30. Kayla
CHAPTER THIRTY
KAYLA
F riday sneaks up on me, and I’m already struggling through the second part of my split shift when Patti calls me back to her office. I cover a yawn and head down the hallway.
“Alright, Kayla. They’ve requested a formal setting for the EdTechU event, so let’s talk about the things you need to have in your portfolio for the interview.”
“Okay, go for it,” I say, grabbing the pen and pad out of my apron. I stifle another yawn. This is the moment I’ve been waiting for. I need to get my head back in the game after my romantic detour and family drama.
“First, you need to research the company—their mission, their culture, logo, colors, etc., and come up with a color scheme for the venue, as well as attire for the catering staff. Look up Trancy Hall so you can decide on table placement for the venue. Brush up on your formal table setting knowledge and get some ideas for menu course offerings. I’ll need all of this by August 1, nicely formatted in an online presentation so it can be shared with the internship board before the event.”
I nod, writing everything down furiously as she speaks. When I think I have it all, she starts again.
“And Kayla… ”
“Yep, I’m ready. What else?” I finish my notes and peek up at her, waiting for the next bit of information. The emotion in her eyes catches me off guard, and I put down my pen, giving her my full attention.
“I’m proud of you. You’ve worked hard to get here, and you’re going to do great.” She wipes her eyes and shakes her hands, looking around the room for a tissue. “Ooh, I’m such a baby!”
“Thanks, Patti.” I smile back at her, handing her the box of tissues next to me.
“It’s true, Kayla. You work so hard and do so much for everyone else. I don’t think you get enough recognition for it. You deserve a little something for yourself too.”
“ Ugh ,” I say, shaking my head and blinking away tears. “Pat, stop trying to make me cry! I have to get back to work.” We both laugh at that, fanning our faces to dry up the tears as I stand.
“Yeah, you’re right. Get back to work!” She jabs a finger in my direction as I leave, pretending to be the hard-ass we both know she isn’t.
It’s the calm before the dinner rush, so I grab some clean dishes to practice my formal place setting skills while I wait for the next customers. After twenty minutes of moving silverware around and adding and removing plates and cups, I stare at the puzzle in front of me. This shouldn’t be so hard for me to remember, but looking it up on my phone feels like cheating. It’s mostly right—but some small detail is wrong—and I can’t for the life of me figure it out.
“What’s this?” Chase asks, standing across from me while I stare at the place setting. I didn’t hear him come in and look around the diner quickly to make sure I didn’t miss anyone else.
“I have to practice formal place settings for my portfolio. We haven’t gone over those in school since my first semester, and something’s missing. It looks wrong.”
He comes behind the counter, puts his hand on the small of my back, and looks at the dishes before me. “Butter knife,” he says confidently, before walking back around. He sits on the stool directly across from me, smiling.
“ Duh ! A butter knife. I’ve been looking at this for so long, everything’s starting to merge. How did you spot that?”
“One of the perks of etiquette classes.” He shrugs.
“You took etiquette classes?”
“Yeah. How else would I have become so charming?” he teases, wiggling his eyebrows.
“Okay, Mr. Charming.” I roll my eyes, chuckling. “You’re early. The dinner rush hasn’t even started yet.”
“Good, that means I can kiss you now instead of having to wait.”
“Oh, is that what that means?” I load my place setting dishes into the dish return behind me.
“It does if you ever get over here to say hi.” His eyes follow me as I move around the counter and stand between his knees. Wrapping his arms around my waist, he pulls me in close enough that I have to tip my head back to see him. “Hi,” he breathes over me, making my heart tick a beat faster. I’ve mostly gotten used to the way he makes my heart flutter, but sometimes, like right now, he’ll catch me off guard and I have to look away just to think a proper thought. As I lower my chin, he lifts it back up with his finger. “Don’t do that,” he says softly.
Those piercing dark blue eyes stare straight into my soul before he presses his lips to mine, and I swoon. If he wasn’t holding me, he’d have to pick me up from the floor. “I’ll let you get back to work,” he whispers, steadying me while I find my feet. The smirk on his face shows he knows the exact effect his kiss had on me. I take a deep breath as tingles surge from my lips down to my toes.
