“You fucking deserved it for the way you’ve toyed with my emotions for years.” Her smile turns malicious. “Payback is a bitch, and Presley will thank me one day for doing her a favor. You’re a fucking loser, Kent. A washed-up good-for-nothing player who thinks his shit doesn’t stink. Well, guess what, asshole. It does, and you’re a—”
“That is enough, Whitney!” Kyler roars. “You will not fucking insult my brother ever again.” Kyler forcibly calms down before looking at me. “You should go. I can handle it from here.”
“I’ll wait for you.” It’s the least I can do when he’s come all this way to help me.
He shakes his head. “I need to deal with this, and I’ll be a while.” Taking my arm, he pulls me toward the door. We step outside into the hallway as Whitney and the professor start arguing. “Take the jet back home. Call Faye, and tell her what’s happened. She’ll want to be here. Then call Keven, and get him to hack into that asshole’s stuff. I need evidence to bury the bastard. If he thinks he can shirk his responsibilities when it comes to that baby, he can think again. Better update Mom and Dad too.”
“What are you going to do?” I ask, taking my cell from him and slipping it in the pocket of my jeans.
“I’m calling Adam, and we’re going to deal with that asshole.” He clamps his hand on my shoulder, grinning. “You’re off the hook, bro.”
“I am so fucking relieved.”
He pulls me into a hug, slapping me on the back. “Me too, little brother. None of us wanted you to be tied to Whitney for life like this.”
I cling to him, feeling surprisingly emotional. In fact, my emotions are running riot, veering all over the place. “Tell me about it.”
“Maybe now you can make things right with Presley.”
Shucking out of his embrace, I shrug because it’s not as cut and dry as that. “She walked away, Ky. She had her reasons, but she still didn’t try.”
“If you care for her, don’t let this come between you. I don’t know what went down or what her reasons were, but we all say things in the heat of the moment, and maybe she regrets it or she’s holding back because she thinks stepping aside was the right thing to do. You won’t know unless you talk to her.”
“Maybe.” If I’m being honest, my inclination is to rush to Presley to tell her it’s okay, but she hurt me, and do I really want the hassle of being in a relationship with a girl who runs at the first sign of trouble?
I never had to deal with this shit when I was casually fucking around, and I’m not sure I’m cut out for it. The past twelve days have been sheer hell.
“I better call Adam,” Ky says. “And get back in there before they kill each other,” he adds when the shouting escalates to ear-piercing levels.
“Thanks, man.” I swallow back a lump. “I owe you.”
“Sign up for some babysitting stints and we’ll call it even,” he says with a grin as he stabs buttons on his cell.
“Just tell me when and where,” I call out before walking off, feeling like a one-hundred-pound weight has just been lifted from my shoulders.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Presley
Drawing a brave breath, I raise my hand and rap twice on the door. It swings open a minute later, revealing a different Kennedy brother.
“Hey, Presley.” Surprise splays across Keanu’s face, and my stomach takes a nosedive.
I wasn’t expecting anyone else to be here on a Friday evening, and I’m not so sure this is a good idea now. Maybe I should have called Kent in advance and arranged to meet him at an agreed time. But I’m here now, standing in front of Kent’s brother like a dummy. “Hi, Keanu. Is Kent here?”
“He’s not, but he should be home soon. Come in and wait for him.” He steps back, ushering me inside.
“Presley.” Selena walks toward me with a welcoming smile. “It’s good to see you.”
I don’t feel like I can walk away now without seeming rude, so I step inside, and Keanu closes the door behind me.
“How are you?” Selena asks, holding her hand out for my jacket.
I shuck out of it, giving it to her. Keanu promptly plucks it from his wife’s hands, walking to the coat stand in the far corner to hang it up.
“I’m okay. How have you been?”
“Busy,” she says, guiding me to the velvet couch.
“Can I get you something to drink, Presley?” Keanu asks. “Tea, coffee, water, wine, beer?”
“Peppermint tea would be great.”
