Thoughtful(217)

Embarrassed, she looked down. “I meant…actual dating, Kellan. The old-fashioned kind.”

I started laughing and she looked up. With a peaceful smile that actually felt genuine for once, I told her, “You really are the most adorable person. You have no idea how much I’ve missed that.”

Her smile seemed equally untroubled. Stroking the rough stubble on my unshaven face, she asked me, “So…will you date me?”

She said it suggestively, and my grin grew. “I’d love to…date you.” The playfulness of the moment died down, and seriousness blanketed my voice. “We’ll try…we’ll try to stop hurting each other. We’ll take this easy. We’ll go slowly.”

It was the only way we could truly recover from what we’d done to each other.





Chapter 35





Dating




For the first time in my life, I was dating. Real, old-school dating. And Kiera had said she wanted it traditional, so that was exactly what I did. I opened doors for her when I took her out to dinner, I only held her hand, and I gave her a brief kiss on the cheek at the end of the night. And, surprisingly, I was happy that the evening hadn’t ended with sex. It made me feel like we were building something, or rebuilding something. We were forming connections that went deeper than physical intimacy, and as frightening as that was, it was also ten times as euphoric.

When we were together, I couldn’t stop looking at her. The fact that she was with me, and only me, was something that blew my mind. My cheeks hurt from smiling so much, and my band constantly asked me if everything was okay. Yes, it is. Finally. Or at least, it was getting that way. There were a lot of scars between Kiera and me, and scars took time to heal.

Wanting to prove to myself that I could touch Kiera without it getting overly sexual, I took her dancing next. Everyone came with us, and it turned into a group date. My hands, while desperately wanting to run over every inch of her seductive skin, stayed on her hips. We would have made seventh graders proud. Well, maybe fifth graders.

When we were all gathering together for our date night, Anna greeted me in her typical fashion. With a smack across the head, she muttered, “Ass.” I only smiled at her in response. Someday she would get over the fact that I’d pretended that we’d slept together. And even if she didn’t, Kiera’s smile whenever Anna reprimanded me was glorious. I’d let Anna hit me every day to see Kiera’s face light up like that.

Anna wrapped her arms around Griffin, and we didn’t see much more of them for the remainder of the evening. Let me rephrase that. During the night, they disappeared for long stretches at a time, but when they were around us, we all saw way too much of them. Kiera turned green on several occasions.

Jenny came out with us too, and she brought along her roommate, Rachel. Rachel and Kiera worked together at Kiera’s new job. I’d met her a time or two before. She was a cute blend of Latin and Asian, and she was quiet as a mouse. Jenny said that made her the best roommate in the world, but it was Matt who looked captivated. The two of them found a corner of the club that wasn’t too noisy and spent most of the night talking instead of dancing. I’d never seen Matt really date anyone before—the band took up way too much of his time—but I thought he might actually give it a go with the laid-back girl. Assuming she was into music, of course. If she was ambivalent or uninterested, they’d never work out. I wished them the best.

With all the rest of us paired off, that just left Evan and Jenny. I cornered him in the club hallway. “Are you gonna man up and make a move?” I asked.

He actually had the gall to act clueless. “What are you talking about?”

I smacked his shoulder. “Jenny. You guys are here, dancing together, half-drunk and making moony eyes at each other. Kiss her already.”

Evan pursed his lips. “You need to get off that kick.”

This time I poked his shoulder. “And you need to get on that. Kiss her. That’s an order.”

He crossed his arms over his chest. “You can’t order me.”

I matched his posture. “Yes, I can. You said it was my band, remember? So if you want to stay in it, I’m commanding you to lay one on that little fireball. Got it?”

Not intimidated, he raised an eyebrow. “Really? You’re gonna kick me out of the band if I don’t kiss a girl?”

I shook my head. “No, not ‘a girl.’ Jenny. The person who you’re supposed to be with, but you’re too damn stubborn to see it.” When he still didn’t look impressed, I added, “And no, I won’t kick you out…” Smiling, I leaned in and said, “I’ll make you wear Griffin’s bike shorts. After he’s done using them. In the sauna.”