Chapter Sixteen Putt-Putt!
Chapter Sixteen
Putt-Putt!
Owen and Jacob don’t expect anyone else to be back by the time they reach the suite, but they find Kevin and Kaitlyn both
sprawled out on the couch, Owen’s heating pad strapped to Kevin’s back while Kaitlyn ices her thighs.
“Jesus . . .” Owen murmurs, taking in the scene. “Did Abby make it back alive?”
“She’s showering.” Kaitlyn eyes him without an ounce of light behind her eyes. “Turns out nine-mile hikes up a mountain don’t
really take it out of you when you regularly train for marathons.”
“I don’t think my knees have ever hurt this badly,” Kevin says, staring at his legs extended onto the coffee table, rolling
his ankles back and forth slowly.
“Kinda fucked up that they’re both stealing my thunder,” Owen jokes, whispering to Jacob, who tucks his face into his shoulder
to hide his laughter.
“Switch?” Kaitlyn offers, holding the icepack out to Kevin.
“Sure.”
Owen and Jacob both watch in amused silence as their friends pathetically readjust their impromptu treatment plans.
“It’s not funny!” Kaitlyn chastises, swiping at her brother. But she’s so exhausted that she’s barely able to lift her arm
into the air. “I’m too tired for this.”
Owen falls next to her on the couch, leaving Jacob to walk back to his room.
“So . . .” Kaitlyn grunts as she rolls over to look up at Owen. “What did the two of you get up to today?”
“We walked around, got lunch, saw one of his old classmates from Duke.”
“Oh, right! Dani’s here, isn’t she?” Kaitlyn asks, straightening. “How’s she doing?”
“Good—she opened this rehab center, it was a lot of the two of them catching up, talking about fish.”
“Sounds pretty typical for him.” Kaitlyn cocks an eyebrow when her gaze meets Owen’s. “So, the two of you were together all day?”
“Mm-hmm . . .” Owen hums, fidgeting at her tone.
“Are you wearing his jacket?” she asks, eyeing the thick material that still hangs off Owen’s shoulders.
“Yeah, it was cold.” Owen swallows.
“I bet, I bet.” She nods. “How was dinner?”
“Fine!” Owen says, standing as quickly as he sat down. “You know, we could do Humira shots together, if you guys wanted!”
“Would it actually help?” Kevin asks earnestly.
“No, definitely not,” Owen sputters. “Besides, do you know how much those things cost? I’m not giving y’all a thing for free.”
“Come onnnn,” Kevin whines, all the while Kaitlyn eyes Owen suspiciously. “We won’t tell.”
“How about some extra-strength ibuprofen?” he offers. “Best I can do.”
“Fine.” Kevin holds his hand out expectantly, like Owen can just conjure the pills out of thin air.
“Be right back,” Owen tells them both, eager to get away from the look that Kaitlyn is giving him. Back in his and Kevin’s
bedroom, he types out a quick text message to Jacob before he tosses his phone to the bed.
Owen: pretty sure Kaitlyn knows *something* is up
“So . . .” Kaitlyn’s voice behind him makes Owen jump.
“Jesus.” Owen squats down to pick up the bottle of ibuprofen he dropped. “Remind me to put a bell on you.”
“Abigail tried; I liked the collar ‘too much,’ apparently.” She says the words with air quotes.
Owen blinks at her. “I’m not going to ask you to elaborate.”
“Probably for the best.” Kaitlyn groans as she falls to the bed, eyeing Owen’s phone when it lights up. She can’t read the
reply, thankfully, but Jacob’s name is right there on the screen. And there’s no doubt in Owen’s mind that she sees that.
“Why’d you get up?” he asks. “I was coming right back.”
“So,” she begins to say, ignoring his question, “you and Jacob are texting?”
“Yeah?” Owen’s eyes dart around the room.
“After you just got back from spending all day together?” Kaitlyn adds. “When you’re probably, what . . . ten feet away from
each other.”
“I was just asking him a question.”
“Oh, come on, Owen . . . What’s going on here?”
Owen loathes the hesitation in his voice that instantly gives him away. “We met up for lunch, and then went to see his friend,
and that’s it.”
“Owen . . .” Kaitlyn eyes him. “You guys beat us back to the boat, we saw you outside, holding hands, standing really close to each other.”
Shit.
“Also, you’re both terrible liars. Sleeping on the couch last night? I could hear you whispering to Jacob what to say. And what about getting stuck in
the closet together? And you’re telling me he wasn’t wearing a shirt at the pool to hide the hickies on his chest? The two
of you at the New Year’s party out on the deck, dancing. Putt-Putt!”
Shit. Shit. Shit.
“I’m not lying,” Owen says to her, knowing that she’s right. “And it doesn’t matter anyway because we’re not back together.”
“I never said the words ‘back together.’” Kaitlyn holds a finger up, like this is some kind of gotcha moment. “For all I know
the two of you could’ve just been hooking up this entire time.”
“We haven’t been hooking up,” Owen argues.
“Just sleeping in the same bed?”
