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Kennedy was leaning into Shay. She was facing us as he was rubbing a hand up and down her back. She frowned. “I have no idea what went on in there, but I also don’t want to stick around. Are you guys up for food or something?”
Gage had come with us, a girl with him. Their hands were linked, and he offered, “This is a small town, nothing’s open past ten except bars. I’ve got food at my place that I could warm up.” The girl with him was blinking rapidly, as if stunned by the sudden change. She’d been the one he’d been kissing earlier, but she’d not been at the table with us. I had half a thought that maybe he grabbed her as we were leaving and dragged her outside with him. He glanced her way. “Up for food at my place?”
She was still blinking, but nodded. “Yeah. That was…weird in there. Right?” She asked him, “You thought it was weird?”
“It was weird, babe.”
Kennedy and I shared a look. Babe?
Maybe she wasn’t such a random girl.
He lifted a hand, cupping the side of her face. Her auburn hair fell over his hand and he drew her to him, giving her a light kiss. She seemed more settled after that and was half resting on him for support.
Kennedy shot her eyebrows up at me.Sonot a random girl.
He rested his arm around her shoulders and lifted his chin towards us. “My place it is then.”
4
“So.” The guys were in the kitchen, drinking beer and standing around while Gage was making whatever he was making. The rest of us were on the patio, and Kennedy said that, leaning back in her seat. “How’d you meet my brother?”
“Uh.” The girl’s name was Bello, and she reached for her beer, but didn’t lift it up from the table. Her fingers rested on the top, and she began picking at the label. Her gaze was focused there. Some of her hair fell forward.
I didn’t blame her. Kennedy was making me nervous and I knew her.
Bello laughed, her voice hitching on a note. “I work at the local Safeway. He comes in, a lot.”
“I’m sure he does. He’s a growing boy.”
My eyebrows pulled low. What was Kennedy doing? She was sounding suspicious. Her tone wasn’t cold, but it wasn’t warm. It wasn’t even even. Was she trying to scare the girl away? As long as I’d known Kennedy, her brother never settled down. He was a fuckboy. Kennedy’s words, not mine, but I was going to use it. He hadn’t wanted to settle down, but we were in our twenties by now. Gage was a year older, so… It made sense he’d eventually find someone and settle down. Bello seemed super nice, so far. She’d not given Kennedy attitude, not once, and we were on hour two of this interrogation. The first hour had been more small talk, chit chat, while Gage could be heard yelling in the kitchen. Apparently the first round of food burned. I blamed the guys for talking and not helping.
I was also hoping to go in and get another fruity drink because Caden knew where the alcohol was. He made me one when we first got here, and I was due for another to keep my buzz. I was in happy puppy mode.
“You know he liked this girl in college, and it didn’t end well.”
Bello’s head jerked back up. “Uh. I didn’t know that. We’ve not talked about that.”
“About exes?” Kennedy folded her arms over her chest. “If you’re seeing each other, I’d think that’s one of the first conversations you have. I mean, lay it all out on the line. Get it over with. You can’t keep wasting time, am I right?”
I almost shrunk back in my seat. That’d been the exact reason I even met Caden. Did we really need to bring this topic up?
Kennedy added, “I was used to guys liking me, and then running the other way when they found out who my brothers were in school. That all changed at Dulane, but how about you? Any jerkoff in your past my brother should know about? Any deep emotional damage he or she did to you?”
Bello was biting her bottom lip again. Her beer was in her lap, and she was holding onto it like it was a shield. “Um.” She looked my way. Pleading.
Okay. We didn’t need to go there. I laughed, forced, and waved my hand in the air. “Exes smexes. Am I right?” I laughed again, another forced note to it, but Bello relaxed. Her shoulders smoothed out, and she gave me a tentative smile.
She said, “Right. Exes smexes.”
Kennedy frowned my way. “If you’re going to start a relationship, I think you should have everything figured out. It’ll make it easier.”
“Really? That’s how you and Shay got together?”
She started to answer me, then stopped, and closed her mouth. A slight flush came over her cheeks. “There’s nothing wrong with being organized, having things figured out.”
“Like how?”
She jerked up a shoulder, reaching for her beer. “Making lists. Having a to-do list. Just helps keep your head straight. That’s all.”
