by Elise Faber
She forced a smile. “Dad’s a professor of ecology. Mom’s head of the psychology department.”
Hutch’s eyebrows climbed. “Wow. They sound impressive.”
“Oh, they are,” she muttered, ready to change the subject. “What about you? I mean, I know you were drafted from Ohio State, but—”
“Peebles, Ohio,” he said. “It’s a tiny little town you’ve never heard of.”
Charlie nodded, smiling. “Yep. You’re right. I’ve never heard of it.” The truth was out before she could stop it. “But I think I’d like to. Tell me about it.”
He chuckled. “Okay… um… It’s about an hour east of Cincinnati, but it may as well be about a million miles from anywhere.” He scanned the view surrounding them. “Definitely a million miles from here.”
Charlie tucked a loose lock of hair behind her ear. “Do you miss it?” Sometimes Goleta felt a million miles away, and she was grateful.
He coughed. “Uh, no. Hell, no. If you stay in Peebles, you’re either a farmer, a school teacher, or a technician for GE.” He raised a humorless brow at her. “My uncle’s a farmer. My mom and my sister, Violet, teach at Peebles Elementary, and my dad tests turbofans for GE Aviation. I had to get out of there.”
And suddenly, Hutch Barlow wasn’t just a hot guy walking her home. He wasn’t just a professional football player who was so far out of her league it was silly. And he wasn’t an untouchable client. He was a person with a past and a dream he’d chased like hell to get right where he was.
Just like her.
They walked in silence for a moment. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched him steal glances at her every few seconds. She wanted to ask him what he saw. She wanted to ask him a million questions. “Do you ever go back?”
“Sure. I mean, don’t get me wrong,” he said, shaking his head and frowning. “Peebles is a great place to grow up. You know everybody, and everybody knows you. It’s safe. It’s sane. And people are good. But…”
“But you couldn’t breathe,” she said softly.
He locked eyes with her and nodded. “Yeah.” Hutch peered up Steiner as they fought their way uphill. “And it’s too flat. These hills are kicking my ass, but I love them.”
Charlie laughed. “I know what you mean.” Goleta and Malibu had hills, but nothing like San Francisco. “I love walking this city. I don’t even miss my car.”
He blinked at her. “No car? What happened to it?”
“I sold it before moving here,” she said, shrugging. “What I save in gas and insurance goes to rent. I mean, almost everything goes to rent, but this city’s worth it.”
Hutch eyed her for a moment. “What about groceries?”
Charlie frowned. “What about groceries?”
“Do you buy them?”
It was too dark now to make out the evergreen of his eyes, but Charlie could see clearly enough that he was pinning her with his stare.
“Um… yeah. Of course, I buy groceries.” Where was he going with this?
He watched her a moment longer, nodding slowly and seeming to consider his words. A look of resolve claimed his features, and he shook his head. They were just a half a block from Hermann now, and when they reached the corner, Charlie slowed to a stop.
“This is my street,” she said, pointing east up to her block. “Are you far?”
“Me?” He chuckled, suddenly looking embarrassed.
“Yeah, you. Where do you live?”
“Um…” He crossed his arms over his chest and glanced from left to right, seeming unsure. “…I live on Jordan Avenue.”
Charlie frowned. “Where’s that?”
She watched him work his mouth. He definitely looked embarrassed. “It’s a couple miles from here… in Laurel Heights.”
Charlie’s mouth fell open. A couple of miles? He lived in Laurel Heights?
Of course he lives in Laurel Heights. He plays pro!
“Wh-why did—”
“I wanted to keep talking to you.” He spoke with such certainty that he seemed to banish his embarrassment — or chase it in her direction. As soon as his words were out, Charlie’s face grew hot again.
He’d run two miles out of his way just to keep talking to her?
Charlie’s heart hammered against the walls of her chest. What could she say to that? She was thrilled from the soles of her feet to the ends of her hair, but did she dare show it?
