I Want to Hold Your Hand

by Marie Force

  “Wait, so are you saying that something did happen?” Elmer asked, leaning in to ensure he didn’t miss anything.

  “I’m certainly not telling you guys. I wouldn’t want to encourage your bad behavior.”

  “How is it bad behavior to help things along when it’s clear to everyone who knows you that you’re crazy about my little girl?” Lincoln asked.

  “You do know your ‘little girl’ is thirty-five years old, right?”

  “What the heck does that have to do with anything?”

  Realizing they were talking in circles, Nolan decided it was time to cut the two matchmakers a break. “Listen, boys, you know me. You’ve known me all my life.”

  “Why do you think you’re here?” Elmer asked. “Why do you think we messed with her battery rather than letting Myles know that Homer wasn’t doing all that great and could do with an extra house call or two?”

  “What’s Myles got to do with anything?” Nolan asked, utterly confused.

  “Ah,” Lincoln said smugly, “our young friend here has no earthly idea that he’s had some competition for Hannah’s affections.”

  “Hannah and Myles?” The thought of the good-looking vet being interested in Hannah struck a note of fear in Nolan’s heart. “Since when?”

  “Since he asked her out,” Lincoln said.

  “She didn’t actually go out with him though.” If Hannah had gone out with Myles, Nolan would’ve heard about it—and the news would’ve killed him.

  “She hasn’t gone out with him yet,” Elmer said. “I wouldn’t count him out. He’s tall, blond, buff . . . The ladies seem to like him.”

  While he tried to wrap his head around Elmer’s use of the word buff, Nolan wished he had the nerve to tell them that Hannah never would’ve kissed him the way she had the night before if she were interested in someone else. However, he couldn’t play that card and protect their privacy, too, so he decided to meet smug with smug. “I’m not worried about Myles.”

  “A wise man doesn’t underestimate his rivals,” Elmer said.

  “Duly noted, but I don’t see him as a rival. If Hannah wanted to go out with him, she would have.” He glanced at Lincoln and was surprised to find steel in his normally amiable eyes. “What?”

  “It sounds to me like you might have reason to be a bit overconfident where my daughter is concerned. Is that possible?”

  “Now wait just a minute—”

  “Hey, Gramps? Where are you?” Hannah’s melodic voice drifted through the house, and the three men froze.

  The expressions on the faces of Hannah’s father and grandfather gave all-new meaning to the term deer in headlights and Nolan held back the overpowering urge to laugh at their discomfort.

  Hannah came into the kitchen and stopped short, her sharp gaze taking in the scene at the table, and her mouth tightening with displeasure that seemed directed primarily at him. Great. That was just what he needed right as they were moving forward toward . . . something . . .

  “What’s going on?” Hannah asked suspiciously.

  “Nothing, honey.” Lincoln jumped up to kiss his daughter. “We’re just having lunch.”

  “The three of you randomly decided to get together for lunch for the first time ever? And it just happens to be today?”

  “It was the funniest thing,” Elmer said. “We ran into Nolan and happened to have an extra sandwich . . .”

  Her gaze landed on Nolan, seeking an explanation. It wouldn’t do him any good to toss Lincoln and Elmer under the bus, but the vague sense of hurt and confusion coming from her made him want to spill the entire story to her. He would when he could, he decided. “They invited me. Can you join us?” Nolan held out a hand to her and tried not to panic when she gave his hand a long look, ignored it and slid into the fourth chair at the table.

  “Have my other half,” Elmer said. “I’ll never be able to eat all this.” He pushed the sandwich across the table to her. “Nolan, get Hannah a 7-Up from the fridge. She knows I’ve always got a cold one for her.”

  “Thanks, Gramps,” Hannah said with a warm smile for her grandfather. Apparently he’d been granted immunity.

  Nolan got the soda, opened it and put it on the table in front of her.

  “Thanks,” she said without looking at him.

