Chapter 29

29

HAWK

A lthough I wanted to, I didn’t spend the night with Sutton. David would be bringing Winnie home soon, I was sure, and I didn’t want to intrude on the conversation they were definitely going to have to have when she got here.

I kissed Sutton soundly after doing up my pants, and I smiled against her lips and let my mouth linger against hers. “I’ve got to go. I’ve got something to take care of tonight, but take it easy, alright?”

“Alright,” she agreed softly, her fingertips light on my jaw. “Are you sure you don’t want to stay?”

“I want to, but I can’t,” I said. “Winnie will be home soon, yes?”

She let out a long exhale through her nostrils, nodded, and stepped away from me. “That doesn’t mean you have to leave.”

“But it does,” I said softly. She fastened her belt. I reached out and curled my fingers around the leather, using my grip on it to tug her back into me. “We’ll talk later, okay?”

She giggled, her eyes on mine. She groaned and dropped her head to my chest. “We’ll talk later. I wish you were staying.”

“Same here.”

After dropping a final kiss on top of her head, I released her, swigged the last of my whiskey, and pulled on my jacket. I walked to the door. Sutton waved and I waved back, then quickly left before I decided to stay.

Things were complicated enough for her today. I didn’t want to make it worse by sticking around until David and Winnie got back. Sutton and I would have time to talk about all the things we needed to talk about, but if I’d stayed, we’d have wound up having all those conversations tonight.

With each other. With Winnie. With David.

I hurried away from their house and headed to a bar downtown. I grinned when I found Luke sitting at the counter. It was perfect because I really needed someone other than my sister to talk to right now.

As I dropped into the chair next to my friend’s, he didn’t even look at me before he laughed. “It’s funny. Aggie and I have been around my parents for a few years now, but hers fly in, and all of a sudden, I can’t get out of the house fast enough.”

I chuckled and nodded at the bartender when he glanced at me. As he reached for a glass to pour my drink, I turned to Luke. “Want to talk about it?”

“No, but Thanksgiving needs to get here. Right now.”

“Soon,” I said. “It’s on Thursday, so it’ll be here before you know it.”

“Yeah, but it’s only Monday.”

I laughed. “Is it really that bad?”

“Yes,” he said, taking another large sip of his beer. “I don’t think they’ve ever forgiven me for moving Aggie out here and having their grandchildren grow up so far away from the city. Anyway, how are things with you?”

“Let’s just say you’re not the only one under pressure at the moment,” I admitted and practically grabbed my drink when the bartender set it down on the pocked wooden counter. “I’m under some serious pressure myself, but the cause of mine isn’t flying home on Sunday.”

“Aren’t you flying home on Sunday?” he asked, peering at me over the rim of his glass. “I thought you said you were only in town for Thanksgiving, though I heard some interesting stuff through the local rumor mill.”

“Such as?”

“Such as you’re buying your dad’s company and moving back home,” he said. “There might also have been something about finally pulling your head out of your ass when it comes to Sutton Ashbury.”

I thought it over for a moment before I shrugged. “For once, the local rumor mill seems to have gotten it right.”

His eyes nearly bulged out of his head. “Are you serious? You’re moving home to be with Sutton and to take over the port?”

“Something like that, except I’m not taking over the port,” I said. “I’m also not moving back to be with Sutton. Our situation is a little more complicated than that.”

“Does she know you want to be with her?”

“Yep, but Scotland has recently arrived in Portsmouth, so we’ve got to deal with that now, too.”

“Her ex?” Luke winced. “The dude is here?”

“The dude is here.”

His phone buzzed on the counter. When he checked it, he sighed and dropped some cash next to his glass. “I have to go. Apparently, a guy can’t drink beer with his friend all night while his in-laws are in town, but let me know if you need backup to kick this guy’s ass.”

“Thanks. I’ll keep you in mind if it comes to that.”

He chuckled, getting up and touching his fingers to his forehead. “I’m just a phone call away. Wish me luck.”

“Luck,” I called after him. Picking up my beer, I wondered if it was ever going to come to that.

There was nothing I’d like more than to kick Calen’s ass for everything he’d done to Winnie and Sutton, but realistically, Winnie wouldn’t thank me for it and that would make things a lot more difficult for Sutton.

