Chapter 50
Mari
My forehead presses against Kas’s car window and catches the last of the vibrations through the glass as the vehicle rolls to a stop.
“We’re home.” Kas palms my thigh, and my giddiness would be full-fledged excitement if I wasn’t fighting persisting drowsiness from the melatonin I took to survive the journey back.
My new home is characterized by a giant welcome home banner plastered across the garage door.
My eyes widen when the front door opens and my entire family ranging from my granny to my youngest cousin, Ella, pour out of the house. Auntie’s bright, tear-filled eyes gleam, my cousins wave excitedly, and my uncle’s smile is broad—the same shape and size as Quinn’s that grows when she runs to the car and starts banging on the windows.
“Welcome home! Now come out here so we can show you guys some love!” she shouts.
Kas looks a little surprised, then his eyes crinkle with a smile. He hooks his arm around my neck and pulls me into him over the center console to plant a kiss against my head.
“You good?” he mumbles into my scalp.
I squeeze my eyes shut and give him a sleepy smile. “Happier than ever. My heart is so full.”
It really is full, even if it’s lodged somewhere in my throat. My eyes sting, and I attempt to blink away the emotion-filled haze. This is my family, the ones who saw every publicized up and down in Vegas.
I wake up every single day knowing that these people love me with everything that they have—Kas included. Love can be romantic, platonic, familial, and without it, I think I’d be nothing.
Kas’s eyes go soft, a complete contrast to the rough abrasions to his jaw and cheek that streak across his hardened face.
“Seriously, guys, can you stop staring at each other and get out of the car?” Quinn’s says, her voice muffled by the car windows.
And that’s exactly what we do. We step out of the car and surrender ourselves to the incessant chatter of my family filling in the gaps of my absence, the declarations of love, and the wet cheek kisses of my aunt.
My nose catches the scent of fresh paint mixed with Kas’s comforting smell when I step into my bedroom . The bed is big, and the four pillows layered at the head of it are probably the right kind of soft.
On the mahogany desk—the one I saw in the video Quinn sent Kas—lays a small note pinned down by the weight of a key.
Welcome home.
“Because we were in Vegas, Quinn wrote that by tracing my handwriting from my recipe book,” Kas explains from behind me.
I finger the key and exhale the biggest breath of relief I can muster. “It’s amazing,” I gush. “This is everything, I can’t even explain—” My words die in my throat when I turn to Kas and find him looking a little withdrawn, his eyes sad and framed with dipped brows. “Kas?”
“I don’t like it,” he says guiltily.
“Huh?”
“I love how your room looks, and Quinn did a really good job.” He stalks to the wall connected to his bedroom and places his hand on it with a loud thump. “But there’s no door here.”
I glance between him and the wall like I’m missing something.
“Should there be a door there? This is perfect.”
“I want there to be a door here because I want us to talk before bed and play your lame word games. I want to hear your snores every night and the sound of you muttering to yourself as you hunt for an outfit. Our connecting room was one of the best things about Vegas.”
I wish Kas hadn’t said that. I was already beaming from being in my new home and now he’s selfishly making me wish there was a door there too. If I had it my way, I’d attach myself to Kas’s hip.
“Okaaay,” I start. I circle around Kas and take the few steps into his room next door. He follows me, watching me curiously from the door of his bedroom as I pause beside his bed. “What if I sleep right”—I pat the right side of his bed—“here, next to you. It’ll be better than Vegas because I get to be by your side, always.”
Kas sucks his bottom lip into his mouth and a low, pleased sound radiates from his chest. He lunges at me and feints. I dodge him and attempt to push him onto the bed. I am unable to do so and when I attempt a kick, he takes my ankle and catches me before I fall.
“Kas, stop messing around!” A giggle laces its way between my words.
He throws me on the bed and then cinches me around my neck with his thighs. “Leg lock!” he exclaims. I blindly smack at his muscular thigh. “Promise you’ll sleep in the same bed with me, S?oneczko. It could be mine or yours. I don’t care. I think I prefer your room.”
“I promise!” I claw at his thigh and when Kas lets up, I turn my head and gently sink my teeth into his flesh.
“Ah!” he gasps. “That feels nice.” I snort and push him away so I can settle on top of him to straddle his waist. I look down breathlessly at Kas as the bouncing mattress stills. His lips are curled lazily at the corners, and I give them a long press with my own. Kas tightens his arms around my torso so that his face presses against my neck.
“You make me excited to go to bed,” I whisper. “I love you, like, really, really, love you.”
Kas presses a kiss against my skin, right on top of a pulse that beats just a little harder whenever he’s near.
“And I love you, like really, really, really, love you.” In true Kas fashion, he has to get the one up.
I drag my palm over his chest, noting that his heart beats just as hard as mine, like it always does.
Kacper might be The Unfriendly Ghost to most of his fans, but he’s the most loving, thoughtful, caring ghost that haunts his biggest fan yet.
Me.