A Date for Hannah

by Callie Henry

  “Cool.”

  “You’re from Brookings, right?”

  “Mm-hm,” she mumbled, looking straight ahead.

  Was she shy? She seemed kind of shy, giving him one-word answers.

  Make her feel comfortable, man.

  “So, uh, you seen any good movies lately?”

  Suddenly she turned to face him, and as she moved, he smelled her perfume. It was light and sweet, and he couldn’t help thinking that whatever it was, it was the perfect match for her heart-shaped face.

  “Definitely! Did you see Jurassic World? It was sorta dumb but super entertaining.”

  Luckily, he had. “Yeah. I thought it was awesome.”

  “And I just saw The Spy Who Dumped Me. So funny!”

  He hadn’t seen that one, but he liked this animated side of Hannah. “I missed that one. But Alpha comes out on Friday. I’m definitely seeing that.”

  “God! Me too!” she exclaimed. “It looks really intense. But The Little Mermaid comes out on Friday too, and I sorta want to see that one first. I can’t decide.”

  “So I guess you like movies, huh?”

  She nodded. “Movies and theater. I’m going to double major in drama and English in college. Maybe with a Shakespeare concentration.”

  “Oh, yeah?”

  “Mm-hm. How about you?”

  “Teaching,” he said. “I want to be a kids’ swim coach.”

  “That’s really awesome,” she said. She stared at him for an extra second, her lips tilting up in a smile. “You don’t hear a lot of guys our age talk about being teachers.”

  Something important that Hannah didn’t know was that swimming—or rather, Coach G—had literally saved Liam’s life. Working hard for Coach and committing to a sport he loved had straightened Liam out after he’d found himself on the brink of disaster. Getting a teaching degree so that he could coach other kids was now his dream—his way of paying back the world for giving him another chance.

  “I don’t know if I’ll be good at it, but I’d like to give it a try,” he said. “Are you going to be an actress?”

  “As if!”

  He wasn’t sure if she said this because acting didn’t appeal to her or because she thought she didn’t have the looks for acting, but if the latter was the case, it was the second time she’d bashed her looks in ten minutes, and he didn’t like it. In fact, he was about to contradict her when she continued.

  “I’m thinking more along the lines of playwriting or…”

  “Or what?”

  “Teaching, maybe. Like you,” she said, offering him a shy smile.

  “Hey, now, would you look at that?” he teased her. “We both live in Oregon, we both liked Jurassic World, and we both want to teach. We sure have a lot in common.”

  “Yeah, I guess we do.” Her cheeks flushed, and she looked away for a moment before her deep brown eyes caught his again. “We have it all figured out, huh?”

  Suddenly he had the urge to share something real with her. “I didn’t always. I repeated a year of high school,” he said softly.

  She nodded, giving him a polite smile. “There’s nothing wrong with that. It gave you extra time to figure out what you want out of life.”

  He relaxed, grinning at her, grateful that his little bit of truth hadn’t been rejected or ridiculed. “And to know a good thing when it comes along,” he added.

  Was it his imagination or did she blush again when he said that? Her pretty face was a little pink in the fading light, matching some of the flowers on her dress.

  As Pachelbel’s Canon started playing, he nudged her gently with his knee.

  “You know, I think we’re the only two people here tonight under thirty. Want to be my wedding date, Hannah Giacomina?”

  He had a feeling that the grin she gave him wasn’t one she was accustomed to, because it spread over her face softly and slowly, like it wasn’t used to taking up so much real estate—like maybe it wasn’t usually allowed to.

  She shrugged, but her eyes sparkled as she answered softly, “Sure. Why not?”

  CHAPTER 2

  Hannah

  As Bree recited the wedding vows she’d written herself, Hannah’s eyes welled with tears because her sister’s voice was so certain, so terribly in love. As she sniffled softly, a warm handkerchief was pressed into her hand. Her watery eyes trailed up Liam’s arm to his face, where she found him looking down at her with a soft expression. His fingers pressed down on the smooth fabric in her palm, gently letting her know that she wasn’t alone.

  Thanks, she mouthed.

