Cursing internally, he removed his hand and shut off the water. No, he couldn’t. While it was true, no one would know what he was doing but him…he would still know, and he’d feel slightly even more ill every time he looked at her. And besides, knowing him, he’d start doing it every morning. Then every evening. Then he’d be doing it all the goddamn time…and he wasn’t sixteen anymore.
Once he was finished getting ready for the day, Kai decided to surprise his grandmother with a decent breakfast since he had the time. A part of him wished he could surprise Jessie with a nice breakfast, too, but he couldn’t really show up at her house unannounced yet. Not with her having roommates. Especially roommates who had been checking him out on that night. They might have been a little tipsy, but they’d probably watched the two of them making out on the dance floor.
As Kai hopped on his Honda, a surge of disgust and desire cropped up. Jessie had been so damn hot that night. Aggressive, passionate, lustful. As he started the bike, he wondered if that was what being in a relationship with her would be like. She’d definitely been drunk the night they’d been together, but that intensity had to still be there, buried under the surface somewhere. Revving his engine, the warmth of the machine warming his thighs, Kai let himself wonder if he could stoke that desire in her while she was completely sober. His body started stiffening at the thought, and he cursed again. He seriously had to stop that; he could not walk around town with a never-ending hard-on because he was thinking about her. Squealing out of the garage, he let the feeling of flying across the pavement clear his mind.
As he headed to a bakery that he’d spotted on the way home yesterday, Kai shifted his thoughts to Jessie’s roommates. He really hadn’t been paying too much attention to them at the club—Jessie had absorbed all of his focus—but he seemed to recall there being two of them. One with dark hair, one with red hair…if he was remembering it correctly. He also knew they were protective of Jessie, since they’d hurriedly swept her out of his room almost immediately after they’d…
But Jessie swore they didn’t remember what he looked like. And if they truly didn’t then officially meeting them should be okay. Jessie seemed reluctant, though. She hadn’t said it, but he got the feeling she would prefer it if Kai never met her roommates. Maybe she was just nervous, worried that they would piece things together once they saw him again. Or maybe Jessie was embarrassed to be seen with him.
Kai laughed into his helmet as he pulled into the parking lot of the bright and cheery shop. No, while he might affect Jessie in strange ways, he was pretty sure he didn’t embarrass her. He frowned. Well, what they’d done probably embarrassed her. It embarrassed him too. People always preached about being careful about sleeping with strangers for pregnancy and STD reasons, but no one ever mentioned that the world was microscopic, and fate was one cruel bitch. No one had ever warned Kai that the hot girl shoving her hand down his pants and her tongue down his throat, might be a family member.
Twenty minutes later Kai was walking into the hospital. He’d called Gran yesterday at work, and she was getting out sometime today. Her fractured hip would need a lot of rest, but she looked good. All her tests were showing that she was healing well, so they were letting her go back to her life. Knowing his gran, she would be knee-deep in potting soil by the afternoon. Tough old broad.
The nurses gave him wide smiles as he entered. Ever thankful for the wonderful care his grandmother was receiving, Kai had brought a box of donuts for them. They gave him swift hugs and told him she was awake if he wanted to surprise her. After a kiss on the cheek by a sprightly nurse named Susan, who eyed him like she was mapping out his future in her head, Kai ducked into his grandmother’s room.
She was propped up in her bed, reading glasses nearly falling off her nose as her gnarled hands clicked and clacked the knitting needles Kai had brought for her. Her aged hands flew over patterns they had obviously repeated so many times, she could probably do them in her sleep. The result of all the miraculous, repetitious movement was a blanket flowing down the side of her bed in a myriad of bright colors. A little amazed at how a seemingly chaotic series of events could result in something so beautiful, Kai smiled as he watched the progression.
The older woman beamed at him when she noticed his entrance. “Kai, dear, I’m so glad you came by.”
Gran could be in a body cast, head to foot, pain in every limb and joint, and she’d still smile warmly and say she was glad to see him. Tough…yet sweet, old broad. “Good morning, Grandma.”