Kennedy’s eyes softened. “Really?”
“Really. That…it really meant so much to me. Having someone look up to you and believe in you like that really does something. I think this is something I want to keep doing. Coaching kids.”
“Then do it, Quinn. You’d be amazing at it.”
“I want to learn how to love swimming again, and trying to help kids fall in love with it this weekend kind of helped me in the process. I want to get better so I can do that. I want to get better so you can come back. I’m in love with you, Kennedy. I told you that back in high school, at prom, and guess what? I’ve never stopped loving you. Not for a second.”
She let out the cry and covered her mouth with her hands. The gloss in her eyes grew thicker in the glow. I hoped more than anything that those tears were happy ones and not ones that were going to stab me in the gut.
“You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me.” I continued to fill the silence by spilling everything I felt about her. I would keep telling her how much I felt until she responded. Telling her would be the easiest speech. “All I want to do is make you happy. I’m one hundred percent committed to being with you and being the best girlfriend, and I promise to always fight for us. I’ve never wanted anything more in my life.”
She squeezed my hand. “I’ve never wanted anything more than this, either,” she said through her sniffling. She wrapped her arms around my neck and pinned me against my car as she relaxed into me. I hugged her back and buried my face in her shoulder, taking in a deep inhale. My Berkeley sweatshirt smelled like her. I grabbed her tighter, making sure that smell would never leave me.
“I’m so sorry,” I said into her ear. “I never meant to drag you into this.”
“I missed you so much, Quinn.”
“I missed you too. More than you know.” She pulled away and wiped her eyes with her sleeve bunched over her knuckles. “I love you, Ken. So fucking much.”
She caressed my cheek. “I love you too.”
Hearing those words felt like a hug around my heart. Saying “I love you” to her filled me up so much that I couldn’t hide my smile. The first time I told her I loved her at our senior prom, we couldn’t even kiss or hug or celebrate the fact because we weren’t together. Now, almost six years later, she looked back at me as if granting me permission to cup her face and show her how much I missed her and how much I loved her. And I did exactly that. I kissed her as if that was all I’d ever wanted to do. I kissed her as if promising that the rest of our months wouldn’t resemble the last few. I kissed her as if she was the love of my life because she was. No other girl would have that title. It belonged to Kennedy Reed, and it would always belong to Kennedy Reed. And she welcomed all of it. I could feel it in the way she kissed me back so tenderly and passionately that she loved me as much as I loved her. She pushed her waist against mine, securing me against the car. Our worlds came crashing back together and fit right into place.
“Spend the night,” she said, softly yet authoritatively, when she pulled away.
“At your brother’s house?”
Her eyes darkened. “I can’t wait anymore. I did enough waiting.”
I opened my mouth to say something, something like there was no way we could waltz into her brother’s house and have make-up sex. But then she played with my hoodie strings, and my weakness for her face, her eyes, that mischievous smirk, all wrapped up in my Berkeley hoodie made it easy for me to grab her hand in approval because I needed her also.
She led me through the front door where Jacob and Ava sat on the couch, shifting in their seats and focusing their attention back to the TV and a rerun of The Office.
“Yeah, so…um…this is a funny part,” Ava said to her husband and gestured to the muted TV.
He glanced over his shoulder. Our eyes locked, and he followed every inch I took farther into his house.
“Oh hey, Quinn,” Jacob said mildly but in a protective tone that informed me we had a pending conversation.
“We’re finishing our chat in the guest room,” Kennedy said without stopping, still tugging me through the hall.
But we did anything but chat. The door locked, and she threw me onto the bed. We peeled each other’s clothes off and kissed every inch of each other’s skin until we couldn’t take anymore. We’d had amazing sex in the past, but I don’t think any were as intimate and intensely passionate as this one. Our sessions usually had phases. Phase one: I want to devour your naked body. Phase two: You feel so wonderful, and I’m so in love with you. Phase three: You’re so sexy; now make me come. But this time it was different. It started out with phase one and then remained at phase two the rest of the time. Our kisses were deep, our movements were alternatingly fast, slow, gentle, and fervently rough. My center undulated against hers, and sweat covered our bodies, but I didn’t care. It made our moments that much sexier. More intimate. We were so closely connected, so lost in each other’s worlds, that it was the first time I’d experienced a simultaneous orgasm with my partner, and it took us both by surprise. It made me cuddle into her afterward, holding her tightly so she could never leave again.
As always, she fell asleep before me, and I found so much peace and comfort feeling her chest rise and fall with each breath. I noticed about twenty minutes after she had fallen asleep, twitching against me, that a grin still lingered on my face from feeling her breathing and her body heat warming me like a second blanket.
For the first time in a long time, I fell asleep with a smile I couldn’t get rid of.
* * *
That next morning, I woke at seven, attempted to go back to sleep, but couldn’t. My beautiful girlfriend slept peacefully next to me, curled into my body, breathing heavily. And then I remembered that I was in her brother’s house. Hadn’t spoken to him since Christmas and then fucked in his guestroom. I mean, fucked seemed really casual and fun. Sleeping with Kennedy the night before was one of the most intense and romantic sex sessions I’d ever had in my life. But either way, by the stare he gave me when I stepped into his house, I knew he viewed me as his sister’s girlfriend whose antics had pushed her away for a whole week.
So yeah, I kind of needed to do something to make up for it.
I went out and grabbed four coffees, a variety of bagels, some apples and bananas, and two fistfuls of creamer and sugar packets. Okay, and I made an extra stop at CVS to pick up a watermelon and a blue raspberry Ring Pop to charm Kennedy. The plan was to leave everything on the kitchen table and sneak back into bed with her so that Jacob and Ava could discover the loot of breakfast goodies and maybe reconsider harping on either me or Kennedy for the previous night.
But things never worked out the way I wanted them to.
Just as I crept back into the silent house, there was Jacob starting the coffee. He was still in his pajamas—basketball shorts and a gray T-shirt that said “Silicon Valley Nerd”—with his hair disheveled. But as dorky as he looked, his expression was anything but. Back were the furrowed eyebrows and staring green eyes, giving me a look as if I was the bad guy who’d broken his sister’s heart. Which was pretty accurate. I had a lot of explaining to do.
“Coffee and breakfast?” I said way too nervously, raising the tray and paper bag.