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I looked down, finally remembering him saying that. Anna grabbed my chin, making me look back at her. My eyes felt misty when I did. “I brought it up to remind you that Kellan is thinking long term with you.
You’re not just a girl he’s seeing. You’re THE girl. You’re it for him. I see it in his eyes when he looks at you.” She sighed, wistfully. “He’s completely, madly, deeply in love with you, and he wants a lifetime with you…so stop stressing.”
Exhaling slowly, I felt a weight lifting from me. She was right. I was fearing the fear…everything was okay. Nodding at her, I considered calling Kellan, just to tell him I loved him, when the front door was knocked on.
Anna ruffled my hair and went back to her cartoons while I got up to see who was here.
Opening the door and seeing Denny’s warm smile behind it surprised me almost as much as bumping into him yesterday. It was one thing to hang out for a little while last night, it was another for him to just drop by. I guess he’d missed the friendship just as much as I had.
“Hey, Kiera. I was going to call, but I thought I’d stop by instead since I was in the area. You doing alright?” He tilted his head as his dark eyes searched my face.
Feeling better after talking to Anna, I shook my head and laughed a little. “Yeah, I’m fine. I overreacted last night.” I flung my hand towards where the offending laptop lay in my bedroom; I was definitely returning it today. “I flipped out over nothing.” He nodded and smiled and I put my hand on his arm. “Thank you, for…being a friend. I can’t think of too many guys who would have been as…supportive in the situation.”
He looked down at my hand on his arm then shrugged. “You and I have been through a lot, Kiera, and most of it was good.” His eyes flashed back up to mine. “I don’t want to see you in pain. I don’t have a…vendetta against you.” In a whisper that I almost didn’t hear, he added, “You’re my best friend, still, and I’d do anything for you, Kiera.” 305
I swallowed, hating and loving the sentence he’d just said. Knowing I shouldn’t, I reached up and gave him as friendly and platonic a hug as I could. He held me back, equally platonic, with a huge gap between our bodies. “You’re my best friend, too, Denny. I know it may not seem like it sometimes…but you are.”
Just as I was thinking that maybe that had been our problem all along, that we’d been more friends than lovers, an explicative sounded from the couch.
Denny and I released each other and twisted to look back at Anna. Her mouth was wide open as she stared at Denny in our doorway. With everything that had happened, I’d forgotten to tell her that he was back in town. She was looking at him like he’d magically materialized into the room.
I stood aside and motioned for him to come in while she sputtered,
“Denny? What the hell? Did I wake up three years ago?” She looked over to the window with a view of Lake Union. “God, we’re not back home in Ohio are we?” Her brow bunched into a perfectly adorable pout.
“Because I cannot go through living with Mom and Dad again, Kiera.” Denny chuckled at her while I rolled my eyes. “No, Anna, you didn’t time travel in your sleep. Denny’s back in town for work.” She narrowed her eyes at him, eyeing him both suspiciously and a little unhappily. Denny wasn’t really Anna’s favorite person anymore, not since he’d beaten Kellan to a pulp and rattled my melon. I don’t think she’d ever forgive him for kicking me. It really wasn’t his fault, I was the one that had stupidly used my body as a shield, and Denny hadn’t exactly been in his right mind. But Anna couldn’t get past the fact that he’d hurt people she cared about…even if we had sort of asked for it.
“Hey, Denny…long time, no see.” She said it with a very slight edge, like she’d preferred the “no see” part.
Denny looked away, guilt flooding his face. He knew how Anna felt about him. She’d bluntly pulled him aside and told him. My sister 306
wasn’t one to mince words. If she had a problem with you, you’d know it. “Hi, Anna.”
Not liking the tension building, I twisted to Denny. “So, shouldn’t you be at work or something?” I glanced at the button-up shirt he had on, the coordinating slacks. He looked like he’d just stepped away from a GQ
photo shoot.
“I’m on lunch break.” Hands causally tucked in his slacks, he nodded his head at the door. “Care to join me?”
Seeing that I had just enough time to squeeze in lunch before class, I nodded and grabbed my bag off the table. Anna frowned at me, but didn’t say anything in front of Denny. I mentally reminded myself to ask her to not say anything about this to Griffin. I wasn’t sure how often they communicated, but I didn’t need that particular D-Bag mouthing off to Kellan about Denny. I would tell Kellan, when the time was right, and in a way that wouldn’t be hurtful to him. I was sure Griffin wouldn’t be so tactful.
Thinking of Griffin reminded me of Kellan’s odd text, a text that he’d said was from him, but I pushed the thought away as Denny led me to his company car. Kellan may have fibbed, or maybe not. Maybe Griffin had gotten a new number that Anna didn’t know about, or maybe he was sending gross pictures from Matt’s phone. That seemed plausible.
Just as I was feeling better about the strange text, Denny stopped us in front of his sleek, two-door sports car. It looked like one of those cars that they always show doing 360s in the commercials, like real people drove that way.
