CHAPTER 26 KAYLEE
I stayed the night nestled in Ben’s warm arms, and in the morning, he treats me to his normal morning routine…which happens to be cereal and cartoons.
He pulls up some old episode of Looney Tunes on YouTube.
“Cartoons?” I ask.
He shrugs. “They remind me of a simpler time, and Daffy is the shit.”
I laugh. “I’m more of a Tom and Jerry girl myself.”
“Tom and Jerry?” he asks. “But they’re enemies. You strike me more as a girl who would enjoy a happy ending.”
“I am. Did you know the cat and the mouse are actually best friends?”
His brows knit together. “In what alternate universe is that true?”
“Uh, this one,” I say. “Tom was pretending to hate Jerry so his owner wouldn’t kill the mouse himself.”
He tilts his head as he contemplates that for a beat. “I feel like my entire childhood was a lie.”
I giggle as we move into the kitchen to grab breakfast, and he pulls a blue box of cereal out of the pantry.
“This is what I eat when I don’t prepare fresh croissants or something greasy to cure a hangover.
And incidentally, I also eat this for a nighttime snack fairly often, sometimes with milk and sometimes without.
And after lunch.” He shrugs. “Okay, fine, I go through a box a day.” He holds up the box.
“S’mores?” I read.
He nods. “Only the best cereal on this planet.” He pours a bowl for me, and I spot cocoa puffs, golden grahams, and marshmallows. I nab a marshmallow since those little dehydrated, crunchy marshmallows are the best part of any cereal that contains them.
He pours a bowl for himself, too, and I steal a marshmallow out of his bowl. “What the fuck are you doing?” he demands, and I giggle at his tone.
“Milk?” he asks.
I shake my head and start picking at the cereal, grabbing the cocoa puffs first as he watches me.
“What are you doing?”
My brows dip at his question. “What? I’m eating it from worst to best. Cocoa puffs first, then the golden grahams, and the marshmallows last.”
“The marshmallows are not the best part,” he counters.
My brows knit together a little angrily. “If you don’t think so, then hand yours over, Olson.”
He laughs. “No way! It’s the mixture of all the flavors coming together that does it for me.” He grabs a handful directly from the box and shoves it in his mouth.
“What kind of animal eats cereal like that?” I ask.
“The kind you like to fuck,” he counters.
I laugh and we settle in to watch some cartoons as we enjoy our cereal. I have to admit…it’s a stress-free, fun way to start the day.
He follows me to Jack’s house for their weekly workout. My plan is to pack up the remaining items I unpacked when I lost the apartment, and Ben said we can probably fit most of my belongings into his truck.
It’s sort of sad when I think of it that way.
I’m an adult now. I’m ready to start my life, to get a place of my own, to figure out my own path…
and instead, I’m embarking on another temporary housing situation.
I don’t want it to be temporary, and the more time I spend with Ben both in public and in private, the more I wish there wasn’t an end looming ahead of us.
Ben follows me as I unlock the front door and walk through the house. Kate is on the floor in the family room playing with JJ while Jack drinks some protein shake in the kitchen.
“Good morning,” she says on our way by. “Have you heard from your mom yet?”
I wrinkle my nose. “Not yet.”
“Didn’t want to wake her up if she’s still over at my dad’s place,” Ben says dryly.
Kate laughs. “I can’t wait to hear how it went. And have you two seen the latest?”
I narrow my eyes at her. “What latest?”
She sighs, pulls something up on her phone, and screen mirrors it to the television. We all watch as that dumbass gossip vlogger appears on the screen.
“The newest it couple is at it again, folks.” Billy Peters snaps his fingers.
“First Little Sister Dalton was spotted heading into a bridal shop in Vegas.” The face screaming in fear emoji appears on the screen only to fade to another photo.
It’s fuzzy and clearly taken through a window, but it’s me in a dress.
Not the dress, but a dress all the same.
Ben shifts uncomfortably, and I really want to study him to try to decode what he’s thinking but my brother is moving in closer to us and Kate’s right there…so I keep my eyes on the screen.
“Dress shopping already?” Billy says. “This screams set-up to me. What about you? Cast your vote in my Instagram stories.”
He snaps his fingers again and a photo of Ben and me with our heads bent close together at the restaurant appears on the screen.
I’m looking up at him with something close to adoration in my fairy freshly fucked state, and he’s gazing down at me with a bit of a smirk on his face.
Clearly there’s something between us from the look of the photo, and I’m a little uncomfortable for a second that my brother is standing mere feet away watching this.
“They were spotted last night at Cordell’s, the hottest new restaurant on the Vegas Strip.
