Chapter Twenty #2
“Me too! Me too!” The other twin ran to her side.
They giggled and then cartwheeled away. Kelly had told me that even though Olivia and Emma were identical, Emma had a freckle on the left side of her cheek.
And Olivia had slightly larger eyes. I didn’t see these differences and avoided saying their names at all costs.
“My cousin Richie lives on Maui,” Kelly whispered, his mouth brushing the shell of my ear, causing a low burn to ignite in my abdomen. “I didn’t invite you because I didn’t think you would have extended your contract.”
“I wouldn’t want to intrude,” I said politely.
He didn’t need to defend himself. Kelly and I were just friends, and he didn’t have to take me to a wedding. Let alone a family wedding on a different island.
“Nonsense! We all think you should go,” Kimo spoke now.
“It’s probably too last-minute,” Kelly said. “I think Reese is working, anyway.” I was slightly taken aback by his strong insistence that I shouldn’t go. Did he not want me to go?
“Could you switch shifts with someone?” Kalani asked.
“Even if you can’t trade, you should just call off sick,” Tutu laughed.
She was lounging in an old lawn chair on the very end. I had offered her my cushioned chair, but she had refused. Everyone moaned that they had been trying to get rid of that old chair for years, but Tutu refused to let them.
“Mama! That’s not honest,” Kimo said in mock shock.
“When is the wedding?” I asked, pulling out my phone to check my calendar.
“Two weeks from yesterday,” Lilly said, reaching for baby Hazel.
I opened my calendar, and my heart sank a little when I saw that Saturday was highlighted. “I am scheduled for that day.”
“Do you want to go?” Kelly’s fingers brushed my arm slightly, igniting a fire under my skin. There was something earnest in his voice. I could tell he didn’t want to pressure me into this, but I wanted to ask, without an audience, whether he even wanted me there.
For a moment, I thought about falling back into my old habit of using work as an excuse, but I decided I couldn’t go back anymore. “I want to go,” I said honestly, leaning my body more into Kelly.
“Really?” Kelly’s eyes lit up. He was now drawing little circles into my skin.
“I do.”
We were lost in each other’s eyes for a couple of breaths. It felt like we were both trying to tell the other something important.
“Of course she does,” Tutu said, breaking the spell and reminding me that we weren’t alone. “I haven’t seen two kids more in love since Kimo and Lilly were kids.”
“Hey!” Kalani said, clearly insulted.
“You and Jeremy are great, too. If you’re into that kind of thing.” Tutu picked a piece of invisible lint off her floral tank top.
“Tutu!” Kalani was fuming.
“Our love is special, ku’uipo,” Kimo said as he reached for Lilly’s hand, bringing it up to his lips for a small kiss.
My cheeks burned at the mention of the word love. It was not a word I had ever used with a boyfriend, and Kelly wasn’t even my actual boyfriend. Did I love Kelly? Maybe as a friend. It was completely normal for people to feel this way about their friends, right?
“I need to use the restroom,” I said as I excused myself, hoping my face wasn’t as flushed as it felt. I reached the sliding door as I heard Kalani argue that she and Jeremy were rom-com worthy.
I slid open the door and felt the instant relief of the A/C hit my scorched face. I made my way to the bathroom with a plan to splash my face with water, but stopped when I came across a picture that caught my eye.
In all the pictures in the house, it was the Iona family in various stages of their lives.
I could see Kelly’s childhood played out in all of these photos.
And in all of them, he always stuck out with his white blonde hair as a child.
Even though his hair had darkened to more of a dirty blonde now, he was still the odd man out.
But there was one picture on the hallway wall that didn't look like the others—no blonde boy was sticking out.
In this picture, all the kids were teenagers, and the photo was taken during Christmas at what appeared to be a JCPenney’s set.
In the background was a Christmas tree decorated with tinsel and surrounded by gold-wrapped presents.
The Iona's all wore matching red sweaters and khaki pants.
Kimo and Lilly smiled brightly, but Tutu and the teenagers had forced smiles.
They were standing to the side, each with a hand on the shoulder of the person in front of them.
In the middle of the photo was Kelly, with midnight black hair.
I laughed to myself as I reached out to touch the glass without even thinking.
My finger pressed into Kelly’s face, and I smiled at the braces he was sporting.
His hair was shaggy and on the longer side.
I could imagine him flipping his hair to get it out of his eyes, just like every guy I knew in high school had.
