Trusting Liam(38)

With a weighted sigh, I decided against saying anything about the new title Brian had given himself, and told him all about my conversation with Kennedy. When I was finished, Brian sat there staring at me with a handful of fries half hanging out of his mouth.

“Again, so what? You’re still acting like you don’t love her.”

“I don’t, but I want to know what you think.”

Brian rolled his eyes, like I was asking him to stop eating again. “I think that she’s been hurt.”

“That’s obvious,” I said, cutting in. “She said she had a bad relationship.”

“Do you want me to tell you or not?”

I lifted an arm out and to the side. “Continue.”

“Anyway! I think she’s been hurt. Not just in a way people get hurt in normal everyday relationships. I think whatever happened in that relationship hurt her in a way she was never expecting to be hurt, and a way you probably can’t understand. So hurt that her only way to get past it is to make herself believe that love doesn’t exist anymore.”

I leaned forward and rested my arms on my legs. “What could’ve happened that was so bad?”

“Lot of things, LC. He could’ve hurt her physically. You just never know.”

“But she’s twenty-two, and she said this happened a long time ago. How could she have been old enough to be so in love with someone that she thought she had what her parents had? And knowing her personality, there’s no way she was ever the kind of girl to be in love with every relationship and boyfriend she had.”

“Your mom was eighteen when she fell in love and then had her entire world ripped out from under her in ways that I can’t begin to understand—and I was there with a front-row seat during it,” he said like that should’ve been explanation enough. And I guess in a way, it was. With a shrug, Brian said, “This kind of shit happens sometimes. If you ever find out, you’ll probably never be able to understand what your girl went through. But I have no doubt that it’s just going to take the right guy to make her believe in all that lovey-dovey shit again.”

“It’s not gonna be me,” I reminded him when he gave me a knowing look.

“We’ll see, LC. We’ll see.”





9



July 11

Kennedy

“KIRA, ARE YOU really not going to go?”

I waited for Kira to turn and face me, but she never moved from the fetal position she was in on her bed.

“No,” she finally grunted.

After waiting a few seconds more for her response, I walked over and sat so I was resting against her back. “Well then, I’m not going,” I promised as I played with her long hair.

Last weekend she’d started staying in the condo instead of going out with Liam and the people we’d been regularly hanging out with. During the week, she’d been mostly normal at work—although more than a handful of times I found her staring at nothing with a worried look on her face. Then yesterday at work she didn’t say a word the entire time we were there, and hadn’t left her bedroom since we’d gotten home.

“Just go, Kennedy. I don’t want to talk today.”

My forehead pinched, and for a second, my hand paused in her hair. Once I started up again, I shrugged. “That’s okay. We don’t have to talk. But there’s obviously something going on with you. I’m not going to leave you when you’re like this.”

“I don’t want you here,” she responded immediately with a monotone voice.

“That’s okay too,” I whispered.

“No, Kennedy, really. Please leave.” This time her voice shook with her words.

I heard the front door open with a knock and looked up, waiting until I saw Liam fill the doorway to Kira’s room. I shook my head slowly in response to his question-mark expression, and he just nodded.

“Hi, Liam. Bye, Kennedy and Liam,” Kira mumbled, and I sighed.

Given the way she was acting, I normally wouldn’t have left her. But we’d gone through a similar conversation last night, and I’d ended up backing out of dinner with Liam to stay with her—which had resulted in Kira shrieking for me to leave her alone until I finally left her room.

Kira and I could bicker like there was no tomorrow, that’s just how we were and always had been. Probably because my parents were the exact same way, and while Kira was just like Mom, I was too much like our dad. But nothing that was said in this conversation could have made me pick a fight with her. I was too upset for her, and I wasn’t even sure what was bothering her this time. If she and Zane were fighting, I wouldn’t have known because she wouldn’t talk to me about him anymore.