She took in the older, leaner version of the boy she had once known. Memories flooded her brain—study sessions, drunken nights, Wilderness concerts, a graduation-night kiss, and finally, the image of him draped over yet another girl, this one in a bridesmaid dress.
“William Thorne,” she said derisively. Her body buzzed, adrenaline coursing through her. She’d wanted it to be Brian—for him to have finally figured out that he wanted her for more than just the foreseeable future.
She turned her attention back to Will. He remained on one knee but had lowered the ring. A smile, halfway between questioning and amused, played across his face. “This is amazingly uncomfortable. Why do people propose like this?”
“Knights, courting, et cetera and so forth,” Hannah said absently, waving him into her apartment. She peeked around the door, but fortunately, it was late enough that the hallway was empty.
Will stood, pocketed the ring, and came in hesitantly despite his initial grand entrance. Hannah watched his eyes travel around the room, taking in the small clues littered throughout the apartment before focusing on her laptop, which still had a picture of the two of them open. Great first impression.
“You seem surprised to see me,” he said, turning his full attention and the power of his perfect smile on her.
She should’ve felt surprise at Will’s sudden appearance, but she didn’t. And not just because she’d just gotten a friend request from him—this was completely and utterly a Will thing to do. And really, she should’ve been expecting him.
“Well, you are a day late.” On top of the last half a decade. Even as Hannah thought it, she knew she had a hand in those lost years. In the end, it wouldn’t matter—not for them. They would still be Will and Hannah. She knew it, and by the contented expression on Will’s face, he knew it too.
He pulled her into a hug, lifting her off her feet. “Hannah Abbott, as I live and breathe! I’ve missed you.” She giggled as he twirled her around and set her down. He stepped back and gave her a once-over—not in the creepy way some guys did, but exaggerated and comical. “You used to be taller.”
She rolled her eyes. Only Will would bring up the story she’d told him one snowy night on campus that, when she was seven, she’d spent a whole two months convinced that she’d been shrinking. The following April Fool’s Day, he had moved everything in her dorm a few inches higher, making several things just out of her reach.
Hannah stepped further into the living room, keenly aware of Will’s every move as he took a seat on the couch.
“Beer, wine, water?” she asked.
“Water would be good.”
She nodded and pushed the lid of her laptop closed. “I’ll be right back.” As she headed for the fridge, her eyes never left Will’s form. He sat back on the couch, his hands clasped and his eyes fixed on his lap. A part of her—the part that knew and loved Will all those years in college—felt no qualms about his late-night visit. Will was Will. Even when they were best friends, he had flitted in and out of her life, always coming back just as she started to worry he never would. But underneath that calm was a rumble of discomfort. He’d shown up at her apartment—an apartment he’d never been to. She searched his face.
Will looked up, his eyes meeting hers. “Yes?”
“How did you know where I lived?” So much for tact.
”Oh, Kate told me.”
Crap. She’d completely forgotten to get Kate out of that date. “Give me my phone.”
He fumbled with the device sitting on the coffee table in front of him. “Look, I’m sorry if—”
“It’s not that.” Hannah took the phone from him, dialing Kate as fast as her fingers would allow. “I’m not angry that you have my address.”
The line rang and rang. Hannah kept her eyes on Will as Kate’s voicemail recording played. She was going to be so pissed. But right now, Hannah had her own situation to deal with.
She hung up and stared at Will. “You sent the carnations.”
“Yes,” he said in a tone that suggested she should’ve known this already.
“There wasn’t a card.”
“Well, it would’ve said, ‘Happy 30th Birthday, Abbott. I believe we have something to discuss. Winky-smiley face.’”
“Will.”
He placed the ring on the table between them. “I’m thirty; you’re thirty.”
She dropped into the chair next to him, staring at the giant sparkling rock he’d left sitting on her table. He couldn’t be serious. Heat rocketed up her neck and into her cheeks, but underneath, a hint of excitement brewed. Will Thorne had come to initiate the marriage pact.
Chapter 4Hannah
It had happened on graduation night, post-ceremony and post–celebratory dinners at the best eateries Iowa City had to offer. After depositing their families back at their respective hotels, Hannah, Will, Kate, and Trevor, Kate’s boyfriend, had met at the apartment the girls shared for one last night together. Kate and Trevor had disappeared after only an hour. Hannah hadn’t blamed them. She and Kate would be leaving the following day for a European summer—a trip Hannah had somehow convinced her parents to fund as a graduation gift. No being a camp counselor at Ardena Heat. No airing her lack of any real plans to her former classmates, who undoubtedly had jobs lined up and more than a fleeting hope of keeping them. Unlike Hannah, who hadn’t heard back from a single one of the New York City internships she applied to, including the coveted Talented internship. So, Europe it was—eight cities in eight weeks, giving her two months of blog posts to boost her writing portfolio.
With just the right amount of beer and taquitos in her stomach, Hannah’s mood balanced somewhere between relaxed and giggly. Will had reached his introspective stage, meaning he’d had one beer too many and not enough taquitos. He’d lamented the fact that Hannah would board a plane for Europe in the morning and was already waxing nostalgic about their college lives. In typical Will fashion, she didn’t have time to formulate a response before he was on to the next topic—the future. If there was anything Will didn’t need to worry about, it was the future. Hannah could picture his whole life—law school, junior partner by thirty, a smart, attractive wife and two kids he doted on. He would be happy; it was that simple.
She’d tuned back in to his ramblings. “What if I never meet the right woman? Never experience true love? Never—”
“You will,” she said, looking up at Will from her spot on the floor. She could hear the worries racking up and ricocheting in his head. She reached for his hand. “You will.”
“What if I’ve already met her and let her slip away?” His eyes were bright, his voice returning to its nostalgic tone.
She laughed. “Then I suggest you go find her and tell her before she leaves Iowa City.”
He sat up abruptly, and her hand slipped off of his. “See you later, then, Abbott.”
Her eyes widened. She could’ve sworn he was being rhetorical. “Somehow I don’t think this mystery girl would appreciate being told this in the wee hours of the morning.”
He slid off the couch and onto the floor beside her. His hand wrapped around hers.
“I guess you’re right. No one likes a drunk Will at two in the morning.”
