Page 1 of Pillowtalk

Kennedy

The silver urn gleamed as the sun streamed through the high-speed locomotive’s window, the bright glare casting over Kennedy’s closed eyes. Her half-asleep, tingling arm rose to shield her from the unpleasant alarm clock. If she’d been thinking when she boarded, she’d have chosen a west-side seat, as all the passengers over there were still sleeping soundly, blissfully unaware of the start of a new day.

Covering a wide yawn, Kennedy stretched her back, adjusting in the worn seat until the glare was no longer obstructing her vision. Three days of traveling had left her bottom sore to the point that one tiny shift in the seat sent an uncomfortable pang from tailbone to collarbone. She set her hands on her shoulders and attempted to rub her aching limbs. Maybe in the small town she was headed toward there would be a resident with magic fingers. She’d give them all of the money from her last editing job for just ten minutes of massage.

She swiped at the corners of her eyes, removing the last of her three-day-old makeup.Not too much longer,she mused, and then felt the subsequent dip in her stomach that came whenever she thought of setting foot on the land Jared grew up on. He was always telling her stories of “Old Man Louis” or “Riverside Pete,” people she’d often pictured as toothless hicks. She’d figured Jared and his family were the Hollywood gems of the small town of Lyra Valley, having met his sister Chelsea a year ago and thinking that, next to Jared, she was probably the most beautiful person she’d ever met, even with a freshly shaven head. Her eyes were wide-set and stunningly green, framed by long, full lashes. She was a full-figured woman, measuring at size sixteen, which she boldly announced mere minutes after Jared introduced her.

“It was thelastone in sixteen,” she’d said when Kennedy had complimented her orange sherbet summer dress. “I was ready to grab three or four sets of Spanx to squeeze into the next size down, and then I spotted it!”

Kennedy let out a sleepy giggle at the memory, the dip in her gut alleviated for a moment. Perhaps Chelsea would point out the best shopping spots during her visit; summer was setting in, and Kennedy wasn’t sure exactly what weather to pack for, so she kept it to jeans and T-shirts. A dress might be in order at some point, depending on how long it took her to complete the task she was there to do. When Jared requested it, she thought it would be a daylong trip, but the more time she’d been given to contemplate it, the more she thought it could very well take her years.

Her eyes drifted over to the urn, the small moment of happiness bogged down by the circumstances that brought her to Lyra Valley. She’d hoped that if she ever set foot on the soil, it would be because Jared had slipped a ring on her finger. As committed as he was to her, he was fully against the idea of marriage. Kennedy knew that going in, and foolishly thought she’d be the one to “change his mind.” Even nearing the end, Jared held firm to his stance on the subject, but for her sake, not his. He was absolute in making sure she moved on after his inevitable passing, and tying the knot with—as he put it—“someone who would sooner need a hearse than a limo” was simply not fair to her. For the sake of not arguing in the last memories she’d have with him, Kennedy had chosen to keep quiet on the subject.

Near the end, though, he made it clear that while moving on was what he thought was best, it wasn’t what he wanted.

Shaking off her thoughts before they cascaded into the familiar pit of seemingly endless sorrow, Kennedy reached up and fixed her short brown hair, which had gone from cute and curly to ratty and messy. The clip she’d snapped in to keep strands from tickling her nose while she slept had tangled into an unsolvable knot.

The sharp pinch on her head made her gasp, and her grip slipped from her hair, sending an elbow into the innocent man passing by her seat.

“Oh!” A rush of warmth ran through her cheeks. “I’m so sorry.”

The man smiled through the wince of pain, rubbing his side with a callused and tanned hand. An unexpected flutter ran under Kennedy’s skin. She’d been on this train for nearly ten hours, yet she hadn’t noticed this attractive specimen until she’d literally bumped into him.

A wave of guilt quickly followed, and she tried to quiet her thoughts by letting out another red-faced apology. “I was just…I lost my grip, and you were…right there.”

He dropped his hand from his side, shaking his head with that friendly smile. “Don’t worry about it.”

Kennedy’s skin flushed again, and she scolded the response, side-glancing to the urn.It’s too soon,she reminded herself, though many of her friends would beg to differ. She’d held on to Jared’s ashes for more than a year now, never finding the courage until very recently to fulfill his request.

She heard the man shift, his jeans making a roughswishas he continued to his seat. Her eyebrows lifted as he settled a hand on her headrest and lowered into the spot right behind her. Had she really been so tired that she didn’t notice that musky, country-grown scent the entire trip?

After sucking in a long breath, she held it and resumed her battle with the hairpin. She couldn’t arrive in Lyra Valley looking like she’d rolled into a wad of gum; Chelsea was probably still just as gorgeous as she was last year, and though it was juvenile and vain, Kennedy wanted to hold her own standing next to her.

“Come on,” she hissed through her teeth as a few more strands plucked free from her head. She spent a good thirty seconds struggling until a low voice appeared at the small space between her and the seat next to her.

“Do you mind?” the man with the friendly smile asked, gesturing to the pin.

With wide eyes and a traitorous, skipping heart, Kennedy lifted a shoulder and let her arms fall to her lap. A little help from a stranger—even one this gorgeous—was perfectly innocent. Yet when she felt his fingers in her hair, she ripped her eyes from the urn and focused on the train’s ceiling. There was a rush of warmth that ran through her abdomen that she hadn’t felt in a long while, and it took everything in her to ignore the sensation.

“There you are,” the man said not five seconds later, holding the barrette between rough fingers. Kennedy’s breath caught in the back of her throat as she plucked it from him, an embarrassed smile crawling onto her lips.

“How in the world…?” she asked, flicking her eyes to meet his through the small crack between the seats.

He let out a low, gravelly laugh, one that she’d pictured coming from a man who spent a lot of time in the woods. It was so similar to Jared’s that her smile faltered.

“I had a better view of it,” he answered. “Hard to untangle a knot that you can’t see.”

Kennedy chuckled. “Well, thank you.”

“Not a problem.” He stuck his hand between the seats. “Austin.”

“Kennedy.” She ignored the manly coarseness of his skin and the goosebumps that ran up her arm. They didn’t hold each other for long, but he didn’t lean back in his seat as they let go.

“Where you headed?”

“Lyra Valley. You?”

His eyebrows rose and he tilted his head. “Same. But I’m heading home, and while you look familiar, I don’t think I’ve met you before.” His grin widened, and Kennedy felt her smile twitching upward in excitement, followed by that ever-returning guilt. Jared had told her that if she ever felt anything toward anyone, no matter how soon after, it wasn’t wrong. When the words had left his mouth, she’d quickly snuffed them out with kisses. She couldn’t imagine feeling for someone the way she felt for Jared.

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