After taking turns reading a few books, we put on a movie that Bailey quickly fell asleep to. I watched Kacey as she happily ran a hand through Bailey’s hair while smiling down at her. “So, did you enjoy your birthday?” I asked quietly.
Kacey’s eyes left Bailey’s so she could focus on me. “It was honestly the greatest birthday ever. How couldn’t it be? I got to spend it with my two favorite people.” She sighed contently. “Never in my wildest dreams did I think l would ever spend a birthday with both you and Bailey. I thought about what it would be like to see you again, but never dreamed it could be like this.”
“You thought about me?” I knew it was a pretty stupid question, given everything Kacey had told me, but I was still desperate to hear her answer.
“Kari, I thought of you every single day from the night I left Bellman. I never even tried to erase you from my mind because I knew it was useless. I knew no matter what, you would always be in my heart.”
Instead of saying anything, I reached my hand up, placing it on the floor above where Bailey was lying between us. I wiggled my fingers and Kacey grabbed ahold of my hand for what had to be the thousandth time that night. I ran my thumb along her hand as I watched her eyes close slowly, a contented smile on her face as she drifted off to sleep.
For a minute, I looked between her and Bailey, my heart feeling more full than I could ever remember. When I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore, I let them shut. Before I could drift off to sleep, I whispered the words that had been on the tip of my tongue all day, begging for release even though I knew I wasn’t ready yet. The whisper was so soft that even if one of the other occupants of the room was awake, they wouldn’t have been able to discern my words. The words weren’t a drunken ramble this time, but a sobering truth. “I love you so very much too, Kacey.”
Chapter 12
A week after Kacey’s birthday, I still felt like I was on a high from the time we had spent together. I was ready to stop being scared. Ready to give her more of me. How much more was the question, but that’s something I would worry about later. For now, I was enjoying a Saturday night in with Bo. According to him, it was boy’s night, but that just meant that the two of us ordered take out and watched movies with hot girls in them.
“What’s going on with you?” Bo asked, raising an eyebrow as he stared at me from the other end of the couch, a slice of pizza halfway up to his mouth.
“What do you mean?”
He moved the pizza the rest of the way to his mouth and took a big bite, barely chewing before speaking again. “You’re just all giddy and happy and shit.”
I laughed. “Are you saying I can’t be happy without having a reason for it?”
Bo shrugged. “It’s a different kind of happy.”
I couldn’t hold back the wide grin that spread across my face. “Well, if you must know, I really think there might be something going on between Kacey and me.”
Now it was Bo’s turn to laugh. “No shit.” When I rolled my eyes, he stopped laughing and took a sip of his beer. “I’m just saying, you don’t see me walking around holding Derek’s hand and undressing him with my eyes.”
“Derek’s an ass.”
Bo gave me a look that said we weren’t talking about that right now. “I told him he was an ass on New Year’s Eve. Don’t worry. I think he’s going to chill out.”
“He’s an ass all the time.”
“I get that, but he’s still one of my oldest friends and would give me the shirt off his back. He’s also all talk. I’m not saying that makes it right, and trust me, I told him that. But I honestly think he hits on you so much because he knows it won’t actually happen. Same with Kacey. He wouldn’t ever try to get with her. He just said that to get you worked up, because as we’ve already established multiple times, he’s an ass. Speaking of Kacey, though, you’re avoiding the real topic here. What changed?”
I was about to answer, happy to have someone to gush to, when my phone rang. I ignored it when I saw it was my sister, figuring I would just call her later, but when she immediately started calling back, I worried about what was going on. “Kylie, what’s up?”
“Sorry. I know you’re hanging out with Bo tonight, but I didn’t want to call Mom and Dad. Could you… could you come pick me up?” Her voice was strained, and it almost sounded like she was crying.
“Of course. Are you okay? Where are you?”
“I’ll send you the address. It’s about fifteen minutes from you. I’ll explain when you get here.”
Bo was listening to the conversation and immediately stood from the couch to grab our coats. We were in the car in no time, and with Bo driving we made it there in just over ten minutes. I was surprised to find that the address was to a house and not a restaurant or bar. Kylie was sitting on the sidewalk in front of the house with her head in her hands. As soon as she heard us pull up, she jumped off the sidewalk and into the car.
“What happened?” I asked as Bo drove through the neighborhood to get us turned around.
Kylie shook her head. “I’ve been talking to this guy online for a few weeks, and he was super sweet. Always a gentleman. He asked me to go on a date tonight and even picked me up at Mom and Dad’s house. He came to the door and everything. Even shook Dad’s hand.” She let out a frustrated groan. “Anyway, that’s not important. I’m just trying to prove that I’m not a complete idiot. He took me to a nice restaurant and asked if I wanted to come over for a drink after. I agreed, and we came back to his house and started making out, but then he wanted to have sex and I told him to stop.”
“Wait a second,” I interrupted. “He didn’t…” I couldn’t even finish my sentence because it made me sick to think about.
“No. It was nothing like that. He just called me a tease and told me if I wasn’t willing to put out that I needed to leave.”
Bo slammed on the brakes, sending my body tight against my seatbelt, and then whipped his car around. I could see his chest moving up and down with deep, heavy breaths. Soon, we were back in front of the house we had picked Kylie up from and before I could comprehend what was happening, Bo was getting out of the car.
I ran after him as he made his way to the front door. “Do you really think this is such a good idea?” I asked as Bo pounded on the door.
Bo turned toward me with fire in his eyes. “Are you really going to let some scumbag treat your sister like that?”
I tried to reach out and touch his arm, but he tore it away from me. “Listen, I’m really pissed too, but I don’t think we should do anything we might end up regretting.”
“Oh, I won’t regret this,” Bo said with a snarl.
Before I could say anything else, a tall, brown-haired guy around our age opened the door. His face was riddled with confusion as he looked between Bo and me.
Bo stepped closer to him but luckily didn’t touch him. “Listen, buddy, I don’t know what your deal is, but I just wanted to tell you that you don’t get to treat women the way you treated Kylie tonight.” His voice was firm, but level.