Hannah's Story

Chapter 29 - Hannah

Hope you like it.  I wanted it to be longer, but anything I thought to add seemed forced. 

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I was back at the house, helping my mom and Rhia prepare food.  Hallie and Callie had been finishing up on the jet skis they'd rented and would be coming to help soon.  Or so they said. 

"Did you have a nice time in the water with Ethan?" my mom asked me, a smile on her face. 

There was no mistaking the fact that my mom adored Ethan.  She was his biggest fan throughout our relationship, and had tried to talk me into getting back together with him after the break up.  I think she was still attached to the idea that we'd make a great feel good movie couple:  the couple who'd known each other since birth and ended up married with kids.  I wasn't ruling Ethan out completely, but I wasn't feeling particularly amorous toward him at this moment, either. 

"Mom, don't get your hopes up.  Ethan and I are learning to exist without a romantic relationship between us.  It's nice to hang out with him, but that's where it ends," I said, trying to keep her hopes at bay.

In fact, I had been startled for a moment at the beach when Ethan had brushed my hair back and hesitated. I thought he might try to kiss me and I didn't know what I'd do. My first reaction would probably have been to push him away, but I'm happy that I didn't have to find out. He'd taken his hand back and we'd continued our conversation.

"Aww, that's too bad.  I would love it if the Malicks' were our in-laws," she said, a slight pout to her lips.

"Hannah and Ethan aren't the only way that might be possible," Rhia said, winking at me when my mom wasn't looking. 

She was still playing on how she'd found Jesse and me this morning.  She shipped us.  This couldn't be good. 

"Oh, really?" my mom said.  "Do you think one of the twins will dump her boyfriend for Jonah?  He's my son, but I'm not blind.  Neither of those girls wants a little bookworm like my Jonah."

Rhia elbowed me.  "She obviously forgets my love story," she said.

"There's always an exception.  We don't all have guys a decade younger than us who ask us to take their ....."

Rhia cut my mom off by saying, "word for it.  By asking me to take his word when he told me he loved me just as much as an adult as he had when he was a child."

Rhia looked at my mom with a look that said "shut up."  I wondered how she and Max had really gotten together.  No matter, they were still going strong.  I had seen them today, far off in the water.  They were kissing and Rhia's arms were around Max's neck.  It looked like the water had just been moving her up and down, but at one point she'd thrown her head back with her mouth open.  She'd been too far away for me to see her facial expression, but I was no fool.  One look at Max's face, scrunched up and mouth also open, told me what they were doing.  I had looked away quickly, not wanting Ethan to see just how voyeuristic his parents were. 

I blushed just thinking about it.  I don't think I could ever do something that daring.  What if they'd been caught?  Would they have been arrested?  Did lifeguards pretend not to notice that sort of thing? 

"My point," Rhia was explaining when I came back to the present, "is that love happens unexpectedly.  I never expected to fall in love with Max the way I did.  I never expected his crush for me to blossom into real love.  Both of those things happened, though.  Love is unpredictable, and it hits you even when it might not be convenient."