  This was definitely not good. Everything in him clamored to tell her how he’d ended up at Elmer Stillman’s table in the middle of the day, but the heat of her father’s glare had him biting his tongue—literally.

  “I’m so sorry about Homer, honey,” Elmer said, covering Hannah’s hand with his much bigger one. “He was a good boy, and he lived a nice long life.”

  “Yes, he did.”

  “How’re you holding up?”

  “I’ve had better days, but it helps to think of him reuniting with Caleb.”

  “I’m sure they’re having one hell of a game of fetch up there in heaven.”

  “I hope so.” She took a delicate bite of the oversized sandwich and a sip of her soda. “I’ve decided to have a funeral for Homer the way Caleb would’ve done.”

  “That’s a fine idea,” Elmer said.

  “I spoke with Myles this morning.”

  Lincoln and Elmer both looked at Nolan meaningfully. He trained his face to show no emotion even though the mention of Myles’s name struck a note of fear around the area of his chest that housed his heart.

  “He can keep Homer until we’re ready to bury him,” Hannah continued, speaking primarily to her grandfather. “I wondered if you might be able to make me a box or something to bury him in.”

  “I’d be honored, honey. Truly.”

  “Thank you.”

  Nolan’s throat closed around the lump that settled there as her quiet strength got to him the way it always did.

  She chatted with her father and grandfather about the plans for Homer’s funeral as she finished the sandwich and soda.

  Nolan told himself it didn’t matter that she never looked his way, but it did matter. It mattered greatly. By the time she stood to leave, he was in full-on panic mode. The idea that the progress they’d made the night before might be undone by her overly involved father and grandfather was unfathomable to him. “Could I hitch a ride back to town with you, Hannah? I’ve got to get back to work.”

  She still didn’t look at him. “Um, sure. I guess.”

  Wow, this was worse than he’d thought. She was actually blaming him for the family powwow, as if he would’ve sought out the company of her father and grandfather on the same day her parents caught them sleeping together? Was she crazy? How could he fix this with her without digging a ditch for himself with Lincoln?

  “Thanks for lunch,” he said to Lincoln and Elmer as he got up from the table. “I think.”

  Lincoln gave him a pointed look that conveyed a world of expectations. “Our pleasure.”

  His mind racing with thoughts about what he should say to her and what he could say to her, Nolan followed Hannah from the house and got into the passenger seat of her SUV. “How’s the car running?” he asked when they were buckled in and on their way.

  “Fine.”

  “Hannah, listen . . . I have no idea what you’re thinking right now, but I didn’t initiate that lunch. You have to know that after your parents caught us together this morning, my goal today would’ve been to stay as far away from the men in your family as I possibly could.” Was it his imagination or did her shoulders lose some of their tension?

  “How did you end up there?”

  “Um, well, you probably ought to ask your dad about that.”

  She shot him an annoyed look. “I’m asking you.”

  “Don’t make me tell you.”

  “Man up, Nolan. You’re either loyal to me or you’re loyal to him. You can’t have it both ways.”

  Nolan let out an unmanly whimper. “I can’t? Really?”

  “Nolan . . .”

  “Fine! He came to the garage and basically told me to get in the car. It wasn’t li
ke I felt I had a choice or anything. He’s your dad, and I didn’t want to do anything to screw things up with your family when things between us are . . . you know . . .”

  “What? How are things between us?”

  Apparently, Hannah came by her torture skills naturally. “New and moving in the right direction, or so I thought.”

  She killed him with her silence. What was she thinking? Did she disagree with what he’d said? What if she did? Where did that leave them? He’d long ago accepted his feelings for her were going to either make his life complete or be the death of him. At the moment, he couldn’t say which outcome was more likely.

  Hannah pulled into the station and kept the car running as she stared straight ahead.

  Nolan cleared his throat and tried to think of something he could say—anything to break the uneasy silence. “I owe you dinner at the Mexican place in Stowe. Want to go tonight?”