The bell above the door chimes, breaking my trance and setting me in motion to seat the two booths worth of people who just came in. As I get them settled, three more groups file in, creating a revolving door of customers until the dinner rush ends.
At the end of the night, Chase grabs the spray bottle and cleaning rags, wiping down tables, while I head to the back to prep the washer. I free my hair from the bun on my head, relieving the tension headache I’ve been battling for the last hour. Leaning against the storage room wall, I stretch out my back as Chase drops the dirty rags in the washer. “Done already?” I ask, eyes half closed from exhaustion.
“Yeah. I had a little motivation…”
“Oh?” My eyes pop open, watching him take slow steps toward me. “And what was that?”
He lifts the apron over my head, tosses it in the washer across the room, and wraps his arms around me. “Not what. Who . You might know her…tall, green eyes, breathtaking.”
“The Statue of Liberty?” I gasp, looking behind the door.
He laughs, running his fingers up my arm. “I’m trying to be romantic over here, and you’ve got jokes.”
I slide my hand along his jaw, pulling him down onto my lips. A deep longing that has been building all evening floods over me. “Take me home?”
By the time we reach my porch, I’m buzzing. Chase kisses my neck from behind as I struggle to get the keys in the lock. Each new kiss sends a shock through my overloaded senses, making me fumble a total of three times.
“Chase…” I say on a giggle. “I can’t focus when you?—”
He reaches forward, slipping the key into the lock on his first try and propelling me inside the dark entryway. He nudges the door closed with his foot, locking it behind him, giving me enough time to toss my bag on the couch. The back of his fingers caressing my cheek is all it takes to regain momentum before his hands are tangled in my hair, lips frantically kneading with mine.
“I’ve been thinking about touching you all day,” he says against my lips.
My fingers run down his sides, and I slip my hands under his shirt, reminiscent of the Fourth of July. Only this time, he doesn’t stop me as we spin in a passionate waltz through the house, losing shoes and shirts and belted pants all down the hallway to my bedroom.
I walk him backward to sit on the bed and slide my knees around his hips, holding his face in my hands to control the tangled mess of our tongues. He sighs, and I smile against his mouth, feeling his elation build beneath me. The surprising excitement I felt sitting in his lap on the climbing wall is nothing compared to the heated frenzy I feel now. In this moment, the only thing I can think about is getting closer to him. I just want to be closer. My fingers slide down his chest, catching on the rippled edges of a smooth scar.
“Baby…” he pants between kisses.
“Later.”
“Babe.”
“Shh!”
“Kayla,” he tries again.
And I pull back, looking into his eyes with a huff. I just want him, want to feel his hands on my body, and he insists on talking.
“We left our socks on.”
I look down, past our underwear clad bodies, and something about my frustration mixed with how ridiculous we look wearing socks on our feet sends a chorus of titters through my body. I cover my face with my hands, unable to stop them from building. He leans in, chuckling into my shoulder, and we’re both gone, lost in a fit of giggles over socks.
Chase moves my hands away from my face, sweeping a stray loc behind my ear. He kisses me slowly, sweetly, like he’s got all the time in the world, and lifts me from his lap to place me on the bed. We lose the socks and everything else.
I stretch to open my nightstand, grabbing a condom from the box forced on me at girl’s night, silently thanking my best friend for her foresight. Chase’s eyes flash, blazing with the heat we both feel for each other in this moment. The grazing of his lips on mine, trailing down to my neck, is ambrosia to my soul, healing parts of me I didn’t know were aching to be healed.
“Do you realize how beautiful you are?” he asks, dropping kisses across the base of my neck.
“I…um…don’t really think about it,” I answer breathlessly while his lips glide across the expanse of my collarbone.
“I think about it enough for the both of us.” His breath dances over me as he lets out a soft chuckle. Goosebumps race across my skin, a moan escaping my lips when he swirls the tip of his tongue around my nipple. “You like that, sweetheart?” I nod as the room grows hazy. “And this?” He sucks on the other side, smiling at the quiet gasp that slips from me. “You’re so sensitive. So responsive.” He blows a light stream of air over me, and I bite my lip in response.
