Chapter 21
Kenzie
Something loud startled me. I clutched my chest and bolted up from my bed.
It came from downstairs. Oh my god. Someone’s breaking in.
Adrenaline blasted through my veins, almost like ice going through them, and I tiptoed from my bed to the corner where Jeff kept a bat.
I grabbed my glasses from the table and didn’t make a sound when I twisted the doorknob and snuck out onto the top of the stairwell.
My watch read two-thirty a.m. Who the fuck is here? The guys weren’t due back until that night and no one else had a key. Burglars. Kidnappers.
Okay, most likely not. If they were coming for money, the house wasn’t nice.
The most valuable things were our computers and I was not about to lose my life over a laptop.
Deep breath. Gripping the bat like my life depended on it, I stepped down the stairs with the grace of a ninja.
Not one sound gave away my descent, and I cocked my arms back to swing at the first sign of movement.
Voices. There were people talking in the kitchen.
I froze, hoping to place them, and almost laughed when I heard Aaron’s.
“No fucking food. She didn’t have the decency to buy something?”
“We stopped at the diner. Why do you need more?” Zade.
That meant…Tanner was back.
He must’ve texted me and I missed it. Speak of the devil. He rounded the corner to head upstairs, carrying bags over his shoulders, his face stern, and walking with a limp, if I wasn’t mistaken. Seeing him, and how he made my body react all crazy, I was breathless. “Hi.”
“Hey, mind getting out of the stairwell so I can head on up?”
Excuse me. Did he just… Yeah. He did. “Sure?” I still held the bat and moved to the side, letting him pass, and he didn’t say a single word. Not a fucking one. “Tanner, are you okay?”
“Yes, Kenzie. I’m tired, I pulled a muscle, and want my own fucking bed.” He spoke with an underlying tone of annoyance. As though I irritated him by talking to him. It was hard not to admire his back muscles straining against his shirt, but a bundle of dread formed in my chest.
“Uh, okay. Yeah, I’m sure you do. I didn’t know you got hurt, what happened?” I moved up three steps, hoping to comfort him or see what else had happened. This version of him was so different from the one I’d chatted with before he left, or the one I’d exchanged texts with the entire time.
He sighed, dropped his bags outside his bedroom door and gave me a withering look, as though I was a groupie trying to get his attention. “I don’t want to do this. Let me sleep.”
The only thing I could do was nod. It felt like a slap to the face. “S-sure.”
Then he went into his bedroom, shutting the door, and keeping me entirely in the dark about what just happened. I must’ve stared a little too long, because Zade walked up the stairs and burst out laughing.
“Dude, were you gunna try and fight us with a bat or what?”
“Yeah, I was!” I yelled, picking up the bat and pretending to swing at his handsome face. “None of you fuckers told me you were coming back tonight. I thought I was getting kidnapped or something.”
Zade groaned and hollered over his shoulder. “You didn’t text your sister? Aaron. Come on, man. We scared the shit out of her.”
My brother joined us at our middle-of-the-night meeting and grimaced. “I’m so sorry, Kenzie. I didn’t even think—thought you’d be able to sleep through it.”
“I was until something crashed?”
“That was me,” Zade said, shrugging. “I ran into the counter and knocked over all the dishes on it. Oops.”
“Well, assholes, you scared the hell out of me for dumb reasons. You’re getting me breakfast in the morning.
I don’t care who.” I pointed at both their chests and stomped up the stairs.
My pulse calmed down enough for me to get back into bed, but my mind was spinning.
Sure, I’d expected my brother to give me a heads-up they got back early.
He hadn’t, so I was annoyed. But it didn’t hurt, or feel like an intentional decision to keep me out of the loop.
Tanner’s did though, and I didn’t know why. I chewed on my lip, hating the uncertainty and how it played tricks on my mind. Did I say something? Did he change his mind about me? Is our fling over?
God, that pressure in my chest came back with thinking about ending our fling.
It was always in my mind that our contract—my list—was solid, and we would abide by that for the rest of the summer.
It would suck when it ended, but not this kind of suck.
It would be an expected kind of awful, one I could prepare for mentally and emotionally.
This, though… Something had to have happened for him to dismiss me.
I’ve hung out with him for three weeks. Why do I expect anything at all?
With negative and confusing thoughts, I drifted back into a shitty sleep in the hope of everything going back to normal the next day.
Some people viewed being stubborn as a bad thing.
I did not. It was something I was proud of and could remember all the way back to being a young kid where my parents wouldn’t let me leave the kitchen table until I’d eaten all my vegetables.
One time, the battle had gone on until ten p.m. and they’d given in.
Again, I was proud of that. This same stubbornness plagued me as I bit into my chorizo burrito with extra hot sauce that Zade and Aaron had gone out to get me as an apology.
Tanner hadn’t acknowledged me, or anyone in the house, and I battled with what to do.
Confront him or ignore him?
Tease him or piss him off?
All the above, please.
“So, Kenzie, what did you do when we were gone?” Aaron asked, biting into his own breakfast burrito as we sat around the kitchen table. It was a small, not sturdy table, and Zade’s large legs took up space from me, so I had to sit with both knees tucked to my chest.
“Worked three days, got all my homework done, hung out with Greta and Callie. They showed me the best dessert places and I met some of the football guys.”
“The three of you went to hang with football guys?” Zade asked, suddenly alert for nine a.m. after getting home so late. “Like, a party?”
