Kenna: he says your dad came in hot, hollering about not wanting to see him, get off his property, all that good stuff
Kenna: might want to check on your mom though, she was there
Kieran: Fuck.
Kieran: Yeah, okay, I will. Thanks for letting me know.
Kenna: you sign your contract yet?
Kieran: Not yet.
Kenna: gonna?
Kieran: I want to.
Kieran: Don’t think I can bring myself to do it until I tell them.
Kenna: that’ll be fun for you
Kenna: let me know if i can help. i can stand there and look menacing if you want
Kieran: Isn’t that what you always look like?
Kenna: ha ha so funny
Kenna: i rescind my offer, you’re on your own bud
Kieran: Let me know if anything else happens between our two paternal morons
Kenna: will do
“Everything okay?”
Sammie dropped her bag next to Kieran’s bed, running a hand through her hair, tugging at a few tangles. Kieran bit back a sigh.
“Just got off the phone with mom.” It hadn’t been a good call. The weight of his mother’s tears still pressed down on him, unwieldy and smothering. “The usual family is drama getting stirred up again.”
Sammie’s eyes were steady on him, even as Kieran moved around the room, picking up the few things he’d left lying about. He’dmeantto have the place cleaned up, spotless, ready for when she arrived. The fact that it wasn’t, that he’d run out of time because of a phone call gone long, was already throwing him off. He didn’t enjoy his plans being interrupted, changes to the schedule he was already expecting. It always left him feeling uneasy, like he would fall behind and never be able to catch back up.
“I’m sorry.” Sammie seated herself on the end of his bed, ankles crossed, hands placed carefully in her lap. “I wish they weren’t putting so much pressure on you.”
Pressure. Kieran almost laughed. Pressure was an understatement. His mother crying into the phone, asking himto come home the day before the last game of the season, that wasn’t the pressure he’d been feeling all summer. That was a volcano finally waking from its slumber. An imminent eruption, one that Kieran feared was finally going to catch him.
Trap him.
“I’ll work it out.” Not that he knew how. Kieran was just as clueless as he’d been weeks earlier. The only change was that time had passed, and he still didn’t have a solution ready.
“Is this one good?” Sammie picked up the book he’d left lying on his bed earlier that day. He’d needed something to distract him, from the messages Kenna had sent, from tomorrow’s game. From the circles he’d been running in his head, a fruitless endeavor.
“Yeah.” Kieran sat down next to Sammie, the mattress dipping under their combined weight. “Only a few chapters left. You should borrow it when I’m done.”
Sammie flipped the book over, examining the back cover. “Idolike werewolves.”
Kieran watched her as she continued to read. Her bottom lip was pulled between her teeth, a sweet look of concentration stilling her features as her storm cloud eyes squinted to scan the words in the low lighting. A few locks of her dark hair fell forward, tickling against her cheek.
Before he thought better of it, Kieran reached out, tucking the hair back behind her ear. Sammie stilled under his touch, and he couldn’t help but wonder if he’d made a mistake. The urge to overthink, to dissect her every look, every movement, every word, it had been welling up in Kieran since they’d kissed in the brewery two nights before.
Sammie had kissed him. And no, they hadn’t broken her rule, but that felt pedantic to Kieran. A loophole that they’d eagerly exploited together.