  His lips turned up in a small smile as he put his arm around the back of her chair. Her tummy filled with butterflies as his arm grazed her back, and she took a deep breath, wishing she could calm her racing heart.

  As Bree and Todd walked back down the aisle to the traditional “Wedding March,” Bree caught Hannah’s eye and beamed. It was a good thing Hannah was still holding Liam’s handkerchief because her eyes totally welled up again.

  “You okay?” asked Liam.

  “Sorry I’m such a mess,” she said, sniffling as she wiped away more tears.

  “Isn’t it, like, a rule that all girls cry at weddings?”

  “Honestly?” she said, looking up into his blue eyes. “Not me. I don’t cry at stuff like this.”

  “Oh, you’re the exception?”

  “Usually, yeah.” She balled up his handkerchief in her hand. “I—I don’t really go for all this, like, undying-true-love-forever-and-ever kind of stuff. It’s not my thing.”

  “Huh.” He stared at her, scanning her face as though surprised such a girl existed. “Okay…so what is your thing, Hannah Giacomina?”

  “My thing?”

  He nodded. “Unlike every other girl on the planet, you’re not into true love, so what are you into?”

  Only one word popped into her head—the most important word in the whole world: “Kindness.”

  “Is kindness separate from love?” he asked.

  She looked away from him, taking a deep breath that made her already-tight dress feel even tighter. “It’s safer.”

  “Safer?”

  “If you’re kind to people and they’re kind to you, you won’t get hurt.”

  He tilted his head to the side. “And love will hurt you?”

  Hannah thought about her father—the way he’d left Bree’s mother and Bree, the way Bree’s mother always looked at Hannah with contempt.

  She thought about her mother—specifically, her mother’s face at her father’s funeral; she hadn’t been the same since her husband’s passing, and maybe she never would be.

  She thought about herself—about the boys she’d liked in the past and how none of them had ever returned her affection. One of them, Chad Simpson, had actually told her “You’re super cool, Hannah, but you know, you’re not really girlfriend material.” His eyes had lingered on her oversized chest for a minute before he’d shrugged awkwardly and walked away from her locker. Tears of shame and humiliation and anger had filled her eyes. She was too fat for a boyfriend. Too fat for love.

  After that, no matter how fiercely her heart had longed for a boyfriend, she’d stopped hoping for someone to come along. And she’d stopped hoping for love.

  His question lingered in the air between them: And love will hurt you?

  Yes, thought Hannah. Yes, it will.

  She looked down at the damp white square in her hand and offered it back to Liam.

  “You keep it.” His brows were knitted together as he stared down at her.

  Hannah tucked the handkerchief in her purse as they stood up, trying to ignore the awesome and confusing feeling of his hand on the small of her back. He led her to the end of the aisle and folded them into the crowd of people forming a line to congratulate Bree and Todd.

  “You know, you never answered my question,” he said from behind her.

  Giovanna. Mom. Me.

  “Yes,” she said, looking at him over her shoulder. “I think
love will hurt you.”

  “You’re serious,” he said, his voice surprised and low.

  “It’s risky and stupid.”

  “Love,” he confirmed in a low voice.

  “Yes, love,” she said, starting to feel impatient with him. “Bree and I are half-sisters with the same last name. How do you think that happened?”

  He shrugged as they moved forward in line. “I assume your father divorced her mom and married yours?”

  “Exactly,” said Hannah. “How do you think that made Giovanna feel? How do you think it made Bree feel? And my mom? My dad never told her that he was married to someone else. She thought he was available. By the time my mom found out he was married, she was already pregnant with me.”

  “So it was messy.”

  “Really messy,” said Hannah, taking another step forward.

  Liam blew out a held breath. “But that was them, not you. You’re just going to sideline yourself because your parents made mistakes?”

  Yes, she thought. That’s exactly what I’m going to do.

  But to her surprise, the words didn’t slip from her lips strong and true. In fact, she found she couldn’t actually say them out loud. They sounded so hopeless, so defeated, so bitter. And standing next to handsome Liam Callahan in line to wish Bree and Todd congratulations, she didn’t actually feel hopeless, defeated, and bitter.

