AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Our remaining time at the retreat seemed to slip away.
By some unspoken agreement, we kept our hands to ourselves for the rest of the trip. Kenzie was driven to finish as much of her book as she could to get it to my agent, and I tried to get down as many words as humanly possible while they were coming to me.
Our last night at the cabin was spent around the fire in the backyard. Thanks to Kenzie elbowing me in the side, I promised to make some kind of tweet suggesting Ghost Fucker to all my readers. She made me exchange emails with Cooney, who promised to keep in touch and check in “on us kids.” The antisocial couple actually waved goodbye from their window before sneaking out a few hours before midnight, apparently to leave early. Astaire went to investigate their room afterwards and found heaps of evidence that they’d been having some sort of sexual marathon.
Even the author of Ghost Fucker seemed disturbed by the… physical evidence they’d left behind.
When Reggie heard I’d managed to get some writing done, he tried to take credit for inspiring me with his ideas. By the time the retreat was over, the real miracle was that I hadn’t grabbed him by his stupid hair and pushed his face into a tree.
We said our goodbyes on Friday morning and were on a flight back to North Carolina a few hours later.
I sat by the window and watched the runway as we took off. Mount Rainier grew smaller and smaller below us until we eventually banked, and it was gone from my view.
I looked over to Kenzie. I expected to find her busily messing with something or fidgeting. Instead, she was stifling a yawn.
“Tired?” I asked.
“I guess I didn’t sleep great last night. It felt weird leaving all of them. What are the chances we’ll ever see them again?”
“Zero, I hope.”
She gave me the eyes. “Sebastian. Just because the retreat is over, it doesn’t mean you should go back to being a grump.”
“It’s not grumpy to dislike people.”
“It’s grumpy to dislike everyone. Cooney was nice. What could you possibly have against him?”
“I didn’t like the way he held eye contact too long.”
She rolled her eyes. “And Astaire? Weird, but sweet.”
“Her nose whistled every time she breathed.”
“You’re ridiculous. And if you’re that picky, it’s a miracle you seem to like me.”
“Who said I like you?” I asked.
I kept a straight face just long enough for Kenzie’s smooth brow to crease. Then I smirked. She slapped my arm.
“You really are a jerk.”
“I like you despite your annoying qualities.”
“Yeah, well, likewise. And for the record, you are absolutely loaded with annoying qualities.”
We fell into silence for a few minutes while the plane climbed.
“Sebastian?” Kenzie asked. She sounded like her sleepiness had set back in. “Are you sure this isn’t just about the baby?”
“What do you mean?”
“I never believed in that thing. Like a guy finds out a girl is knocked up and he sets aside his feelings to do the right thing for the baby. I think kids deserve parents who actually love each other, not parents who learn to tolerate each other. So I don’t want you to be nice to me just because you think you have to.”
“It’s not just about the baby,” I said. I met her eyes. I saw hers were watering, and it made me grin. “What is it?”
“Pregnancy hormones,” she said quickly, rubbing at her eye and looking away.
I watched her yawn several more times before I finally lifted my arm and pulled her in. She was stiff at first, but she relaxed, resting her head on my shoulder. Within a minute, she was… gently snoring.
33
Kenzie
Sebastian’s driver got caught in traffic on the way to pick us up from the airport in North Carolina. I left Sebastian waiting with our luggage to go outside and make a call to Trinity. As usual, she answered immediately.
“Is this the call where you tell me you two porked?” Trinity asked.
“No,” I said. I paused. “But we did.”
She let out a quick, bark of a laugh. “It’s so easy it’s not even fun, honestly. I told you so. Called it exactly.”
“Well, congratulations. But I wasn’t calling to talk about ‘porking’. We just landed and I’m not sure yet when I’ll be able to come your way, so I wanted to check in.”
“Well, Lance is out of town for some baseball tournament one of his teams is in. I think he’s having a good time because he hasn’t called me in days. I checked in on your brother yesterday like you asked. He’s, uh…”
“What?” I asked. I could already feel the dread setting in. Travis wasn’t exactly capable of staying out of trouble. I was pretty sure he tried to find trouble when things were too calm, which would explain his uncanny tendency to always be wrapped up in crazy schemes. “What did he do this time?”