” Billy snaps again and a flopping fish appears on the screen before it fades away to Billy’s face.
“I smell something fishy. We’ve never seen them out before last weekend and now they’re hitting the town, dining in fancy new restaurants, wedding dress shopping, and looking all in love?
Sources are screaming that it’s all a show, and I’m going to get to the bottom of it. ”
He snaps his fingers and moves onto the next celebrity story.
Jeez.
Who cares if we’re faking it? How does it affect Billy’s life really?
Billy is the one putting our relationship under a microscope—our perceived relationship, anyway—while something between really is blossoming in private. It’s a very strange dynamic.
Kate turns off the video, and I roll my eyes. “I swear to God I don’t know anybody who cares this much about a celebrity’s life.”
“Aww, you think I’m a celebrity?” Ben asks.
“I was talking about myself, you know, Little Sister Dalton.” I roll my eyes at the description Billy labeled me with in that stupid video that’s probably already going viral.
It’s the label I’m trying hardest to escape, and it seems to keep popping up, keeping a thumb on me to ground me in reality.
It makes me feel like I will never outgrow that label, and I hate it.
This is all just a part of why I don’t date football players…and yet I’m doing it. Publicly. And falling for him.
“Yeah, little sister to the famous Dalton brothers who’s now a celebrity herself,” Kate says. She holds up her phone, and her Instagram app is open.
My brows dip. “I did it?”
She nods and looks at the screen. “Thirty-three thousand, two hundred four.”
My eyes widen. “Holy shit. People actually care about my content?”
“Congratulations,” Kate says with a nod. “You’re officially Insta-famous!”
“Congratulations,” Ben echoes. He puts up his hand for a high-five, and I slap it with a giggle.
My phone buzzes in my pocket with a notification I ignore.
“So my Insta-famous girlfriend and I decided to move up our move-in date to shut up the rumors,” Ben blurts.
Jack nods as he steps into place beside Ben. “Probably a good idea if you’re sticking to the plan. Who knows what that asshole has up his sleeve next?” He gestures toward the television with his protein shake. He looks at me. “When are you moving?”
Ben and I exchange a glance. “Today,” we say at the same time.
Jack and Kate exchange a glance this time. “Holy shit, Kia. That means as soon as tonight we’re going to have this place to ourselves.”
Kate laughs as Jack glances around the house.
“The couch, the kitchen table, the counters…” Jack says, and he keeps looking around. “The floor, the family room table, the pool…”
My nose wrinkles in a little bit of disgust. I know what he’s doing.
“Hmm…” He pretends to think. “So many options when it’s just the two of us once JJ is asleep. I’ll go with all of the above. Definitely. But where to do it first? Sex on the floor is never what it’s cracked up to be, you know? I’m thinking something a little more comfortable. The couch?”
Kate shakes her head. “Kitchen counter for the win.”
“You guys are disgusting,” I say, and they both laugh.
But honestly, I can’t blame them considering I’ve already taken stock at Ben’s house of all the places we’ll be getting busy.
My phone starts to ring, and I glance at my watch to find it’s Dane calling. I ignore it.
Fuck him.
He set me up, and he deserves zero more of my time and attention.
He leaves tomorrow to go back to Chicago, and I sincerely hope he took my advice to heart that he shouldn’t move here.
At this point, I just feel betrayed. Even if I really was faking with Ben, Dane certainly isn’t doing himself any favors to try to actually win me back.
He tries again, and I ignore it again. Maybe it’s passive aggressive since he has to know I’m ignoring by sending him to voicemail after a couple rings, but I don’t care.
“I’ll help get boxes down to the Scout once we’re done in the weight room,” Ben says to me. “Should be done in a couple hours.”
I nod. “Okay. I’ll get everything packed up.” I step toward him to give him a kiss, and I’m inches from actually doing it when it dawns on me that Jack and Kate are in the room. My eyes widen as I slowly move past him and play it off like I was being funny since we’re faking it.
It just felt so natural to kiss my boyfriend as we part for the next couple hours…but in front of these people, he’s not my boyfriend.
A big part of me wishes I could be honest about it, but every time I really consider telling them the truth about us, a little voice in the back of my head reminds me how whatever happens between Ben and me could have ripple effects through our entire dynamic.
After we all got so close when we lost our dad, I’m just not in a place where I’m ready to mess with what we have now.
And that way, if things go south at the expiration of our deal, or even before that…I won’t have to deal with the sympathetic smiles and the sad looks of pity.
This way, I can live in the moment and enjoy what we have even though I’m terrified the end isn’t too far off.