Charming Hannah (Big Sky #1)(19)

“I can take this. I can hear whatever it is that you have to unload.”

I drag my fingers down her soft cheek and enjoy the way her arms feel around me, then take a deep breath.

“Do you know Kyle Reardon?”

She frowns. “The principal?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t think I’ve met him personally, but Grace has always had nice things to say about him.”

“His oldest son died today.”

The words sound hollow to my own ears.

“Oh, Brad.”

“Seventeen years old,” I continue and pull away from her. Not because I don’t love her touch, but because I have to pace. If I’m going to tell this, I don’t want her to touch me until it’s over.

“I’ve known Kyle all of my life. He was a little older than me in school, but we’re friends. We ski together in the winter. I’ve known all of his kids since they were born, and I mourned with him when he lost his wife two years ago to cancer.”

“Oh no,” she says, but I keep talking.

“And today, I had to show up at his doorstep with a chaplain and explain to him that his son was electrocuted in the water and was killed instantly. That there was nothing anyone could do, and that it wasn’t anyone’s fault. It was a stupid, horrible accident, and it took his son’s life.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“Before I could tell him anything, I had to call his sister to come get his other three children, and then I held him while he wept. My friend, who has been through hell and back in the past few years, and was finally pulling it back together. How do you do that?”

I stop and narrow my eyes, barely seeing her now, lost in my own head. “How do you do that, Hannah?”

“You just do,” she says softly. “You do what you have to do, and you’re strong for them, and then you go home and you fall apart.”

“It’s so fucking unfair,” I growl and shake my head. “Kendall was going to be a senior this year, and he was a phenomenal football player. And not just for a small town. For any town.”

“He sounds like a special kid.”

I nod and swallow hard, trying to keep it together. “He is. Was.”

“Do you need to go be with Kyle?”

“Not tonight. We stayed for a couple of hours, and then his sister and mom came back with the kids. There will be visitors and lots of food delivered when news spreads through town, as it always does. I was so damn worried that someone who was at the lake would call him before I got to him.”

“They didn’t?”

“His phone started ringing just as I walked in the door, and I told him to turn it off.” I shake my head again, still not fully grasping it all.

And Hannah walks back into my arms again, hugging me fiercely, her face pressed to my chest. I hug her back, holding her tightly, and bury my nose in her hair, breathing her in. She’s the calm in the storm for me.

“Thank you for listening,” I murmur. She tilts her head up, and I want to kiss the fuck out of her. I want to haul her to her bedroom and strip her bare and have my way with her until we’ve both forgotten our names.

But not tonight. My emotions are raw, and I refuse the first time I sink inside her to be when I’m upset.

“I have an idea,” she says, oblivious to my thoughts.

“What’s that?”

“How about ice cream?”

I frown down at her, thrown off course. “What about it?”

“It always makes me feel better. Let’s walk down to the ice cream place and get a scoop.”

“We could drive.”

She shakes her head and pulls away. She shoves a twenty-dollar bill in her pocket along with her keys and pulls her hair up in a messy ponytail. “It’s a beautiful evening. Let’s walk. It’s less than half a mile.”

“How do you know that?”

“Oh, I checked. If I walk, I can get two scoops.” Her blue eyes are still full of worry, but she’s trying to take my head out of the horror of today, and damn if it isn’t working.

After a couple of blocks of walking on the uneven sidewalks, the trees above us on the boulevards swaying in the slight early summer breeze, I pull her hand up to my lips and kiss her knuckles.

“You’re right. It’s a beautiful night.”

“I know.” She grins. “This place changes out the flavors all the time. Maybe they have some summer flavors.”

“You’re really serious about your ice cream.”

She laughs. “Ice cream is serious business.”

It’s past seven in the evening, so there’s a line, but we wait patiently, reading the board of flavors. When it’s our turn, Hannah gets a scoop of huckleberry and a scoop of cinnamon vanilla, surprising me when she passes on the coffee ice cream.

It all sounds great, but I get the same as Hannah and before I know it, we’re on our way back to her house. Our steps are slower this time, as we eat and enjoy the evening.

“Wait. Did you pay for my ice cream?” I stop and stare down at her in surprise.

“Sure did.”

“Not cool, Doctor Malone.”

“Why, Chief Hull? A girl can’t buy a guy ice cream?”

“Not this guy. If we’re on a date, I’m paying.”