by Allie Faye
“Kelli, thank you…for caring and for sticking up for me. No one ever has really, other than Kai and Raven.”
She wipes at her eyes like she might cry as we pull into the garage next to Kai’s car.
“I’ll get you something to sleep in for tonight. We can get your stuff out in the morning.”
“Are you sure this okay, I mean I don’t want to impose or cause any trouble?”
“I wouldn’t have offered if it wasn’t, Katie. I meant what I said.” She pats my arm and we both exit the car and go inside.
She shows me to the guestroom where I have my own bathroom. My room is downstairs on the other side of the living room. This room was probably meant to be the master at some point.
Kelli tells me she will bring me some pajamas in a few minutes.
I lay my bag down in the dressing chair and take my phone out to plug it in. Kelli knocks gently a few minutes later, handing me a white t-shirt and a pair of women’s flannel bottoms.
“Kai knows you are here, and he has been warned to not be trying to sneak to your room. If you need anything at all, my bedroom is across the hall from Khloe’s. Don’t hesitate to knock on my door if you need anything.”
I thank her and go into the bathroom to wash my face and change.
When I crawl into the huge queen four-poster bed, the tears I have been holding back break free.
Sometime later in the early morning hours, I am awakened by Kai sliding into bed with me.
“I didn’t think my mom was ever going to go to bed. Are you okay?” He brushes my hair from my face.
“I don’t know. You had better get back to your room before your mom kicks me out for breaking her rules.”
“My mom might come off as a hard ass, Kat, but she has the hardest time putting her foot down when it comes to her kids. But if you want me to go I will.”
“I don’t want you to go, but I think you should at least for tonight, okay?”
But that doesn’t happen. Kai starts kissing me senseless and breathless. If it were possible to die by way of amazing kisses, I’d be dead right now. Our lips are locked and our tongues tangle as we become lost in one another. His hands are all over me, setting me on fire with every touch of his fingers and his palms.
He takes his shirt off and helps me lose mine. Feeling him skin to skin is amazing. He tugs on my bra, wanting it off. My straps slide down my arms as I unhook the thin lace from behind.
“You are so perfect, Kat.” Kai is hovering over me, using his elbows for support, staring deep in my eyes with a fiery passion. His hardness is pressing into my stomach through his boxer briefs. My hands slide down his firm muscular back and dip inside his briefs, giving his butt a gentle squeeze.
We are hot and sweaty, our chests sticking together. He kisses my neck, moving his way down my torso. “God, Kat, you are driving me crazy.”
“I seem to have that effect on people,” I tease him.
He reaches my navel, looking at me with hooded eyes and a naughty grin. His hands are on the waist of my pants. His tongue teases around the top of my panty line.
I should stop him, we are moving really fast, but his mouth has become a drug for me.
Five a.m. comes much too soon, and Kai gives me one more kiss before sneaking back to his room.
I fall sleep before he even closes my door.
~**~
It is nearly noon by the time I awaken and take a shower. I feel awkward just walking out there and making myself at home. I know I spend evenings here watching Khloe, but that is different. I am still sitting on my bed after making it, trying to get my nerve up to leave my room. I still haven’t met Mr. Cooper. What if he hates me? What if he tells me to get the hell out, and then what will I do?
Khloe bursts through my door. “Katie,” she cries in excitement. “Khloe and mommy make Katie lunch, come.” She takes my hand, dragging me to the kitchen.
I hesitantly follow Khloe, still feeling uneasy. When we get in the kitchen, Kelli, Kai, Kirk, and their father, Kent, sits at the bar, eating grilled chicken salad and drinking sweet tea.
“Did you sleep okay?” Their father asks and heat rushes to my cheeks, remembering how I spent a majority of my night tangled up with Kai.
I smile. “I did, thank you.”
“I have you a salad in the refrigerator if you are hungry,” their mom offers.
“Maybe later but thank you.” My stomach is a bundle of nerves and there is no way I can eat right now.
Kirk winks at me and Kai smacks him across the chest. I have to turn my head to hide my smile. Khloe wants me to hold her so I do. She wraps her arms around me, squeezing my neck tight. I tickle her ribs and she shrieks loudly.
