“I’m so sorry about my father. He’s out of control.” Ethan’s eyes flooded with guilt, his voice with apology. “I’m going to sit him down and set him straight—”
“Ethan,” she cut him off, pulling their joined hands beneath the table. After a quick glance around the bar to make sure she didn’t recognize any Wildwood faces, she pushed the words out before she changed her mind or lost her nerve. “Do what you need to do with your father for your own sake, but regardless, we need to stop this . . . this thing between us.”
A flicker of confused panic lit his eyes. “Look, I know that thing with my dad this morning was rough, but—”
“I’m not afraid of him,” she clarified, only half lying. “I won’t be here long, and as much as he might want to, he can’t hurt me. But I’m afraid of how his anger could turn on you. You he can hurt. We just need to stay away from each other so things like what happened today won’t happen in the future.”
“Hold on, hold on—”
She shook her head and met his eyes directly, but her stomach felt as if it were cramping around a sharp rock. “What we had was one night, and it’s done. I just came here so I could tell you in person without being seen with you in Wildwood again.”
He let out a sigh so deep, his shoulders sank. The hurt that reflected on his face both surprised and pained Delaney. He broke eye contact and scanned the bar, but he still held her hand tight. His gaze focused on the game for a few seconds, and she closed the lid on her laptop. He wasn’t even gone yet, and she already felt his absence in her life.
When he looked at her again, his jaw was set with determination. “If we could keep it quiet, just between you and me, would you want to keep seeing me?”
“What? I—that’s—”
“Because I want more, Delaney.”
The deliberation in his words, in his expression, in his tone stole her breath.
She had to regroup. The thought of a few wildly passionate nights with Ethan was so tempting she actually considered it for a hot second. Then reality struck, and the risks they would be taking pushed to the forefront of her mind. If anyone found out they were sleeping together, it would launch the next chapter in the Hart-Hayes feud.
Sleeping with the enemy.
The thought came from somewhere in her distant past and rang a dark bell of truth.
Of course. What better way to get back at his father?
This she understood.
“Look, I totally get what you’re going through,” she said, searching for rationale to quell the sting of hurt. “He’s a powerful man, you work for the city, and sometimes you feel trapped. And that shit he pulled today wasn’t right. He was a total ass. He embarrassed you, and you’re angry. You want to get back at him by getting another little piece of the forbidden. To hold on to it like a naughty little secret you can look back on when you feel stuck, when you can’t breathe, to help you let go of the resentment eating at you in the moment.
“I, of all people, get that. I really, really get that. But what I learned the hard way is that when you’re focused on getting revenge, you forget to look around and take in the big picture. You forget that while this may seem like a morsel of delectable sin for your memory banks, if anyone found out, it would spread like wildfire and scorch everything in your life—your relationship with your family, your job, your future here in Wildwood.
“A few nights and the opportunity to feel like you got something over on your father isn’t worth your entire future. You’ve already lost so much. I don’t want to see you lose any more. And I certainly don’t want to be the reason you lose it again—”
“Don’t.”
His hot, angry rasp made Delaney suck in the words waiting to spill. She curved her lips over her teeth and let her gaze blur over the Apple logo on the cover of her laptop.
“You are not a game to me. I’m not using you in some sick revenge plot against my—” His angry words broke off. She tried to slide her hand from his, but he had it wrapped so tightly her fingers had gone numb. “No ties does not mean you’re less important. It means . . . it just means . . . I’m too damaged to offer anything more.”
That hit her completely wrong, a fact that must have registered on her face when she finally looked up because he cut his gaze away. “Don’t, Delaney.”
“Don’t what? Tell you that’s the stupidest thing I’ve heard in a long damn time? That’s . . . that’s just . . .” She shook her head. “Why would you think that? The simple fact that you’re not like the rest of your family makes you a winner. But you’ve also got everything going for you.”
“Did you believe anyone trying to tell you the same things when you were young?”
“You’re not a teenager.”
“You’re right. We’re both adults, and I’m done letting my family determine the path of my life. I know I shouldn’t be asking you to deal with it, but if we keep things between us quiet, there doesn’t have to be any drama.”
“This town is too small. There’s no way—”
“There’s always a way.”
&nb