“Mm-hmm. I like when you touch me.”
Chase’s lips deftly course down my body, hands smoothing over every other inch of me. I’m ready to burst by the time he reaches my thighs. “Chase,” I whimper, rolling my hips toward his face.
“Give me a minute, beautiful. This is my new favorite thing. Let me taste you?”
I nod quickly, but he keeps his kisses above my center.
“Words, Kayla.”
“Yes, I…want you to.” The words work out of me while I try to hang on to some semblance of control. He teases my clit with the tip of his tongue, sending a curl-inducing zap straight down to my toes, and all that control goes out the window.“Chase, please,” I say, loving the torture but needing release. “Ch?—”
“Shh, I’m working,” he mumbles, and his chuckled moan barely registers before he strokes me with the flat of his tongue. I grab a fistful of his hair and hold on for dear life. “God, your taste, baby. You’re perfect.” He swirls his tongue, and my hips roll upward, seeking more of him. “Relax. You deserve to be treated like a queen, Kayla,” he whispers across my skin, triggering a series of shudders. Slipping two fingers inside me, he pumps them in and out before curling up, hitting that delicious spot that makes me cry out his name. The more I moan, the more earnestly he laps me up, licking and sucking until I’m writhing beneath him. “That’s it. Right on my tongue. You’re doing so well for me, sweetheart.”
As much as I didn’t like the talking at first, right now, I don’t want him to stop. The careful way he holds me—grazing my skin with the tips of his fingers, his gentle hands working the sensitive parts of my body—it’s like I’m his most precious discovery. I come alive under his touch, and when he brings me to that wondrous ecstasy, I know there is nothing—past or future—that can ever compare to this moment with him. Though, the next moment comes in as a close second.
Lying tangled in the sheets, enjoying the feeling of being wrapped up against his warmth, I trace my finger down the faint scar cutting across half of his chest and down his side.
“What happened?” I ask quietly.
“I fell out of a tree.” He strokes my back lazily and speaks with a low, relaxed voice. “When I was nine, Hunter and I were climbing a dead tree at my grandparents’ house. I jumped up to reach the next branch, breaking the one underneath me, and fell all the way down, hitting almost every branch on the way. The branch that caught my fall did it by impaling me in the side before it broke.”
“You—what?” I prop up on my elbows. “Are you okay?”
“I think the last hour has shown I’m more than okay…” He smirks. “Hunter had to leave me alone under that tree to get help, and I was rushed into surgery. They got the main branch out of my side, but it punctured my lung and splintered just right that the imaging couldn’t pick up all the pieces. I would stabilize, go to a room for observation, and then bleed internally or get another infection. After the fourth time, they made a long incision and pulled out six different wood fragments. ”
“That’s why you’re afraid of heights?” I ask, wide-eyed.
“That’s why I’m afraid of heights.” He nods. “I was in the hospital for almost a month. But it wasn’t all bad, and I got to stay out of school for weeks after. I wasn’t too grumpy until they told me I couldn’t play sports for a year.”
“A grumpy Chase?” I tease. “I can’t see it.”
He gives me a quick kiss. “It’s not often. The tree scale helps with that.”
“Tree scale?”
His eyes sparkle in the dim light of my room as he chuckles. “Yeah, so whenever something bad happens or I’m stuck on making a risky decision, I ask myself, ‘Is this worse than falling out of a tree?’ It puts things into perspective for me.”
“Sounds like an easy way to face your fears. Maybe I should use the tree scale.”
“Yeah, I mean, in a roundabout way, it got you sitting in my lap up on that wall, so…I think the tree scale works pretty well.”
That memory seems so distant. I never thought I’d be here, with him in my bed, but I’m thankful for whatever cosmic forces lined up to make it happen. I’m happy I took the chance on him.
He brushes his lips on mine again briefly. “Hey, Kayla…”
“Hmm?”
“I told you I was going to fall for you this summer…”
“And…?” I wait, watching the look in his eyes change from fiery passion to a fierce vulnerability.
“Baby, I’m free-falling.”