Keeping Kennedy (13 page)

“I have no doubt,” Drake assured her. His
tone turned serious then. “Why so glum if all’s well?”

Kennedy closed her eyes and sighed wearily.
She shook her head as if she wasn’t sure how to answer his
question, but she was. The problem was admitting it. When she
opened her eyes once more, he waited patiently. Something about the
way he looked at her made her want to reach out to him. Made her
long for him to reach out to her. She had learned more about Drake
in the past four days than in the entire three years they had lived
next door to each other. She would never be able to look at him the
same way again. This…closeness would forever change things.

Was this reunion spin worth the casual
friendship they had maintained until now? Maybe this would only be
the beginning of something new.

Kennedy told herself not to think anything of
the kind. She looked around again. He’d asked her why she was so
glum. “I don’t know, Drake. To tell you the truth, it feels like
ten years ago all over again.” She hugged her middle. “All my
classmates are here and I’m alone at the prom with no dance
partner.” She laughed humorlessly. “Even if I’d known how to dance
at the time.”

“You went to the prom alone?”

God, was that sympathy she heard in his
voice? Kennedy almost cringed. “Well, I was pretty much a nerd, you
know. Not many boys that age want to ask a skinny girl with braces
to the most important social event of their short lives. Especially
one who hadn’t even been—”

Kennedy clamped her mouth shut. She was
saying too much.

“Who hadn’t even been kissed?” Drake
supplied.

She blew out a breath of long pent-up
frustration. “Let’s just let it go, okay? I wasn’t the kind of girl
guys were rushing to ask out.”

“I’ve seem your portrait at eighteen. You
were beautiful,” he countered.

Beautiful? He thought she was beautiful? He’d
said that before, hadn’t he? Kennedy forced her gaze back to his.
She wondered if he could have forgotten that much about high school
days. Teenagers don’t see past the flaws. “Maybe so,” she said with
a noncommittal shrug, opting not to argue, “but I was a certified
nerd. No longer a child, but not quite a woman.”

“What about Larry?” Drake suggested. “He
didn’t ask you to dance?”

Kennedy blinked away the hurtful memories.
Did she really want to go into this? “Oh, by that time he was going
with Cassandra.”

“So, no one asked you to dance that
night?”

Kennedy glared at him crossly. “Do you need
me to write it down? No, Drake, no one asked me to dance. I was a
geek. I held up the wall all night.”

“Is that when you decided you didn’t need a
man in your life?”

One eyebrow shot up in irritation. “Is this
Psych 101 or are you simply curious about the worst time in my
life?” Why did he even care about her senior prom? And what was he
looking at her that way? A flood of images and sensations suddenly
washed over her. Every moment of last night’s fiasco came tumbling
back. He was most likely feeling sorry for her about now. The
emotions she thought she saw in his eyes were only pity. He hadn’t
even wanted to make love to her when she’d practically begged
him.

“Look, Drake,” Kennedy offered, overwhelmed
by too many emotions of her own to deal with anyone else’s, “I
appreciate everything you’ve done. You’ve lived up to everything
you promised in every way. I’ll never be able to repay you for the
way you’ve helped me out here, but…”

“But?” he pressed.

“Don’t take all this too seriously. I’m not
expecting anything from you once this is over.” She searched his
eyes for any kind of reaction, but he kept his feelings to himself
this time. “Things will be just like they used to be.”

“Is that what you want, Kennedy?”

His question gave her pause. She looked away.
Of course that’s what she wanted. What else would she want? Her
gaze collided with his once more. Was that uncertainty she saw in
his eyes, or was her own sense of inferiority simply mirrored
there?

“Of course it’s what I want,” she said with
no conviction at all. Kennedy squared her shoulders and summoned
her waning resolve. “What else would I want?”

That irresistibly sexy smile of his appeared.
“I thought maybe you’d like that dance you missed ten years
ago.”

Kennedy’s heart beat much too fast. Had Drake
just asked her to dance? Her breath stalled somewhere shy of her
lungs. “W-what?”

Drake bowed and offered his hand. “May I have
this dance?”

