Page 89 of Known By You
Movement out the corner of my eye pulled my attention, and I turned to see a small crowd of people with big cameras sporting lenses of various sizes all hustling down the street away from me.
“That’s bad news,” Kenny said from next to me.
I jolted a bit, completely oblivious to his arrival until he’d spoken. “Seems like it.”
“I have this awful feeling that my family tipped off the press Jack’s here. I really hope I’m wrong, but if they could sell that information, I wouldn’t be surprised. My mom seemed like she was fishing for information about him every time we talked.”
His jaw ticked as his gaze followed the small group running away, hopefully to head out of town.
“I hope it wasn’t them, too. But there’s nothing you can do about it if they did, and that’s part of why they have security and part of Evie staying put. You didn’t tell them anything they could use, so you can’t take that on.”
I reached for him, wanting to set a hand on his arm or grab his hand, but I veered away at the last minute and started walking next to him.Awkward, but touching him after not seeing him in what felt like weeks but had been mere days seemed like it might’ve been crossing a line.
He tapped his phone and held it up, quickly relaying what we’d seen to Cookie, who would report into Jack’s team and anyone else at Saint who needed to know. By the time we sat down at Diner, he’d finished his call.
Catherine wasn’t here, but the other waitress took our orders right away, then delivered steaming mugs of coffee and a little pitcher of cream and left us to ourselves.
“So… how are you?” His eyes searched my face like he might find clues there.
Would he see the dark circles under my eyes born from tears first, then lack of sleep? I’d covered them up a bit, but I wasn’t a miracle worker.
“Alright. How are you?”
He huffed a little. “I’m sorry for Friday.I?—”
“I don’t want you to apologize for doing what you needed to do, okay?” I reached out and took his hand in mine. Steam from my coffee mug curled between us and I pushed further. “What we’re doing—what we’ve done—isn’t easy. I’m so grateful for the time we’ve spent together, and I’ll never forget it.”
His throat bobbed and he reached for his water glass, drinking down several gulps before he spoke again. “I appreciate you understanding. And you’re right, it is different. This whole set up has been. Neither one of us has been a casual dating type of person, but we’ve tried to treat this that way. And it hasn’t worked. And I think part of that reason is?—”
“I’m going back sooner than I thought.”
He jerked like he’d been shot, a shockwave running through his body before he stilled. “Oh.”
I didn’t know what he’d been about to say, but I’d known I couldn’t hear it. I simply wouldn’t survive if this man gave me any more of himself and showed me what I could but couldn’t have. So I’d halted all of this, every bit, with nothing more than the truth.
“Yeah. It’s unexpected but I’ll find out today when I fly out. They told me to expect this week.”
I was a fool for not checking to see exactly when already. I’d do it as soon as I left here. As much as I’d felt like delaying, now that I was faced with the shadowy expression taking over his face, I knew I should’ve gotten it over with so we could both handle everything and be done with it.
He blinked, taking in my face like I was his, and licked his lips.
“This week,” he said, almost in a trance, and just the sound of it crushed me.
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
Kenny
This week.
I’d thought I was worried about her calling everything off between us after I ran away on Friday, but this was worse. Had she initiated returning early? Was it really part of her job?
“It’s ultimately a good thing. They wrapped up the inquiry of the incident early and…” Her finger traced the edge of the table before she made eye contact again. “It just means I can get back to work. Back to real life.”
I nodded, swallowing down the objection rising in me like lava. “Right. Yeah. Well, congratulations on everything turning out well and… being done. I’m sure it’s a relief.”
The words were hollow, just like me. I felt so empty and almost cold hearing her news. I should’ve been a better friend, and genuine in my statement, but for now all I could offer was verbalsupport.
“Thanks, yeah. It’s… what I was anticipating, but you never know.”