Plus, David would take it as a sign that I was still the same immature asshole who only cared about himself and his ego and who failed to take anyone else’s feelings into account. While his opinions about me hadn’t stopped Sutton so far, I also didn’t want to be like Calen in that sense, who’d driven a wedge between her and her father by being such a jackass that David hadn’t even wanted to visit them.

In the end, I told myself it didn’t matter because it was unlikely I’d ever get the chance to kick his ass anyway. Naturally, as I had the thought while finishing my beer, I heard a Scottish accent booming from across the bar.

No way. No fucking way.

I jerked my eyes up and away from my beer, darting them in the direction of the accent. Sure enough, Calen was in the bar. Talking loudly to a group of local women, he smirked and laughed, obviously flirting as he leaned in and made eye contact like it was nobody’s business.

My stomach rolled. What the fuck are you doing, man? You’ve got a tiny baby at home with a woman who’s getting a divorce because of you. You came here to see the daughter you abandoned, forcing the woman whose life you blew up to have to deal with you, and this is what you’re doing with your time on your first night?

I’d known he was a dick but I hadn’t realized it was possible for just one guy to be this big of a dick. And that’s coming from me, who knows a thing or two about being a real dick.

As I watched him, he suddenly glanced in my direction once, then twice. Frowning, he straightened up. I’d known who he was because of the accent and the hair, but I had no idea why it looked like he knew who I was, too.

Face to face with him for the first time, I fucking hated the guy even more than before, but that was only because I could see why Sutton had fallen for him in the first place—and why it’d taken her so long to catch on.

He just didn’t look like a hall of fame level jerk. At first glance, he actually looked like a pretty nice guy, and objectively, he was good looking. Tall with defined features, high cheekbones, and wavy, dark red hair, he was built like a guy who could haul around a pallet of bricks and there seemed to be constant laughter in his eyes.

Laughter that didn’t fade even as he approached me. His gaze ran over my face like he was trying to figure out why I looked familiar. When he finally reached me, he even grinned, obviously not at all ashamed of studying me so openly or so intently.

“Do I know you?” he asked easily, his accent thick but his voice friendly enough. “I feel like I know you.”

“Hawk Brunson,” I said coolly as I stood up, introducing myself without offering him my hand. “ Do you know me?”

Immediately, the grin faded from his lips, replaced by a cold twist of his mouth. He chuckled and nodded slowly. “Right. Right, I do know you. You’re the childhood friend who broke my wife’s heart. I remember you from the pictures she showed me.”

“She’s not your wife anymore. And you’re one to talk about breaking her heart.”

He shrugged as if that was no more than a temporary inconvenience. “It doesn’t really matter. You broke her heart and it took until she met me to put it back together.”

My insides smarted at the reminder, but I pushed it aside, not about to get defensive when it was information I was after. “What are you doing in Portsmouth, Calen?”

“I have the right to visit my wife and daughter, mate.” He grinned again suddenly and clapped me on the shoulder before he turned to walk away.

I grabbed his arm. “You better not hurt them again, Megill, and she’s not your wife. You’d do well to remember that.”

The guy spun to face me, his chin coming up. His eyes narrowed as he jerked his arm out of my grasp. Staring him down, I mentally begged him to take a fucking swing, and for a moment, it looked like he might.

I could practically feel the aggression zinging in the air, zapping between us as our gazes clashed. My hands rolled into fists at my sides in response. A younger version of me—which also happened to be the version I’d still been when I’d arrived back in Portsmouth—would’ve thrown caution to the wind.

I wouldn’t have hesitated to clock him or to goad him into clocking me, but I’d told Sutton I would prove myself to her. I had changed, and my ego wasn’t controlling me anymore. This was my first test and I wouldn’t fail it.

Calen glared back at me, his chest heaving. His biceps bulged under his shirt, and I saw how much he wanted to take that swing. Tension hung heavily between us until he finally scoffed, shook his head, and walked away.

I stood right where I had been, watching until the exit door swung shut behind him before I paid for my drinks and took off too, fuming and wondering what his real play was here. Somehow, I doubted he’d come for Thanksgiving with Winnie. I simply couldn’t decide what I thought he was really after.