“I… I…”
Hutch shook his head, smiling gently.
“It was worth it,” he said, striding again, turning them onto Hermann. “C’mon. Which one’s yours?”
Charlie didn’t move. Now that they were walking, her muscles drooped with fatigue. She didn’t know how long he’d run before he started tailing her, but it had been a good five miles since then.
“But… are you going to run back home?” She heard the concern in her voice just as Hutch gave her a radiant smile.
“No, sweetheart, I’m done for the night.” The smile. The endearment. Both probably meant nothing, but that didn’t make them any less potent. Charlie felt them behind each knee. “I’ll get you home and call an Uber.”
It took every ounce of willpower she had not to reach for his hand.
Instead, she peeled her feet from the sidewalk and started making her way down Hermann Street, wanting each second to stretch out into its own hour.
But in under a minute, they were at her front gate.
“This is me,” she said, pointing to the dormers of her little garret. “I’m up top.”
Hutch looked up, the left side of his mouth crooking in a smile. “Of course you are.”
Charlie’s brows came together. “Huh?”
He turned his gaze on her. “Rapunzel could only be on the highest floor.” Then he reached out and caught the end of her ponytail between his fingers.
Charlie felt the gentle tug before he let it drop, but her scalp and the back of her neck tingled with sensation. It was the third time he’d touched her, and each time had left a fingerprint of delight that stayed with her.
What would it be like to kiss him?
Charlie stifled a sigh. She’d never know. It was best just to say goodnight.
“Thank you for looking out for me,” she said, wincing at the memory of her near collapse. “I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t been around.”
Hutch gave a humorless chuckle. “You probably wouldn’t have pushed yourself to do sprint intervals on a long-distance run if I hadn’t been around.”
“You’re right,” she admitted, laughing. “But thanks for not leaving me by the side of the road.”
He watched her for a moment. “My goal was to catch you, Charlie. Not to pass you by.”
Charlie’s heart turned a cartwheel in her chest. The words, the look in his eyes, and the melted butter richness of his voice made her feel light-headed all over again.
“I… It was really nice to meet you.”
Again, he let silence fall between them as he looked at her. “You’ll see me again.”
As dumbstruck as she was, it took her a minute to understand. “Right, yeah. Friday at the party.”
Hutch made no move to confirm this. Instead, he took out his phone, and Charlie recognized the Request a Ride screen on the Uber app.
“Should I wait out here until your ride comes?”
He lifted his eyes to hers and shook his head. “Nah. Go on in. Put some food in your stomach before you faint again.”
She arched a brow at him. “I didn’t faint. I just got a little dizzy is all.”
Judging by the look on his face, Hutch silently disagreed with her. He nodded up to her apartment. “Do you actually have food up there?”
Charlie rolled her eyes. “Of course. I’m going to take a shower, slice up some vegetables, and make a salad.”
He screwed up his face. “A salad?”
“It’ll have chicken,” she added, defensively.
Hutch shook his head again as if dismissin
g her meal choices. “After that run you put me through, I’m going to chow down.”
His wide-eyed look of raw hunger made her laugh. He’d told her not to wait for his Uber, but Charlie couldn’t make herself leave. Even now, she was already looking forward to seeing him again on Friday.
But that was all it could be. She’d just be able to watch him at the party. Say hello to him and talk for a moment or two before guests, or his buddies on the team, or a photographer pulled him away. But she would enjoy it.
And Charlie already knew that, even though she wasn’t a football fan, she’d be watching every Raiders game from now on.
“So what’s on the menu for a starving football player?” she asked, wanting any reason to keep talking to him.
Hutch stroked his chin in mock deliberation. “I’ve been wondering about that myself. There’s a little Indian place a few blocks from my house, and I can’t decide if I want the chicken jalfrezi or the satay.”
Charlie swallowed to keep from drooling. Indian food was her hands-down favorite. When she allowed herself to eat out, of course. That was pretty much only on her birthday or if she was training for a marathon.
