Page 14 of Dangerous Curves

“It counts I’m not leaving though until you finish that piece of cake.”

Her eyes go wide again. “I can’t eat this whole piece of cake.”

“Why not? You didn’t eat before the party, you didn’t eat during the party, so I’m sure you have to be somewhat hungry.” I meet her eyes. Chocolate cake isn’t her favorite but I hope she’ll eat it anyways. A pink Barbie streamer dances from the tree beside us. The light breeze gives us a nice break from the heat.

She stands up abruptly. “It’s too many empty calories. It's not worth the amount of time I’d have to spend in the gym to burn the calories.”

“Still doing that?” My tone is sarcastic. I don’t mean for it to be, but the idea that she’s still counting calories and working herself to death breaks my heart. When I saw her on the set, I knew she’d lost some weight. She was still curvy, but there was a change. I had hoped that the weight loss she had achieved would be enough for her to see something else when she looked in the mirror, but I guess not.

Kenndrix turns around, her eyes lit up with a fire I used to see often but it’s been absent since reappearing in each other’s lives. “Well, some of us aren’t like you. Some of us can think about a piece of food and gain ten pounds.”

“Hey, I work out I just don’t run myself into the ground with it and I eat the freaking piece of cake,” I tell her, as I stand up. We’re toe to toe, both of our tempers have risen.

She shakes her head. “You don’t get it.”

“Yes, I do. I always did but you don’t believe I can possibly understand.” She looks away and takes a step back. I pinch the bridge of my nose. “You look amazing, you always have but you’ve obviously worked hard to lose some weight. It shows but I think life is too damn short for you to spend it worrying about calories and weight. It shouldn’t define you. It never should have defined you. You’re beautiful, intelligent and caring, regardless of what you weigh and those things were always more important. Those things are what made you the girl I love.” I give her a small smile before I step around her and head back for the house. Ace is standing just inside the doors. Who knows how long he’s been there? But judging by that cocky ass smirk on his face, long enough. “Shut up.”

Ace holds up his hands. “I didn’t say a damn thing.”

I roll my eyes as I head for the front door and my bike. “You never have to.”

Thirteen

Kenndrix

“How pissed are you?” Ace asks, as I walk into the house. I turn to look at him and every word on the tip of my tongue dies away. My emotions are raw, like a piece of sandpaper has rubbed at them for the last few hours. Emotionally I’m exhausted. None of this is really Ace’s fault, though. It would be completely unfair to take it out on him even though it would be the easiest thing to do right now. I shrug. “You know he was a mess for such a long time after the two of you broke up.” My heart slams around in my chest, uncontrollably. It’s been almost three years and there hasn’t been a single word between myself and Ace or Kynlee that involved Jaxx. After we broke up it was just this unspoken agreement between us. I would never ask about Jaxx and they would never speak of him in front of me. They had worked hard to keep our paths from crossing throughout the years. I’m not sure how much I can hear about these last few years now though.

“He walked away from me.” I like to use that as my excuse. I know I drove him out that door. Jaxx had very little choice in the matter, but I like to remind everyone that Jaxx left, not me. It’s easier to place the blame on him then let the daily guilt churn in my stomach more than necessary.

Ace gives me a look that easily reads, you’re kidding right? “You know that’s not true. I mean yes, he walked out the door that night, but for months or more, he waited, day in and day out for you to come back. He felt like he had no other option at that point. In his mind, you would realize how much he loved you, that your weight and shyness didn’t matter to him. I understand why you thought it did. At the time, you were still trying to make a name for yourself while he had managed to already start making a name for himself in Hollywood. You saw all those perfectly plastic and airbrushed women and you felt like you couldn’t compare. I get that. At the time I didn’t. I was so pissed at you for breaking my best friend’s heart, but Kynlee explained a lot to me and things started to make sense.” Ace walks around the kitchen counter and approaches me. “But hear me when I say this, you were the only girl he ever truly wanted. Losing you was the hardest thing for him.”

I stand there, speechless. My eyes burn with unshed tears and that damn lump in my throat is back once more to remind me what an emotional mess I’ve become lately. “He wasn’t the only person who lost something.”

“I never said he was, but I don’t know you the way I do him. I witnessed his pain while Kynlee took on yours. Both of us wanted to fix it for you guys but we couldn’t and before we knew it...time flew by and months turned to years. You started seeing Ronin and life moved on.”

“Why are you telling me all of this?” I ask him. There’s not a single reason I can think of as to why we are having this conversation now.

Ace sighs and runs a hand through his hair. “Because I know you’ve moved on, Kenndrix, but I’m not so sure Jaxx has. I don’t want him to be hurt again.”

“From what I’ve seen on the internet and read in magazines, Jaxx has moved on just fine without me.” I cross my arms over my chest defensively.

Ace chuckles and his ice blue eyes meet mine. “You of all people should know better than to believe everything you read in a tabloid.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

He shrugs. “Well, if everything they print was true then Ronin likes to cheat a lot.”

I never believe what’s printed in the tabloids. To be perfectly honest, I never googled or picked up a magazine purposefully looking for Jaxx but I have seen him on a couple of covers while trying to pay for groceries. I’ve read the headlines which lead me to torture myself by buying the magazine and reading the article in great lengths. Why? I have no damn clue. Besides, Ace was right; they were always reporting on Ronin and his groupies, as I liked to call them, but that didn’t make the stories true, or at least that’s what I told myself. “Ronin doesn’t cheat.”

“But the tabloids say differently,” Ace shoots back at me. The challenge is there, loud and clear.

“You’ve made your point.” I turn away from him and look at Willow sleeping on the couch. This is what my life was supposed to look like. Jaxx and I married with kids of our own. Our kids would have grown up with Ace and Kynlee’s. Our own little house with a white picket fence. We were supposed to get a happily-ever-after. It was all I wanted for the longest time. “When Jaxx left I lost an entire life. Every dream I had was tied to him at that point and losing him was like losing a piece of my own self. It took me a lot of time to deal with that. Then I started to lose the weight that held me back, and I kept thinking after the next twenty pounds I’ll fix things between us but every time I lost some I’d put it off because no amount was good enough.”

“Kenndrix…” Ace says on a sigh.

I hold up my hand to stop him. “I know I hurt him because I nearly killed myself in the process. I never meant to hurt him but I know I did and I live with that daily but Jaxx and I are different people now. He’s with Poppy and I have Ronin. Sometimes the things we thought were meant to be...aren't.” I muster up the best smile I can manage before turning around and heading for the door. “Tell Kynlee I’ll call her,” I tell him over my shoulder before leaving.

When I get to my car, the tears begin to fall. Being around Jaxx has reopened the wound I thought I was done with. Jaxx and Ronin are so different and now all I can see are the differences between the two relationships. I hate comparing the two, but it’s impossible not to. Jaxx and I never got our closure and that’s one of the hardest parts of this. Everything is unresolved. On the way home, I dry my tears enough to run into a store and grab a bottle of Dr. Pepper and a pint of pistachio almond ice cream to drown my emotions in. The girl behind the counter gives me a nervous look. I’m sure I’m a mess, red and puffy with a tearstained face. I don’t blame her for giving me a nervous look. If I saw me right now, I’d probably be nervous, too.

---