“When I first met you two, Kelsey seemed tough and cool,” Doug murmured. “Always hip and really hot.”
“Yeah,” Amy conceded, hearing the sad, ironic note in her own voice and wondering how he could be so blind.
Laughing softly, he said, “You were different. So bouncy and silly, like a soft, warm kitten. You could always make me so mad.”
Amy’s fingers stopped moving, her love for him rising in a lump in her throat at the tenderness in his voice.
“Then you moved away when your mother got married again.”
“To Walt,” Amy agreed, matter-of-factly. Her mother’s tendency to collect husbands was almost a non-issue at this point.
“Yeah? Walt? I lose track,” Doug murmured, his shoulders slumping in relaxation under her massaging hands. “But when that didn’t last and you both moved back here and came back to school, Kels seemed tougher somehow. Like she was just closing up around one more hurt.”
“We liked Walt.”
Doug glanced up at her with a smile. “I remember. We sat on the stairs outside your apartment, you and I, and you cried because you missed him.”
“You were sweet.” Amy brushed at the fringe of his dark hair with her thumbs, drawing them down along the ridge of his neck. “You kissed me on the lips and told me it would be okay.”
“Yes,” he said, his voice vibrating against the palms of her hands. “I remember you were really surprised. Then you were hugging me back and you stopped crying.”
“The power of a kiss.” Out over the tops his shoulders, she skated her hands, longing flooding her to the point she was almost sick with it.
“I always wanted to help, to make it better,” Doug said softly. “My family isn’t perfect, but it was better than yours.”
“Yes,” she agreed.
“I could always cheer you up,” Doug said after a few moments. “But Kels seemed beyond me. After the divorce from Walt, I realized she wasn’t really tough, just hiding everything inside. I could make you feel better, but not Kelsey. It seemed like I could never quite reach her. Never make it better.”
“But you keep trying.” The muscles in Amy’s throat hurt from the strain of her emotions. She loved him. So much. And she wanted to be here for him now. Now when he was facing the death of his fantasy about her sister, the grief in his voice both aggrieved and confused.
But that didn’t mean hearing his wistfulness didn’t hurt her. If her sister hadn’t been marrying the man of her dreams in two short weeks, Amy would have walked out of his apartment and gotten on a plane for bound for anywhere but here.
Yet, with Kelsey marrying, there was hope.
“You know, Jared will take care of her now,” Amy said deliberately. “He’s there for her. He’ll love her and make it all up to her.”
Doug was silent for a long moment. “Do you really think so?”
“Yes,” Amy said as if the single word were a prayer. “You can let go of her now.”
***
A week later, Doug stood in Amy’s kitchen, pouring coffee he didn’t want while he waited impatiently for her to finish dressing.
“Come on, Ames,” he called out. “We’re wasting daylight here. How hard is it to get dressed to go running?”
“Be right out,” she called, her voice muffled through the door and whatever layer of clothing she was pulling on over her head.
A sudden mental image assailed Doug. Amy’s slender body clad in running tights, every toned muscle visible through the stretchy spandex. On the other side of that door, she’d be pulling on a running bra, her naked breasts bouncing as she wiggled into the snug garment.
He slammed the coffee cup down, sloshing hot liquid over his hand. “Shit!”
Turning, he quickly stuck his hand under the faucet and turned on the cold water. What the hell was he doing? Fantasizing about Amy’s breasts. Her butt. Her strong legs.
About a month ago, he’d found himself kissing her suddenly, her mouth hot, her breath sweet. They’d laughed the moment off and he’d told himself it hadn’t meant anything. One of her sappy movies had gone to her head and she’d gotten caught up in the moment.
Why he’d gotten equally caught up, he wasn’t sure. It had been a great kiss, though. The kind that kept replaying itself, leaving him half-aroused every time he remembered it.
Snapping the water off with a vicious twist, Doug grabbed a kitchen towel from a nearby hook, wrapping it around his stinging hand. He was losing his mind.
It had always been Kelsey for him. Always. He knew he could make a difference in her life. Make her happy when all the other jerks she dated couldn’t.