“I mean it.”
“So you haven’t…?”
“No!”
“Because?”
“Because I’m…I’m…”
“You’re…?”Izzy prodded, waiting expectantly.
“Old,” Hadley whispered, sliding her friend an embarrassed look.
“Oh, stop it.”
“I’m serious.My last first date—firsttime—was almost thirtyyearsago.The whole concept of dating is weird to me now.I don’t want to rush and…screw things up.”
“Then why all the blushing?”
Heat flooded her once more when she thought of the kissing and touching and, okay, alittleheavy petting in the shed out back over the weekend.
“Ah.Because you’re rethinking the going slow part.”
“No.I’m not.”
“You’re totally falling for him.”
“I am totallyintrigued,” Hadley corrected, smiling into her glass as she took a long sip of her spiked drink and stared out at the Atlantic to keep from looking at Izzy.“He’s…so different from Kyle.”
“That’s a good thing, right?”
“Yes.On every level.I mean, Kyle wasn’t always awful.He could be a class-A jerk but I’m sure I wasn’t always easy to live with.That’s just marriage, and things happen a little at a time.The fights and comments.But when you’ve got years between you, kids and bills and responsibilities… You don’t end something because someone’s a jerk.”
“Hadley?”
“Hmm?”
“What does that have to do with Bryson?”Isabel asked.
Whatdidit have to do with Bryson?“It’s just… I haven’t known Bryson long enough to know if I’m falling for him or merely infatuated or flattered by the attention.I haven’t seen him angry or sad or… There’s a lot left to learn before I truly knowanything.”
“You’re scared.”
Hadley shifted her gaze to her friend and found Isabel had curled her legs up on the chair, looking every bit the beautiful, newlywedded, and now pregnant artist she was known to be.“Wouldn’t you be?I mean, if I couldn’t trust the man I’ve spent half my life with, how can I trust one I barely know?”
Izzy pointed a long, slender finger at her.“You focus on the fact Bryson hasn’t given you any reason to doubt him.And until he does, you have to live in the moment.”
Hadley shifted her gaze back toward the ocean and pondered Izzy’s words, knowing it was true.Kyle and Bryson were two very different men and she couldn’t compare them.Everyone had their own moral code and beliefs and boundaries they either crossed or kept.
“Mmm, here’s your gorgeous hunk now,” Izzy said in a low, sultry voice.
Hadley followed Izzy’s stare to see Bryson moving between the hedges.Hershey apparently heard him coming, because she scrambled to her feet and ran to the edge of the porch barking, feet prancing up and down when she realized who came to visit.
Hershey glanced at Hadley as though for permission and Hadley waved her hand.“You can go.”
The dog bolted at the wordgo, jumping over the stairs entirely and landing on the sidewalk, where she raced toward Bryson.Bryson laughed when he saw the dog coming and zigzagged, playing tag with Hershey and earning a gigantic doggie grin as Hershey spun around and came at him again.
Bryson played for several minutes and then raced for the porch, Hershey hot on his heels as Bryson made his way up the steps.