All Consuming (Brotherhood by Fire #3) -Jaci Burton Page 0,9
But how long did you take getting ready today? Like, an hour?”
Becks elbowed him. “Knock it off. He has a date.”
“Not a date,” Kal said as he made his way into the kitchen where Becks and Jackson were sitting at the table together. “Just lunch with an old friend.”
Jackson leaned back in the chair. “Someone from high school?”
“Hannah McKenzie.”
“No shit.”
“Who’s Hannah McKenzie?” Becks asked.
“His high school girlfriend.”
“Oh, really?” Becks said. “You reconnected with her at the reunion last night?”
“Yeah. But nothing happened. We broke up after high school because I was going away to college and we both knew it wasn’t going to last. And then she got married and moved out of state, so I haven’t seen her in ten years. She’s divorced now and back in Ft. Lauderdale.”
“Ooh, how interesting. So you reconnected last night and, then what?” Becks asked. “Sparks flew?”
He wasn’t going to admit to that, even if it was true. “Nah. We’re just going to have lunch and catch up.”
“Tell her I said hey,” Jackson said, returning to scrolling through his phone.
Becks, on the other hand, continued to stare at him as if she expected more.
He laughed. “There’s nothing going on. We just hung out with our group of friends. We had fun. But there was no time to talk, so we decided to have lunch together and catch up. That’s all. Really.”
“Okay,” she said. “Have fun.”
“Thanks.”
He drove to the restaurant and parked, then waited out front for Hannah to arrive. She’d texted him this morning to tell him she could meet him around twelve thirty, and they discussed where. Since he didn’t know where she currently lived, he asked her to name a location that was convenient for her, or some restaurants that she liked. She suggested a place she’d wanted to try called American Social Bar, which was known for its brunch menu. He was all for it since he liked the food there.
Hannah pulled into the parking lot and got out of her car. He watched her walk toward him, the ends of her hair flying in the breeze. She had on a short-sleeved sundress and sandals and damn, she looked fine.
She pulled off her sunglasses when she got to the entrance. “Hi.”
“Hi, yourself. I hope you’re hungry.”
“So hungry.”
He was happy she had an appetite, because he was ready to eat. “Let’s go.”
He’d already put his name in when he’d arrived, so they didn’t have to wait too long before they were seated at a table. This place got crowded during brunch hours, and there was a good reason for it—the food was great.
“This menu looks amazing,” Hannah said, then looked up at him. “You’ve eaten here before?”
He nodded. “A few times. There’s nothing bad here.”
“Good to know.”
Their server came with coffee, took their orders and disappeared.
“So, Hannah McKenzie—or what’s your name now?”
“Clark.”
“Okay, Hannah Clark. Tell me what you’ve been doing for the past ten years.”
She blinked, stared at him for a few seconds, then added cream to her coffee. “Oh, you probably know it all already.”
He could tell she was nervous, though he didn’t know why. It wasn’t like this was a first date, or even a date at all. And she knew him—they’d dated all through high school. It wasn’t like they were strangers.
Then again, maybe they were. People changed a lot in ten years.
Had he changed? He didn’t think he had.
“No, really, I don’t know it all,” he said. “I know you moved away and got married. That’s it.”
“I see.” She stirred the cream into her coffee. “Like you said, I got married, moved to Georgia. Got a divorce a year ago, then moved back here a few months ago.”
“I’m sorry about the divorce.”
“I’m not,” she said with a shrug. “It was past time.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Let’s just say it was a mistake from the start.”
That didn’t sound good. “Sometimes that happens. Carmen, my brother Rafe’s fiancée, is divorced, and she talks to me a lot about her first marriage, about how she married too young, and she didn’t see the signs like she should have.”
Hannah nodded. “Pretty much like that. But I got a great kid out of the marriage, so I have no regrets.”
Kal’s eyes widened. Now that he didn’t know. “You have a kid?”
She smiled. “Yes. Oliver. He’s seven, and the light of my life.”
“That’s awesome, Hannah. I’ll bet you’re an amazing mom.” He couldn’t imagine Hannah as a mother. But they were both adults now. Still, she was so young to have a seven-year-old son. That must