Chapter 25
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Aaron
“I should be ready in thirty minutes,” she hollers out from her bedroom and I pace the living room trying my best to talk myself out of saying a word.
I hear the blow dryer kick on, and I walk to the refrigerator, pulling out a bottle of water.
It’s more like forty-five minutes later she comes out of her bedroom, wearing a pair of black shorts and red tank top with some black wording on it.
Quickly she finds a pair of black boots, grabs her bag, and starts for the door.
“You ready? We’re late.” She says this like I haven’t been here for close to an hour waiting on her.
Smiling I walk over, hook her by the waist, and pull her in. She yelps, I hold her stare and kiss her lips softly. “You staying at my place or are we staying here tonight?”
“How do you know we’ll be staying together anywhere?”
I cup the side of her face, dragging the pad of my thumb over her jawline. “You’ve been spoiling me, and I’ve gotten used to you hogging the bed.”
“I do not hog the bed.” Kendall laughs.
“Baby you are all over the place when you sleep, but I’m bigger so I just grab hold and pull you back to me. Eventually you stop wiggling and cuddle in.”
“Oh Aaron you are delusional, I do not cuddle.”
Resting my forehead to hers I grin and kiss her softly once more. “You cuddle, babe. When you relax and settle in, you reach a point when you turn toward me, bury your face in the crook of my neck or against my chest, and then your entire body grows heavy. You may not think you cuddle, but you do.”
“I think we’ve overthought this enough and it’s time to go.” She pushes against me. I pull her in harder and when she tilts her head back I kiss her, this time holding on a little longer. She moans, and I swipe my tongue along hers.
Then Rory’s words hit me and I quickly pull back. “We should go,” I say, reaching out to open the door and ignore the way her brows furrow in confusion.
The ride back to Hudson is quiet with only the radio playing. Kendall is tapping away on her phone and it continues to chime with incoming messages.
When we pull into the parking lot at Sully’s I put the truck in park and turn off the engine.
“What’s going on?” I glance over to find her watching me.
“And before you say nothing you should realize that I already know it’d be a lie.
You were fine, then suddenly it was like an ice cold glass of water got dumped over your head.
You jumped away from me so fast, practically shoving me out the door.
Then the entire drive here you spoke less than ten words. ”
There’s a pause.
“So again I’ll ask, what’d I miss?”
I weigh my options immediately realizing I’ve already backed myself into a corner. “I wanna to ask you something, and I wanna to be able to do it without you getting pissed off that I’m asking.”
“Now I know I’m gonna be pissed. When you start a conversation like that it’s inevitable.”
“Not if you can understand that until I ask this, I won’t be able to move on from it.
That is has been beating a fucking hole in my mind for hours,” I confess and she waves me on, but I can see the shift in her mood.
There is no longer humor in her face, no longer a hint of a smile on her lips.
Her guard is up, her shields are on, and she’s ready to fight.
“Josh Strauss.” Her body tenses when I say his name. “Was it him, or just his party?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Now who’s lying?”
“You of all people don’t get to ask me about those things.”
“Why, me, of all people?”
She ignores me reaching for the door handle and I lock the doors. “Damnit Kendall why not me?”
Anger fills her eyes. “Because the only thing that bringing up the past will do is change the way you look at me.”
“It will not change—”
“You’re wrong, it will!” Her voice rises. “It already has and you can’t even see it. You’ve acted strange all night, pacing like I didn’t notice. It changes everything.”
“You were fourteen and you were fucking scared and had no one and didn’t know what to do! Because you lost something that night and you refuse to let anyone ever get close enough to take anything from you again. Am I right?”
“I don’t want to do this.” There is a sadness in her voice that cracks open and I place my hand on her thigh. It’s the first time she’s even flinched when I’ve touched her and I swear my heart snaps in half.
“Talk to me,” I urge her to let go, to let me completely in. “Nothing about that night was your fault.”
“Stop.” She squares her shoulders regrouping and finding the inner strength that had slipped on a few minutes ago.
“Babe.” I scoot closer and she hits the unlock and yanks the handle pushing open the door. “This ends here!”
She is out of my truck before I can stop her and walking off toward the front entrance of the bar. I may as well have started from scratch with her because that place we had found, the one of comfort, I know has been buried.
I know I’ve pushed her away and I’m not so sure I can get her back.