Page 50 of Keeping Kaitlyn

“How do I feel about who?” It’s a stupid question. I knowwhobut I’m fucking irritated, so I don’t feel like playing nice anymore.

“Kaitlyn.” For some reason, the way he says her name makes me want to reach across the table and choke him.

“I just met her, Con,” I say, lying through my teeth. “I don’t feelanyway about her.”

Conner makes another noise in the back of his throat—this one is anything but neutral. “You kissed her. Asked her to have dinner with you tonight… but then she reminded you that you have a shift at the bar, so you switched it to Monday—so, you must feelsometype of way about her.”

Something prickles across my scalp. Ryan was watching us from his doorway last night so I know he saw me kiss Kait but he was too far away to hear what was said. “How the fuck?—”

“Do me a favor—turn around and look at the booths behind you.”

For a second, I don’t move but when all he does is stare at me and wait for me to do as he asks, I turn around to look at the restaurant dining room behind me. “Okay, now what?”

“Pick a booth. Any booth you want.”

“Alright…” Playing along, I scan the dining room before settling on a booth near the hallway that leads to the bathrooms. “Man and woman. She’s wearing a purple sundress. He’s wearing a?—”

Without warning, Con starts talking behind me.

“I didn’t want to tell you, but I found a notice in Hunter’s diaper bag yesterday when I picked him up from daycare. They’re raising their rates again.”

“What the hell? Are you fucking serious? They just raised them a few months ago. How much this time?”

“A hundred a week?—"

Turning around in my seat, I stare at Conner. “What the fuck are you doing?”

“I’m reading their lips,” he tells me with a casual shrug. “Taught myself how when I was a kid. I’m very good at it.”

Before I can process what he’s telling me, Con crosses his arms over his chest and leans forward in his seat.

“You seem to have forgotten what happens to me when you’re within fucking distance. If I let myself come up here, there’s no way in hell I don’t end up pounding on your door and there’s no way in hell you don’t let me in... and we both know what happens next because, as recent history has proved, hating you doesn’t make me want to fuck you any less,” Conner says, repeating word for word, what I said to Kait in the elevator last night. “I guess I just answered my own question, didn’t I?” Giving me a shitty smirk, he settles back into his seat. “So, since I already knowhowyou feel about her, why don’t you go ahead and tell me why?”

TWENTY-EIGHT

KAITLYN

2013

The past weekhas been the best and worst week of my life. The best because I’ve spent it with Went, doing absolutely nothing. No 3AM chores. No living in my father’s shadow, wondering what sort of punishment he’s going to mete out next. No worrying about Brock or when he’s going to pop up to make my life miserable.

And the worst because Went and I have been living in a bubble and I know that, sooner or later, it’s going to burst. Real life is going to intrude, and with it the uncertainty of what our future really holds.

“Hey.”

Opening my eyes, I find Went crouched near my side of the bed, looking at me. He’s frowning slightly like he knows I wasn’t sleeping. Like he knows I’m just lying here, worrying, and he doesn’t like it.

“Hey.” I start to sit up. “What time is it?”

“Too early for you to get up,” he tells me while gently pushing me back into bed. “I worked you pretty hard last night.”

When he says it, my lower belly clenches and a warm, delicious ache pulses between my thighs. Went and I have been having sex almost constantly. So much so, that I haven’t so much as put on a pair of pants in the past week and I’ve started sleeping naked. “Then why did you wake me up?” I ask, my tone playfully exasperated.

“You were already awake, Sunshine,” he says, proving my suspicions that he’s a mind-reader.

“You can take the girl out of 3AM but you can’t take 3AM out of the girl…” Looking up at him, I give him a slight smile while fighting the urge to apologize for some stupid reason. When the urge passes, I sigh. “Is everything okay?”

He looks at me for a moment brow furrowed before he answers. “Yeah.” Nodding, he reaches out to brush the hair out of my face. “Everything’s fine.”

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