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“For you being you.”
Her arms tightened around him and he closed his eyes. When he straightened back up, he saw that Michael was walking back toward them and Kennedy was nowhere to be found.
“Where’s Kennedy?” Seb asked.
Michael sighed sadly. “She left.”
“What did you say to her?” Seb demanded. “Where did she go?”
“I didn’t say anything, I just listened to her, and I don’t know where she went.”
Fuck.He pulled out his phone and tried to call her. It went straight to voicemail. He left a message asking her to call him back.
Michael took a step toward him. “I just want you to know—"
“I don’t give afuckwhat you want me to know.”
“Sebastian Paul,” his mother snapped.
Seb turned and started walking in the direction he and Kennedy had come from. He needed to find Kennedy, to make sure she was okay. This was not the homecoming he’d imagined. He wasn’t sure what he’d thought it was going to be, but it sure as hell wasn’t this.
24
Kennedy wason her hands and knees scrubbing her floorboards. She’d been up since five that morning. Actually, she’d been up all night, she hadn’t been able to sleep a wink. After seeing her dad at the festival she’d gone up to True Love’s Kiss, it was a make-out spot for teenagers, but she liked to go up there and think.
Seeing Seb again, then seeing her father on a date with his mom. It had all just been too much for her. She’d warned her father to stay away from Mrs. Savage, but she’d known that her words had fallen on deaf ears. Her father didn’t care about what she wanted. All he cared about was himself.
Seb had tried to call her several times, but she’d ignored him. She wasn’t sure she was in the right frame of mind to speak to him and she didn’t want whatever anger and trauma she had for her dad to bleed over into their relationship. Not that they had a relationship.
It was all so fucking confusing. She’d stayed up at True Love’s Kiss until four in the morning trying to clear her head, it hadn’t worked. When she got home she’d laid in bed staring up at the ceiling for an hour, but then decided to get up and start her day.
It was nine now and she’d been beyond productive in those four hours. She’d gone on a run, taken a shower, cleaned out her fridge, wiped down all the blinds, windows, ceilings and walls, and was now working on the floors.
She always cleaned when she was upset. She supposed it was better than eating or drinking. There were worse vices to have, and at least by the time she tired herself out, she was surrounded by a spotless house.
Chunks’ nails scraped on the hardwood floors as he let out a stream of barks. Kennedy could barely hear the sound over the music blasting in her AirPods, but she knew that he only did that when someone was at the door.
She stood and took out the tiny white devices from her ears. “Okay, okay. Enough.”
His barks silenced and he plopped down in front of the door, his butt wiggling as he sat excitedly on the floor. He was clearly proud of himself for alerting her. She glanced at herself in the hallway mirror as she passed by it. Her hair was piled up on top of her head in a messy bun. She had a smudge of dirt on her cheek, her tank top had a wine stain on it that she hadn't been able to remove hence it being downgraded to a cleaning shirt, and her cutoff sweat shorts had been worn so much the material was thin and the frayed edges had strings hanging off of them.
She was a hot mess. For a second, she considered changing in case it was Seb, but decided against it. Nothing could happen between them and her looking like this would guarantee that nothing would happen.
When she opened the door, her heart sank that it wasn’t Seb standing on the other side. It was her father.
“I don’t have anything to say to you.” She started to shut the door on him.
“That’s fine. I have something to say to you. Can you just give me five minutes? Just five minutes to hear me out?”
Don’t do it!Kennedy heard the voice in the back of her head shout.
That was how he worked. If you gave him five minutes, he could spin a tale that made you believe anything. She wanted to think that a lifetime of witnessing his conman charm would have made her immune, but she wasn’t sure she could trust herself.
Even with the uncertainty flooding through her, she found herself opening the door to him. She reasoned with herself internally that the reason she was caving was because he’d been around for the past year. That was longer than he’d ever been around before. Or because she was too exhausted to refuse him.
But the truth was, he was her father and deep down, no matter what he’d done, she wanted a relationship with him. Even though, she knew, that was impossible.
When he came inside, he bent down and scratched Chunks behind the ears. “Hi, Chunks.”