He flashes me a big smile. “Coming right up.” He leans down, kissing his wife softly on the lips. “You want some too, love?”
“Please.” She stares into his face, and they share an intense look which makes me feel like an intruder.
I avert my eyes until I hear Keanu walking off. I smile at Selena, unsure what to say. What must they think of me after the way I abandoned Kent? I’m so ashamed of the way I treated him and how I basically kicked him out of my place. “You must think I’m terrible,” I say because there’s no point pussyfooting around the elephant in the room.
“Not at all.” She shakes her head.
“I shouldn’t have reacted how I did, but it was an emotional day, and it brought everything back from the past.”
Her brows knit together.
“He didn’t tell you?” Disbelief threads through my tone. I felt for sure he would have told Selena and Keanu or Eva what went down. The fact he didn’t only makes me appreciate him more.
“All Kent said is you broke things off with him and he didn’t want to talk about it.”
Keanu returns with our tea. After handing both of us a mug, he claims a seat on the couch across from us, sipping from a beer.
“I lost a baby,” I say because I want to try to explain it to them. I’m grateful Kent kept my confidence, but I’m here to grovel, to ask him to give us another chance, and I could use some supporters on my side because something tells me Kent will not make it easy for me. Nor should he. I let him down when he needed me, and I can only imagine how difficult these past couple weeks have been.
“I’m so sorry.” Selena pats my arm.
“It was six years ago, but I never processed the pain. I buried it deep and denied myself the time to properly grieve. That day, Whitney’s announcement brought it all to the surface again, and I couldn’t handle it.” I pause to drink the tea, needing time to let the pain in my chest settle. “Kent needed me to support him, and all I could feel was my own pain. I pushed him away when I should have pulled him close.”
“You’re here now,” Keanu says, sitting up straighter.
“And he’ll forgive you,” Selena adds with more confidence than I feel.
The front door opens, and I stiffen. Blood rushes to my head as nervous adrenaline sweeps through me. I glance over my shoulder to where Kent has stalled in the doorway. My heart pounds behind my rib cage as I drink him in. It feels like months, not twelve days, since I’ve seen him.
He looks tired and shocked to see me here but so damn good. I’ve missed his devilish blue eyes and his flirtatious smile and the feel of his stubble underneath my fingers. I’ve missed his dry humor, his cheesy notes, his infectious smile, and his drugging kisses. I’ve missed seeing him studying at the bar or waiting outside work to drive me home.
I’ve just missed him.
Period.
Way more than I ever thought it was possible to miss another soul.
Putting my drink down I stand, and turn around, trying to ignore the jangling nerves churning in my gut. “Hi.”
“What are you doing here?” he asks, closing the door and walking toward us. His expression is giving nothing away, so I can’t tell if he’s happy to see me or not.
“I came to see you. I was hoping we could talk.”
“We didn’t call her. Presley is here of her own accord,” Selena says, and her words confuse me a little. Why would they have called me?
“We’re going for a walk,” Keanu adds, already standing and towing
Selena toward the door.
“Good luck” she mouths before they exit the apartment.
Silence engulfs the room as Kent and I stare at one another. I clear my throat, preparing to eat humble pie. “I missed you so much,” I whisper.
My words propel him into motion, and my heart skips a beat when I think he’s coming for me. But he bypasses me, sitting down on the other couch in the seat his triplet just vacated. “Yet you never called or texted. For twelve fucking days.”
I sit down on the edge of the couch, leaning forward with my elbows on my knees. “I wanted to,” I truthfully admit.
He scoffs. “You never struck me as the type of girl to not go after what she wants, so if that was true, it wouldn’t have taken you this long to show up here.” He grabs the beer his brother was drinking, knocking back a mouthful.
