I grunt, and Kit trails right next to me now.
“Is he gay? I couldn’t really get the vibe. My gaydar was bouncing back and forth.”
“Why? You interested?”
“What if I was?” he asks, drilling his eyes into the side of my face.
“You’ll have to ask him. It’s not really my M.O. to ask what kind of holes a dude likes to stick his dick into.”
Kit scrunches his nose at my crudeness but says, “Ian strikes me as the type to let you know whether you actually wanted to know or not.”
He’s not wrong.
I happen to know exactly the type that Ian ends up going for. More the flavor of curvy blonds, like Delaney. Not small guys with eyes a fraction too big and a mouth that always looks like he just bit into a berry.
“He mentioned something when I saw him the other day that I wanted to ask about.”
Unease tightens my gut. Ian has seen me through quite a few days the last few years. Days that were so bad my brain has tried blocking them out. He’s great, really. But the dude has a mouth almost as big as his biceps and no filter.
“Go on.”
“He said you avoid the lake.”
I grab three different boxes of Pop-Tarts when I realize Kit is too busy looking at me, biting his lip nervously, to notice we’re standing in front of them. Blueberry. Strawberry. S’more.
I sigh and push away. “Is there a question?”
“Why? Do you avoid the lake, I mean.”
“Next.”
“What?”
“Next question.”
“Why is the small cabin locked?”
“Next.”
“What happened to your motorcycle?”
“Sold it. Ma said it was a death trap. Guess I feel obligated to keep myself alive now.”
Kit huffs.
“Does it make you miss him more or less? Being here,” he spits out quickly.
His hazel eyes are wide open and pleading with me to cross the line that was drawn somewhere along the way.
“Did running away make it hurt less?” I reply instead.
“Yes… No…” Kit shrugs his slender shoulders. “Both.”
I turn and start moving again.
I nod at Mrs. Hennik when I grab the butter and turn to say something to Kit just to get out of what is normally a long winded, one-sided conversation with the older woman who I swear spends half her days in this store.
He’s not behind me.
