Summer Breeze Kisses - Addison Moore Page 0,413

table, and I wouldn’t feel half as vulnerable.

His eyes enlarge as the implications of my chaste proposition settle in.

“Are you asking me out on a date?” His lips cinch with a grin, and a swell of relief fills me.

“Only if you’re accepting. Do you think you can sneak away for an hour? I hear the owner who runs this place is a real jerk.”

Axel’s chest rumbles with a dry laugh, his eyes never leaving mine. “I think I can take him if he gives us any trouble.” He holds an arm out. “Shall we?”

I link my arm through his, and it feels comfortable, right. “We shall.”

Hollow Brook has always held a special charm. A small town perched on a mountaintop, hillsides abounding, lakes just a stone’s throw away, and if you drive down the mountain and head east, you will inevitably hit a beach. But today, the only body of water we’ll be seeing is that of the Witch’s Cauldron. Thoughts of our last encounter there permeate my mind, and I carefully push them all away.

Axel and I don’t say much on the way up. I think he’s too afraid I’ll ask him to turn the car around, and I’m too afraid he might be right. Axel carefully bypasses the Witch’s Cauldron and her sister thermal springs and parks near the hiking trails up by the overlook. Wise choice. And by that small action, I’m no longer worried about dredging up the awful past. I’m not ready to, nor do I ever want to. I like the thought of new beginnings.

We get out, and I stretch back to life while inhaling vats full of crisp autumn air. A burst of color snags my attention from down the mountain, and I gasp.

“Look at that!” I marvel, and we head to the overlook and take in the fall splendor that’s covering the world below. Maples, liquid ambers, oaks, and aspens all have traded their lime green leaves for bold hues of gold, red, and tangerine. It’s so beautiful I don’t want to move a single step away from here. How could a world that holds so much fragile beauty be so broken and cruel? In the end that’s what I had become, broken and cruel.

“It’s nice.” Axel wraps his arms around me from behind, and his warm breath trickles over my neck. “But it has nothing on you.” He spins me into him, those bright eyes of his sealed over mine.

Axel is a gorgeous man—one I’ve always felt was far too handsome for me. But I’ve noticed more often than not an ever-present sadness lurking beneath the surface when he looks at me. I’ve hurt him, I know. But it’s deeper than that. He’s afraid he won’t ever reach me. That I won’t ever stop hurting him. And a part of me is terrified of just that. People don’t change overnight. Some people never change. My mother couldn’t love her own children. How far could I have rolled from the family tree? After all, I’ve got her blood in me.

My mouth opens to say something, but Axel gently lands a finger over my lips, and I take the opportunity to steal a kiss.

“I owe you an apology.” He winces before closing his eyes a moment. “I’m sorry about the other night. I should never have let things go that far.”

“What?” I squawk so loud a flock of sparrows darts out of the evergreen above us. “If you’re about to break into the I-think-we-should-just-be-friends speech, I might be moved to toss you off the side of this cliff.”

He bucks with a warm laugh. “That’s what I love about you—you’ve got some fight in you.”

A breath of frustration strums from me. “It’s also what killed us.”

“I’m not giving you the let’s-be-friends speech.” His hands warm me as they glide over my back. “I’m giving you the I-wish-I-didn’t-take-advantage-of-you-the-other-night speech. The I-think-we-need-to-take-things-slow speech. I’m in love with you, Lex.”

My teeth graze over my bottom lip because this is the part where I tell him that I love him back and that I want to forget about the past and start all over again.

My phone buzzes in my purse, and I frown at it. “Just one second.”

It’s a text from Marlin. You up for dinner at the Black Bear? I want to discuss Serena.

I’ll get back to you. I hit Send.

“It’s just Marlin.” No sooner do I dip my phone back into my purse than it buzzes again, and I glance down at it.

“A text from Serena.”