I wet my dry lips, picking up my mug, purely to have something to occupy my hands. “I was upset the first couple of days,” I begin explaining. “Trapped in the past, reliving my pain as if it had only just happened. Then I tortured myself with images of you and Whitney with your baby. Then I realized I’d made a terrible mistake in pushing you away. I let you down when you needed me the most, and I was so ashamed. I worried about you every day, and I went to pick up the phone hundreds of times, but I convinced myself it was better like this. That I would only get in the way.”
“What changed your mind?” His eyes remain glued to my face as he drinks, but he’s wearing a mask, giving me nothing, and I deserve it.
“I spoke to Mo. We talked it through, and I realized I need to get a handle on my grief so it doesn’t derail my future. I can’t go through life getting upset every time I see a baby or little girls the same age as Tillie. And something you said stuck with me, so I found a therapist who specializes in this kind of trauma, and I have an appointment next week.”
“That’s good, Presley, and I hope it helps, but it still doesn’t explain why you’re here.” A muscle ticks in his jaw, and heat flares behind his eyes.
“I’m here because I made a big mistake, and I regret how I treated you and the things I said.” Moisture pools in my eyes, and I stare at him, shielding nothing, wanting him to see everything I’m feeling. “I was scared, Kent, and I’m still scared, but I’m willing to try for you because I don’t want to lose you. Please give me another chance. Let me prove to you that I can support you through this.”
I pause briefly, summoning hidden strength so I don’t lose my nerve. “I can’t promise I won’t have moments when I’m overwhelmed or it hurts, but I promise I will never take that emotion out on you again. I want to be with you. You make me happy, and I know we can be so good. Whatever goes down, we can handle it together. And if it’s your baby, I would be honored to stand by your side as you navigate parenthood.”
It won’t be easy, because Whitney will see to it, but she’s not taking away the first good thing to happen to me in years just because she’s a mean, spiteful little bitch.
Very slowly, Kent sets his beer down on the coffee table, never taking his eyes off mine. His expression is guarded again, and I can’t tell if my words have been enough. He clears his throat. “Come here.” He wiggles his fingers in a come hither gesture.
Setting my tea down, I walk over to him, my calm exterior disguising my shaky insides, and stand between his legs.
In a fluid move, he pulls me down on his lap, circling his strong arms around me. My heart threatens to escape my chest it’s beating so hard and so fast. I peer into his stunning blue eyes, relieved when I see emotion gazing back at me. “You hurt me,” he says, his voice gruff and deep.
“I know, and I’m so sorry.”
He presses one long finger to my lips, shushing me. “More than that, you disappointed me.” He places his hands gently on my hips, but I still feel the warmth from his fingers searing through my shirt.
I nod, because I accept I have disappointed him. I have disappointed myself.
“You have always been so fucking strong, Pres. So confident and self-assured, like nothing would ever faze you. When you kicked me out that night, I was upset, and then anger set in because you tossed me aside so fast. I kept thinking of how Chris let you down and yet you stood by him.”
Tentatively, I rest my hands on his shoulders, staring straight into his eyes as I admit this truth. “The situation with Chris is complex, Kent, and it’s tied up in so much guilt and grief. I told you I didn’t see him for a year, and when he came back, in the state he was in, I couldn’t turn him away. I couldn’t let him sleep on the streets even though I was fucking livid with him. I can see how you would think what you were thinking, but it’s not the same.” I chew on the inside of my mouth before I admit this next truth. “Mo has wanted me to cut ties with Chris for years. She thinks I enable him and it’s my grief talking, and I…I think she’s right.”
“I don’t want to talk about your ex,” he says in a clipped tone.
“Kent.” I cup one side of his face. “Neither do I except I need to say this last thing.” My chest heaves as I prepare to lay myself at his feet. “I’m falling for you, Kent. Like seriously falling in a way I have never fallen before.” I drill my eyes into his. “I never felt this way about Chris. Not even close to it, and there is no competition in my eyes. If it comes down to it and you need me to choose, I will always choose you.”
