Chapter 4
Blakely
“Mom.”
“Mom.”
Someone shoving my shoulder jolts me awake from my sleep. Once I realize it’s Amari calling my name, my whole body springs into action. “What? Are you okay?” I stare at her with a racing heart.
She tilts her head to the side, giving me a curious look. “I’m late for school. You didn’t wake up.”
I reach for my iPhone on my nightstand and unplug it from the charger. “Oh, shit.” I groan and let my upper body fall backward onto the bed.
“You owe me a dollar.”
I roll my eyes as I stare at the ceiling. Sometimes I hate that I made the swear rule. It’s a bad habit none of us can break. I thought this would help us, but so far it’s making everyone broke—and Amari rich.
Amari scoots herself next to me on the bed. I glance at her, fully dressed in a denim shirt dress, tan legging, and black booties. “How did you wake up if I didn’t wake you?”
“I don’t know. I just woke up.”
Fast-paced footsteps echo toward my bedroom, making my heart race. Eyes wide, I leap out of bed and position myself in front of Amari. I stumble back as Kai steps into the room, his neon yellow work shirt bright and his steel-toe boots heavy on the floor.
“Is everything okay?” he asks, out of breath, looking at us with startled eyes like he’s shocked we’re here safe and sound.
“Yeah, what are you doing here?” I ask with my brows squinted together.
“I texted him on my iPad,” Amari says.
I look down at Amari, confused at everything that’s happening. “Why?”
“Because you wouldn’t wake up,” she says with a subtle flush to her cheeks.
“What do you mean? I woke up when you woke me up.”
“No.” She shakes her head. “I tried earlier, and you wouldn’t wake up.”
“Really?”
She nods.
“I raced over here as fast as I could. Are you alright?” Kai asks, running the back of his hand down my cheek.
“Yeah. I don’t know what happened.” Uneasy guilt shreds through my body. My poor daughter. I can’t even imagine what Amari was thinking.
Kai comes and sits on the edge of my bed and runs his hand down his face. “I was so worried.” He abruptly stands back up and looks down at the spot he sat on.
I giggle, knowing exactly what he is thinking. “It’s not like we use that small little corner.”
“You never know,” he says, shaking his head.
“Use the corner for what?” Amari asks.
“Nothing,” we say in unison.
“Do you want me to take Amari to school?” He asks.
“Have you eaten?” I stare down at Amari.
She shakes her head.
“I should feed her first,” I say.
“Why don’t you get ready while I cook her something.”
I nod, looking down at my pajamas. If I didn’t know Kai the way I do, I would feel embarrassed at the way I look. I’m in an old raggedy shirt I’ve had for years, and my leggings aren’t any better. For someone who buys a lot of clothes, I always end up using my old loungewear as pajamas.
“Come on, little one,” he says, grabbing Amari’s hand.
Little one has become a nickname that Kai calls her. She is petite, considering her age. Her height definitely didn’t come from her father. She got my height. I’m five foot two, and Kai is five foot eleven. I’m a little below average, but I think Amari might end up shorter than me.
An hour later, I’m walking into the kitchen, and the smell of something sweet lingers in the air.
Natural light shines through the open bay windows next to the kitchen table.
Liam bought this house a few months before he started at the surgical center.
When he first brought me here, I fell in love with the bay windows.
Sometimes, if I wake up early enough, I’ll sit at the kitchen table, drink my coffee, and watch the sunrise.
"Wow, you outdid yourself, Kai,” I say as I gaze over the spread he has out on the table. There’s a plate of crepes, blueberries, strawberries, and Nutella. “I didn’t know you knew how to make crepes.”
“If you can read, you can cook anything,” he says.
I narrow my gaze at him, not understanding what he means.
“All I did was follow a recipe.”
“They’re good, Mom. Have some,” Amari says from her spot at the table.
“I will. But first I need coffee.” I go over to the counter and pop a coffee pod into the Keurig. The coffee aroma swirls into the air with the sweetness from the crepes.
“Mom, can I stay home from school?” Amari asks.
I sit down and serve myself some crepes. “Why?”
“Dad said he’ll hang out with me all day.”
“Oh, yeah.” I give Kai a hard stare. “Why can’t you hang out with him after school?”
“Come on, B. All three of us can hang out as a family,” Kai says with a joyful tone.
This is my day off. I only work part-time as a medical assistant at a family practice, so today would be a good day for me. “And what are we going to do?”
