That was how she’d fallen, all those years ago. Kieran standing next to her, showing her the motions of a jump serve. Kieran staying late with her and Atticus, the sun setting on the park as they practiced receiving. Kieran cheering her on, wrapping an arm around her shoulder after she broke past a triple block with a spike that had the other boys pouting.
“Here you go.” Kieran opened the door of the bedroom next to his, flicking on a light switch as he gestured Sammie forward. “All yours for the night.”
Sammie dropped her overnight bag onto the fluffy yellow comforter, taking in the room. It seemed to be a sort of catch-all for decor Meredith didn’t know what to do with. The walls were covered by countless framed photos, mismatched with no discernible pattern to how they were displayed. A dresser in the corner was covered in trinkets and more frames. It felt… homey. Even if it was just a room to store things that had no other place in the house, it was a room full of memories.
“What did you mean?” Sammie fiddled with the zipper on her bag before turning back to face Kieran. He still stood in the doorway, backlit by the bright light of the hallway. She moved closer, closing the distance between them as she held Kieran’s stare. “How have you disappointed them?”
Kieran sighed, a small thing, leaning against the door frame, arms crossing over his broad chest. “They want me to take over this place. Sooner rather than later.”
Oh. Sammie didn’t know what she had expected him to say, but it hadn’t been that. “And you don’t want to?”
A flicker of something flashed across Kieran’s face as he gave her a strained look. He ran a hand over his face, fingers rasping against his short beard. “I don’t know,” he said. Sammie heard a reflection of her own deep-seated worries in his voice. “It’s a lot to think about. Two years ago I didn’t even know I would be living in the same state as the farm. I don’t know if I’m ready to face that kind of decision yet.”
Sammie understood. There was a unique sort of weight that she had always felt, from the moment she had inherited her grandma’s house. A pressure to live up to some unseen expectation.
“That is a lot. Sorry, I didn’t mean to pry.”
Kieran gave her a small smile, dimples creasing on his cheeks. “Not prying. I’ll tell you anything you want to ask about.”
Fuck. That was a lot too, even if she knew he meant it. The way Kieran had snatched her hand up in his truck. His gentle words, when he’d told her they could make something specialtogether. Did it all mean anything more to him? Did it mean what Sammiewantedit to mean?
She knew it was dangerous, letting her thoughts head in that direction. His boundaries had been clear from the start, and Sammieknewshe shouldn’t read more into his actions. She should take his words at face value. But the questions were still there, hovering faintly in her mind.
“I’m gonna crash for the night,” Kieran finally continued. “You good in here?”
Sammie nodded. She felt as though an opportunity had slipped through her fingers, the chance to ask him if there was any possibility formore, and now he was turning away, arms falling to his sides as he waved a gentle goodnight.
Before she could think better of it, Sammie was reaching out, grabbing his hand just as he’d done with hers on the drive down.
“Thanks.” Kieran’s soft gaze was searching her face, and before Sammie knew what she was doing, she was pulling him into a firm hug. “Thanks for helping out with the house,” she continued, pulling back as quickly as she’d moved forward, hoping desperately that she hadn’t done the wrong thing.
That small smile had yet to leave his face, and when Sammie dropped the hand she’d grabbed, Kieran raised it, pushing her hair back from her face, tucking it gently behind her ear.
“Night, Sammie.” He finally turned away, leaving her standing in that spare bedroom, her thoughts whirling as the smile he’d left her with burned in her mind.
CHAPTER TWELVE
“IT’S SO MUCH worse than I expected.”
Kieran followed Sammie’s voice into the kitchen. A room he’d been in many times over the years, squeezing around the small table with the twins after school, enjoying the snacks that Greta was always happy to whip up for them.
The sight that met him as he turned the corner into the kitchen was a dire one. Grant had been by after the last batch of storms had rolled through. He’d shored up the shattered glass with plastic to keep the elements out. But the damage had already been done.
Yellow wallpaper peeling from above the sink. Laminate on the countertops warped and bowing. Dark stains soaking into the cabinet doors. The window frame was beyond repair, the bottom portion obliterated by the limb that had crashed through.
Sammie grabbed a broom from the corner closet and began sweeping up the debris—glass shards, leaves and bark, dirt that Grant had tracked in. Kieran’s mind snagged on the idea of his father removing that limb alone, and he made a mental note to bully the man intonotdoing something like that again.
A quiet sniffling sound had Kieran moving across the room tentatively, as though he were approaching a skittish animal.
“We can fix it all.” He placed a hand on Sammie’s shoulder. Anything could be fixed. Even the shattered window frame.Although, replacing that wouldn’t be cheap. As well as the cabinets underneath that were soaked beyond saving with water damage, the wood already warping.
“Yeah.” Sammie let out a slow, steady breath. “Yeah, we can fix it.”
Kieran could see it weighing on her though, bowing her shoulders around the broom as she continued to sweep. It twisted his gut. He didn’t like the sight of Sammie unhappy, couldn’t stand the idea of something she loved so much bringing her that amount of pain.
Should he go to her? Is that where they were at now? She’d hugged him last night, strong arms wrapping around him, a physical manifestation of her appreciation. Honestly, he felt silly, worrying this much over what he should or shouldn’t do. They were both grown adults. They’d dry-humped on his bed for fuck’s sake.
But this sort of thing didn’t come as easily to Kieran as it did for others. Knowing when someone needed him.Whatthey needed from him. And Sammie… he’d known her for so long, but she was a different person than she’d been in their younger years. It all felt tangled up in his mind, twisting his gut in both pleasant and unpleasant ways.
