“What are you doing?” The words were panicked.
“Getting you home. You really think I’m going to send you off by yourself in the middle of the night?” Mischief danced across his face, his brow arching high. “What kind of knight would I be then?”
I fiddled with the hem of my dress. “That isn’t necessary.”
“It is,” he said. This time his tone left no room for argument.
Resigned, I gave the driver my address, and Kale held my hand while the car drove through the city. Night pressed down through the bottled silence, broken by the streetlamps that flashed through the windows and the loud thrum of my heart.
This was so stupid.
Giving in this way.
Because my gut had warned me that one night would never be enough.
And if Dane was waiting for me again?
Anger and a shot of fear churned in my gut because I was so tired of playing by his rules.
It wasn’t fair.
Not at all.
The cab made the last left into the quiet, sleeping neighborhood. Big, dense trees stood guard over the small homes, their windows cast in darkness and wrapped in the comfort of the night.
The driver cut across the road, pulling up alongside the curb in front of my house.
I looked over at Kale, and I knew I shouldn’t, that I was only prolonging the inevitable. Making it hurt a little worse.
It didn’t matter.
I leaned in and pressed a soft kiss to his full lips.
So gentle beneath mine. As if they might be able to promise all the things I wanted most.
A second later, I pulled back. “Thank you,” I murmured, my fingers regretfully fiddling with the top button of his shirt.
When I started to slide toward the door, he snatched me by the wrist. “Let me come in.”
I sent him a small, sad smile, ran my thumb along the defined curve of his cheek. “I had an amazing time tonight. The best time. Thank you for rescuing me for a little while. I won’t ever forget it.”
For a moment, he stared across at me before he gave a tight nod of reluctant acceptance, his smile slight, his voice wistful regret. “Good night, Shortcake.”
I would have giggled if everything didn’t suddenly hurt so much.
Clicking the door open, I let myself into the vacant loneliness of the waiting night.
10
Kale
“Fess up, asshole.” Ollie flicked the bottle cap he twisted from a beer at me where I was sitting out on the balcony of my loft.
I dodged it, not surprised to see him waltzing into my place like he owned it after I’d ignored the two calls he’d made this afternoon and the ten texts that’d come in after.
Dude was worse than a stage-five clinger.
“Fuck off, man.”
His eyes widened in mock horror. “Such a foul mouth for a kiddie doctor. Shame. And here I thought you’d be classier than that. You sound like some kind of lowlife loser.”
I rolled my eyes and took a sip of the beer I’d been nursing for the last two hours. “Gonna blame that one on the fact I hang out with you. They say you are the company you keep.”
He dropped down into the lounger beside me, kicking out his legs, crossing them at the ankles. He let out a satisfied sigh.
My brow lifted. “Make yourself at home, why don’t you?”
He smirked. “What do you think I’m doing?”
“Ruining my life?”
“Oh, come on, dude. You know you were just begging me to make a surprise visit when you ignored my calls, especially considering you showed up at my bar last night after you’d had dinner with the same chick who’d shot you down the week before. Far as I’m concerned, you were shooting SOS flares in the air. Man down. I came running.”
He sat up on the side of the lounger, elbows resting on his knees with his beer dangling between them. “So let’s hear it, because I’m pretty sure either my best friend has caught some kind of horrible disease or that heart of his is finally thawing out. Which is it?”
I exhaled heavily, eyes trained on the view that was basically exactly the same as the one from Olive’s balcony. Lights stretched out across the city, the river winding behind the buildings just on the other side of the street, carefree voices lifting from the sidewalk below.
My place was just a half block down from Ollie’s bar. It was located in another reclaimed warehouse that Rex’s company, RG Construction, had been hired to bring back to life. I’d been looking for a permanent place to call home at the time, and he’d told me he was working on a project that might interest me.
Even though it’d been nothing but bare bones and rotted wood when I’d viewed it, I’d bought it on the spot.
Pretty much for the view alone since the unit was located on the fifth floor.