Page 42 of Every Heartbeat After

“It’s not like you’ll be able to stop me, Kit,” he says pointedly. “They’re my parents, too.”

I bite back a growl. My brain is working overtime, cycling through options. But there’s really only one. I study Tess as best I can from here, as though committing her to memory. How will I explain that I’m leaving? Will she even care at this point? “I’ll be with them. And I will not hesitate to kick your ass if you show up. You may be my brother, but I will not let you bring that shit into their house. Not again.”

His rage seeps through the phone. Silent but so sharp I can feel it lancing my already frayed nerves.

“Whatever, man. You act like you’re so much better than me, but you’re just a prick who couldn’t keep his own wife satisfied at the end of the day. Mom and Dad ain’t much more proud of you than they are of me, huh?”

I close my eyes, shuttering off the world and the emotions his words invite all at once. “I’ll see you on Monday. Okay?”

His response is a guttural curse punctuated by the sound of the phone being slammed into the receiver. I’ve seen inmates do it a thousand times. Imagining my brother in their place has my skin crawling.

My phone lands on the covers with a muted thud. I follow suit, flopping face down into the white comforter. It does nothing to dull the ache now pressing at the backs of my eyes. I feel sick. Terrified. Guilty, for whatever fucking reason. But mostly I feel anxious. Because there’s no going back now. I have to face my parents, like it or not.

ChapterSixteen

Tess

I wait aroundfor Kit to return from taking his phone call for longer than I’d like to admit. By the time the sun has melted like an orange creamsicle into the Gulf, and I’m still refusing to order dinner, Alex starts stealing suspicious glances at me when he thinks I’m not looking.

“Just send my usual to the room,” I say, gathering my room key and purse from the countertop as I scoot off my stool.

He quirks a brow but doesn’t look up from the inventory form he’d been filling out. “What happened to the restaurant near the aquarium?”

I stop midstep, toe to the ground, and turn to pin him with a glare. “No one likes an eavesdropper,Tio.”

“Hardly an eavesdropper.” He places the paper on the stainless-steel prep counter and glances at me, the quirked corner of his mouth just visible beneath that awful goatee. “I’m the one who told him about the place.”

“So a meddler, then.” I point at him. “That’s worse and you know it.”

He grimaces. His gaze drops back to the spreadsheet, and he mutters, “Metí la pata,” under his breath.

“That’s what I thought,” I snipe, though I have no clue what he’s saying.

Food service comes and goes. My half-eaten dinner grows cold while I sit in bed, knees to my chest and HGTV on the television, waiting to feel better about the situation. I did what I needed to do. Laid down the boundary that will keep both our hearts safe, and yet I feel like absolute dog shit. I retrieve my phone from the piled-up comforter on my right and navigate to Alicia’s contact, hoping for a quick confidence-boosting bit of validation from my best friend.

Me

I officially shut things down with Kit.

In no time at all, my phone vibrates with an incoming text. I laugh at the mental picture of her fingers flying over the phone while her tongue peeks out from between her lips the way it does when she’s focusing on something intently.

Alicia

RUDE. Why was I not consulted first? Don’t you know I, as an old married woman, must live vicariously through you?

Me

…you’re two years younger than me.

Alicia

and YOU’RE no fun.

I kill the screen and toss it back to the pile of covers from whence it came. So much for that.

Time passes slower without Kit around to fill it. I knew this, had experienced it while avoiding him all day, but it turns out that it’s much worse when I’m the one being ignored. Sleep is a welcome reprieve, but when I wake, it’s not to a knock on the door, but a seagull squawking on my balcony railing. I even double-check to be certain I removed the Do Not Disturb sign. The empty brass knob confirms it: the tables have turned. Which is basically what I asked for, so why am I so upset about it?

No. I asked to be his friend, not to cut off contact completely. This feels like he’s just being petty. In a huff, I strip my clothes from the day before, now wrinkled from sleep, and change into my bathing suit. I’m not going to sit around all day waiting for him to get over the fact that I don’t want to sleep with him. He’s taken up enough of this vacation as it is.

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