Kirk comes over and takes Khloe from me, taking her to her room to play. I suspect that he is giving his parents privacy to go over the rules with Kai and me.
Kent Cooper comes over, formally introduces himself, and surprises me with a hug. “Katie, our home is your home. Kelli and I want you to feel at ease here. Nothing will change in your schedule with Khloe. You will still watch her three nights a week and be paid for doing so. I understand that you and Kai are dating, but we have some rules for the two of you. You are to sleep in your own beds and respect that we don’t want you two having sex, but I know you are teenagers and you are almost eighteen. I just ask that you two be careful and respect our home.”
“Of course, thank you so much for letting me stay here, Mr. Cooper.”
“Please, call me Kent. I know things are difficult with your mother, but you don’t need to worry about any of that. Since your eighteenth birthday is coming up there isn’t anything to worry about legally. By the time your mother can get a court date, you will already be a legal adult. If you need anything, don’t hesitate to let us know.”
After his parents go over a few more rules about Kai and I leaving our doors open if we are in each other’s rooms, we go out to the garage and get my other two bags from his mother’s Escalade.
Once we are alone in the garage, Kai pulls me into his arms kissing the top of my head. “I wish I could spend every night like we did this morning.”
“You won’t hear me complaining.” I grin at him.
“I better not,” he tells me.
When I get back to my room and get my clothes put away my phone chimes with a text message from my mother.
Mom: Katie, I don’t know what kind of shit you are trying to pull but it’s time for you to come back home.
Me: Not happening. You just want me there because you are afraid David will leave you and then you will be all alone.
Mom: Don’t get smart with me, Katie. If you don’t come home I am going to report you as kidnapped. Those people just can’t come in my home and take you.
Me: You are being dramatic. I came willingly. Go ahead call the police so I can tell them how you are a prostitute and tried to pimp me out to Jason Miller and how David smokes pot and you hit me and verbally abuse me. If you love me, you’ll let me be happy.
She doesn’t send anything back thankfully. Kai comes to my room and cracks the door so little it might as well be shut.
“What are you doing, Kai?”
He doesn’t answer me, he climbs onto my bed and goes to kissing me.
I pull back from him “Are you trying to get us in trouble?”
“Relax, my parents took Khloe to a birthday party, we have the house to ourselves as soon as my brother leaves for work.”
Kirk picks right now to knock on my door. “Go away,” Kai says angrily.
“Mom told me to make sure your doors are open.” He slings my door open and laughs. “So busted. I am totally ratting the two of you out.” He smirks.
“Go ahead, and I will tell her all about that bottle of pills in your night stand.”
“Whatever,” Kirk grumbles and pushes off the wall, shutting the door behind him.
Kai tells me that Kirk has an addiction to painkillers that their parents think he has overcome. They have sent him t
o rehab twice over the past three years but nothing seems to get through to him.
Kai’s phone buzzes in his pocket. He pulls it out showing a text coming in from Raven. He swipes his finger over the screen, opening her message.
Raven: Band rehearsal at six bring Katie.
Kai: Do you work tonight?
Raven: no.
Kai: Do you need a ride?
Raven: Don’t worry about it already given her a ride today- Jake
Kai: Have fun with that.
I can’t help but feel glad seeing that Raven and Jake are seeing each other so I don’t have to worry so much about her and Kai.
He sends a text to his mom and lets her know that he is taking me with him to Jake’s for rehearsal. She says it is fine, but she wants us home by one a.m.
Chapter 16
While Kai takes a shower, I go into the kitchen and have the salad Kelli made for me. Kirk comes into the kitchen and takes the stool next to mine. “You liking it here?”
“Your family is really nice. Does it bother you that I’m staying here?”
“Just sucks that you are into my little brother but whatever—don’t matter to me. You got any hot friends you can fix me up with?”
“Just Raven,” I say with a laugh and his face pales. He stiffens at her name.
“Yeah, not a good idea.” He gets up abruptly. “Thanks for the chat, Katie. I am off to work.”
“Later,” I say.
