Kayla gasped in her fake melodramatic way, hand on her chest. “How could he not remember me? He and I were almost inseparable.” She winked at him.
Inseparable was the last word I would’ve used to describe them.
Nolan’s puzzled expression transformed into one of surprise, his eyebrows raised. “You look…different.”
“You mean I don’t look fat anymore.”
Nolan glanced at me for confirmation that he was standing in front of a live grenade. “Didn’t say that.”
“You’re saying I still look fat?”
Some things never changed. Like when Nolan had put worms in Kayla’s lunch in elementary school after she poured glue on his artwork project. She claimed she’d been helping him get an A. He thought different.
“No, you look great. You always did. What happened? You took Hailey up on her offer to run with you?”
Kayla ran her finger along the IV machine. “No, my mother died of a heart attack. I didn’t want that to be me.”
Silence weighed down the room at how much in common they shared.
“Sorry about your mom,” Nolan said, voice strained. I longed to hug him and give him some sort of comfort. It couldn’t have been easy for him to return to Northbridge with all the memories waiting to drown him.
“I know,” she said. “And I’m sorry about what happened to your mom and sister. You left before I could tell you.”
Nolan didn’t respond. He walked stiffly to the windowsill, picked up the bouquet of pink roses, and read the card.
Kayla’s expression was a mix of regret and sadness. Not because she was still thinking about her mom. She had long since moved past it, except for at certain times of the year. She realized, like I did, that Nolan hadn’t pushed past his sister’s and mother’s deaths. He still hurt and would probably continue to feel that way for a long time. Murder wasn’t something you could easily walk away from, especially given that he was there the night it happened. He might’ve even witnessed it. The last I’d heard from Brandon, Nolan had blocked out the memories of that night. He simply could not remember at all what had happened. Was that still the case?
Kayla’s face brightened. That combined with the impish grin was the only warning I got before she blurted out, “So how long are you staying in town?”
“I’m not sure yet,” he said. “I’m worried about what happened to Hailey. I want to make sure no one tries to hurt her again.”
If I thought Kayla’s face was bright before, that was nothing compared to now. Even the sun couldn’t compare with it.
Which made me all the more nervous.
“If you’re worried about her,” she continued, avoiding eye contact with me, “you should stay at her place. I happen to know that her roommate is moving out, and Hailey hasn’t replaced me yet.”
While Nolan looked like he could kiss her, I was ready to hit her with a…with my pillow. That would be justified assault, right?
The stupid sexy smile that always did me in returned to Nolan’s face. The equally stupid heart rate monitor failed to keep the always-did-me-in part a secret. I wasn’t a hundred percent sure, though, if the rapid beeping was because of his smile or because, unless I talked him out of it, Nolan might be sleeping with me. Correction—he’d be sleeping under the same roof as me. But try telling that to my body and heart when they didn’t give a damn about semantics.
“You think her boyfriend will be okay with me staying with her?” he asked, the smirk in his voice directed at me.
I attempted to send Kayla a silent message to go along with my original lie. But since she hadn’t been around for it, that was hopeless.
“You don’t have to worry about that,” she said. “Hailey is as single as you can get.”
Thanks, traitor.
I glared at her, but that was as useful as my mental message. “I don’t need a babysitter,” I grumbled. “And maybe I don’t want a roommate. Maybe I’m happy to live on my own.”
“Well, I’d feel happier if you didn’t live on your own,” Kayla said. “At least for now.”
Nolan crossed his arms and waited for my next volley.
I bit back the urge to tell him that if he was so desperate to stay in Northbridge, he could stay at his parents’ place. I might not be happy with the direction of the conversation, but I would never say anything so callous to Nolan. “He can stay with Brandon.”
Nolan shifted, and the sexy smirk was back. “Can’t do that.”
“Why not?”
“His roommate won’t allow it. Has something against rock stars.”
I snorted. Nolan was never the type of person to refer to himself as a rock star, no matter how famous he became. A musician, yes. A singer, yes. A songwriter, absolutely. But never anything as ostentatious as a rock star. His down-to-earth attitude was another reason I loved him. That had never changed, even while he pretended to be someone he wasn’t.
“Then it’s settled,” Kayla said, making herself at home on the only seat in the room. “You can crash in my old room while you’re in town.”
Chapter 9
Nolan