She glanced quickly from side to side. “But
there’s no music.” Anticipation raged through her veins, making her
heart pound that much harder.

He took her right hand in his left. “Who
needs music?” His right arm went around her waist and pulled her
close. She stiffened. “Just relax, Kennedy,” he whispered against
her temple. His breath was warm and made her skin tingle. “This
won’t hurt a bit.”

Kennedy closed her eyes and forced herself to
relax. Drake’s warm, hard body drew hers like a living, breathing
magnet. Her arms tightened around his neck as he began the slow,
rhythmic movements of slow dancing to nothing but the sound of
their beating hearts. For the first time in her life Kennedy felt
completely right in the arms of a man. She wouldn’t allow herself
to wonder or analyze. Right now she only wanted to feel.

Drake’s hand pressed against her lower back
urging her hips closer to his. She could feel the depth of his
desire for her, but couldn’t understand it. Drake could have any
woman he wanted…What did he want with her? Her fingers
instinctively entangled in his long, dark hair. And suddenly she
didn’t care why.

Kennedy just wanted Drake to keep holding
her.

Chapter Eight

Kennedy took a deep breath and then walked
slowly to the full-length mirror across the room. She closed her
eyes and paused before opening them. She had donned the costume
Drake selected for her, but she couldn’t bring herself to look. She
probably looked like a total idiot. Why on earth had she let him
pick it out? Because she had been too busy with last-minute reunion
activities, including a dress rehearsal for the repentant Larry, to
go with Drake all the way to Prattville to pick up the costumes. It
felt tight. Too tight. She squirmed inside the clinched bodice.

“Okay,” Kennedy muttered. Time to face the
music. She opened her eyes. She blinked, twice.

She had cleavage.

Boy, did she have cleavage. Kennedy turned to
view her profile. The tight bodice, she decided, pushed everything
up and out. The black lace-up front contrasted nicely with the
white blouse beneath. And the full skirt did make a wonderful
swishing sound when she moved. All in all, she supposed the look
was barmaidish enough. She checked her hair once more. She rather
liked it up. Maybe she would wear it that way more often. But would
Drake like the way she looked?

Kennedy glowered at her reflection. She
shouldn’t care whether he liked the how she looked or not. Her
obsession with appearances had apparently shifted from her old
classmates to Drake. It certainly couldn’t be anything else.

The lie tasted soar in her mouth.

A soft tap on the door drew her attention
there. She chewed her lower lip. That would be Drake. She took a
deep breath to calm herself. Last night’s little impromptu dance
had just about undone her. She had paced the floor for hours before
coming to bed for fear of what she might do. Kennedy frowned.
Somehow, she regretted it. How would she ever know if what she felt
for Drake was real or not if she didn’t allow those feelings to
play out?

In the ten years since she’d graduated from
high school and gone off to make her way in the world, she had
faced every fear. How was it that coming home like this, even after
all this time, could make her so vulnerable once more?

The knock came again. “Kennedy, are you
ready? Chuck and Brenda are waiting for us.”

Chuck and Brenda. She shook her head. Her
parents loved Drake. How would she ever break the truth to them?
Martin had all but adopted him. Drake seemed to fit right in with
her whole family. A kind of sadness settled over her. Everyone was
falling in love with Drake except her. She had all these feelings,
but were they
those
kinds of feelings? How was she supposed
to know? She’d never been in love before. The thought of Larry
flitted through her mind and she immediately dismissed that idea.
She hadn’t loved Larry. He’d only been a teenage crush, but it had
felt important at the time.

She instinctively knew that what she was
feeling now was way bigger than that.

“Kennedy, are you all right in there?”

“I-I’m fine. Come in, I just have to…”
Kennedy whirled back to the mirror and pretended to check her
makeup as he opened the door. She blinked back the unbidden tears
shinning in her eyes. She wasn’t supposed to act like this.
Finally, she faced him.

“‘Tis a winsome wench you are, lass,” he
said, eying her hungrily.

