right now.”
Dive headfirst off a cliff into a wide-open abyss where she couldn’t see what was at the bottom? No. Absolutely not. That was a terrible fucking idea. And one that was almost guaranteed to end in her heartbreak. She’d barely survived the last one.
“I don’t think that’d be a very good idea.”
“Tell me why.”
She shrugged and averted her gaze. She couldn’t rip open her heart and bare her soul to him. So instead, she stayed quiet.
“You not attracted to me anymore?” he asked, his eyebrow raised.
She rolled her eyes. Considering her panties got wet at a mere look from him, that certainly wasn’t a problem. “You know that’s not the issue.”
“So, what is?”
Mac heaved a deep sigh and rolled her head in his direction. “It’s the same thing as before. I don’t want to start something we can’t finish. And I don’t want your mind elsewhere when your life and the lives of your crew are on the line.”
“I’m not a kid anymore, Kenna. I know how to do my job, and I know how to do it well. I’m good at it. I’ve got my damn master aviator badge.” He reached out and tucked a stray hair behind her ear. “And as much as I’ll be wantin’ to be back here with you every second I’m gone, I’m not gonna lose focus or get myself or my crew injured. Besides that, knowing you’re here waitin’ for me? That’d be the best motivation I could possibly have to come back home.”
She wasn’t sure what kind of voodoo he was working on her, but she could feel her walls cracking. Scenarios of what their future could be like playing out in her mind.
“Play house with me, Kenna.” His lips quirked, making his dimples pop and melting her defenses even more. “I’ll even do the dishes and cleaning like when we were kids.”
She breathed out a laugh, but her heart still ached. She wanted this so bad, but she was absolutely terrified to go after it. “That’s the thing, Hud. We’re not kids anymore, and I don’t wanna play anything. Because in the end, when you leave, my heart won’t pretend break.”
He reached out and cupped her face, his thumb brushing along her jaw. “It doesn’t have to end when I go back. We don’t have to end when I leave.”
And leave, he would. Just like last time, and she’d be left picking up the pieces of a life she didn’t recognize without him. It’d taken her a long damn time to come into her own. To learn how to be Mackenna without the “and Hudson” tacked on to the end of her name. They’d been a unit nearly her whole life, and she’d spent the past ten years traversing this new path on her own. To go through that all over again? She wasn’t sure she was strong enough to do it a second time.
“I’m gonna have to play hardball, aren’t I?” Hudson asked.
She narrowed her eyes at him. “What do you mean?”
“A bet, obviously. What do you say to a nod to the last one we made out here—whoever catches the most fish wins.”
She swallowed down the butterflies trying to escape from her stomach, remembering what that last bet had led to. “Name your terms.”
“Two hours. Most fish—by quantity—wins.”
“Thanks for the clarification. Glad to see you won’t try to cheat like last time.”
His mouth kicked up on the side, and she felt an answering tug in her stomach.
She swallowed down her nerves and licked her lips, forcing herself not to stare at his mouth. “What do you want if you win?”
“You know what I want,” he said, his voice laced with desire he didn’t bother trying to hide.
She felt that heat from her head to her toes and all the neglected parts in between. “And if I win?”
“You could bet me a million dollars, and it wouldn’t matter. I’m not losing, Kenna. Not when it’s you on the line.”
Turned out Hudson had been right—he didn’t lose the bet he’d made with Mac. In fact, he’d positively obliterated her. She’d never admit to it, but she hadn’t exactly put in one-hundred-percent effort. Or even seventy-percent effort. Because deep down, she wanted it too.
She wanted to spend time with Hud, exactly how he was suggesting, and…see. Just see what could come of it. See if their explosive chemistry—both in and out of the bedroom—could develop into…something. And somehow, having that bet there as her safety net made it a hell of a lot easier for her to accept.
She wasn’t engaging in this reckless behavior that had the possibility of annihilating her heart. She wasn’t fucking up again. When everything inevitably fell down around her, it wouldn’t be because of her failure. It was all because of the bet.
Mac followed the familiar path that led to Rory’s place from the small guesthouse she lived in on their parents’ property. The stars had aligned after Rory’s divorce, when Old Man Marley’s house had been put up for sale just a couple weeks prior, and she’d been able to purchase it.
The home had been in desperate need of repair, but the property included an acre of land that just happened to back up to the Havens’ sweeping estate. Sweeping enough that this golf cart Mac had won off an idiot who thought betting her was a good idea was a godsend for getting around everywhere.
She skidded to a stop along the side of Rory’s house, dust from the driveway billowing up around her, and honked the horn twice. Three seconds later, both her nieces came flying out the front door and down the porch steps, calling bye to their momma, obviously quite ready to get their Sunday ritual started.
“Y’all supposed to be doin’ chores, or what?” Mac asked dryly as soon as they plopped on their seats. “I’m not sure I’ve ever seen you fly out here so fast.”
“Girls!” Rory yelled, her voice carrying even from inside the house.
“Uh oh. You guys ran from something…” Mac kept her voice low so her sister wouldn’t overhear.
Rory stepped out onto the porch, hands braced on her hips and eyes narrowed at her daughters. “Since when is that a proper goodbye? Y’all just scream out that you’re leavin’ and run? I don’t think so. Get back up here.” She pointed to the space in front of her, her tone firm.
The girls both grumbled under their breath, but they did their momma’s bidding and trudged up the porch steps to give Rory a hug before grabbing something she handed each of them. With just as much speed as the first time, they dashed back to the cart and practically dove in.
“Put ’em on now,” Rory called from the porch. “It’s cold.”
“What’s she talkin’ about?” Mac asked out of the corner of her mouth, just loud enough for the girls to hear.
Ava rolled her eyes and thrust out a sparkly pink hat with a huge pompom on the top. “This stupid thing.”
“My God, that’s hideous. What are you, four?”
“That’s what I said!” Ava threw her arms up in exasperation.
“Mine’s worse.” Ella shoved hers—bright green, complete with oversized ear flaps—between the front seats.
Mac barely held in the laugh that so desperately wanted to escape, but she somehow managed it. “C’mon now, girls, your momma just wants to make sure you don’t get sick. And it looks like she tried to pick out styles you’d both like.” She gestured to Ava’s sparkle-infused hat. “You normally love all things glittery.” Grabbing the hat Ella had shoved to the front, she shook it. “And your favorite color is green.”
Groans and grumbles were her only response, and this time, it was her turn to roll her eyes. One tweenager was enough, but lately, Ella had been jumping ship, replicating all that sass she’d learned from her older sister way too early for Mac’s liking. She honestly had no idea how Rory put up with it all.
“All right, y’all.” Mac tossed the hat back to Ella. “Put ’em on so your momma doesn’t have a stroke.”
“But, Aunt Maaaaaaac,” they both whined in unison.
She snorted. Lord help her, but if she ever had kids, they’d be spoiled rotten, because she’d do just about anything to avoid listening to that. “I wasn’t plannin’ on makin’ you wear ’em the whole time, but if you keep on like that, I will.”
They both shoved on the hats without another peep, and the three of them waved to Rory as Mac turned the cart around and started on their meandering path toward the main house for their standing Sunday supper date. When Rory’s place was out of view, Mac floored it, the hats came off and were tossed somewhere—no doubt hopefully never to be found again—and the chatter started up.
The girls were complete opposites—where Ava loved fashion and makeup and dance, Ella preferred fishing and camping and getting dirty outside—so giving them equal airtime was challenging.
Captain Heartbreaker (Havenbrook Book 4) Page 7