  “I’ll have to let you know. I’m supposed to see Cameron at some point today about a project we’re working on. I don’t know yet when she’s available.”

  He wanted to ask about the project. He wanted to know everything about her. But he decided to quit while he was ahead. “I’ll call you when I’m done here. It might be a bit late since I’ve had a few distractions today.”

  “Okay.”

  “Hannah?”

  “Yes?”

  “Will you look at me?”

  She took her own sweet time complying with his request. The uncertainty he saw in her gaze was like a spike to his heart.

  He couldn’t resist the need to touch her. His hand cupped her cheek, and he was filled with relief when she tipped her head toward his hand, her eyes closing on a sigh.

  She licked her lips. “Nolan . . .”

  “Hmm?” The slide of her tongue over her bottom lip made him hard.

  Her eyes opened slowly and locked on his. “I’m a very private person.”

  “I know that.”

  “I wouldn’t appreciate you talking about what happens between us with anyone else.”

  “I never would. Do you believe me?”

  She nodded, and her gaze dropped to his mouth.

  Goddamn, she was annihilating him with her eyes and lips as the desire to kiss her overtook him. “Hannah . . .”

  “Not here.”

  “Come inside. Just for a minute. Please?”

  She held his gaze for the longest moment of his entire life before she raised her hand to the key and turned the engine off.

  CHAPTER 7

  God, I’m so in love with Caleb Guthrie. How did this happen? We’ve waited a long time to you know . . . do IT. This weekend, we’re going to tour some colleges, and we’re going to stay in a hotel together. (Our parents think we’re staying with friends. We told a lot of lies to pull this off . . .) I’m so scared, but SO ready. We’re both interested in UVM, but we’re checking out Maine and New Hampshire, too, because they’re farther away and require an overnight stay.

  —From the diary of Hannah Abbott, age seventeen

  Nolan was out of the SUV so fast he almost tripped over his own feet in his haste to open her door.

  “Hey, boss,” Skeeter called from the bay on the far left side of the garage where he did his bodywork.

  “Not now.”

  “But—”

  “Not now!”

  “Well, alrighty then.”

  Hannah laughed softly as he took her hand and half dragged her into the main reception area on the far right side of the building. He led her around the counter and into his office, closing the door behind them. Spinning around to face her, he found her looking up at him expectantly.

  Nolan wished he’d brought her somewhere classier than his dirty garage, but desperate times called for dirty garages. He backed her up to the closed door, and her hands landed on his chest. All he could see were her sweet, pink lips, and he had to remind himself to take it slow.

  Then her hand curled around his nape to drag him down to her, taking the lead in what quickly became the hottest, most sensual kiss he’d ever experienced. When her tongue darted into his mouth, he forgot all about going slow. He cupped her bottom and lifted her right off her feet, groaning when she wrapped her legs around his waist and pressed her heated core against his throbbing erection.

  The phone rang, and he ignored it. Skeeter called for him, and he ignored him. A huge crash sounded from the garage, and he ignored it. His world had been reduced to the sweet taste of Hannah’s lips, the erotic tangle of her tongue with his, the heat between her legs and the tug of her fingers in his hair.

  He could drop dead right now, and he’d go happy. Except he’d never do that to her after what she’d already endured. Nolan planned to live a good long time so he could kiss her this way every single day of what was left of both their lives.

  The rumble of voices right outside the door had him reluctantly ending the kiss. He leaned his forehead against hers, both of them breathing hard.

  “He’s in there,” Skeeter said. “I don’t know what he’s doing, but I wouldn’t bother him right now if I was you.”

  “I’d like to see him,” a familiar voice said. “I’ll wait.”

  Nolan let out a moan when he realized Hannah’s twin brother was out there. “This day gets better and better.”

  “Is my sister in there with him?” Hunter asked.

  “Um, I don’t know nothin’,” Skeeter said. “I’m just the hired help.”

  Nolan was going to kill him the second he got the chance.

