Page 96 of After You

“Who called?” he asked, his strong thumbs digging into the muscles along her spine.

She shifted slightly. “Little less pressure?” she asked.

He let up. “Sorry.”

“It’s good now.” She didn’t want him to stop, and she knew that she needed to tell him more about her pain management. She’d love to coach him through it. She’d even thought about introducing him to acupuncture. She’d taught Kade enough to help her with it during flare-ups, and Kyle would be an excellent student. He knew the anatomy and physiology. She just had to get him to buy into the whole practice in the first place. She sighed and replayed the voice message. “It’s Derek,” she reported a second later. “Oh…crap.”

“What it is?” Kyle immediately stopped rubbing.

“Um, Butchand—”

“Aw, dammit! Fishing.” Kyle was suddenly scrambling for his clothes.

Yeah, the fishing trip that Kyle was going on so that Butch would go and feelsafe.

“I can’t believe I blew that off!” He pulled on his boxers, jeans and shirt, and Hannah felt a moment of sadness at losing the view. “I’ve got to go,” he said, tossing her clothes toher.

“Oh, right.” She pulled her clothes on as well, as Kyle began gathering up their bedding. “Crap, I’ll just leave this for now. Your parents won’t miss them?” he asked.

“No, I’m sure it’sfine.”

“Okay, great.” He grabbed her hand and tugged her to her feet. Kyle turned his phone on as she slipped into her shoes. “Crap,” he muttered again, looking through his missed calls and texts.

“I told Derek how to get ahold of you,” Hannah said. He looked upset.

“Well, Butch didn’t know. He probably didn’t go to Derek until he was worried aboutme.”

Okay, now she felt bad too. Obviously teaching Kyle about acupuncture was going to have to wait. A few things were going to have towait.

“You ready?” Kyle asked, glancing up. “I need to go find Butch and make it up to him. I can’t believe I forgot about fishing.”

“Yeah, I’m ready.”

He took her hand as they headed out to the truck, but he was clearly distracted as he ran his thumb over his screen, scrolling through his texts. He drove her to Alice’s and pulled up in front. He shifted into park. “You okay if I don’t walk you up to thedoor?”

“Um, yeah.” She reached for the handle.

Then, just as she pushed the door open, Kyle grabbed her wrist. “Hey.”

She looked back. “Yeah?”

“Last night was amazing.” He leaned over and kissed her. “And I know exactly how I blew Butchoff.”

She gave him a smile. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. I’ll tell Butch where I was instead of with him and he’ll be thrilled.”

“What? Kyle—”

He leaned in and kissed her again. “Kidding. Well, kind of. I might hint at what I was doing. But no details.”

“I don’tknow…”

“I have to get him to forgive me,” Kyle said with a grin. “A hot, naked girl might be the only hope Ihave.”

Hannah laughed and couldn’t resist kissing him once more. “Yeah, okay.”

“I’ll talk to you later.”

She slid out of the truck but just before she closed the door, she said, “Last night really was amazing.”

“There’s more where that camefrom.”

She gave him a wink and slammed the truck door before she could say something like “sign me up for forever”.

---