When he hadn’t ignored her as she’d feared he would after their one-night together, she guessed she’d taken some of the control back in a way that could only be described as mean.
Ignoring him rather than allowing him to ignore her.
Had she played hard to get?
Maybe. But maybe not.
If that had been her intention, it had certainly worked.
James was doing a shitty job of blanking her, that was for certain. But more than that, she figured she’d ignored his calls for so long because it was a means of stabilizing herself.
He’d already rocked her universe. Both with that Labor Day kiss and the precious moments they’d shared in bed together.
She was tired of that. Tired of the world revolving around her reaction to him. She needed time for herself. Time to focus and to center herself.
With James in her life, she couldn’t do that.
When she picked up her phone and pressed the ‘connect call’ button, Hannah could say she only accepted because of the last text she’d received from Mark after she ignored his third call of the morning.
I’m taking you out tonight. Wear the black dress. I love your ass in it.
Three sentences… each of them capable of making her nose-twitchingly mad.
But more than that, these past weeks without James influencing her days, had been spent productively. She knew what she was doing, what her end goals were… if there was ever a time she believed she’d be capable of dealing with him, it was now.
The minute the call connected, she knew she’d made a huge mistake but just hanging up would look worse than the truth—James' voice could and would always make her melt.
Hell, not just his voice.
She’d never be able to deal with him, she realized. Not subjectively. Crap, when would she stop lying to herself where he was concerned?
Her stomach roiled with unease. It had been doing that of late, and she knew the stress and tension in her life was making her sick. She had to change that because she was making things too hard on herself, and now, she had more to worry about than just herself.
“Finally,” James said, breaking into thoughts that would exacerbate her nervousness. “I thought you were going to ignore my calls forever.”
“Don’t whine, James,” she retorted wryly, hating how it made her happy to hear his voice.
What was that even about? How could she be so proud of her independence and yet react to him like this?
Gruffly, she returned to the conversation with, “Whining doesn’t become you.”
Silence crept down the line, and it amused her because she knew she’d surprised him. He chuckled though, surprising her. “You’re such a pain in the ass, Hannah.”
She couldn’t help herself. She grinned. Rocking back in the chair at the desk where she’d studied for her SATs and was now working hard to create her own business, Hannah murmured, “Apparently, you like having a pain in the ass.”
“Babe, I spanked you. Don’t t
hink I’m letting you anywhere near my behind.”
“Woah, man, too much fucking information,” Aidan chimed in.
At the sound of her brother’s scolding, Hannah had to laugh. She didn’t have it in her to be embarrassed. Aidan knew way too much about her anyway—he’d been the one to console her after her disastrous first time after prom. When a brother knew that particular horrendous truth, he could cope with anything.
“Don’t make it easy on this reprobate, sis,” he called out, but his voice was fading, and she realized he was probably crossing from James' half of the room to his own space.
“You’ve been talking about me with Aidan,” she said with surprise. Hannah hadn’t expected that. Not one bit.
Again, what was with the unpredictability around here?