Chapter Twelve
Bristol could feel tears coming on evenas she beelined it for her front porch. While she appreciated Kaden and Keegan driving her home and offering to help with her car, she couldn’t be around them right now. Not if she expected to keep it together.
What had she been thinking letting Keegan talk her into a dance? Worse than that, though … what had she been thinking dancing with some stranger? It had creeped her out, but at the time, it had been the only way she could keep from breaking down into an emotional mess, something she’d been battling for a couple of weeks now.
As she approached her front door, she was hyperaware of Keegan walking beside her. She could still smell him, that intoxicating scent that was unique to them. It was cologne, she knew. Nothing overpowering, but enough to tie her up in knots at the memories the scent evoked.
“You okay?” he asked when they stepped up onto her porch.
“Fine,” she muttered, fumbling for her keys inside her purse. Thankfully it was a small purse, or she would’ve risked breaking down in her attempt to find them.
“You really should replace that bulb,” Keegan said, nodding his chin toward the porch light.
“Yeah. I know. It’s just…” Shoving the key in the lock, she turned it. “It’s just one of many things that I need to do around here.”
“I can do it if you’d like.”
Oh, God.
Why did he have to be so … nice? He wasn’t supposed to be nice. Keegan was supposed to be pissed off at her, angry over the events of the past. She wouldn’t do well if he was nice to her.
Bristol swallowed past the lump forming in her throat. “Thanks, but no.”
“It’s not a problem, Bristol. It’s not safe for this light to be out.”
Again,whywas he being nice to her? After what they’d been through…
“It’s all right,” she whispered. “I’ll…”
Oh, hell.
The tears were coming and there was nothing she could do to stop them.
Not wanting him to see the epic meltdown she’d been holding back, Bristol shoved open her front door and raced inside, heading right for the bathroom. There was no time to argue with him, and slamming the door in his face seemed incredibly rude after they’d driven her home.
“No, no, no,” she muttered, pacing the small space as she fought to regulate her breathing. Her stomach was twisting, her chest felt tight, her sinuses were burning as she fought to contain the tears.
Bristol turned to stare at herself in the mirror, something she’d done constantly these past few days.
As she looked into her own eyes, the tears continued to well.
“Bristol?”
Oh, God. Now Kaden was inside, too.
“Are you all right?”
No. No, she was most certainlynotall right.
But she would be.
Eventually.
Maybe.
“Go back out there, thank them, and send them on their way,” she told the woman in the mirror as she gripped the pedestal sink until her knuckles were white. “Lie. Tell them you just had too much to drink. They’ll believe it.”
“Bristol.”
