“But we’re about to make up for some serious lost time.” Kennedy raises her coffee in her sister’s honor, and Gavin and Demi do the same.
“What are we toasting?” The words strum from me, deep and unfamiliar. I’ve never been good at putting up a front. My eyes feel heavy as I keep them trained on Kennedy. I can’t seem to move another step. That perennial smile I keep for her isn’t coming to the party. This is serious, the playful side I’ve shared with her is gone for now.
“My freedom”—Kennedy gives a hard gulp as if swallowing down another lie—“from you.”
“Kennedy,” Demi hisses from across the table.
“Good Lord,” Kam sighs. “Let the fireworks begin.”
Gavin gives a dark chuckle. “Lighten up, dude, we were toasting her sister. Take a seat. What’s your ugly mug doing out of your cave? Did the legal system spit you out for good?”
I can’t find it in me to offer even a thin smile to his good-natured ribbing. But I take him up on the offer and find a seat at the head of the table, my eyes still poised on Kennedy.
“Your results came back from the polygraph.” I give an idea of a smile. “It’s true what you said about the videos.” Just a few minutes prior to her admission, I already knew the truth. But hearing her say those words, it was mind-boggling. I don’t get it. I don’t know if I ever will.
Kennedy glances to Demi and Gavin, her lashes lowered just enough to show remorse. “I did it,” she whispers. “I uploaded those videos.” Her cheeks fill with color. “I lied about not knowing that Keith ever made them.” She looks to me. “But the rest? All those stupid idiotic pranks? What did the polygraph have to say about that?” Her intense gaze matches mine. Baby steps—that’s how we’re getting to the finish line.
“Inconclusive.” My brows rise. “Only you know the truth.”
“The truth is a slippery bitch”—she doesn’t miss a beat—“just like me.”
Kennedy and I enter a standoff. This is it, the moment that makes or breaks us. If I hold strong to my lie—if she holds strong to her newfound hatred of me—we could knock this out of the park. It’s all some longstanding curse that’s been ravaging my life, and it looks like Kennedy might have been infected, too.
“Why are you doing this?” My voice is steady, but you can hear the anger rippling underneath like a current about sweep us off to sea.
“I thought you were all about the truth, Caleb. Isn’t that what you want to hear?”
“You’re spewing out more lies, Kennedy.” I jump to my feet, plucking the drink from her hands and hurling it at the wall.
The room pulsates around me as my sanity unlatches, unhooks from my good judgment. I’m coming unhinged for all to see. There has to be a limit to this misery. There has to be a way to stop it.
Kennedy rises to meet me where I’m at, all rage and turmoil.
“I didn’t lie on that test, Caleb,” she screams it in my face. Her voice vibrates over me like a hurricane. “I don’t know why that test showed inconclusive. Maybe it’s because I had a rough morning—with mysister, myfatherboth popping into my life that day after four long years. Maybe it’s because I wanted so hard to pass I couldn’t tell you how to spell my own damn name!” Tears spring from her eyes like a fountain. She presses her lips together hard for a moment. “I didn’t want to lie anymore in your office, Caleb. I don’t want to lie to you or anyone else again for the rest of my life.”
Her sister rises to her side as she glares over at me. “But you lied, Ken. Tell him how you lied in his office the other night.”
Kennedy closes her eyes briefly.
“One secret I tell you, and you spill it within a day,” she hisses.
“Is it true?” My voice thunders through the small shop. All patrons have ceased their conversations. Their heads craned shamelessly at the two of us.
“It’s true,” she whispers. “I didn’t have anything to do with extorting information from your brother. After I heard that recording”—she shakes her head—“okay, I did say those words, just not in that order. Someone spliced two conversations together. And I don’t even know who that was speaking in the beginning. Don’t you see?” Her voice cracks as Demi comes up alongside her. Gavin rises next to me as if he were about to break up a fight. “If they could be that dubious, make Keith disappear, there’s no stopping them. They have already taken away too much from me.” Her hand floats to the side of my face. “I couldn’t let them hurt you anymore. I needed to let you go—to protect you the only way I know how.”
Kennedy. I bury a kiss in her palm before meeting her teary gaze once again. “You lied to protect me.” I close my eyes a brief moment. “Come here.” I pull Kennedy into my arms and lose it. All of the false armor she’s been wearing, for weeks, years, slowly melts away, and she’s a girl again in my arms. My special summer girl.
“I am so fucked, Caleb.” She buries her face in my neck.
I land a hard kiss to her temple. “We’re going to get you out of this. And I think I know a way.”
Loveless in summer is nice. In autumn it shines like cut amber, but dressed in a coat of snow, it is resplendent. Winter has always been the crowning jewel of the mountain.
I take Kennedy back to the cabin and call Abel to meet up with us. I’ve also invited her mother, father, and sister along with Demi and Gavin to help us wade through the sludge of what’s become of Kennedy’s life.
“It’s ironic,” Kennedy whispers, looking at the small crowd amassed at the dining room table.
“What’s that?” I pull her toward the kitchen just out of sight of the others. I want to kiss her. To tell her that everything will be all right, but I don’t have the facts to back that up.
