And so she wouldn’t – for Ward’s sake, and her own too.

She’d had a moment of weakness, sure, but at the end of the day, Hannah wouldn’t be so stupid as to risk everything she’d done to put her past behind her, and all the changes she’d made since starting over after LA.

Only to put herself right back into the same situation.

Chapter 47

So, I can’t believe I’m even writing this, but …

Hannah noticed that some of Ed’s words had been crossed out and scribbled over ’til whatever had been there was completely illegible as if he’d needed to get his thoughts in order before he continued.

I can’t believe I’m writing this, but here we are. Seems I have a dilemma of my own.

Smiling with anticipation and no small part curiosity, she took the note over to the sofa, tucking her legs beneath her to get comfortable. It felt good to have something different to focus on, after the turmoil of the last week.

Following their ‘moment’ in the park, Ward had once again clammed up, retreated back into himself, and had been formal and distant with her ever since. Pretty much back to how he used to be when she’d first encountered him.

What’s worse, it seemed someone from the paparazzi had spotted the two of them slink out of the Plaza separately and nabbed a shot of them heading into the park in the darkness, the online gossip sites running the headline Back in the Den – Returning Panther McKenzie Scores with Mystery Woman, beneath a grainy shot of her leading him down the steps.

While his face was clear beneath the street lights, luckily Hannah was slightly ahead of him and in side profile, and thus pretty much unrecognizable to anyone other than herself, thank goodness. And Zoe, of course, who was having a field day teasing her ever since.

Having made some meaningful inroads at work recently, the last thing Hannah needed was a misstep like this to undermine her.

She and Ward hadn’t spoken again of that night though, other than she reiterating that the plan hadn’t changed and that going back to the Panthers under Jefferson Prince did not mean an automatic return to his old self-destructive ways.

But he remained unconvinced and, she guessed, still a little embarrassed (or maybe even annoyed?) following her brush off. But how could she complain since she was the one who’d insisted on professional boundaries? To his credit, he’d insisted on seeing her off safely in a cab once they were back on the street, uttering a low-key goodbye and another apology as she drove off and he waited to catch the next.