“‘Night,” he says with a casual wave, then turns on his heel with the bottle of wine under one arm to walk down the sidewalk. He must have parked on the street a block or two away instead of finding a spot out front like I did.

I move to head toward my car, but as I glance up, my breath catches in my throat, and I freeze.

Declan is leaning against the side of a building across the street, his silhouette cutting a perfect figure against the night as a smile plays at the corners of his lips.

19. Hannah

Chapter 19

Hannah

My heart nearly stops at the sight of him, my breath catching in my throat. As our eyes lock, Declan pushes away from the building and starts to cross the street toward me, moving with an easy confidence that makes my pulse race in a way it never did with Aaron.

Was he waiting for me all this time?

I shake my head at the thought because it sounds crazy. Sure, he knew when and where I was going to be meeting Aaron tonight because he overheard my call with him at the studio the other day, but that doesn’t mean he came here because of me.

Does it?

As he steps over the curb and approaches with that irresistible half-smile, something clicks in my brain. Him being here and the restaurant closing aren’t isolated incidents. I don’t have the proof for it—not yet anyway—but the more I think about it, the more positive I am that Declan had something to do with this. There isn’t another reason that comes close to making sense. But would he really go that far just to crash my not-a-date with Aaron?

“It was you, wasn’t it?” I ask without preamble, and he shrugs, chuckling.

“I hated the idea of you being out with another man, date or not,” he says, his amber and brown eyes flashing in the dim light from the restaurant’s exterior. “And if you didn’t want to be there either, I figured I’d put both of us out of our misery.”

I can’t help but laugh at that. It’s a totally ridiculous thing to have done, but he’s right. I didn’t want to be there at all. I just went to make my mother and everyone else happy and get them to stop hounding me about giving Aaron another chance. I couldn’t bring myself to tell Declan that when he asked me directly the other day, but just like he always seems to do, he saw right through me.

What was it he said? Something about how my body tells the truth?

“What did you do, call in a bomb threat or something?” I ask with a raised eyebrow.

“Not quite. I just called in a few costly favors for a last-minute reservation—for the entire restaurant.”