31. Chapter 31
Erik
Kylie's car is sitting in my driveway as I pull into it. Huh? I thought she wanted to come over later. Why is she already here?
Panic makes my blood run cold. Did something happen?
I jam the brakes, turn off the engine, and jump out to rush over to her car. Then I catch movement from the corner of my eye.
"Over here," she shouts softly and waves at me. Her and Abby have made themselves at home on the rocking chairs I have on my porch.
"Is everything okay?" I quickly stride over to her, worry gnawing at me. Especially once I notice her serious expression.
"Everything is fine." She clears her throat. "Only one teeny tiny little problem."
"What?" I search her face. "What is it?"
"My ex decided to pay me a visit." Before her words even make sense to me, she scrunches her nose, the exact same way she did when she told me about true crime gossip podcasts giving her the ick. It makes me let out a sigh of relief.
"Trust me, I have no idea why he thought it was a smart idea, but he got fired and got my new address from my mom. Apparently, all the hotels in the area are booked out because of the autumn fair in Kinstead, and he had nowhere to stay.” She shakes her head, annoyance radiating from her.
“Had I let him drive away, you would have gotten a call about an accident within ten minutes. He was dead on his feet and would have been a danger on the road. Really, you should be thankful I offered him my haunted guest room.”
“Why haunted guest room? Is it worse than the rest of the house?”
“Oh, you have no idea.” Her eyes sparkle with glee. “It’s my hobby-slash-guest-room, the one I’m avoiding because Elizabeth declared it hers.”
“You’re evil. I like it.” As long as she directs her powers towards her ex and not me.
“Anyway. I didn't want anyone to get the wrong idea about him staying at my place, least of all you." She beckons me closer and reaches for the hem of my shirt to twist it around her fingers. "So, I figured I’d surprise you and turn up early."
"Well, consider me surprised."
"Great." She lets go of my shirt to reach for my hands and takes them as leverage to get up from the rocking chair. Once she stands, she gets on her tiptoes to give me a quick kiss.
"You could have just called me, you know?" I grin against her lips, slipping my arms around her.
"Did you miss the part about the surprise?"
"Well, if you had called me, I could have told you about my spare key in the planter over there." I point at it. It's literally right next to the rocking chair she sat in.
She bites the inside of her cheek. "Well, I guess that could have been convenient."
"Come on, you’re cold. Let's get you inside." I usher her towards the door. Abby follows suit. I bet she already ran a few rounds around my house. Thankfully she didn't dig up any more bones.
"I'm fine." Kylie protests weakly, but I see the grin tugging at her lips.
"Sure." I roll my eyes and put my hands on her shoulders to gently push her inside.
"Are we cooking?" She walks straight to my kitchen. I'm still untying my shoes as I hear her open my fridge.
"What are we supposed to cook? Hey, you still have ice cream. Damn, it didn't even melt when the power went out. Oh my God, this is perfect." I lean against the doorframe and watch her weasel around my kitchen, but when she starts pulling random drawers and cupboards open, I have enough.
"Kylie." She whirls around. I take her hand and pull her against me. “Take a deep breath."
"I'm okay. I..."
"I know.” I run my fingers through her hair. “Humor me."
"Okay." She slides her arms around me and buries her face in my chest.
"Breathe, baby." I take a deep breath myself, waiting for her to imitate it. Then another one. Until she melts against me. "Do you feel better?"
"No. Yes. I think?" She glances up at me, her chin digging into my collar bone.
"Talk to me." Her eyes search my face. “What’s going through your head?”
"I'm annoyed," she mumbles, staring at my chest. "I'm having a good run here. I didn't need Zach to show up. Now my feelings are all jumbled."
I tense. What’s that supposed to mean?
"Erik.” She waits until I look at her. “Feelings of inadequacy, not affection.
Trust me, he suffocated that well and thoroughly.
But it's a little hard to build myself up when the reminder of why I tore myself down in the first place is standing right in front of me.
So yeah. I don't know. It's been a confusing day. And I don't want you to be mad and..."
"Why would I be mad?" My eyebrows knit together and I tilt my head, lacing my fingers over the small of her back.
"Because I let my ex-husband stay at my place? I wouldn’t touch him with a ten-feet pole but if it were the other way around, I know I’d feel iffy about you not consulting me before offering your guest room to an ex and-”
“But you're not staying with him, you’re staying with me.
" I can't believe she thought I'd be angry at her for it.
"Even if you stayed at your place, with him in the guest room, I wouldn’t be mad.
Obviously, I wouldn't have been thrilled either, but I trust you.
Take another deep breath, babe. Nobody's mad at you.”
She nods and we stay like this, my arms around her, and her palms on my chest, until she glances up at me.