Well, that was weird. I am so asking Kai about this. I go upstairs to his room and wait on his bed for him to get out of the shower. He comes in from the bathroom, wearing a towel around his waist. Thud—my heart stops. Drops of water are dripping from his hair and down his torso. I have never wanted to lick something so much in all my life. The water trickles down his side where he has the notes to a song tattooed on his skin.
His dimples are showing as he struts past me, knowing I am enjoying appraising his physique. He goes into his closet and comes back out fully clothed. He was just naked in the same room with me. My cheeks flush thinking about what was under his towel.
He comes over to where I am perched on the edge of his bed and shakes his wet hair at me like a dog.
“Stop, you are getting me all wet.”
“Good to know it doesn’t take much.” He winks.
Oh my God, does he mean that the way I think he does?
“Relax, Kat, just playing with you.”
I decide to have little fun of my own with him. “Kai, if you want to play with me and get me wet, all you have to do is ask.”
“You are killing me,” he says with a hoarse groan. I wink at him as he adjusts his erection. “Come on, the band is waiting.”
When we get to Jake’s, the guys are drinking and smoking and don’t appear to be anywhere near ready for rehearsing tonight. Raven is sipping on a wine cooler. When she sees me, she jumps up and offers me a cooler of my own. I decide what the hell. One can’t hurt, right? I twist the cap off and take a sip. Hmmm it tastes like strawberries. Kai pulls me into his lap forcefully by the belt loops on my jeans. Jake squeezes in on the couch beside of us. Raven sits on the floor on a pillow between his legs, laying her head back in his lap.
Hunter passes a joint to Jake and he takes it between his lips and takes a hard drag. I watch curiously, as he holds the smoke in his mouth and then he blows it into Raven’s mouth.
“That’s called a shotgun,” Kai informs me. “Want to try it?” He asks me as Jake passes the joint to him.
“Okay.” I shrug and take another drink for liquid courage. Go big or go home, right?
Kai takes a puff, inhaling sharply. My head is on his shoulder and he leans over, capping his mouth over mine and blowing the smoke between my lips. I suck it in and it burns through my lungs.
Hunter and Vance start dicking around with their guitars. They start playing the melody for Skinny Love, by Bon Iver.
I start singing along as they play. Kai is rubbing his hands up and down my arms and kissing my neck, making me forget some of the lyrics.
Jake starts singing in my place as I turn into Kai, kissing him deeply, not caring that his ex is beside of us and that his friends are watching. They end the song and Jake pulls Raven into his lap, kissing her.
Vance looks at Hunter and says, “Dude, I’m not making out with you, so don’t get any ideas.”
“Don’t worry, you aren’t pretty enough for me,” he says, chuckling.
“I’m pretty,” Vance says, looking at the rest of us wanting us to confirm his high opinion of himself. We all burst out laughing.
“I’m going to need something a hell of a lot stronger than beer and pot to see you as pretty, man,” Jake teases.
“Fuck you all. I’m pretty damn it. I need a woman. I can’t wait until we hit the beach. I bet I’ll get laid after our show.”
“Sure you will, man.” Hunter smacks him in the chest with a can of beer. I get up from Kai’s lap and have Raven walk me upstairs to the bathroom.
“I have never seen Kai act that way with anyone, ever. He is totally in love with you, Katie.”
I grin at Raven. “I am totally in love with him too.”
“Good. I know he has always had a thing for you. Even when we dated, he talked about you.” That makes me smile.
“Raven, I am glad we can talk like this about Kai and stuff.”
“Me too. And it isn’t because I have a buzz either. I can see a big change in Kai, he is happy now.”
We join the guys downstairs and they have started practicing. They mainly do cover songs for now. They are playing Do I wanna know, by Artic Monkeys.
I sneak up behind Kai and sing the back vocals and Raven gives me a thumb up.
Kai tells me to stay by his side. He wants us to try to play Home, by Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros. I love this song.
Kai and I naturally fall into harmony on the lyrics. The guys are not so much on trying to play it. Kai tells them to sit out the next time and pulls up the instrumental version on YouTube with Raven’s laptop.