He can’t know how big that declaration is, because everything I just said is true. “I feel a responsibility toward Chris,” I add, “because of our past and he was Tillie’s father. Her death was the final nail. It was at that point he lost his will to live. I know I’m the only person alive who cares what happens to him, and that is the reason I haven’t abandoned him, but if you need me to do it, I will do it for you.”
Taking my hand, he presses a tender kiss to the inside of my wrist. “I would never force you to make a decision like that. I can’t say I like the guy wandering in and out of your life, but I get that he’s not a threat to what you and I have, and if you are truly all he has, then you can’t abandon him.”
That’s what I’ve been telling myself all these years, but how long can I continue being Chris’s crutch? At some point, I am going to get married and hopefully have a family, and I can’t still be propping Chris up. “I’ve done a lot of deep thinking since we broke up,” I admit. “And come to a lot of realizations. I’m still working through them, but I’m determined to make positive changes in my life.” Steely determination resonates in my tone.
Kent smiles, threading his fingers in mine. “There she is. My little spitfire.”
“Can you ever forgive me?”
“I already have,” he automatically replies.
My mouth hangs open in shock, and he chuckles. “You should see the look on your face.” All humor fades, and his expression turns serious. “I was in New York today, and on the way home on the plane, instead of studying, like I should’ve been doing, all I could think about was you, and I came to some realizations of my own.”
I assume being in New York has something to do with Whitney, and I wonder where things are with the situation. But I don’t ask him. Not yet. Not until we’ve aired everything else we need to air. “What realizations?” I ask.
“I think I was being unfair to you.”
“You weren’t. Not at all. You—”
He clamps his hand over my mouth, pinning me with a cautionary look that raises all the tiny hairs on my arms in delicious anticipation. “Let me finish. Unless you want me to put you over my lap and spank that naughty ass.” I arch a brow, and he chuckles. “You’d like that.”
I squirm on his lap, my panties instantly damp. “So fucking much, but we need to finish talking.”
“As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted,” he continues, warning me with his eyes to keep my mouth shut, “I had you on a pedestal because you are so perfect to me, but I forgot that even perfection has flaws, and I can’t expect you to be strong in every situation, nor should I want you to. Beca
use your vulnerability is beautiful to me too, and I only ever want you to be yourself.”
“What exactly are you saying?”
“That it’s okay. I understand, and we always lash out at those we are the closest to. Doesn’t make it right, but it happens.” He sighs, and his tongue darts out, licking his delectable bottom lip, and I can’t believe I’m jealous of his tongue.
Geez, I’ve got it bad.
“I have pulled my fair share of shit over the years, and my parents have always forgiven me. I’d be a lame-ass pitiful excuse of a boyfriend if I didn’t forgive you. Especially when you’ve come here and laid your heart on the line.” He winds his hands in my hair, tilting my face up. “And especially when I fucking missed you so bad.”
“You did?” Hope soars in my chest.
“I did, baby.” He rubs his nose against mine. “It was shocking. I turned into this pathetic heartsick bastard who could barely drag his ass off this couch. Don’t tell my brothers, but I think I was actually worse than them when they were going through crap with their girls.”
I giggle, and for the first time in almost two weeks, my chest feels lighter. “Will we be okay?”
“Do you promise not to push me away again? Because I’m bound to fuck up or other shit will get thrown at us, and I need to know you’re with me, baby. That you won’t run away at the first sign of trouble. I need to trust that what we feel for each other is more than something casual that can be discarded easily when the going gets tough.”
“I promise I’m in this for the long haul, Kent.” I pause to draw a breath. Now is the time to ask it. “What is happening with Whitney? Is the baby yours?”
“Nope.” He shakes his head, and his relieved smile tells me everything I need to know. “Thank fuck.”
The weight on my chest leaves, but anger simmers in my veins. “That conniving bitch lied to you.” I’m seething for him and for me.
“She did, but she’s out of my life for good now. You won’t have to worry about seeing her ever again.”
Reforming Kent: A Stand-Alone Angsty Bad Boy Romance (The Kennedy Boys Book 10) Page 18
