Written with Regret (The Regret Duet #1)(58)

It was the most ridiculous, asinine, and flat-out idiotic thing that had ever passed through my head. But dammit…

I should have kissed her.





HADLEY


I held my palm less than an inch away from my face. “He was this close.”

“You were freaking out about Rosalee bleeding. He was trying to calm you down. I think you’re reading into this a tad,” Beth said before squirting water into her mouth like a professional soccer player while sitting on the other end of my couch.

I’d texted her that it was an emergency when I was on my way home. She’d arrived covered in sweat, straight from the gym, but I had to give it to her. She’d nearly beat me to my house.

“I’m not reading into anything.”

“He still won’t even leave you alone with the kid, but now, you think he’s trying to get in your pants?”

“I didn’t say anything about my pants. I just said he was looking at me like he wanted to kiss me. And then possibly eat me like a snack.”

She arched an eyebrow. “I know you’ve been out of the business for a while, but that usually requires no pants.”

I sighed. “I’m serious, Beth. There was something there tonight. And not just on my side of the equation. He was feeling something. I know he was. I should have kissed him.”

“You should not have kissed him.”

“I should have. God, why didn’t I kiss him?”

She leaned back against the cushion and gaped at me. “Jesus, what are you thinking right now?”

“He was two seconds away from doing it himself. I could have sped the process up for both of us.”

“Are you listening to yourself? Because this is insane. And the fact that you wasted my time by calling me over here instead of telling me to meet you at the loony bin, where you so obviously need to be, is just rude.”

I stared off into the distance, a chill pebbling my skin as I thought about his hard body. “It was like a magical bathroom. He walked in there and brought this whole ocean of calm with him. Which is funny because Caven is usually the storm. But then he hugged me. It was so sweet and so real.”

“You know what else is real? Your delusions.”

“You weren’t there. You didn’t see the look on his face. It was like he couldn’t stop himself. He was sta—” A blast of cold water struck me in the face. “Shit!”

She lowered her water cannon/water bottle and glared at me. “I’m sorry! But someone had to do it.”

Using the bottom of my T-shirt, I patted dry my face. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

“You, Hadley. You are what’s wrong with me.” She rose to her feet and loomed over me. “You promised me you could handle this. You swore up and down when I brought you back from Puerto Rico that you could handle being around him without making eight-year-old googly eyes at him. And here we are, a little over three months later, arguing about whether you should have kissed him?” She scoffed and crossed her arms over her chest, luckily not aiming the water bottle at me again. “He is not fifteen-year-old Caven Lowe anymore. He’s Caven Hunt. The father of your daughter who, thanks to the bullshit agreement you signed, owns your time with Rosalee for the next three months. Literally and figuratively: Do not screw this up.”

“What if he kisses me? What if he screws this up?”

She rolled her eyes. “Please just let me set you up with a guy. A few orgasms and a big dick would go a long way in diluting the case of the sexual insanity you’ve currently got going on.”

“You know what? I changed my mind. Go home. I need a better best friend.”

“No. What you need is a dick…and not the fictional one that belongs to Caven Hunt in your secret little fantasies.”

“He produced a child. I’m ninety-nine percent sure his dick is not fictional.”

“It could have fallen off in the last four years. You don’t know.”

I cut my gaze to the wall, my face blooming with heat. “He tucks to the left.”

She gasped dramatically, as only crazy-ass Beth could. “You’ve been checking out his cock.”

“No!” I chewed on my bottom lip. “Well…maybe once…on accident though.”

“Explain to me how one accidentally checks out a man’s cock?”

“He was wearing particularly fitted slacks that day. It showed when he sat down. What was I supposed to look at?”

“Uhhh…his face?”

“Trust me. If you saw the way he was looking at me tonight, you’d know that his face is far more dangerous than the outline of his penis.”

“Ew, don’t say penis. You’re ruining my mental image of Caven tucking his cock to the left.”

My mouth fell open. “You did not just say that.”

“What? He’s a sexy man. I’m allowed to imagine. You should try it next time instead of gawking like a perv.”

“Yep. Time to go.” I unfolded off the couch and headed to the door. Snatching it open, I waved her out like a flight attendant pointing to the nearest emergency exit. “As my attorney, can you please draw up the paperwork ending our friendship tonight?”

She followed after me, stopping short of the threshold. “I’m only trying to be real here. You two hooking up has the worst kind of bad news written all over it.” She placed her hand on my side and pointedly gave me a squeeze over the round scar that, instead of disappearing with time, had been stretching and growing with me. “Don’t make this any more complicated than it already is.”