“We can watch movies,” Amari says, excitement lacing her words.
“All day?”
Amari nods with a wide grin.
I tap my iPhone to show the time. It’s already ten in the morning. By the time I get Amari done with breakfast and out the door for school, she’ll only have half a day left. “Fine. We’ll stay home and watch movies all day.” I glare at Kai, because I have a feeling this was his idea.
After we get done eating, Kai and I clean up the kitchen. “Go find the movies you want to watch while we clean up,” I tell Amari.
She scoots herself off the chair and runs into the living room.
I put my hands on my hips and stare at Kai. He looks over at me with wide eyes and a smirk on his face.
“What?” He shrugs his shoulders with plates in his hands.
“I know this was your idea.”
“You could have said no,” he says, passing me to get to the sink.
I silently turn around and grab the rest of the plates off the table and put them next to the sink for Kai to wash them.
“You know you wanted to play hooky with me today.” He winks.
He’s always been a little flirtatious with me—especially when no one is looking. He’s never gone further than a small touch or a wink here and there, so I’ve never taken it too seriously.
“What makes you think I wanted to play hooky with you?”
“For one, you agreed to it.”
“Yeah, for Amari.”
“Sure, keep telling yourself that.”
“Where is this conversation coming from?” He’s been known to try to rekindle things with me, but over the past four years, he’s stopped trying.
It shocked me, because I never expected it to stop.
I mean, I knew it had to stop eventually.
His small little gestures have always given me some type of hint.
But when the conversation stopped about us getting back together, I thought maybe the gestures were a way of messing with me.
He shrugs his shoulders and continues putting the plates into the dishwasher. “When are you going to get rid of Liam?”
I stop abruptly while wiping down the table. “What?!”
“You heard me,” he says, staring in my direction.
“I obviously heard you, but why are you asking that?” I ask with a stern tone, narrowing my eyes at him.
“Just trying to start a conversation.”
“Then that brings me back to my last question. Why are you asking that? Where is this conversation coming from?”
He wipes his hands on a towel and turns to me. “Look, your relationship is looking like it’s getting a little serious.”
“No shit. That’s what happens in relationships.” I gulp down the last of my coffee and throw another pod into the Keurig. I’m going to need more caffeine for this. Just when I thought he was done trying to pursue me, he hits me with these absurd questions out of nowhere.
“Don’t you think it’s time you gave us another chance?” he asks, his lips turned downward and his eyes giving off a puppy-dog vibe.
“Where is this coming from? You haven’t asked me to give you another chance since…I don’t even know. But it’s been years.”
"Well, you told me to work on myself, and I have been. Look at everything I’ve built. I didn’t build it for just me.”
“Kai, I can’t take you seriously right now.”
“Why not?”
I lean my hips against the counter and stay silent, lost in my thoughts.
I have always wondered what it would be like if we got back together.
Would it feel like it used to? Have we changed enough to actually make this work again?
Those thoughts have always flooded my mind.
It’s always lingered in my subconscious.
But again, the bad lingers too. It makes me not want to even try again, because I don’t want to relive the hurt from the past. Although I know he’s changed a lot, I guess I’m scared to let myself go down that path.
I don’t think I could take another heartbreak from Kai.
Plus, Liam has been so good to Amari and me.
He’s so patient and loving. My relationship with Liam is not something I’ll end just to fall into old patterns.
Kai steps in front of me and whispers, “That look on your face tells me you’ve been contemplating it, too.”
I remain silent while we fixate on each other.
“I will not stop trying until you’re mine again.” The statement rolls off his tongue in a low-pitched voice. He takes a few steps backward.
“I thought you said you had your eye on someone.”
“That someone is you,” he says with a smirk.
“Are you guys coming or what?” Amari yells.
“We’ll be right there!” Kai yells back.
“Come on. I don’t want to keep our daughter waiting…” Before he turns his back on me, he says, “Beautiful.”
I stand there in shock and silence. I haven’t heard him call me beautiful in years. All those times he tried to get me to come back to him and failed. He would always call me beautiful, as if I were going to come running into his arms over the sentiment.
My heart thumps wildly in my chest from this conversation. I will not stop trying until you’re mine again replays in my head. Maybe he has grown up, because this is not the way he used to try to win me over. He sounded seductive this time. Like he needs me, not like he just wants me.
As if I’m his possession.