All or Nothing(6)
Kennedy hadn’t agreed.
“Was she your girlfriend?” I asked now. “Or just a hook-up?”
His fingers toyed with my hair, and I felt his body sag as he exhaled. “Girlfriend.”
“Did I ruin everything?”
He dropped his hands to his sides and studied me. We both knew I wasn’t just asking about his relationship with the girl. I’d put our friendship on the line.
He shrugged. “These things have a way of working out.”
My cheeks burned, but I wouldn’t let myself break eye contact. “Well, for what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”
He nodded, but I still couldn’t make out his expression.
The song found its end, and I found my excuse to escape. “I need to go home.” I forced a smile. “I’m exhausted.”
I waved to our friends and pushed out of the bar, Kennedy’s eyes on me the whole time. The cold air whipped at my cheeks as I walked home, sobering me. Sober and realistic was more depressing than tipsy and pathetically hopeful.
I hadn’t expected him to bring up October, but I guess if I had, I’d seen it going differently. Maybe I’d imagined that if we ever talked about it, he would confess that under any other circumstances it would have been a dream come true to see me in his bed. Maybe I’d thought he’d whisper in my ear how sexy I looked naked in his bed.
How long was it going to take me to get over Kennedy Hale?
“Are you saving the next dance for me, handsome?”
The sound of Bernie’s voice tugged me out of my reverie and made me pull my eyes off Bree’s form disappearing down the street. I should have offered to walk Bree home, but after that dance I didn’t trust myself to be alone with her.
Bernie wrapped her hand behind my neck, not bothering to wait for permission before inserting herself into my arms. I took her hand in mine to keep some distance between us, but I didn’t have the heart to push her away again. Bernie was really harmless. She was just a lonely lady who drank too much. Not so different from Bree in some ways.
“When are you going to make things official between you and that Baxter girl?” she asked, as if reading my thoughts.
“We’re just friends.” It was an objection I’d been stating since we were teenagers, and it was true. I had no desire to have more than friendship with Bree.
Okay. That was a lie. There were definitely parts of me—particularly parts farther south—that wanted more than friendship with Bree. But sex was cheap. Look what it had done to my relationship with Bree’s best friend Everly.
No, I’d learned my lesson. The kind of friendship I had with Bree—or had had before she’d pulled her little stunt in October—was priceless. It was the good bet, every time. Something I could count on. I wasn’t selling it out just because the smell of her perfume could get me hard in point-oh-three seconds.
“Probably better,” Bernie said, patting my cheek. “She’s too much like her mama. Can’t stay still. Always looking for the next adventure. Never happy to be in one place.”
She was happy in Abbott Springs. She just moved because she thought she was supposed to.
My phone buzzed at my hip, and I excused myself from Bernie’s arms to take the call. “Hey, Mom.”
“Kennedy! Would you do me a favor and swing by Aubree’s house on your way home tonight? Linus told me he had to leave on business, and I don’t like her staying in that big house all alone.”
Was I seriously the only one who hadn’t known Aubree was coming into town? “Sure, but I saw her at Juke’s a few minutes ago. She said she was fine staying at her dad’s.”
“She was just being polite,” Mom scolded. “Go get her and bring her here where she belongs.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” I promised. My mom loved Bree like one of her own—perhaps more than her own. After Bree’s mom had skipped town, Bree spent many of her nights at our house. Her relationship with my parents made me jealous as hell. While my parents insisted I live life on their terms, their surrogate daughter got away with everything. Tattoos, drinking, older men. Mom had always just winked and let it slide. Maybe she’d never objected because she didn’t have any claim to Bree. Or maybe it was just because Bree was Bree, and stifling her boldness would be like blotting out a shining star.
“Thanks, sweetie. And don’t forget, we have lunch with the board on Saturday. I know you want to spend time with your friends this weekend, but your dad is counting on you being there.”
I groaned. The last thing I wanted was to go to some fancy dinner and have the men talk about my future like it was their own. Maybe if Bree came, she could keep the subject more neutral. Maybe if Bree came, I wouldn’t hate every minute of it. Further evidence that the best thing we could be for each other was friends.