Page 27 of Anything for You
A sweet, sharp jab pinched my ribs. “Did you need something?”
Kenny scowled over at me, and Luc shifted around.Okay, so the tone wasn’t right. Noted.
Her cheeks flushed. “No. I was actually just dropping this off. Didn’t mean to interrupt.” She held out an envelope.
My pulse ticked up with anticipation, and I wanted Kenny and Luc to leave this instant so I could sit and read whatever it contained.
We hadn’t exchanged letters since before we picked blackberries. Before I’d seen her with baby Will. Before…
Just, before.
And now, I wanted whatever words she’d give me. I’d started to crave them.
“Not interrupting. We were just on our way out! We had alovelytea time, and if you haven’t yet, you’ve gotta get Stone and Bear to have you over for tea. These boys know how to do it up right,” Kenny said with a wink at Dove.
Why would he be winking at her? It was a weird impulse for a man who had a wife. I didn’t like it.
I also had no plans to say anything, but I stood taller and might’ve been scowling now.
“Tea?” Her bright gaze landed on me right as my face was verging toward downright bothered, and she stepped back. “Sorry. I really didn’t mean to pester you. Just hadn’t had a chance to pop this over. And now I’m finally off work for more than twenty-four hours, so I’m going to go… not be at work.” She chuckled at herself with a twinge of what sounded like embarrassment.
She turned and bounded down the stairs as Kenny and Luc both bid her adieu, then disappeared inside her house before I’d even opened my mouth. I tended to be a little slow to speak in situations like this when things were moving quickly, but I hadn’t meant to be unfriendly.
Kenny folded his arms and turned to glare at me. “You have so much to work on. Like, I’m super proud of the ways you’ve grown the last few years, but that?”
“C’etait une catastrophe,” Luc said, somber and concerned.
“You answered the door. She—she was hardly here. What should I have done?” I asked, mild panic creeping into my tone and around the edges of my vision.
Kenny settled a hand on my shoulder. “You looked furious.”
“At you because you were being so… obvious.”
His eyes widened and then hisBarbie takes over the worldsmile bloomed on his face.
“I knew it.” He clapped me on my shoulder again, then shook me. “Youdolike her!”
Inside my chest, tiny little caterpillars were dipping around, rolling up into cocoons and storing themselves up for a big reveal at a later date.
Luc simply grinned, eyes shifting between me and Kenny.
“I want to be her friend. I think I understand her.” At least some things about her. And I thought maybe she might understand a bit about me, impossible as that sometimes seemed.
“I love it. I love this so much,” Kenny started, but when he looked at me, he halted.
My frown was heavy on my face, pulling at me today and no doubt revealing too much.
“It’s nothing, and I don’t want her feeling pressured.” The thought she’d somehow figure out I liked her, if that’s indeed what this was, and would feel anything but happiness or freedom, was a sentence I didn’t want completed. “Please don’t joke about this or speak about it. Please, Kenny, I’m beg?—”
“I promise I won’t say a word. I love you and I really like Dove, and I’d love for the two of you to click, but I’m sorry. I get that my reactions aren’t always helpful.” He gave me a wry grin. “I’ll lock it up until there’s actual reason to celebrate.”
I nodded.
“But will you tell us? And let us know if there’s any way we can help?”
I nodded again.
“And will you swear to allow yourself to have this, if she wants it, too? That you won’t deny yourself?”