“Maybe I’ll get both,” he muttered, clearly as hungry as she was. Yeah, he was going to enjoy his dinner a lot more than she would hers.
“That sounds really good,” she heard herself whisper.
His eyes fixed on hers, and he grinned just as his ride pulled up. Hutch waved to the driver before turning back to Charlie. “I’m really glad I chased you through Golden Gate Park.”
Even if the chase ended here at her front steps, Charlie was too. “Yeah, so am I.”
“Honestly, I can’t wait until Friday.”
His candor had her breath coming up short. This could go nowhere, but it still felt amazing. The days between now and Friday would seem like an eternity, but Charlie had a feeling she’d savor them. Because if she still felt this way about him at the party, what would she feel like after?
She kept these misgivings to herself. “Good night, Hutch. It was so nice meeting you.”
His dimples came out again. “Good night, Charlie.”
Instead of standing on the sidewalk and watching like an idiot as he disappeared, Charlie walked through the low front gate and took the stone path that led to the back stairs.
“Charlie.” Her name echoed across the yard and bounced between the houses.
She walked back toward the front of the house and found Hutch standing at the picket fence. “Yeah?”
He frowned. “Where are you going?”
Charlie pointed toward the back of the house. “To the stairs that lead to my apartment.”
He said nothing in response to this, but Hutch came through the gate and met her at the side of the house.
“Your Uber is waiting,” she said.
He gave a nod. “I know. I want to make sure you get inside okay.”
A rush of sparks swept down her chest and into her belly. “Oh… thanks.”
He walked her to the foot of the wrought iron stairs in the back yard and waited while she climbed up and unlocked her door. She felt his eyes on her the whole time. When she opened the door, Charlie looked down at him standing there staring up at her. His blond hair falling around his shoulders. His hands on his hips.
He was without a doubt the most beautiful man she’d ever seen.
“Good night, Hutch.” She waved down to him.
“Good night, Charlie.”
Charlie slipped into her apartment, closed and locked the door behind her, and then leaned back against it for support.
“Why?” she groaned aloud in the empty space. “Why does he have to be a client?”
CHAPTER THREE
CHARLIE PEELED OUT of her running clothes, tossed them into the hamper, and stepped into the shower. Under the stream of hot water, she relived the last hour. It had just been one hour, but it had affected her more than all of the hours in her three weeks in San Francisco put together.
She loved the way she felt. And she hated the way she felt.
When she thought about the look in his eyes and the way he’d spoken to her, the way he’d waited at the foot of the stairs to make sure she got in safely, she felt giddy and alive and glowing.
But when she thought about her job — the perfect job, the job she’d held out a year to get with the firm she admired in the city of her dreams — Charlie felt her spine stiffen. She’d worked so hard to get where she was, and since she’d just started at Prestige, she still had so much to prove. Breaking policy with the very first client to cross her path was not something she wanted to do.
It was not something she’d allow herself to do.
So she sighed yet again as she rinsed conditioner from her hair. She’d have to tuck her sweet hour with Hutch Barlow into her heart and keep it as a treasured memory. And nothing more.
As she stepped out of the shower and toweled off, Charlie promised herself that she’d get out more. And soon. San Francisco was right outside her door, and it was full of guys who could turn her head.
Just none as perfect as Hutch Barlow, she thought.
Charlie dressed herself in a pair of yoga pants and her Malibu Half Marathon sweatshirt and blow-dried her hair, picturing the way Hutch’s platinum locks glowed in the moonlight. In spite of her promise to herself, she couldn’t help but wonder what it might feel like to run her fingers through them.
No harm in imagining it, right? With that thought, she flicked off the hair dryer and neatly coiled up the cord.
And she stepped out of her bathroom just in time to hear a knock on her door.
