Too drunkandtoo stoned, then.
I tug my hood low over my face and creep closer. I catch snatches of what they’re saying, but not enough to be able to eavesdrop on their conversation.
Not that I’d want to. God knows what college guys talk about.
“Haven?”
I jerk, staring around wide-eyed.
Another familiar voice, but I have trouble placing it right away with so many people all talking at once. I’m probably just hearing things.
But when I turn back, Kai is looking toward the sound as if he heard the voice calling, too.
So not my imagination.
I freeze and try to ignore my pounding heart as I wait for Kai to face forward again. I feel like a lion on the savanna, freezing low between the tall grass whenever the prey they’re stalking looks in their direction.
The guy beside Kai tugs on his sleeve, and he returns to their conversation, saying something that earns more laughter from his friends.
Look at you, Kai. Should’ve become a motherfucking comedian.
A gust of wind chases through the crowd, forcing people to snuggle deeper into their puffer jackets and coats.
I reach for Kai’s phone, gingerly grasp it, and slowly start pulling it out of his pocket.
“Haven!”
My hand jerks up, the edge of the phone hooking on Kai’s hoodie. He spins around, clapping a hand to his empty pocket, green eyes narrowed. The instant he sees me crouching behind him, those same eyes go wide.
“The fuck?” he bellows, making a grab for me.
I skip backward, phone hoisted above my head as a surge of adrenaline floods my body.
I don’t know why I laugh like we’ve just started a game of tag and I’m it, but I blame the brain chemicals and Melissa’s strawberry-flavored turpentine. Screeching with delirious panic, I spin around and try to dart through the crowd.
Not that I get very far.
Too many people, too close together.
And one of them grabs my sleeve, almost jerking me off my feet before I can catch my balance.
“FuckingknewI’d find you here, you little cunt.”
I don’t know what steals the air from my lungs first. Recognizing that croaking voice, or turning to see it’s the same person who just grabbed my sleeve.
My arm falls to my side. I feel a big, warm hand wrap around mine, holding me still as Kai pulls his phone out of my numb fingers. Then he turns and sees the man standing in front of me, and a jolt goes through him like he’s just gotten the shock of his life, too.
No wonder.
I didn’t have ‘a surprise encounter with someone from your past’ in my horoscope this morning…and I’m guessing neither did Kai.
Chapter 41
Haven
A silent scream echoes in my head, but my throat is too tight to let it escape. My lungs won’t fill. My vision narrows to a tunnel, and at the end of it stands the shriveled husk of a man I thought—I’d fuckinghoped—I’d never see again.
My father.
