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Her words registered with a sharp stab of irritation. “Shit. Straight off the bat, huh?”
“Yup. Straight off the bat.”
“I don’t know.”
She cocked her head. “Seriously? I wouldn’t mind going with you, if you think it might help.”
“I said I don—”
“Isn’t he getting out soon?”
I sat up straighter in my chair, letting my eyes meet hers. The stare took only a second, maybe two. Eventually she looked away.
“Fine, I’ll shut up.”
Great. Now I felt like a dick.
“I don’t want you to shut up,” I said, as gently as I could. I reached across the table and laid my hand over hers. “I just…”
“You don’t want to talk about it.”
“Yes.”
“Do youeverwant to talk about it?”
I wanted to say no. It was my first impulse. But the way she looked at me was just too genuine. There was friendship without judgment. Concern, without curiosity.
“Maybe,” I said finally. “Not now. But maybe.”
The answer seemed to satisfy her. God, she was sobeautiful!In the bar the lighting was dim, and in the alley she’s spent most of the time facing away from me. But now, actually seeing her face to face? It was almost too much. Too soon. Too—
“Have you seen the others?”
I’d been avoiding the topic. For as long as I could, anyway.
“The others?”
Her mouth twisted into what I considered her pretty, pouty face. During the all-too brief time we were doing our thing, it was a face I’d seen a lot.
“Warren?” she pressed. “Luke?”
I paused a little longer than I should’ve. Eventually I shook my head. “No.”
God, I hated lying to her. I had to, though. At least a little while more.
“They’re still here,” she said. “In town. Can you believe that? They ran off to different colleges, and somehow they still came back.”
Kayla and I had always been real with each other — it was the one constant that remained unchanged throughout our friendship. I never told her something just because she wanted to hear it. Not when she was the cheerleader dating the football player, not when she was rebounding through her summer fling with Luke.
And definitely not when we were fucking each other half to death, in the months after we’d been left in town all alone.
Those were some of the best times I’d ever had, even if they were temporary. I knew our little ‘no strings attached’ arrangement was nothing more than the result of two lonely people seeking comfort in something familiar. Especially since the rest of the people in our lives had recently gone away.
Our coffees arrived, along with some sort of crepe-looking thing covered in fruit. The more I looked down at the table, the more I no longer wanted anything.
“I—I have to go.”
I rose, fished out some money, and dumped it on the table. Kayla looked utterly crestfallen.