“We didn’t—”
“Owen.” The look Kaitlyn gives him makes one thing clear: she doesn’t believe him for a single second.
“What’s going on?” Owen asks. “Why do you care?”
“I mean, it’s exciting, right? If you and Jacob are working things out? Do you think that you’re going to get—”
“We’re not . . .” Owen pauses, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration. “It’s nothing like what you think.”
“Well, what do I not think that it is?” she asks, sitting up. “Wait . . . did I word that correctly?”
“It’s not . . . anything,” he admits to her. “We’ve just been talking. Isn’t that what you wanted?”
“Well, yeah. But if my brother and my best friend are going to get back together, I’m going to be interested,” Kaitlyn says.
“Come on, this is juicy.”
“Well, there’s nothing to be excited about,” Owen promises. “Nothing is going on.”
“So, what did we see?” Kaitlyn’s mouth is a firm line as she stares at Owen. Because she wants an answer.
“You saw him on the verge of making a mistake,” Owen tells her. “You saw . . . you saw Jacob offering to ruin his life to
come back to me.”
“He said he was going to quit his job?” She leans in, voice quieter now. “For you?”
Owen nods.
“Well, shit . . .” Her expression shifts, like she can’t believe what Owen is telling her. “Did you say yes?”
Owen swallows. “I told him it’d be a mistake to come back.”
“What?” Kaitlyn’s voice goes up an octave. “You’re serious?”
“I am,” Owen says to her, growing more and more irritated with this conversation. “He wanted me to make the choice for him,
and I told him I couldn’t. I can’t be the reason he leaves, he’ll only resent me for it.” Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow,
but eventually. Owen would always be the one who took Jacob away from the research that’d made him feel fulfilled, feel whole.
Kaitlyn sighs, shaking her head. “I don’t get you, dude.”
“That’s okay.” Owen’s voice is barely audible. “You don’t have to.”
He wishes it was that simple. He wishes, more than anything, that he could just accept Jacob’s offer to come back to San Francisco. But it’s not that easy. No matter how badly Owen wishes
that it was.
“We’re different now, the both of us,” Owen starts to say. “I didn’t recognize it when this trip started, but we’ve changed
over the last year. And I still love him, that’s never going to change. And I told him that.”
“And he still loves you,” Kaitlyn protests, like it’s information that’ll change Owen’s mind. “Trust me, he’s told me so.”
“I know.” Owen nods. He told me too.
“And you’re just willing to let all of this go?”
“No, I’m not willing to let him go,” Owen tells her. “But I have to.”
“Is that genuinely what you believe?”
Owen rolls his eyes. “Why do you care so much about this? Why can’t you just believe us?”
“Because he’s my brother, and you’re my best friend, and I . . . If there’s the chance for the two of you to get back together,
then I think it’s something worth working out.”
“Well, we’re both adults, and we’re figuring this out on our own terms.” Owen feels his frustration beginning to boil over.
“We don’t know what we’re calling it, okay? We just know that we want to be a part of each other’s lives still, and that doesn’t
mean it has to be romantic.”
Kaitlyn lets out a deep sigh, hanging her head low. “I’m sorry, I . . . I just wanted the two of you to be happy again.”
Owen feels himself unclench, the wind knocked right out of him as his fists uncurl and his nerves begin to settle. In a few careful steps, he walks over to join Kaitlyn on the edge of the bed. “Jacob and I don’t have to be in a relationship to be happy. We can just be, and that’s okay.”
“You’re right, you’re right.” She sighs, covering her eyes.
“I’m not angry with you,” he says to her. And it’s the truth. “And I’m not asking you to understand my choice, I just want
you to trust that I think we’re doing the right thing for ourselves.”
“Think, or know?” Kaitlyn pesters.
“Think,” Owen confirms. “I don’t know what the future holds, and the thought of that always used to terrify me. But . . .
I guess I’m choosing to believe that we’ll find each other again. That he’s still my person, but that we just need to live
our lives first.”
Jacob’s the right person, he always will be. Maybe they just got the timing a bit off.
“I hate how mature you can be sometimes,” Kaitlyn tells him. “It really ruins my fun.”
“Sorry to rain on your parade.” Owen laughs, easing the tension.
Before he can fully stand, a hand wraps around Owen’s wrist, pulling him back toward the bed. He can’t help the little oof that slips out as he hits the mattress.
“What are you doing?” Owen asks, looking down at where Kaitlyn’s hand is gripping him.
“So . . . you can’t be mad at me,” Kaitlyn says to him.
“I’m not?” Owen tells her, clearly confused. “I just told you that I’m not.”
“No, not about that.” Kaitlyn looks at Owen with a concerning amount of, well, concern. “About something else.”
Owen’s eyes narrow. “What did you do?”
“You can’t be mad,” she repeats.
“You can’t tell me to not be mad before you explain what I can’t be mad about, Kaitlyn. That’s not how this works.” Owen pulls away. “What did you do?”
“I . . . I didn’t plan this trip just because of the baby.”