While he walked with her to her truck, she called him on it. “That was April, wasn’t it?”
Sighing, he slowed at the front of her truck. Resting his hand on the hood, he studiously watched his fingers circle a ding in the paint. “Yeah, I didn’t want to answer it with you…”
Jessie sighed, too. “It’s okay to talk to her in front of me. She was probably calling to set up another date. She’s anxious to see you again.”
Kai looked startled when he raised his eyes to hers. “Really? I didn’t think she had a very good time.” He cringed, like he hadn’t meant to bring up the date again.
Remembering April at the table going over and over the part she had liked, Jessie whispered, “Some of it…appealed to her.” Kai looked about to apologize again, but not letting him start, Jessie spoke first, “You’re dating her now, and you’ll need to talk to her, and if you and I are going to still hang out together, then you should feel free to do it in front of me.”
Kai slowly let his breath out as he studied her face. “It feels…disrespectful,” he finally said.
The look on his face made Jessie’s heart compress, but she pushed the feeling back and forced herself to say the words that needed to be said, no matter how much they hurt. “It’s not disrespectful to talk to the woman you’re dating. And you and I aren’t…anything.”
His hand reached up to cup her cheek, and he muttered something under his breath that almost sounded like, “Aren’t we?”
Kai drew closer to her, and she drew closer to him. They were within a foot of each other now, and Jessie’s heart was leaping from her chest. Her breath was fast and shaky, and she tried to look anywhere but his lips, but she couldn’t. They were slightly parted, the breath flowing from them fast and ragged, and the shape of them pulled all of her attention. They were the most inviting pair of lips she’d ever seen.
They were nearly on hers when they suddenly shifted to her cheek. Jessie inhaled a quick breath, relishing the heat and hating it all at the same time. A peck on the cheek wasn’t what she really wanted, but it was much more appropriate than where her thoughts had been.
Needing to leave, his lips still lingering near her face, she breathily whispered, “Goodnight, cousin.” Then she opened her truck door and left her grandmother’s house as quickly as her truck would take her; she hadn’t even waited for a response from him.
After that, Kai listened to Jessie’s advice and answered all of the phone calls he got from April when they were together. And that was when Jessie started to notice something about her good friend that she hadn’t really noticed before. April liked to talk on the phone…a lot.
When Jessie had gone to the store and found an unbelievable buy one, get two free deal on Kai’s favorite canned meat, she’d snagged a bunch for him. Later that evening when she’d gone to his place to drop the groceries off, Kai had been on the phone with April when he’d opened the door. He’d given Jessie an apologetic smile and immediately tried to get off the phone with the chatty girl. It had taken him three tries to successfully disengage from the conversation.
When Jessie was at home, watching a little mindless TV, April would, more often than not, be sitting beside her on the couch, laughing on the phone as she talked to Kai. It made Jessie bite her cheek in annoyance to watch her friend twirling a strand of hair, subconsciously flirting with a man who couldn’t even see her. But phone calls were all April got from Kai that entire week after their first date.
Since Kai was busy with work and with Grams, they weren’t seeing each other again until Saturday night. April wasn’t thrilled about their dates being a week apart. She was anxious to speed up their relationship, but Kai was content with the slow pace. And Jessie didn’t fail to notice that even though his work did keep him out late during the week on occasion, and even though a lot of his free time was spent with their grandmother, Kai always made time to see Jessie.
They met up at Gram’s house to watch a movie with her a couple times. On the second occurrence, Grams had glanced at where they were sitting on the couch, a respectable distance between each other, and asked him, “Kai, dear, shouldn’t you spend a little time with your girlfriend, instead of always hanging around a couple of Harper girls?”
Both Kai and Jessie had cringed at her question, but Kai shrugged as he answered her. “April and I are just casual right now, Gran.” Looking over at Jessie, he softly added, “Besides, I like spending my free time with Harper girls.”
Those words had given Jessie a warm glow that had lasted several days.