It is nearing midnight, so Kai says we had better pack it up and call it a night. Raven needs a ride home, so she rides with Kai and me.
Raven hears Kai make a comment about getting into bed with me tonight. “Aw, Kai do you crawl through her window?”
“No, she is sleeping in the guestroom.”
“How in the hell did you get Kelli to go for that? She barely wanted me coming over to watch a movie,” she says, looking offended.
“Well, I am sort of living there now,” I tell her.
Raven’s mouth drops then shuts. I think I stunned her into silence. “Huh,” she says whispering under her breath.
“It’s complicated,” I throw her and Kai’s favorite line at her. Kai busts out laughing and kisses my cheek. I think he might still be buzzed.
By the time we get her home, it is nearing one a.m. We are going to be late. I hope Kelli and Kent don’t get mad at us. Kai tells me not to worry, they are probably in bed.
When we finally make it home, he walks me to my room and presses me up against the wall for a heated goodnight kiss that leads to him coming in my room and feeling me up until I pass out.
The next morning, Khloe is bouncing on my bed at eight a.m., telling me to get ready for church.
Reluctantly, I roll out of bed and drag my hung-over butt to the shower. I really don’t have the energy to wash my hair, but there is no way I am going to church with my hair smelling like pot.
After getting presentable, I join the Cooper family for breakfast. It is only day two, but I feel more comfortable than I did yesterday. It feels nice to spend time with a family that actually acts like a real family.
Khloe begs to ride in the car with Kai and me to church and she gets her way. We look like a young family as we walk into church with Khloe holding both our hands. I see Becks sitting with his grandpa, watching us with a shocked face as we take our seats next to Kai’s parents. Penny is sitting a few pews in front of us with h
er parents and Aaron.
~**~
The rest of the week goes by quickly as we prepare for our trip to the beach. We are supposed to leave Saturday morning. Kai and I are taking his car while his mom will be driving her Escalade. She was hesitant to let us drive down on our own, but she eventually gave in to Kai. The rest of the band isn’t driving down until Tuesday because Vance and Hunter have to work. Raven is bummed that we will all be at the beach without her, but I promise to keep an eye on Jake for her as much as I can. Most of my time will be spent with Khloe though. Not that I mind.
Raven comes over to help me pack. It’s Friday night so the only people home are Khloe and me. That is until Kirk comes home. Raven and I are in the kitchen while she waits for Jake to pick her up. Kirk’s face turns white as a ghost when he sees Raven. She grows quiet and chews her bottom lip harshly. Yeah, something definitely went on between them, but what?
I don’t get the chance to ask Raven because Jake is out front beeping his horn for her. After I walk her to the door, Kirk is nowhere to be found. I walk upstairs and peek in on Khloe one more time before going to my room. I hope I can stay awake until Kai gets home. I want to get in bed early for our drive tomorrow.
Kelli knocks on my door when she gets home and reminds me to set my alarm, so I can help her load her vehicle in the morning. She and Khloe are leaving about two hours before Kai and me, since he needs to sleep a bit more due to his working late tonight.
I crawl into bed, tossing, and turning as I listen for Kai to get in but I pass out before he does.
My alarm sounds at seven a.m. and I throw on a t-shirt and jeans and help Kelli with Khloe. I fix her a bowl of cereal and help get her snacks packed in the car.
Khloe throws a fit of epic proportion when she realizes I am not getting in the car with her. She rolls around on the kitchen floor, holding her breath. She is definitely used to getting her way. She gets into her car seat for me reluctantly with her red face streaked with tears. I promise her that we will be having fun together at the beach soon. It seems to relax her some but not much.
Once they leave, I go inside and start putting Kai’s and my bags in the trunk of his car. He has his guitar in the backseat. Jake and the boys are bringing the rest of their equipment when they come. I go up to Kai’s room to wake him, but he isn’t in his room. I go to my room and find him in my shower. Locking the door to my room, I strip down to my panties and surprise him in the shower. We have fooled around but we have yet to see one another fully naked, until now. Well, I have my panties on, but Kai is in the buff.