I let out a low whistle as Denny popped the passenger’s side open.
“Now I see why you don’t need your Honda back,” I muttered, sliding in to the creamy, leather seats.
Denny softly laughed as he got into his side. “Yeah, it’s not bad.” He started it, revving the engine. Giving me a crooked grin, he shrugged.
“There are some perks to being in charge.”
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I laughed at his expression as he drove us along the roller coaster steep hills, happy that he was thriving too. At least I hadn’t damaged the men in my life so badly that they’d never recover from it.
My bag rang as we headed out to a café that Denny liked when he’d been here before. I reached in and grabbed it, wondering if it was Anna, about to give me a mouthful for heading out with Denny. I stared at the screen and hesitated, just for a second. Denny eyed me curiously as I answered it.
“Hello?”
“Hey, gorgeous…guess where I woke up today?” I smiled as Kellan’s sultry voice met my ear. “I have no idea.” And I really didn’t, I’d lost track of his exact location ages ago.
Kellan chuckled and I glanced over at Denny, his eyes back to the road. It gave me a weird sort of guilt to be back in a situation that was eerily similar to last year. Different though, since Denny and I weren’t doing anything inappropriate.
“Kansas…know what’s in Kansas?”
I leaned back in my seat and shook my head. “No.”
“Nothing,” he dryly said. “Miles and miles of nothing.” I laughed at his answer and he sighed. “God, I’ve missed your laugh. It’s just not the same over the phone, you know.”
Closing my eyes, I twirled a lock of hair around my finger, imagining that it was his. “I know…I’ve missed you, too.” I heard Denny shift beside me, but I kept my eyes closed, biting my lip as a little more guilt flooded me.
Just as I was thinking of ways to tell Kellan that Denny was back, Kellan asked, “So, what have you been up to lately?” 308
I opened my eyes and tensed, wondering if someone had told him already. “Uh…just work and school. Did I tell you I started my new quarter last month? I have a poetry class now.” I rolled my eyes, hating that I’d chosen the most trivial fact to tell him.
By his reaction, though, you’d have thought I’d just told him I’d won the lottery. “Really? I like poetry…it’s a lot like lyric writing. Less cursing though.”
He chuckled again and I relaxed. If he knew about Denny, he probably wouldn’t be joking. I glanced over at Denny studiously studying his driving, maybe uncomfortable, maybe just giving me privacy, I wasn’t sure. As I watched him, Kellan added, “So what are you up to today?” I flushed, not wanting to lie, but not ready to tell him. “Nothing really…”
He sighed softly. “Well, I’ve just got endless driving in front of me…please tell me your life is more interesting than that. One of us needs a good story to tell.”
I smiled, knowing his current life was much more interesting than most people would ever experience, even if it did involve endless driving. Biting my lip, I studied Denny again. “Well…I’m on my way to have lunch with a friend.”
Denny looked over at me, raising a dark eyebrow and frowning slightly. I knew he wanted me to expand on that to Kellan, but I couldn’t yet, not over the phone. I felt like this conversation needed to be done in person.
Kellan brightly said, “Good, it’s good that you’re getting out, having a life.”
I looked straight ahead and twisted my lips. “Of course I still have a life. Do you think my world revolves around you?” I said it in an obviously teasing way, but Kellan paused a moment before answering. “No, no I don’t think that at all.” His voice was quiet, 309
introspective, and I again wondered if he knew something. Maybe I should tell him over the phone anyway…
“You alright?” I asked quietly.
He inhaled a deep breath, taking a very long time before answering.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” There was so much in his voice that he wasn’t saying.
Even though Kellan was good at it, I knew he was lying to me.
“Kellan…is there something you want to tell me?” My heart started pounding, the ice in my stomach so painful I nearly doubled over. That woman’s face flashed in my mind, the look on his as he’d leaned in to whisper in her ear. The mysterious text number rang through my brain on a never-ending loop…
He sniffed and took another long moment. “It’s nothing, Kiera…just the stress of the road. I’m sure you can imagine what life on a bus with Griffin is like.” He chuckled, his voice back to light and happiness, and I didn’t believe a word of it.
I bit my lip as I stared at Denny, now giving me concerned glances.
Kellan was holding back from me, that much I could tell. I didn’t know what or why, but I couldn’t open up to him about Denny now. I just couldn’t. “Okay, well…if something was going on, you know that you could tell me…right?”
He sighed softly. “Yeah, I know…” His voice trailed off, then brightened. “But really, nothing is up, aside from the fact that I miss you like crazy.”
A sad smile touched my lips. “Yeah, me too.” As we pulled into the parking area of the café, I sighed. “Hey, I’m here at the restaurant…I need to go. I’ll call you later?”
“Yeah, okay.” With a humorless chuckle he added, “I’ll be here, on the road through nowhere, wishing Griffin didn’t need to let The Hulk breathe quite so often.”
I laughed, the release of it easing the knot in my belly. “I love you, Kellan.”