  Hannah began to giggle uncontrollably, and Nolan decided right then and there that whatever abuse the Abbott family intended to toss his way was worth it if it made her laugh harder than he’d seen her laugh in more than seven years.

  “I’m glad you’re enjoying this,” he muttered, taking another kiss while he could.

  “I’m sorry. They’re totally out of control.”

  “You said it, not me.” He held her hips until she was standing. When she reached for the door, he stopped her. “Not yet.”

  “Why not? You know Hunter. He’s not going anywhere until he gets what he came for.”

  “And what’s that? A piece of my hide?”

  “Perhaps,” she said with a coy grin that got his motor racing all over again.

  “Are you enjoying this?”

  “It is kinda funny. You have to admit it.”

  “No, I don’t.”

  “Can I open the door?”

  “Not yet.”

  “You never said why.”

  “Do I really have to spell it out for you?”

  Her eyes traveled over him, stopping abruptly when they landed on the bulge in the front of his pants. “Oh. Oh.”

  “Don’t do that. You’re not helping anything.”

  “What am I doing?”

  “You’re looking at it.”

  She rolled her lip between her teeth as if she was trying not to laugh again.

  He furrowed his brows in annoyance. “Don’t you dare laugh.”

  “I wouldn’t dream of it.” She moved toward him, and Nolan took a step back out of self-preservation.

  He bumped up against his desk, which was covered with discarded coffee cups and paperwork he hoped to get to before the next millennium. “Hannah, knock it off. Your brother is on the other side of that door, and if I know him, he’s got his ear pressed against it listening to everything we’re saying.”

  “Before I go, I just wanted to say . . . thanks.”

  The incredibly sweet way she looked at him as she said that didn’t help his “condition.” He cleared his throat. “For what?”

  “For being a good sport, for putting up with my family and for that kiss against the door, which was amazing.”

  “It was pretty good, wasn’t it?”

  She smiled as she nodded, and then she surprised the living shit out of him when she leaned in and pressed her lips softly and chastely against his. “I’ll see you later.”

  His head was
still spinning when she casually walked through the door, as if she hadn’t just rocked his world. And then he came out of the fog to realize Hunter was still out there, talking to his sister at the moment and no doubt here to add to the Abbott family day of torture. Nolan scrambled around the desk and sat, grateful for the barrier between his raging erection and his old friend, who also happened to be Hannah’s insanely overprotective twin.

  He picked up a pen and pretended to be interested in the invoice from the company that provided gas to the station, which he really needed to pay one of these days, and was still staring blankly at it when Hunter strolled in and shut the door. As usual, he looked like he’d just stepped out of an issue of GQ magazine. He was on the receiving end of an endless amount of abuse from their group of friends for his snappy style sense, but Hunter took it all in stride and ignored the bullshit. Nolan had always admired that about him and considered Hunter and Will Abbott among his closest friends.

  But one look at his old pal told him today’s visit was anything but a social call.

  “What can I do for you, Hunter?”

  Hunter eyed the visitor chair in Nolan’s office and wisely refrained from sitting. Some substances even the best of dry cleaners couldn’t remove from twill trousers. “I’d like to know what’s going on between you and my sister.”

  “Don’t mince words.”

  “Why bother when we both know why I’m here.”

  “I’m trying to figure out why you feel it’s any of your business.”

  As expected, Hunter’s dark eyes narrowed with anger. “Are you seriously asking me that?”

  “Yeah, I am. You know me, Hunter. Do you think I’d ever do anything to hurt her? In a million years, do you think I’m capable of that?”

  Hunter blew out a deep breath. “I don’t think you’d hurt her intentionally.”

  Nolan held his steady gaze, refusing to back down.

  “Does she know about the racing?”

  The question caught him off guard. It was about the last thing Nolan expected him to say. “I don’t know. We haven’t talked about it, but that doesn’t mean she hasn’t heard about it.”

  “She hasn’t.”

  “How do you know that?”