Chapter Twenty-Five
Kendall
I walked in the door to my apartment. It was five minutes to six, and already dark outside. With it being the middle of winter, the sun had set swiftly.
I sighed and raced into the bathroom, thinking I had time to change. There was a knock on the door, and I heard Jude’s voice as he opened it. “Kendall?”
“Come in!” I called.
As I took a long look at myself in the mirror, I noticed I still had a piece of hay in my hair. I brushed it out, tossed it into the trash, and let out a soft laugh. I probably smelled like horses.
I walked out into the main area of my otherwise single-room apartment. “I didn’t have time to shower,” I announced.
Jude’s eyes landed on me, and he set the bags of food on my kitchen counter. “What happened? You look kind of stressed out.”
I opened my mouth to gloss over his question. Instead, I burst into tears.
Within seconds, Jude crossed to me and wrapped me in his arms. I sobbed into his chest, one arm banding around his waist and the other clutching his T-shirt where his jacket hung open. His palm moved in a soothing pass up and down my back as he held me through the storm of tears.
It passed quickly, and I took several shuddering breaths, breathing in the scent of him, so familiar, a little woodsy, earthy, with an underlying tang that was just Jude to me.
I released his shirt and flattened my palm against his warm chest. I leaned back, glancing up before swiping at my tears with my fingertips.
“What happened?” he asked again, his concerned gaze coasting over my face.
I sighed. “Blake,” was all I said.
“Oh, fuck. Did he drink and drive again?”
“No, no. That’s the good news,” I said, shaking my head. “One of his party buddies picked him up. He didn’t even drive over there, but he went out to the brewery with him, and then I guess he realized that was a bad choice and called me.”
Jude nodded slowly. “So it’s good, right? Except—”
I cut in, “I know. Me. Always me, right?”
“I wish you took care of yourself as well as you take care of everybody else,” he said gruffly.
If my heart were a castle, there were those thin slats where they shot arrows through. Only Jude could slide inside them, and he did. He understood me in a way no one else ever had.
“So that was my unexpected afternoon,” I explained. My stomach rumbled. “And, I probably smell like animals and hay. How was your day?”
His palm circled slowly between my shoulder blades, his touch grounding me.
“Just a day.”
He held my gaze, as if trying to read into it, and I could see the worry, the sadness, and the uncertainty, like clouds passing through the blue sky.
“Lincoln called,” he added. “He’s planning to come home. He even called our mom about it. We’ve all missed him.”
This time, I slid my palm up and down Jude’s back, wanting to hold him and protect him. All of them had been through so much, but he was my friend. He was the one I wanted to make sure was okay.
“Don’t look at me like that,” he said.
“I worry about you. You all have been through a lot.”
“I know,” he said simply.
“So we both had an afternoon, huh?”
He chuckled. “I picked up some pizza,” he added.
I leaned in, lifting a hand to slide my thumb across a streak of dirt on his cheek. He startled me when he stepped back, reaching for my hand.
“Let’s shower.”