Page 17 of DOG Part 2
7
Kim
Iwrappedmy hands tighter around the mug, pressing my fingers so hard against its ceramic shell that they almost burned. I needed something to distract myself, and sitting around drinking tea in Kane’s parents’ house wasn’t exactly doing the trick. Especially not when I’d spent half the morning going through Kane’s childhood bedroom, looking at Little League trophies and leafing through pages and pages of school pictures.
I missed him so much it felt as if my heart itself was crying, bleeding out tears that filled my entire body and pulled me down with their weight.
I rubbed my face and sighed. So much had happened so quickly. My mom’s death. My dad’s calling and his getting shot. Kane.
Kane.
I still didn’t understand exactly what was going on between us, but I knew that I missed him. God, I missed him and worried about him. The worst part of it all was that I had no idea what was currently happening to him, or when he would be coming back for me. I didn’t know if the clubhouse was safe or even if my dad was recovering all right. I was stuck in a state of stasis, sitting uselessly while a world I knew nothing about swirled around somewhere outside of that suburban neighborhood.
The floorboards creaked as Kane’s mom came into the kitchen.
“How are you doing?” she softly asked, taking a seat across the table.
Adele was one of the sweetest women I had ever met. She’d gone above and beyond to accommodate me, fixing up the guest room like the queen herself was expected to drop by for a visit. She’d given me my space throughout the day, checking in on me occasionally, but for the most part keeping to herself after her husband had left for work.
“I’m...” I started, then stopped, realizing my feelings at the moment were anything but easily identifiable.
“It’s all right,” she said simply, reaching a hand across the finely woven place mats to touch my arm.
I nodded, my throat so clogged that talking anymore was totally out of the question.
“You must not have slept very well.”
“Not really,” I croaked.
“I heard you moving around during the night.”
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to be so loud.”
“It’s all right.”
I’d barely slept for a second, that much was true. Being across the hall from Kane’s old bedroom had driven me crazy, and every little creak of the house had made me jump, always thinking that it was him coming back for me. I’d finally given up sleeping around four and gotten up to walk aimlessly around the downstairs.
“A lot has happened, I take it,” Adele continued.
I nodded again, wanting to tell her about my parents but also not wanting to break down and cry all over the spot where people had to eat their pancakes in the morning.
“Kane really cares about you, or else he wouldn’t have brought you here.”
Her words giving my heart a little lift, I was finally able to crack a slight smile. “Yeah?”
She laughed, a tinkling sound that filled the air around us and made my every bone ache for my own mother. Adele was clearly a great person, and Kane had been lucky to have her as a mom.
“Kane told me that you adopted him,” I said, moving my palm across the top of the mug and letting the steam strike my skin.
“When he was two. His parents died in a car accident.”
“That’s awful.” Images of a toddler Kane all alone flooded my head, making me want to cry again.
Adele murmured her agreement. “Yes. But then he came to us. We couldn’t have children of our own, and he was nothing short of a blessing.”
“My mother just died,” I said, not able to hold it back anymore.
I stared out the window at the quiet cul-de-sac as her hand reached out again for my arm. “I’m so sorry, Kim.”
