“I get it,” she said quietly, not mad, just like she understood.
“I never said thank you for that, Kitty. Even when I wasn’t responding to you after you went home, it still meant so much to hear from you. You’re a better friend than I am.”
She blew a raspberry. “I wouldn’t say that. We’ve both screwed up here and there.”
“I should have talked to you, though. I needed you, but I didn’t know how to separate you from the sadness.”
“Are you able to separate it now?”
I traced a finger over her cheek. “Yeah. Seeing you at that party forced me to see you as a whole person again. You’ve lived a whole life between her dying and now.” I swallowed a lump in my throat. “Kitty, I know you didn’t come to Alden for me, but I came for you.”
Kitty’s brow furrowed, her eyes darting over my bare chest. “What do you mean?”
“I knew you wanted to go there for comedy. I had offers from other places, but once I had an offer from Alden, I knew that’s where I had to go. I came hoping you’d get in and we’d get our shot at being together.”
A sea of emotions passed over Kitty’s face: touched, disbelieving, irritated. “And you didn’t seek me out, knowing I was there?”
“Yeah. Chicken, I guess. Afraid I’d think of Maman. Afraid I wouldn’t give you space to be your own person,” I said.Afraid to commit to the bestrelationship of my life.
Kitty nodded slowly. “So when you say you love me, is it as a friend?”
I thumbed over her lips. “It’s as my everything, Kitty. You’re the person who gets me. You’re my best friend. You’re family. You’re my love. All of it.”
She narrowed her eyes. “You’re so sure about this.”
“I am. It’s okay if you’re not. I’ve put you through hell. That’s why we’re trying.”
“I wasn’t even sure you liked me like that until . . . yesterday? Particularly after the period incident. I don’t know.” Kitty flopped on her back and poked around her stitches. “I’m happy. It’s just a lot to process.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t make you feel as loved as you are until now. That’s my mistake. I should have been clear the night you were sick,” I said, kissing her collarbone and letting my eyes roam her breasts. “I’m willing to make up for lost time, though.”
Kitty met my devilish grin as I grew hard against her leg. “Again? Seriously? I’m sore! My stitches hurt! And my parents want to FaceTime us later. We’ll have to get dressed and out of this bed at some point.”
“What, you don’t want Mark and Heather to see us naked in bed together?”
“Do you want Mark to murder you when he comes to get us Saturday?” she quipped.
“Mark wouldn’t. He loves me,” I said, smug.
“He loves you until you’re dicking his one and only daughter.” Kitty yawned. “And I think I need a nap before I can take more dicking.”
“I can get behind that,” I agreed, snuggling up to Kitty and kissing her until we dozed off.
The rest of the day was dream-like. We spent most of the day naked and in bed, napping, laughing, exploring, and zoning into each other. We blew right through lunchtime and raided the vending machine for snacks to hold us over. I got Kitty ice for her head. We showered off all our sex sweat and got dressed for our Bob Evans dinner and FaceTime call. In all, it was a nice way to kick off our relationship, although it was under bad circumstances.
Heather cried when she saw Kitty’s bandage and the bruise around it. Mark’s arm went around his wife, and though it wassad, it was heartwarming. It was how I wished my parents had been growing up. I could see Kitty and me being like them when we were older: loving and comforting each other, loving our children. Being a family.
Frank got on the call, too, asking about my hockey season. I asked about his soccer season, which had just ended.
“Your parents are sweet together, Birdy,” I told her when we got off the call.
She got a wry smile. “They really are. They love you, too, you know.”
“Oh, trust me. I know,” I said with a laugh. “Your mom never lets me forget.”
We walked through the snow to Bob Evans. Kitty said she wasn’t ready for cars yet, and I was fine with stretching our sore muscles a bit. I wasn’t majorly hurt in the accident, but it did mess with my muscles a lot. Between that and going down on Kitty many, many times, my neck was extra stiff.
Kitty’s cheeks and nose were tinted pink from the cold, and with no makeup on, she looked more like the Kitty I grew up with than college girl Kitty. The snow had stopped, but there was still plenty to sift through. I noticed Kitty limping about halfway to the restaurant.