  They stepped forward in small increments, and Liam kept his palm lightly on the small of her back.

  “I know something about making mistakes,” he said, bending down to speak softly near her ear. “You can always choose a different path for yourself.”

  A shiver of pleasure ran down her back as his breath brushed the skin behind her ear. She let her eyes flutter closed for a second before whipping them open and berating herself. You’re acting ridiculous, Hannah! He’s just being nice! Get yourself together!

  “What about you?” she demanded, leaning away from his hand.

  “Me?”

  “Your mother lives in Oregon. Your father lives in California. What’s the superhappy story of your parents?” she snapped.

  “You’re right,” he said, flinching as he lowered his hand from her back. “There’s no superhappy story there.”

  His face fell a little, and Hannah instantly regretted her words. He’d been nothing but nice since the moment she’d met him, and she had no right to lash out at him. She was just so confused by how she felt around him. She wanted to stay cool and strong; she didn’t want to warm up to him and end up falling for yet another boy who’d never be interested in her. She could feel herself weakening, and it scared her.

  “I’m sorry, Liam. I shouldn’t have said that. I—I had no right to say that.”

  “It’s fine,” he said softly. “The truth? My father cheated on my mother with his secretary up in Seattle, where we used to live. My mom divorced him and moved to Oregon with me, and he moved down here with his secretary, Jill, who’s now my stepmom. More truth? I was really mad at my parents for a long time.” He paused before adding, “Got into some trouble, even.”

  Huh. Well, that explained why he’d repeated a year of high school.

  She could see his embarrassment on his face, and she couldn’t bear it. He’d been kind to her, offering her his handkerchief and teasing her about being his date. She needed to make amends.

  Reaching out, she placed her hand on his arm, annoyed with herself that touching him made her breath catch and her heart speed up. She forced herself to keep her hand still and not do something totally embarrassing, like pet him.

  “But you turned everything around, didn’t you? You told me that the extra year gave you time to figure things out,” she said.

  Feeling nervous, Hannah wet her lips, her tummy buzzing when his eyes cut to her mouth and lingered there for a moment. When he found her eyes again, his face looked so sad, she felt it in her gut. She wished she could go back in time to the moment before she’d snapped at him.

  “Yeah,” he said, “but it cost something. To me and my parents. Something I can never get back.”

  He reached for her hand on his arm.

  Oh, God. What are you thinking, Hannah? What are you doing? Why are you still touching him? He doesn’t want some fat, depressing girl who doesn’t believe in love and yelled at him about his parents touching him!

  After they’d exchanged pleasantries with Bree and Todd, he’d probably make some excuse and avoid her for the rest of the evening.

  Her heart fell at the thought.

  It wasn’t like someone as beautiful as Liam Callahan would actually be interested in someone like Hannah in real life, but it felt a little wonderful to imagine spending the reception with him, pretending to be his date—pretending, just for a moment, that she was popular and interesting and pretty enough to attract the attention of someone like him.

  Her cheeks flaming with embarrassment, she started to slide her hand off his arm, but suddenly she realized that his hand wasn’t pushing her away; it was seeking hers. Once found, he laced his fingers through Hannah’s deliberately, like he wanted to.

  Hannah gulped, willing her fingers to relax, to gently clasp his as he was clasping hers, to let her much smaller palm settle flush against his catcher’s mitt of a hand.

  When she finally found the courage to look up at him, his eyes were soft and tender.

  “Sounds like we both have a little baggage.” His lips turned up in the beginning of a smile, and relief coursed through her. “You know, if you believed in true love, we’d be a match made in heaven, Hannah Giacomina.”

  His grin told her that he was just teasing, but his words made something happen to her heart. Not that she suddenly believed that true love was possible for someone like her, but it felt like the Kevlar around her heart was somehow slipping away. Over the heads of the people in front of her, she caught sight of Bree’s brilliantly happy smile, which just seemed to encourage the change happening within her.

