Foreplay (The Ivy Chronicles #1)(20)

“Sorry.” Hunter chuckled, pulling back from where he had leaned his face close to mine. “Didn’t mean to scare you.”

“No.” I pressed a hand to my beating heart.

Hunter gave me a quick hug. I leaned into him, soaking up his warmth. Pulling back, he motioned for me to move up and order. Flustered as always around him, I tucked my hair behind my ear—a useless gesture. Only more tumbled forward. I really needed to do something with it. Maybe cut it all off. Wear my hair short and sassy and spiky all around my head like Emerson did. I almost snorted at that image. I’d never manage to pull it off. I’d look like I stuck my finger in an electrical outlet.

“Medium latte and cranberry scone,” I told the smiling cashier.

Hunter quickly followed with his order and held out a credit card before I even had time to reach for my wallet inside my bag. Again.

“You don’t have to pay—”

“Pepper, please.” He dropped a hand on my arm, staying it from diving through my bag for my wallet. “Keep your money. You work hard for it.”

My face heated, the warmth crawling all the way to my ears. I tried not to let my discomfort surface. I’m not ashamed that I work. I’ll have to work forever to pay off my student loans. I’m prepared for that. I know that. It was just the reminder of how different I was from him that bothered me. We came from two totally different worlds. The fact that we both attended Dartford didn’t change that. He’ll graduate debt free. Probably get a convertible for his graduation present.

“Got time to chat?” he asked as we collected our drinks from the bar, inclining his head toward the alcove where several comfy chairs sat.

“Yes, I have some time.”

Thankfully my voice did not reveal how nervous I felt. I hardly ever saw Hunter last year. Paige kept him busy. And now I’d seen him twice in a week.

We settled into two chairs facing out onto the sidewalk. The large glass window was decorated with fall leaves. I set my latte on the coffee table in front of me and balanced my scone on a napkin on my lap. Breaking off a corner, I nibbled at it, observing him as he drank from his cup.

He smiled at me, leaning back in his chair and setting one ankle across his knee as though making himself comfortable for a long chat. My heart thudded faster. Whatever he had to say, he clearly wasn’t in a rush, and that’s when it dawned on me that maybe he just wanted to . . . hang out. Maybe there was no objective. Unlike my objective. Objectives. Make him fall in love with me. Marry me. Bless me with 2.5 beautiful children.

The need to break our silence finally drove me to say, “Never seen you in here before. Other than the last time. And I would know. I’m in here way too much.” I waved at our surroundings.

He shrugged. “Paige never cared for coffee much. She preferred smoothies.”

“But you prefer coffee?”

“I’m figuring out what it is I prefer. I just pretty much let her decide for the last two years.” He winced. “God, I’m making myself sound whipped, aren’t I?”

I closed both hands around my cup, letting the heat from inside thaw the chill away. “It’s the gentleman in you. And the fact that you were raised with a sister.”

“Are you analyzing me?”

I shrugged. “It might be my psych class talking. But I know your family. It’s easy to see that you’re a product of your parents. Your mother raised you to be a good man, sensitive to others.” Like that’s not a fact that made me fall into a deep infatuation with him when I was a mere twelve.

Two years older, popular, and good-looking, he didn’t have to be kind to me. When I first moved in with Gram and started school, everyone made fun of my clothes, my hair—the fact that I was obviously behind everyone else academically. When they found out where I lived, they told me I smelled like Bengay. That pretty much became my nickname. A whispered chant when I walked by.

Hunter could have looked the other way. Instead he’d stepped in and talked to me one day. Right in front of everyone. That same day, Lila asked me to sit with her at lunch. I don’t think he put her up to it exactly, but she’d seen his kindness to me. I’ll never forget what he did for me that day. I fell a little in love with him then and the rest of the way over the following years.

Hunter stared at me for a long moment. I looked down at my scone, crumbling off another piece between my fingers, worried that he might see some of how I felt in my eyes.

“Gentleman, huh?” he murmured. “Maybe too much. I stayed with Paige longer than I really wanted to just because I didn’t want to hurt her.”

I lifted a piece of scone to my mouth and chewed, considering my words carefully. “I think you can still be a gentleman and be happy, too. They’re not mutually exclusive.”

He cocked his head and grinned down at me. “How is anyone who hangs out with Lila so smart?” he teased.

I let out a laugh and studied my remaining scone. “I won’t tell her you said that.”

“Thanks. That will probably save my life. But it is true, you know.”

“I’m not so smart. Just an old soul.” That’s what Daddy always told me. It was one of the few things I remembered him saying to me. That and to look after my mother. It stuck in my mind because after Mom dropped me at Gram’s I used to wonder if my dad was looking down on me with disappointment. Did he think I’d failed him?