What Love Looks Like

“What? Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, we’ll talk soon. I promise.”

We hang up and I throw my phone onto the bedside table, then pull out from under Sawyer, so I’m on top of her, my arms caging her in. “I don’t want this to end,” I tell her, putting it all on the line. “Don’t leave on Saturday. Stay here with me, please. We can figure it out. I’ve never felt like this before.”

She gasps at my admission and then immediately shakes her head. “Don’t do this, Hudson,” she begs, pushing me back. “Don’t ruin the last few days we have together.”

She sits up and climbs off the bed, crossing her arms over her chest. “You’re thinking with your dick, not your head.”

“No, I’m thinking with my heart.”

She sucks in a harsh breath. “Stop it.” She walks to the door, but I catch her before she makes it out.

“Stop, what? Admitting that these past few days have been amazing. That I came on vacation to escape my life and found a woman I want to spend my life with.”

“Hudson!” she barks. “Enough. Stop saying this shit. We’ve been having fun, but that’s all it is… fun. Nothing more. I told you I don’t date famous people and I meant it. Right now, you’re caught up in the moment, but the second you’re back at work, traveling from city to city, doing what you love, you’ll forget all about me… about us.”

Before I can refute her statement, tell her she’s wrong, that I could never forget her, she turns her back on me and stalks through the suite, straight to the theater room. When she gets in there, she scoops her daughter up into her arms.

“Don’t go, please.”

“I have to,” she whisper-yells. “I need some space… We need some space. You’re talking crazy and I… I… I just need to go.”

I want to argue with her, but Abby’s eyes open, landing on me, so I close my mouth, nodding. With her daughter in her arms, she leaves in a rush. I hate that she’s walking through the dark, but by the time I would get Joanie over here, she’d already be at her room. So, instead, I send her a text asking her to please let me know she made it back okay. A few minutes later a text comes through confirming she’s fine.

I consider texting her back, but what would I say? She made it clear how she feels about dating someone whose job requires him to travel and be in the spotlight. I could argue that I’m nothing like her ex, but she’s already lumped me into the same category by default. So, instead, I decide to give her the space she asked for, while I figure out how to convince her that what we have is worth pursuing.

CHAPTER TEN

SAWYER

“But the splash pad is for babies.” Abby pouts. “Why can’t I go to camp with Presley? It’s so unfair.” She stomps her foot and glares my way, making me feel like shit. Normally, I wouldn’t put up with that kind of attitude from my daughter, but since it’s my fault she’s behaving this way, it makes it hard to reprimand her.

When she woke up this morning, excited to go to camp and see Presley, I insisted we instead spend the day with just the two of us. After the shit Hudson flung at me last night, there was no way I was going anywhere he might be. Yes, I’m aware I’m behaving like a scaredy-cat child, but it is what it is. Because everything Hudson said to me, I feel it too. But he’s not part of my plans and I’m not a part of his. He lives in New York, while I live in Tennessee. He plays professional football and I’m about to start my first job teaching high school. Until now, our vast age difference didn’t matter. But when you take that fact and add it to everything else, it’s clear we’re at two different points in our lives and thinking we can continue what we have here would be setting ourselves up for heartbreak.

I meant what I said when we first met. I’m not looking to date anyone famous again. He might not be a musician like my ex, but he still falls in the same category of constant travel, women fawning all over him, and his face and business constantly in the public eye. All things I can’t and don’t want to compete with. I’m a small-town girl with zero desire to live in the city.

“Presley! Lucas!” Abby yells. I’m about to tell her it’s not happening, when Hudson and his two kids appear in front of us, and I realize she wasn’t yelling for them but calling them over.

“Crazy running into you guys here,” Hudson says, winking at me like I didn’t run out of his room last night like my ass was on fire.