I loved Sage; she was like a sister to me. And after all the shit my own family had put me through over the years, she was the only true family I needed or wanted. That didn’t mean I wasn’t blind to her failings. Like how she couldn’t stand up for herself, or anyone else. How she hid from the world behind our closed doors when she let her depression get the better of her. A depression that she refused to see a therapist about.
I let her hide, which made me her biggest enabler. I did her shopping, took care of her mail, and at times, I even paid her bills. Maybe if I didn’t, she would finally have to put one foot in front of the other and actually leave the apartment.
Her mother was no better than me, giving her a large monthly allowance. She didn’t have to work. She didn’t have to go to school. All she had to do was hide from the world and herself at times.
I could hear the soft sounds of her television as I passed her bedroom and paused to listen. Either she was asleep or in the shower. I couldn’t hear any other sign of her in the room.
Kale stood behind me, patiently waiting for me to move on. He had been understanding when I’d explained Wade to him; had even gotten angry at the man he hadn’t ever met. That he had only heard my side of it, that he’d taken what I had said as the only truth he needed, had touched me in a way that had all the other things that had scared me about him throughout the day doubling.
Yet, those fears had faded with a reassuring smile from this guy.
I should have been pushing him out the door. I should have been locking him out and hiding my heart and anything else that might—was—softening toward him. I couldn’t believe I had only known him the span of a few hours—hell, not even a full day—yet there I was, melting for him in all the places I’d thought were immune to tender feelings for anyone other than those closest to me.
“Everything okay?” Kale asked in a quiet voice when I just stood there.
“I think she’s okay,” I assured him, though it hadn’t been Sage who had rooted me to the spot. “Come on; we can put those things away and maybe watch a movie before I start on dinner.”
The grin that lifted his lips shined out of his hazel eyes, making them twice as green as they were brown. “I like that plan, doll.”
I tried not to let that smile warm my entire body, but there was no controlling it. It was like someone flipped a switch when he smiled at me like that. One minute my body was at a comfortable ninety-seven degrees. Then, suddenly, I was a burning hundred and three. The fear was starting to become exhilarating. It was kin
d of addicting. When I stopped lying to myself, I realized that I liked it.
A lot.
In the kitchen, he helped me put away the groceries. There were fresh chicken breasts, red onion, crescent dough sheets, and my favorite honey barbeque sauce. I had also picked up things to make a salad and even a few items to make us some homemade cherry turnovers for dessert.
Cooking was one of the things I only ever did for myself, so planning on fixing something for Kale made me nervous. It was the one thing I refused to do for Sage, not because she was so picky, which she freaking was. No, it was just too personal for me. My dad had always said, when you cook, you put a little of yourself in the prepping, you put a piece of your soul into it when you did it right.
Maybe I was still looking at what he had said from a wide-eyed, little girl’s perspective, but I couldn’t share my soul with just anyone. Not even my best friend.
So, why was I doing it for Kale?
I didn’t have an answer, and I wasn’t going to examine it too closely. All I knew was that it felt right, and I liked having him around.
Once everything was put away, I led him into the living room. It was a small room, with just the couch that Sage’s parents had given us when we had first moved in together. End tables I had picked up at a farmers’ market two years ago and refinished myself sat on either end of it, and a small entertainment center the two of us had picked out together held the flat screen and our Blu-ray player.
Kale sat on the end of the couch closest to the window, and I grabbed the remote off the end table before sitting down beside him. I had barely turned the television on before he was snatching it out of my hand.
“What’s on your DVR?” he asked with a grin as he started surfing through our recorded inventory. “Doctor Who?” He lifted a brow at me.
Damn, that was sexy. How did he do that so effortlessly? I wanted to trace my finger across that dark brow.
Shaking my head to dispel the thought, I told him, “I like the show, but that’s Sage’s guilty pleasure. She’s watched every single episode, including the older stuff.”
Kale gave me a skeptical look for a second, then laughed. “Okay. I’m not gonna judge. Sin watches that show. So … Game of Thrones?”
“That’s all me. Sage doesn’t like it. She does nothing but talk about how unrealistic it is. But, oh no, talk smack about The Walking Dead and she goes apeshit.” I shook my head when he chuckled. Many of our arguments that weren’t about Wade were over our choices of television crack. “Seriously. She’s emotionally invested in that show.”
“I’m more a Supernatural fan myself,” he said with a wink as he kept moving through our recorded history.
I bit the inside of my lip to keep from grinning, but I didn’t say a word until he found my own guilty pleasure.
“Well, hell, I think I just fell a little in love with you.”
Stupidly, pleasure flowed through me like a double shot of espresso. I was kind of addicted to Supernatural. Every episode was recorded on the DVR. It was the only show Sage and I could actually agree on. She was so loyal to Sam it made me sick. Meanwhile, I was a diehard Dean fan and proud of it.
“Who’s your favorite?” he asked, turning to face me. “Be honest. Who you like more on there will tell me a lot about you.”