“How about we get on my couch and I order delivery?"
"They have delivery here?" she squeaks and drums her fingers against my chest excitedly.
"Antonio from two towns over. Usually, he doesn’t quite deliver to Wayward Hollow, but I caught one of his employees stealing from the cash register, so he tends to make an exception for me."
"So you're a good boyfriend to have for your delivery contacts alone." She pats my chest with a genuine smile.
She’s ridiculous. God, I have such a crush on her.
“Hey, I have other great qualities, too."
"You do." She shoots me a cheeky grin, and I'm just glad I could lift her spirits again. "You have a great cock too."
"I know."
We stare at each other. I still can't believe this is real.
Without even realizing it, our faces have pulled toward each other like two magnets, impossible to resist. Not that I would want to.
I capture her lips with mine and a deep sigh feathers over my skin as she immediately she relaxes, melting into the kiss. A happy hum escapes the back of my throat. Kissing her is like coming home. Like candle light in the dark, a warm hot chocolate on a cold winter night.
"One question," I mumble against her lips when she draws back.
"Hm?" She stares at me in wonder, looking drunk from our kiss.
"What kind of pizza am I getting you?"
Half an hour later, we cuddle up on the couch, pizza boxes in our laps, my arm around her shoulders and a murder mystery playing on my TV. My feet are propped up on my coffee table, hers are on the couch as she leans against my side.
"I don't know, this guy is just giving me the ick." She points at one of her suspects.
"So far he seems pretty innocent to me." He doesn’t. It’s totally him. But I love teasing her. "By all means, he seems like a nice guy."
"Sure." Irony drips from her voice, and she takes a hearty bite out of her pepperoni pizza. Abby already ate while we waited for our delivery, and now she's curled up next to Kylie, her little head inching closer to the pizza box.
"I have to give it to you, Erik. Ordering pizza is the best idea you've had yet.”
“Seriously?” I arch my eyebrow. “Better than the picnic?”
“This pizza is really damn good." She waves one of her slices through the air. I grab her wrist, pull it to my face and take a bite off it.
"Hey!" She pouts and reaches for one of my pieces with her free hand, taking a hearty bite out of it.
"Oh fuck,” she groans with her eyes closed. “Yours is good too. Want to trade a piece?"
"Hell yes."
She switches one of our slices. Then another one, when she declares my spinach pizza better than hers. Honestly, I don’t give a damn.
Once we're done, I bring the boxes into my kitchen and grab a blanket on my way back, because if there's one thing I learned about my girl, it's how easily she freezes. And how much I like cuddling with her under a blanket.
A very fortunate combination.
"Has anyone ever told you how comfy you are?" she mumbles against the side of my chest, mushing her cheek against my shirt.
"Can't say anyone has." I kiss the top of her head and let out a deep, happy sigh.
Now that the pizza is gone, Abby has no interest in staying on the couch and finds herself a spot right by my fireplace. I turned off the light and lit some candles because candle light makes everything better. Their flames flicker, and give Kylie the most beautiful orange glow.
"By the way," she blindly reaches behind her and pats the couch until she finds her phone, "my friend sent me the aged-up picture just before the pizza came. Let me forward it to you."
As she pulls it up on her phone, I catch a glance at it.
And then I stare, heart beating so loudly I can barely hear her.
“That’s her?” I press out.
"Potentially." She hands me her phone. One more reason I completely trust her. If anything were going on with her ex, I doubt she'd hand it over like it’s the most natural thing in the world. Before even studying the picture, I press another kiss to the top of her head.
“Now, I’m not an expert, so bear with my amateur explanation.
From what I understand, they don't only take the child's facial features into account to age them up,” she explains and sits up a little straighter, “and if you need more info, I can totally give you Gabriella's email. She explained it to me, they use a certain algorithm, based on images from the child, then go with an average of which feature it has from which parent. They tested on hundreds of pictures and most of them were accurate enough to identify them.” Which, in all honesty, sounds about a hundred times more reliable than one person relying on guesswork and their experience.
“Please tell Gabriella thank you,” I mumbled and stare at the image, awestruck. A face, eerily similar to mine, stares back at me from the small screen.
"It looks so different to the sketch they drew up," I mumble and zoom in a little. She even included the scar on the upper lip I told Kylie about.
"Obviously there is never a guarantee," Kylie mumbles, "but I think this is about as close as it can get."
"Thank you." My heart is so full it's about to burst. "You don't know how much it means."
"Trust me, I have an idea." She squeezes my thigh. "And I really hope you find her."
"I hope so too."
Fuck. Everything coming together almost chokes me up. My chest is so full with my love for her and the hope she just sparked.
Maybe I should go meet up with her ex and thank him for fucking it up with her, because she's the best thing to ever happened to me.