“Okay, first of all, calm down.” I laughed at his crazy expression and waited a little longer than necessary to answer.
They were rattled at the mere thought of their women talking to other dudes and that was dumb.
I took another bite, a long sip of coffee and when Zade narrowed his eyes, I responded.
“It was during my shift Saturday, you nutcase. They had a table in my section that was too large. Greta and I had to share it. They knew all about you guys. Seems they think they’re cooler. ”
“Ugh, don’t fucking start. I hate football,” Aaron said, getting up after finishing his food. “Don’t get involved with them.”
“Because…?”
“They party hard.”
“So do you.”
“They…they’re different.”
“Again, so are you guys.” I smiled at his flustering but stopped when Tanner walked into the kitchen wearing nothing but those goddamn loose workout shorts. My mouth literally watered seeing all his muscles move with each step. No. We’re mad at him.
“You guys get any extra food?” he asked, his voice all sleepy and sexy. Ugh.
“Yeah, in the bag. Now, Kenz, back to this ridiculous notion of football players, after whats-his-face? You want to mess with that whole thing again?”
“Aaron.” I rubbed my temples. “Sean was lame and it had nothing to do with the sport he played. Also, I’m just giving you shit. I’m not— I don’t plan on dating anyone. With work, balancing classes and trying to figure out what to do with my life, I don’t have time.”
Did Tanner’s back tense or no?
“Good. Good. Take some time and, uh, make good choices.”
Zade and I snorted at his stupid answer. I gave myself a mental high-five when I hadn’t looked at Tanner’s face the entire time, even when he sat in the chair next to me. His body heat overwhelmed me and while my pulse skyrocketed at his nearness, my face remained a stone-cold bitch.
“Why the burritos?” Tanner asked. He took a bite—fitting half of one into his talented mouth—and I swallowed hard.
“We all get shitty housemate points. Aaron forgot to tell her we were heading back and we scared the shit out of her last night. Did you see her with the bat? Like, what were you gunna do with those little arms?” Zade reached over and picked up my right arm, laughing harder. “Can’t do damage with these.”
“Fuck off, and yes. I could. Want to test it out?” I fired back.
“Woah, woah. Simmer down, Ken.” Zade held both hands in the air but kept the grin on his face. “I’m sorry we scared you.”
“I survived.” I pushed off the chair and threw the wrapper into the bin before sneaking a glance at Tanner.
Shit. I shouldn’t have. He was staring straight at me with his bedroom eyes.
My entire body warmed at his perusal, but I shut that shit down.
Without another look, I left them in the kitchen and made my way down to the basement.
It was a sticky summer morning and nothing sounded better than a Riverdale marathon.
I got the show up and loaded, perfectly content in my pajama shorts covered in cacti, and an old t-shirt that was frayed on the collar.
Relaxing was a new concept and I didn’t like it.
I’d gone from having my minutes planned for twenty hours at a time to nothing.
No obligations besides working at the Lion and some homework.
It had taken three weeks to get used to the idea and it was just starting to take root. Let my brain not think.
That was my intention watching the show and I got an episode in before someone headed downstairs with grunts and loud stomps.
The tingles on the back of my neck warned me it was Tanner and I had two seconds to figure out what to say.
A part of me wanted to reach out and call last night a fluke.
He’d been rude, but if he was injured and hurting—well, everyone got grumpy sometimes. But he spoke first, derailing my plans.
“I’m going to need the basement today.” He sucked in a breath when he walked toward the other shitty couch facing the TV.
He plopped down, not covering his muscles at all, and faced me with the same intensity he did upstairs.
I had gotten used to seeing a softness there, and this time, there wasn’t one.
“Okay, what for?” I paused the show.
“For the TV.”
“I’ve already gotten this set up for the next couple hours. You can use the one upstairs?”
“I’m injured.”
Oh, right. That makes sense. My temper reared its ugly head and my voice rose. “Yeah, being hurt and a dick doesn’t give you a right to demand an entire room. You walked down here. You can very well walk your grumpy ass back up and use that TV.”
I hit Play and blasted the volume to drown him out, but it lasted about thirty seconds before I faced him again.
He looked furious, an extreme emotion for a completely normal situation.
My crazy smile came out. One that looked like joy, but was fueled with anger, and I’d been told it was terrifying.
I swore he mumbled something, so I asked, “What did you say?”
He had the gall to look ashamed for a second, but he shoved that guilt away and fired back, “Sleeping with me doesn’t give you special privileges.”
“Well, fuck, that was the only reason I did it.” I hated how my stomach knotted at his words and I thought of a million comebacks that would hurt him. But a flash of the night he’d shattered something in his room came back. He lashes out when he’s pissed.
I sighed, waited for him to meet my gaze and said, “Look, Tanner. I’m sorry you’re injured.
I would ask about it, but you shut that shit down last night.
Maybe you were tired and cranky. I would be too if I had to travel on a bus with an injury.
But that doesn’t give you the right to be a dick to anyone.
It shouldn’t matter we slept together. I don’t expect anything from you besides respect and the truth.
Something’s bothering you, but I’m not gunna be your verbal punching bag. ”
Screw my original plans. I didn’t wait for a response before marching my ass upstairs to my temporary room. I made sure to lock both doors—our shared bathroom and my bedroom door— and hang up signs ensuring no one would bother me in the house.
ON PERIOD—LEAVE ME ALONE.