“For being here even when I was being a dick. For caring enough to stick around.”
“Blake and I made a deal,” she says, taking the bag from me and tossing it into the back seat of her car.
Worry coils in my belly. “About what?”
“We’re going to get you used to it.” She turns toward me, coming close, resting her hand on my chest, just above my heart.
“Get used to it meaning…what exactly?”
“Having people take care of you.”
I rock back on my heels. “Kylie?—”
“And that right there.” She lifts on tiptoe, presses her lips to my cheek. “That’s what you have to get used to, honey.”
“I don’t need?—”
“I know.” Her fingers find mine, squeeze. “But I need to give it to my boyfriend.”
My heart’s pounding, skin stretched too tight around my body, discomfort in every fucking cell. I do things on my own. I’m fine on my own.
Except…I haven’t really been on my own since I came to the Sierra.
First, it was the locker room that Lake and Joey created and fostered, impossible to hang on the outskirts when they were determined to bind us together. Then it was Knox and his demands that I join in on Game Nights, the way Riggs and the others all accepted me without thought. And finally, it was Kylie with the shadows in her eyes and all that shy wielded as a shield to keep me away.
Shy that’s gone now.
Replaced by mischievous eyes and a smile I want to taste and a budding relationship with my brother.
Fuck, I never so much as stood a chance, did I?
“Resignation,” she teases. “Finally.”
I touch her cheek. “More like relief that I finally managed to convince you to use the B-word.”
“I wouldn’t go that far.”
“Too late. It’s out there.” A beat. “It’s been out there.”
“Oh yeah?”
“The fundraiser. The hospital. Just now.”
She taps a finger to her lips. “Hmm. Have the pain meds addled your brain?”
“Brat,” I mock-grumble, tugging at the end of her ponytail. “Now kiss me and get out of here before you’re late.”
For once, she doesn’t give me sass, just lays a kiss on me that threatens to turn all my good intentions about her going to work to ash then calmly steps back and drops into the driver’s seat.
A moment later, she’s gone.
But less than twenty minutes after that my phone buzzes and the message has my mouth tipping up.
Kylie: I’ll consider the boyfriend label.
Colt: Too late. You’re already mine.
Twenty-Nine