  “By the way, how does someone who doesn’t believe in love become a Shakespeare devotee?” Liam asked, squeezing her fingers lightly. “Aren’t all of those plays about true love?”

  “A common misconception,” she said, warming instantly to the safety of the topic. “If anything, his plays are cautionary tales! Romeo and Juliet? They both die in the end. Antony and Cleopatra? She commits suicide. King Lear? Cordelia is murdered, and her father dies of a broken heart. Hamlet? Pretty much everyone dies.”

  “Hey, now,” he said, tilting his head to the side. “What about Much Ado about Nothing? Everybody falls in love and ends up happily married. Or The Taming of the Shrew? Everything works out for them too.”

  “Wait a second! You know Shakespeare?” she asked, feeling a little bit delighted.

  He chuckled. “Don’t forget: I repeated my sophomore year of high school. That was a lot of Shakespeare. Plus, Julia Stiles was smokin’ hot in 10 Things I Hate about You.”

  “I love that movie,” said Hannah softly, staring up at him in wonder.

  He clasped her hand a little tighter, and she glanced from his eyes to his lips. The top one was lightly peaked, but the bottom one was more pillowed. Both were pink and slightly chapped, and she wondered—

  “Please stop,” he whispered, his voice gritty and low.

  She blinked, swallowing as she looked up at his eyes, which seemed darker than they’d been a moment ago. “S-Sorry.”

  “It’s our turn,” he said, looking over her head at Bree and Todd.

  Hannah gasped lightly, dropping his hand and turning to her sister.

  ***

  Liam

  Liam was grateful for a moment to compose himself while Hannah and Bree hugged each other.

  Dang it, but when he agreed to do this job for Bree—to be her sister’s date—he’d never expected to really like Hannah. He didn’t know exactly what he had expected, but she was throwing him for a loop. She was different. Unusual. Sort of like a complicated puzzle, and Liam found himself wanting to put th
e pieces together, positive that something really amazing would be revealed when he was done.

  Though her face was stunning and her long chestnut-colored hair was gorgeous, Hannah wasn’t a small girl. But Liam wasn’t really attracted to girls who were stick-thin; he liked a girl to look healthy—to have curves where girls were supposed to have curves. It wasn’t a turn-off to him that Hannah was a little bigger. Besides, she looked really pretty in her flowered dress with her long hair curling over her shoulders. She put effort into the way she looked, and coupled with her personality, he found himself, well, interested. Genuinely interested—not just because he was being paid.

  “Liam!” Bree released Hannah and held out her arms to him. “Thanks so much for coming.”

  Todd, who worked at I Tri Merli and knew Liam’s dad, winked at Liam before sliding his eyes to Hannah and asking her, “Is this guy bothering you, miss?”

  Hannah leaned back, two spots of pink flushing her cheeks. “Um. No! He’s just—I mean—”

  “Quit flustering my date, Todd,” said Liam with a chuckle. “And, hey…congratulations! I think the Giacomina girls are catches.”

  “No arguments here.” Todd snuck a glance at his bride before grinning back at the younger man. “You’ve been a hard worker this summer, Liam. Staying out of trouble. We’re proud of you.”

  “Yes, sir,” answered Liam, his jaw tightening a little.

  Todd gestured to the reception tent with a flick of his chin. The band was playing their first song, and the sound of conversation and clinked glasses floated over to them on the breeze.

  “Looks like the fun is starting. Enjoy yourselves, you two.”

  Todd and Bree turned to the next guests waiting to offer their congratulations, and Liam grabbed Hannah’s hand again, pulling her toward the tent covered with white lights, where the band was playing some corny song from the 1900s.

  “Are you okay?” asked Hannah.

  He scrubbed the back of his neck with his free hand. “When you’ve messed up, it’s hard for some people to believe that you won’t again.”

  “People like Todd?”

  “He’s friends with my dad. He’s knows about…stuff,” said Liam, changing direction slightly and heading toward a garden path flanked by tiki torches. He liked the way Hannah’s hand fit inside his, and he wasn’t in a hurry to join the thirtysomethings at the reception. “Hey, want to walk around a little first? I could show you the gardens.”