Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 72990 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72990 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
There’s a knock at the door and Kain tells his dad to come in.
“What are you guys doing?” Lukas asks in his familiar, gravelly voice. If I’m not mistaken, there’s a slight slur.
“Just hanging out,” Blake says. “Kain’s got a game coming up. He’s telling us about some of Coach’s new tactics.”
“Okay.” Lukas clears his throat. “Dalton, you should be heading to bed now. We’ve got a big day tomorrow.”
“I will.” Two sets of feet exit the room and then another. Blake must have decided it would be more natural for him to leave, too.
I wait for what feels like a lifetime before Kain opens the door. “The coast is clear,” he whispers. “Dad’s gone to bed.”
“That was so close,” I say. “A few minutes earlier, and he would have heard some noises that none of us would be able to explain.”
“Exactly.”
I step out into the brightness of Kain’s room, smoothing my hair and flexing my shoulders. My body feels wrecked and so does my heart. “I should go,” I say. I need to walk around the corner to get my car.
“I’ll walk you,” Kain says.
“Won’t your dad wonder what you’re doing?”
“He’s already snoring,” Kain laughs. “You’ll hear it when we’re in the hallway.”
I pick up my purse and watch as Kain looks left and right, checking the coast is clear. “Now,” he whispers, and I follow him down the stairs and out into the cool night air.
There’s a stillness about this time of night when most people are inside watching TV or sleeping. Even the birds are silent. Only the rustling trees interrupt the quiet as we tread a careful path to the sidewalk. “Blake’s mortified about what happened,” Kain says, as we reach my car.
“He doesn’t have to be,” I say. “It’s not on him. We were all there.”
“Yeah, but that stupid fucking piercing.”
I shake my head. “It might not have been that. The friction between the two of you could have caused the tear.”
Kain nods. “Just…” He puts his hands in his pockets, widening his stance. In the darkness, his hair and beard are almost black, his sapphire eyes like portals to another world. “...you have to know that we’d never leave you to deal with anything on your own. I know we said this is a no-strings deal, and it wouldn’t be ideal for Travis to find out, but we’d deal with that, okay? We’d take care of you.”
I inhale an involuntarily shaky breath, feeling the burn of tears in my throat. The words ‘no-strings’ sting even though they shouldn’t. I agreed to this. I wanted this. But somehow, hearing the words now from Kain’s lips hurts.
“Nothing’s going to happen,” I say confidently, masking my wobbly feeling. “Thanks for walking me back.”
“Of course,” he says.
“I guess I’ll see you.”
He nods and takes a step closer. With two hands, he cradles my face and I let my eyes drift closed before he kisses me. It’s sweet and affectionate and loaded with more feeling than any no-string arrangement should contain.
I pull away more quickly than I intend and feel regret as soon as I see Kain’s expression fall.
“Tell Blake everything’s fine, okay?” I say, finding my keys in my purse and opening the car.
“I will.”
I force a smile as I close the car door, then throw it into drive. I reach home before Kain, and I don’t wait for him. In my house, I lean against the front door and shake my head.
Maybe a few days’ space will bring things back to where they need to be. A few days’ space and the arrival of my period.
16
DALTON
Gabriella’s coming over for dinner tonight. Kain and Blake have agreed to take Dad out and keep him away long enough for us to enjoy an evening together.
It wasn’t easy to convince them, but they both owe me, and I called in those favors.
Romantic meals for two weren’t supposed to be part of our deal, but over the last three weeks, Gabriella has taken time to teach me to cook every meal I’ve bought ingredients for, and tonight, I want to say thank you.
I want her to understand what a difference it’s made to me to know I’m capable of doing more than construction. It’s a path I’ve always seen laid out before me, my father’s dream, but it’s never made me feel alive. I didn’t really know what that would feel like until recently.
The house is tidy. The food is ready. I glance at myself in the mirror, smoothing my beard and adjusting my hair. I’ve bought a new shirt for tonight and teamed it with my best dark blue jeans. It’s important to me that Gabriella feels that I’ve made an effort for her.
When the bell rings, I stride toward the door, knowing she’s probably worried about getting spotted on our doorstep.