“I was hoping you wouldn’t find that one,” Kelly’s voice came from behind me, and I jumped.
“Oh my God, you scared me!” I laughed. “You know, you resemble an emo Justin Bieber in this photo.” I looked back at the picture and saw that my finger had left a smudge. “Oops!” I pulled it off the wall and used my shirt to wipe it down.
“Don’t tell Lilly you are ruining her family photos.” Kelly bumped my shoulder with his.
“I’m not ruining anything!” I said in mock defense. “I’m just making sure everyone can see your brace face a little clearer.”
“Brace face? What, like you didn’t have braces, Miss Perfect?”
“As a matter of fact, I did not,” I shrugged my shoulders. “You know, it’s hard having perfect teeth.”
“You do have perfect teeth,” Kelly said as he leaned in closer, and I was hit with the smell of him—that perfect mix of clean and spicy.
Kelly’s fingers slipped over mine as he took the photo from me.
“I’m going to throw this away and blame you for it.
It’s not personal. You’re just the perfect scapegoat. ”
“Hey now!” I reached for the photo, and Kelly held it over his head. “You can’t throw it away! This might be the only proof that you had black hair!”
“That is exactly why it needs to go.” Kelly started to back away, but I lunged forward and wrapped my arms around him, stopping him in his place.
“I can’t let you do that.” I wasn’t sure I could fight him off, but I was going to try. “I think it’s cute. You look better as a blonde, but the black isn’t bad.”
“It was terrible!” His free hand swiped through his hair, as if he could still feel the hair dye.
“Why did you dye it? I know plenty of women who pay for your hair color.” My hands were still locked around his waist.
He held the photo prisoner above his head as he sighed. “I dyed my hair because I was being made fun of at school,” he said, and I instantly felt like a jerk. “It was common for people to tell me that I didn’t belong. So, I thought if I dyed my hair, I would finally fit in.”
I pulled him in close, moving my hands from his waist to his back, and held him tight. He rested his head on the top of my head as his arms wrapped around me.
Neither of us said anything for a moment. I had never felt like I fit in, but no one had ever bullied me to the point that I thought I needed to change my physical appearance.
“Well, if it's worth anything, fifteen-year-old me would have had a huge crush on you,” I mumbled into his chest.
“Oh yeah? You would have changed your mind when you saw the gray color it faded to after I washed it a few times. I had dyed my hair the day before these pictures, and Mom was irate.”
I pulled away and stole the photo back. I rested back up against Kelly’s torso as I looked down at the photo and saw that Lilly was smiling brightly. No trace of anger on her face.
“She doesn’t look mad.” I smiled down at her.
“She wasn’t going to let that stop her from looking happy in a picture. I don’t know if you can tell, but pictures are a big deal to her.” His breath was hot on my neck, and I felt my nipples harden slightly at the feeling.
“You know, now that you mention it, I did notice a few on the walls. Baby Kelly is a personal favorite of mine.” His arms wrapped around my waist now, and my body relaxed into his, causing us to move back into the wall.
“And what about adult Kelly? Do you like him?” His mouth was tracing the shell of my ear, and I had to suppress a moan before it escaped my lips.
“Adult Kelly?” My voice was slightly breathless as my free hand grabbed onto his arm. I could feel something shifting between us. Something that had been waiting a long time. “Adult Kelly drives me crazy,” I said honestly.
“Fuck, Reese. You drive me crazy, and I can’t take it anymore.
” I felt his lips start to suck on the hollow of my neck, and this time a moan did escape.
At the sound of my moan, he moved his right hand across my stomach.
It moved beneath my shirt to the bare skin just below my belly button, and my knees almost buckled.
“Is it too hot, Reese?” Kelly whispered in my ear, our original code word coming back around after all this time.
My heart swelled, knowing if I didn’t want this, he would stop. “Not at all. I think it could handle more heat,” I almost gasped.
Kelly took this as permission and began licking and sucking the side of my neck.
His hand wandered from my stomach up to the center of my chest. His fingers got to my bra and paused for a second.
When I didn’t move it away, he slid his hand under the cup, palming my breast before finding the peak of my nipple, already hard, before he grabbed it between his forefinger and his thumb.
I gasped slightly as he gently twisted, and I bucked back into him, pressing further into his growing erection. The pressure of it all made me drop the picture frame, and I hardly noticed the shattering sound as it hit the floor.