My term in the air force would be up in only a few months. This aspect was made sweet only by her. I had thought about reenlisting for most of my term. I enjoyed what I did, enjoyed my work. Engineering—knowing how to take things apart, put them back together, keep them running smoothly. Fixing things. But the second I met that woman, I wanted to go back home—or to Tennessee—only so I could get under her skin. Learn those mysteries she kept buried deep.
It was absurd. To go home just so I could get to know some woman I’d only met twice. Even if we had rolled around in the sheets that one time. I had done that with plenty other girls. But she was more somehow.
After reading the email once more, I composed my reply, wondering if she would send another reply or ignore it as she had most my emails.
You know the exact words to my heart, sugar.
What are you sick with? You letting Ava take care of you? Did you go in to work today?
I’ll make a deal with you. Every question you give an honest answer to, I’ll send you something cool from Germany ;)
Your Dream Hunk
That was my genius plan. I wasn’t above bribery. Especially if it got me some insight on this girl who filled my every thought. It was likely she wouldn’t let Ava take care of her if she was sick. I could tell she was the independent type. But that was how I would know if she was giving honest answers.
If she saw fit to answer at all.
She didn’t. An entire week passed, which wasn’t abnormal. Before she sent that last reply, she’d only replied to two of my emails since Oregon. Even still, that didn’t mean I enjoyed being ignored.
Stooping to calling my sister wasn’t ideal. I didn’t want to scare Kate off—she might think of it as snooping or some shit. But something was nagging at me.
By the time I had the chance to call, Ava’s phone rang and rang and rang.
“Kai!” she exclaimed after answering on the seventh ring. “You’re calling instead of emailing.”
“Ava. Hey.” Now that she’d answered, I wasn’t sure how I could work up to asking about Kate without sounding desperate. Especially when that was the first and only thing I wanted to talk to my sister about.
“What’s up, brother?” she asked when I didn’t say anything else for a long second.
My mind flipped through multiple scenarios of how this conversation could play out. Which ones led to me getting information about Kate without being obvious.
“Just calling to see what’s up. You know, check on my sister.”
“Hmm. Well, I just got off the phone with Mia. She told me they’re planning a fall wedding, which seems right around the corner. It’ll be great that you’ll be done by then, though. I still can’t believe she’s engaged, let alone planning her wedding! She just wants it to be something small. Probably just Pierce’s dad and us. Which is totally Mia. Although Mom has her own plans to invite the entire family, and neighborhood, and anyone in the general vicinity.” She rambled on about a wedding I didn’t particularly want to chat about, going into great detail about flowers Mia liked and colors and some other shit. My ears were ringing.
“Sounds great, Av,” I interrupted after a full five minutes of pure agony.
“Ha! You gonna tell me why you really called now?”
“You brat.” I chuckled, rubbing a hand over my brow. If only that could help with getting my thoughts in line. “You just subjected me to that wedding shit for no damn reason.”
“Of course there was a damn reason. You weren’t being honest about why you called.”
“Good one. Well, fine. I called to see what’s up with your roommate.”
There was a long pause during which she didn’t even breathe. “Hold on,” she said before there was rustling in the background. “Ummm,” she drew out, her voice lowered. “There’s something up. But she won’t talk to me. She’s been sick for an entire week. When I asked her if she went to the doctor, she told me to butt out of her business. So I did.”
My stomach sank. If she’d been sick for a whole week, something must have been really wrong. “What kind of sick? Like a cold?”
“No,” she whispered. “She’s thrown up every single day. She hasn’t been acting like herself. Usually she goes out to a bar at least every other night, but she hasn’t since the night she got sick. At first I thought she drank too much or something. But it would have been gone by now, right? I even had to pick up her shift at the diner the past few days. I wish she would talk to me.”
She was rambling again, but I let her go on. There were no words. There was no chance Kate would talk to me either. Not if something was wrong with her. Through all the emailing we’d done up until Thanksgiving, I knew for a fact that she closed up whenever someone tried to pry into her life. But if something was so wrong that she couldn’t even go in to work, that couldn’t be good. How could I get her to talk without being there to confront her?
“Anyway,” Ava said, yanking me from my thoughts, “I just told her if she needs anything to let me know. But I know she won’t even do that. Before, when things were rougher for us, I didn’t pay much attention to how little she shared about herself. Now I regret that. I wish I’d pried a bit. It seems too late at this point.”
My sister was so selfless, it was odd that she hadn’t realized how closed off Kate was until her own life had settled. But it was understandable. It was hard for her to think of much else while her twin had been missing, having run away for four months before getting kidnapped by her drug dealer boss. Now that Mia was back and safe, Ava had room to think of others.
There wasn’t much else to say. I told her it would probably be okay, to let Kate work it out but to keep an eye on her, babbling myself just to end the conversation.
Once we disconnected, I went outside to have a smoke. My roommate didn’t much like it when I smoked inside, even though he smoked as well.
I mulled it over, what might get Kate to talk. When the first cigarette was gone, I still didn’t know what to do, so I had another. By the time that one was spent, the only thing I’d come up with was to try calling her myself. So I did.
“Hello,” she answered on the first ring. Her tone was strained, a hint of irritation there.
A tight band wrapped around my chest at the sound of her husky twang. I remembered what that voice sounded like when sighing my name. Sometimes it was all I could think of.
“Hey, Kate.” I cleared my throat. “How are—”
“Before you say anything else, I know you just got off the phone with Ava. And I know she told you I’ve been sick.”
“I did. And she did.” There was no sense in denying it. She was too much of a genius for me to try lying to her.
“I was going to call you… in the next day or so,” she bit out.
“You were,” I stated, then took a deep breath. Her tone didn’t make it sound like she had actually wanted to talk to me, which made her last statement incompatible.
“Yes, I was. I… well, instead of waiting until tomorrow, or for you to call me to tell me you were worried or some nonsense, I decided to get it over with.”
“How flattering,” I drawled.