“Can we talk?” I pointed upstairs.
“Sure?” She hesitated, her lips curving down into a frown and darting her gaze from me to the front door. Zade strolled in, whistling, and went right into the basement.Good man.
“Come on.” It took a lot of effort not to pick her up and carry her up there, but I managed. I let her lead and I admired the way her black shorts hugged her every curve, her gorgeous skin teasing me. I knew how it felt, how it warmed when I touched it, and, fuck, I needed her.
She went into her room and ushered me in, shutting the door behind us. “Okay. Tell me what’s going on.”
I didn’t wait before I cupped her face in my hands and kissed the hell out of her.Coffee.She tasted like coffee and perfection. Her plump lips softened against me and she moaned.God, yes.I couldn’t get enough of her or kiss her long enough. Our tongues collided, her sucking mine into her mouth, and I wanted to spend hours with her, just like this.
Like we used to.
“God, I fucking missed you,” I breathed into her, moving to kiss her neck and earlobe. She bucked beneath me, and I licked one of her favorite spots. “This has been hell.”
“Wait.” She stopped and put one hand on my chest, pushing me away a couple of inches. She adjusted her glasses and looked at me with swollen lips. “Why? Whynow?”
“What do you mean?” I tried to hug her, pull her against me, but she shook her head. “I’m sick of pretending I don’t want you every minute.”
She closed her eyes, her face softening for a second, before she opened those green eyes and glared at me. “We’ve said no more than ten words to each other since that night—the one you said you couldn’t prolong this. That was almost two weeks ago. Why now?”
“I just realized I didn’t want to pretend anymore.” The nerves came back at her expression, the flutters in my gut that had words coming out real choppy. “It’s just—with baseball—and your brother—I heard him today with Felix and—”
“What?” she seethed, giving me a look I wished I never had to see. She moved from the door to the other side of her room, her cute little ass swaying as she paced. “You know Felix asked me out.”
“Why did you say yes?”
“Because I’m sick of being sad and it is something to do,” she responded, her eyes turning darker the longer she stared at me.
“Don’t go with him. It’d kill me to know you were with him…no, just, please.”God, I’m begging. I sound pathetic and I don’t care.
She sucked one of her cheeks into her mouth and stared me down. I had never felt so small in my life. “When did you find out, exactly?”
“A couple hours ago at the gym. He approached Aaron and told him he’d asked you, and your brother yelled at him, but didn’t kick his ass. It got me thinking, if he could do it, then maybe I could talk to him or something and I wouldn’t feel bad about what Zade said, causing problems on the team.”Oh god, she’s not smiling.No, her face lost all traces of happiness, even though my lips had been on hers less than two minutes ago. I didn’t understand. “Kenzie, I want us to go back to how we were, more than anything.”
“Have you felt this way since we stopped?” She crossed her arms and tapped her foot on her hardwood floor. The sound echoed, and each tap felt like I was losing hope.
“Yes, no, kinda. I’ve missed you, our talks, everything, but—”
“The catalyst was hearing that Felix asked me out,” she said, all emotion gone from her voice.
“And your brother didn’t kick his ass.”
“Tanner, you don’t get to come back into my life after leaving it for your own reasons. This is fueled by jealousy, not…whatever you’re spinning this into. I can’t—I won’t settle for this. I gave you a chance to continue and you said you couldn’t because ofbaseball. Your Dedication to the team hasn’t changed, so, really, there is nothing telling me you won’t disappear again. No. You hurt me.”
“Kenzie…” My voice broke a little at the end. “I think I love you.”
“Don’t you dare,” she seethed, giving me a scathing look. “We could’ve worked out, Tanner. It would’ve been incredible but…we would’ve gone on pretending this summer didn’t happen if you hadn’t heard Felix asked me out. I’m going to ask you to leave my room. Maybe we can be friends in a couple months.”
“Is this… it?”
“It has to be.”
Her expression remained unmoved, and I did what she asked. I left her room, shutting the door and hating every emotion in my body. Sadness, regret, heartbreak.She’s going out with another guy and it’s my fault.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Kenzie
Felix had a heart of gold, the smile of an angel, and yet I couldn’t get into the date, four days after the talkin my bedroom with Tanner. Felix and I walked back from a wonderful dinner at a Thai restaurant and shared stories from our childhoods. He had two sisters and missed his family like crazy.