Charlie froze. Annie was at work. And her roommate’s friends knew that she could be found at the beer garden on most nights. Charlie didn’t really know anyone else. No one at work knew where she lived except Darius, and he’d text her, she was sure, before coming over.
She picked up her phone on the kitchen counter and saw that she had no missed texts or calls.
A knock sounded again, and Charlie’s heart rapped against her chest. If it wasn’t Darius, it could only be—
“Charlie?” Hutch’s muffled voice came through the door.
She didn’t hesitate. She crossed the apartment and threw the door open. Hutch Barlow stood there holding two takeout bags and wearing a rueful smile.
She gripped the doorsill in one hand and the doorknob in the other. He’d showered and changed, and the effect was amazing. His hair, now dark gold with damp, was pulled back in a ponytail, and he wore a black Twenty-One Pilots t-shirt and jeans that convinced Charlie he’d ruined black t-shirts and jeans forevermore because no one on earth could pull it off as well as Hutch did.
“I couldn’t wait until Friday.”
The words rappelled through her, knocking out her breath and bouncing off her heart as they descended.
When she didn’t say anything, the left side of his mouth turned up in a smile. “May I come in?”
Charlie’s voice had stopped working, so she nodded and stepped back. The door to her apartment opened right in the middle of what she and Annie referred to as “the living room,” which was really just the neutral territory between their two “bedrooms.” There was barely enough room for Charlie and Hutch to stand together in the space with the door open. She was about to motion to the couch to offer him the only real place to sit when he walked past her headed toward her kitchen.
“Are your plates in here?” he asked, setting down the bags onto her tiny kitchen counter and pointing to the cabinets above.
The sight of him in her kitchen was so surreal Charlie’s speech returned unbidden. “What are you doing here?”
Taking down plates and glasses, he seemed to fill up her kitchen. Now that they were indoors, she realized his body was massive.
In spite of her question, Charlie had to admit that she was glad he was here. Watching him help himself to her dishes was more than surreal, but it was also pretty wonderful. As she stood waiting for his answer, she re
alized that Hutch Barlow standing in her kitchen was her new favorite thing.
She’d turned him down when he asked her out. She couldn’t see him. This was utterly pointless.
And, yet, she didn’t want him to leave.
Holding a glass in each hand, he pointed an elbow to the takeout bags. “I wanted to bring you dinner.”
“But I said I couldn’t go out with you,” she blurted.
“You’re not going out with me,” he said with a wicked grin. “We’re eating in.” He turned to her freezer and filled each glass with ice. Charlie took the two steps that separated her from the kitchen entrance and raised a brow at him. “You know what I mean.”
Hutch set down the glasses, pivoted to face her, and before she knew what was happening, his hands were on her waist, and he was tugging her toward him.
He left a quarter inch of space between their bodies, but they were close. Incredibly close.
His evergreen eyes made her think of sorcery. They were so intense they seemed to pulse with a power all their own. But then the look in them softened. “Charlie, I’ll go if you tell me to, but please don’t.”
Her mouth went dry.
She wasn’t going to tell him to go.
He looked down at her lips, and Charlie’s breath shook. He was going to kiss her. She was certain. They’d known each other for two hours, and he was going to kiss her.
But before he could lean in, she watched him inhale a long breath through his nose, and she felt his fingers flex against her waist as he gently nudged her back.
“You need to eat,” he said, sounding as though he were trying to convince them both. He turned away from her, and a moment later he handed her two glasses full of ice water. Charlie could only stand staring as he piled two plates with saffron rice, chicken satay, peanut sauce, mint chutney, and pakoras.
Deep-fried pakoras.
Her mouth watered. She hadn’t eaten anything deep-fried in thirteen months. But she couldn’t let herself start now.
Expertly, he found silverware and paper napkins, and then carried the plates past her. Hutch nodded to the little coffee table. “Is this the dining room?”
Embarrassment stung her cheeks. “Um… yeah… living room, dining room, every room.”
