Max doesn’t look up, and before I can explain Jude crosses to him, crouching down to make eye contact with my son.
I want to ignore how the gesture squeezes at my heart. Before I can tell him that Max doesn’t speak, Max reaches and touches his lips.
“Oh my God, I’m sorry!” I fly to Jude’s side, shaking my head at Max. “We don’t touch strangers, baby.”
His bright eyes focus on my lips as I speak and he frowns as he reads them, beginning to sign.
I bite back a smile, not quite able to flatten the curving corners of my mouth. He already has my attitude.
“It’s okay,” Jude intervenes. “He reads lips?”
I’m grateful that he doesn’t ask the obvious question. Max is young enough that strangers sometimes assume he’s being shy. But Jude, Mr. Arrogant himself, has noticed the precision to his tiny fingers as they move. I don’t have to tell him my son is deaf or explain why or answer the slightly personal questions most people are too oblivious to resist asking.
“Mostly.” I shoot a dirty look at Amie. “It seems he’s getting better at it. I’m sorry that he—”
“It’s really not an issue.” Jude ruffles Max’s hair, and instead of the usual twinge of panic I have when a stranger moves to touch my son, my heart skips. I feel it lurch to a halt and then instantly take up its rhythm again. “He was trying to show me that he needed to see them.”
And just like that he’s made me grateful to him. He’s put me in his debt.
I step forward and try to casually push the cart away. Jude takes a step back and shoves his hands in his pockets. It’s a sign of surrender but I don’t miss the vein tensing in his neck.
Not as casual as I’d hoped.
“Um, can I introduce you to my roommate?” And amateur sex ed teacher, I add silently. I gesture back to my friend who is pretending to study her braid. “Amie, this is…”
I pretend to falter. No need for him to know that I was just talking about him. He doesn’t need the satisfaction of knowing his name and his face and his body are all seared into my memory.
“Jude Mercer,” he offers.
Jude Mercer. I hate myself for taking note of his full name.
Amie darts toward him, hand outstretched. “It’s lovely to meet you.”
We were going to have to work on her enthusiasm. He probably thinks I’ve been talking about him for days from the way Amie is eyeing the two of us. I make a mental note to never, ever mention another man to her.
“Visiting our little tourist trap of a town?” she continues.
Oh my God. Of course, she’s going to strike up a conversation with him. Jude shakes his head, his attention riveted on the screen Max is showing him.
“I like that game, too. Maybe we can play sometime.” He speaks clearly, carefully shaping his lips. But he doesn’t shout or slow down. Jude doesn’t condescend to him like most people. None of that makes up for the empty proposal he just made to my son, who glows with excitement at the attention.
“Will you be leaving town soon?” I don’t phrase my question kindly like Amie nor do I try to hide the chill coating my words.
“No.” He straightens up as if he senses my challenge, and smirks. “Bought a little house near the water.”
I can only process a single word: fuck.
“Then we’ll be neighbors.” Amie is oblivious to the tension. She throws an arm around my shoulder. “Faith and I run a little bistro near the waterfront. The World’s End. You should come by. I’ll make you something special on the house.”
“Maybe I will.” His response ripples across my skin. He speaks to her but he doesn’t look away from me.
“I guess I’ll see you around,” Jude says meaningfully. He high fives Max and disappears from the aisle. Next to me Amie gushes, but I don’t hear her.
A familiar pull tugs at the knot in my stomach: the desire to run. I’ve never been one to stay and fight. My survival instinct always forces me to take flight, but I can’t run away this time. I spent the last four years setting up roadblocks so I never would again. With the ocean at my back, I thought I’d be able to see danger coming before my barricades were threatened.
I never saw Jude coming.
Chapter 3
Before