Page 3 of Known By You
CHAPTER TWO
Kenny
Good grief, the sky was perfectly blue.
Just gorgeous.
Winter could be a challenge here, but these blue-bird days? Almost made me wish I knew how to ski. The mountains were snow-covered and even down here in town we had a nice white coating covering long-dead grasses and plants.
“Am I about to hear you start whistling?” Cookie asked, one dark thick brow rising in question.
“Maybe. It would fit. Isn’t it glorious today?” I swirled around, arms open wide.
“Sometimes, I wonder if you believe you’re being filmed. Like inThe Truman Show. Or maybe you imagine an audience for yourself?”
He had his usual affable yet understated tone. Luc “Cookie” Doux was one of my best friends, and now thatBeast had gotten married and was helping Jess manage her severe morning sickness, it was me and Cookie, and sometimes Stone.
“I do not. I’m just…” I wondered whether it’d make sense but went for it. “I’m relieved.”
He raised another brow. “Relieved Jess is being replaced by a woman you struck out with?”
I laughed loudly, then glanced around, praying no one had heard him. He knew my history with Liz, as did a few others, but I didn’t exactly love the idea of him shouting it out as we walked into work. “Aren’t the French supposed to be understated?”
“I’m only half-French.”
I snorted and patted his back. “If you must know, yes. I’m relieved to see Liz again. In retrospect, I might owe her an apology. And after meditating and carefully considering my approach—” Read: after watching my favorite romcom with a giant bowl of popcorn on my couch under every blanket I owned and letting the movie be my excuse to feel my feelings until I could think logically about coexisting in the same space as the only woman who’d snagged my interest in years… “—I’m looking forward to putting that behind me and being friends. I’ve got a lot to offer her and I’m sure Jo will be busy. I can fold her in, help her with the lay of the land, and just…”
… get over it.
“Just?” Luc asked, never one to let me completely off the hook.
I shrugged a shoulder because I was that easy, breezy, beautiful about it all. “Like I said, just be friends.”
Beast came stomping up the stairs behind us and reached forward to grab the door, but instead of storming through like he might’ve in the past, especially when he wasin the darkest places, he held it wide for us. “After you two dummies.”
Well, he was still himself.
“Thank you, Sir Beast-A-Lot. Your noble deeds wilt be remembered.” I made a fancy, flourishing bow.
“He’s on one today,” Cookie said, slipping inside in front of me.
“Well, the sky is especially blue, so I’m not surprised,” Beast said, his low voice sounding a touch grumpy even when his words were affectionate.
He’d just told us yesterday that he was going to be a dad, so I knew very well his gruff response was all bark. Lucky for him, I’d already attack-hugged him and Jess and told them to notify me of their preferred baby shower date. Just because I’d never thrown one didn’t mean it wasn’t my new calling.
“Exactly! You know me well.” I liked all days, but blue skies in the winter had to be celebrated. We were usually above the worst of the gray inversion that often plagued the valleys further down the canyon and in the Ogden and Salt Lake areas in winter, but it was still worth actively enjoying.
Beast’s lips twitched.
“I love you, too,” I said, batting my lashes at him as I passed.
He shoved me forward with his giant paw on the back of my head. The gesture made my heart squeeze just a bit. I remembered my actual brother doing that back when we were kids. It was never particularly good-natured, but I liked that it was predictable. It had been part of our dynamic.
We made our way to our individual offices—probably the thing I liked least about being an adult at a company that respected its employees enough to give them individualworkspaces. I used to share with Luc, but when they finished the add-on to the building, he got his own office.
I was Rose watching Jack slowly sink into the abyss despite the very clear space directly next to me.Come baaaaaaaaaaaack.
Alas. He did not. As a man who thrived on togetherness and being with my people, sometimes my cushy office felt like a punishment and my penance was being sentenced to the doom of staring out my large window and leaning back in my ergonomic chair andthinking.
