Melting - Sean Ashcroft Page 0,34

going,” I promised. “I’m going.”

I took a step toward the window, hesitated, and then crossed the distance between us to kiss him one last time.

“Hang onto that for me,” I said, rushing back to the window and climbing out onto the ladder and rushing down it so I wouldn’t be seen.

Once I was on the ground, I stared up at Hayden’s window as the lights came on in his room and grinned to myself at the thought of him.

… if my heart did something stupid, I was not going to be happy with it.

16

Hayden

I hadn’t been as relaxed as I was walking next to Wes through the still-quiet streets of Otter Bay in longer than I cared to remember. There was something about him that was just so easy. So peaceful.

He didn’t expect anything from me, and I couldn’t remember the last time I’d known someone like that. Even Marissa was my business partner as well as my best friend, I had responsibilities to her.

My only responsibility to Wes was not to be terrible company.

“Place has changed a lot, right?” Wes asked as our shoulders brushed together, ducking under the shade of an umbrella one of the local cafés had up for their outdoor seating.

“Yeah. It’s almost… fashionable,” I said, looking at the menu written on the front window in chalk marker, Instagram-perfect hand lettering offering me today’s special—a lavender-vanilla latte.

“We should come back here to eat,” Wes said. “They do a rose jam croissant with these little sugared rose petals on the top, you’d love it.”

“I’d love it?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

I would love it, but Wes had no way of knowing that.

“You’re a multi-award winning pastry chef.” Wes shrugged. “I assume you’re into that kind of thing.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “You know too much about me,” I said, pointing at the center of his chest. “Stop that.”

Wes chuckled, turning to head further down the main street. “I need to stop into the little hardware store down here for a washer, since you interrupted me in the middle of my thought process the other day.”

“Wes!” A familiar voice called out behind us. I turned around, grinning as I saw Seth running toward Wes and laughing with them as he leapt into Wes’s arms, long flowing skirt swinging around his ankles.

Mark followed him with a fond smile and a nod to me.

Wes twirled Seth around once and then set him down. “That’s new,” he said, nodding to the skirt.

“You like it? It’s vintage,” he said, turning around so the hem spun out around him.

I’d never met a person more comfortable with themself than Seth was.

“Just the man I wanted to see,” Mark said, turning to me, which was a little confusing. “I’ve got something for you” he added, which was even more confusing.

“For me?” I asked.

Mark chuckled. “For you,” he confirmed. “I know we don’t know each other very well, but I saw it and thought of you. If you don’t want it, it’ll only end up back in storage again. And a friend of Seth’s is a friend of mine.”

“You sound like a man angling for another sugar baby,” Seth said, threading his arm through Mark’s. “It’s okay, I don’t mind sharing you with Hayden. He’s cute and he could reach things on high shelves for me when you’re not around.”

I glanced at Wes, who was no help at all. All he did was grin at me and laugh when Seth wiggled his eyebrows.

Traitor.

“You’re more than enough trouble all by yourself,” Mark said, but he managed to make it sound like I love you and I wouldn’t have anyone else. “How about it, Hayden? It’s just down the other end of the street.”

I looked at Wes again, remembering the trip he needed to make to the hardware store. He’d agreed to keep me company today, I didn’t want to abandon him.

“You go with Mark,” he said. “I’ll keep Seth occupied looking at shiny things while you’re gone.”

“Hey!” Seth objected, but with very little force behind it. “I also like brightly-colored things.”

Wes snorted. “I’ll take you to the paint chip section,” he promised. “Hours of entertainment. We can meet up for that croissant back here later?”

He was so impossibly easy to get along with that I only just believed he was real.

Seth switched arms, taking Wes’s with obvious delight, and tiny surge of jealousy ran through me.

After hesitating for a second, I gathered all my nerve and moved to stand in front of Wes, stomach swooping as