Kennedy could only stare, speechless, at him.
To say that Drake made a magnificent pirate would be a monumental
understatement. The billowing, full-sleeved shirt lay open,
exposing his brawny chest and the sprinkling of dark hair there.
The wide black belt and trousers fit as if they had been tailored
for him. Then there was the eye patch, the leather boots, and the
sword. Kennedy’s mouth wet dry.

He looked awesome.

Drake waved his arm and bowed dramatically
before her. “My lady.”

“You look amazing,” she head herself croak.
She cleared her throat and tried again. “Wow!” Kennedy gave him a
nod of approval. Every woman at the ball tonight would be lusting
after Drake. That notion didn’t sit too well with her, and that
disturbed her.

Drake disturbed her.

“Tonight, my lady, your every wish will be my
pleasure.” He held the door open wide. “The ball awaits.”

Confused, flustered, and suddenly too warm,
Kennedy produced a smile and breezed out of the room. Drake
followed. Forcing thoughts of the man at her side out of her head,
which was no easy task, Kennedy focused on the events to come.
Anticipation buzzed inside her, effectively tuning out the mixed
emotions.

Tonight was the final item on the week’s
agenda. After tonight, Drake would be off the hook. Tomorrow would
be for relaxing and preparing for Sunday’s departure. This was it.
Their last public performance together. Kennedy swallowed back the
odd emotion that tightened her chest. By midnight tonight, it would
be over.

And nothing would ever be the same again.

Least of all, her heart.

~*~

The tension between Larry and Cassandra was
all too obvious as the evening began. Avoiding both of the feuding
Hawthornes, Kennedy mingled and chatted, and moved about the room
with complete confidence. Gone was the young girl who’d cowered in
the corner and watched everyone else have the fun. She was a
different person now. Kennedy suddenly paused and turned all the
way around. And this was home.

Home. Where the people she loved still lived,
where she’d skinned her knees and had her heart broken, where her
friends had grown up right beside her. A smile curved her lips. She
didn’t have to feel inadequate anymore, at least not where her
peers were concerned. They weren’t foolish kids anymore. Excitement
tingled through her.

“Now that was a beautiful smile,” Drake said
from right in front of her. How had he gotten so close without her
noticing? He was the only person who could do that. Leaning in
close, he murmured, “I only wish it had been directed at me.” His
warm breath tickled her ear.

Kennedy looked up at him and the world
suddenly stood still. She reached out and touched his face, traced
the outline of his chiseled jaw. Her breathing hitched and she
wanted more than anything in the world to kiss him. He was the most
wonderful man she knew. Definitely not like the self-absorbed,
shallow types with whom she worked. Drake was a better man than any
of them. Why had she only just noticed that? A drumroll sounded,
jerking her attention the temporary stage they had designed for the
event. That was the signal.

The master of ceremonies asked that the dance
floor be cleared. The crowd scattered, leaving the section of the
gleaming hardwood designated as the dance floor open. As the band
started to play, Kennedy searched the sea of faces for Larry and
Cassandra. She held her breath as she watched Larry approach his
wife and ask her to dance. Cassandra looked taken aback for several
tense seconds, then, with the crowd’s encouragement, she hesitantly
took his offered hand. Applause rippled through the crowd as Larry
led Cassandra to the middle of the dance floor and struck a
pose.

Kennedy chewed her lower lip as she watched
the couple glide across the floor. Cassandra couldn’t help but
smile. Larry’s answering smile matched that of his lovely wife. A
deep feeling of satisfaction settled inside Kennedy then. This was
right, and she had helped make it happen. The weight of her
decade-old grudge simply disappeared as the dance and the music
continued. At the end of the dance Larry and Cassandra kissed amid
thunderous applause and spirited cheering.

Larry shared a secret look with Kennedy and
her heart swelled with happiness. She watched as he escorted his
wife from the dance floor and toward the bar. Well, that was done,
Kennedy thought with a sigh. The band struck up a tune that
instantly caught her attention. Her favorite song. Who would know
that? An instrumental version of Shania Twain’s “From This Moment”
filled the air.

“Dance with me.”

Kennedy lifted her gaze to Drake’s, sans the
eye patch. “How did you know?”

He grinned. “The walls are thin, my lady. I
can hear your music when you choose to play it.”