Page 19 of See It Through
I didn’t know what to say, so I just sat back and took a long swallow of my beer.
Caleb, who’d been with me all the way to the end, who understood who Graham had been with me, reached out and squeezed my arm.
“Shame he couldn’t get it together for you. I think your leaving was the wake-up call he needed.”
I chuffed. “The irony isn’t lost on me.”
“Yeah.” He took out his phone, swiped the screen for a minute, and passed it over to me. I picked it up, looking at the picture of a little boy with chocolate eyes and shaggy chestnut hair atop a horse. I knew it wasn’t Caleb, but it could’ve been from how much this kid resembled him.
“Yours?” I asked, already knowing the answer.
He nodded. “That’s my boy. Jesse’s ten.”
Two tons of loss downpouring directly on my chest. “Christ. You were twenty-one when you had him?” I glanced at his bare left hand. “You’re not married?”
“Nah. His mom’s a good woman, but we both knew it never would’ve worked. Luckily, we do well co-parenting.”
I shook my head, staring down at the picture of his son. “I should’ve been here for this.”
He chuffed. “Would’ve been nice, but we’re calling it water under the bridge now. You stick around long enough, you can meet him.”
I swallowed hard as I handed the phone back. “That’d be great. I’d like that a lot.”
I turned my head, my eye catching on a woman leaning over the bar, laughing with the bartender. Even from a distance, there was no mistaking Hannah Kelly, her endless, muscular legs encased in worn jeans and all that long, dark hair spilling down her back. It was good seeing her with a smile since she’d been scowling the times I’d seen her.
The smile suited her. It was more natural than the scowl. I hoped she got a lot of use out of it.
While she stood there, a man in a dirty T-shirt and backward cap approached her. She straightened and rotated her body, one elbow on the bar, leaning casually. He was shorter than her despite her not standing at her full height.
As he spoke, her smile dimmed until it was barely there.
Caleb grunted, and I wrenched my focus from Hannah to find he’d been watching the same thing.
“She’s had it rough,” he uttered. “Not just losing Graham. The last guy she was with did her dirty. He was a piece of shit, we all knew it, but he still managed to blindside her.”
My gut clenched in a knot of barbed wire. I tensed, fingers digging into my thighs.
“The guy she’s talking to?” I asked.
“Nah, that’s not him. That guy has been circling around for a few months.”
I raised a brow. “You going to intervene?”
“Nope.” He chuckled. “Han can take care of herself. If I tried, she’d go off with him just to spite me.”
That had me chuckling with him. “You Kellys and your obstinance.”
A commotion drew my attention back to the bar. Dirty Shirt was hopping on one foot while Hannah clapped with delight. Without warning, her eyes flicked up, finding mine. Her teeth dug into her bottom lip, but she couldn’t get rid of her grin.
“What’d I tell you? My sister’s a different kind of beast.”
I snorted, not taking my eyes off the strange scene. “Something tells me she wouldn’t like you calling her a beast.”
“She’s heard it before. Almost broke my nose the last time.”
“She punched you?”
“Worse. She threw an apple at my face.”