Let Me Love (13 page)

Adjusting myself a little, I follow her into the family room and notice Drew is asleep on Caden’s chest and a sleeping Tara lays by her mom’s side on the recliner with the blanket wrapped over them. Chloe’s busy in the corner coloring, but turns and smiles at us when we enter.

“We’re gonna get going,” Kailey whispers to her sister. “Don’t get up. I’ll be back tomorrow.” She kisses her cheek, and then walks over to Chloe.

I say my good-byes, shaking both their hands and thanking them for the meal. “Anytime, Trey. You’re welcome anytime,” Jen says and winks at me, “isn’t he, Caden?” She raises her eyebrows at him.

“Of course, our home is always open.” He smiles at me before turning toward the television again.

Chloe surprises me with a huge hug around my legs, and I bend down giving her a high five again. “Come back, you can be pink next time,” she tells me, and I chuckle, nodding my head.

“Yeah, I’ll be pink next time,” I tell her, ruffling her hair like Kailey did earlier.

We leave the house happy, and I’m relieved to have the whole dilemma of meeting the family over with. But for the first time, I realize, there’s a certain part of Kailey I don’t know. “Kailey?” I stop on the porch. She turns my way, curious. “Where are your parents?”

Her green eyes lose their happiness. “They’re dead,” she says and turns around to walk to the cars. Crap, my heart tightens.

Kailey

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I
purposely didn’t tell Trey about my parents. How many horrible things can you inform someone about your life before they cross you off, thinking you’re bad luck? Starting a conversation with ‘I lost my parents when I was ten due to drunkenness, and, no, it wasn’t someone else’s fault but my fathers’, isn’t the best way to keep someone around. There was no one to blame, except the first man I ever loved. The same man that taught me to ride a bike and fly a kite. He’s the one who left me an orphan due to a careless decision to drink too much at a holiday party and wrap his car around a pole with my mother inside.

Lucky for me, my parents had Jen and me so far apart; I didn’t go into foster care, but was able to live with my sister. She turned her life upside down for me, leaving the college she had been attending and coming back home to care for me. We made it work, though. She transferred to Western, and during the first few summers I stayed at Aunt Holly’s while she took a full course load to try and graduate early. She got a part-time job in the library. That was how she met Caden. He’s was in the reference section of the library, doing research for his thesis, when he stumbled across my sister looking a little bewildered. He smoothly asked her if she knew where a certain reference could be located, knowing it didn’t exist. But the wild goose chase turned into coffee, which turned into dinner, and the rest is history.

After that first summer at Aunt Holly’s, I got off the plane to find Jen waiting with Caden by her side. She’d mentioned him briefly on the phone, but to find him there with his arm wrapped around her was surprising. A small giggle hits me remembering how mean I was to him. Jen would hire a babysitter for them to go out, and I would answer the door telling him she was gone, or sometimes just slamming the door in his face. My sister was all I had left, and he was interfering. If I was being truthful, I was scared she would leave me like our parents. Oh poor Caden, what a trooper he was.

“I’ll bring you back tomorrow,” Trey’s voice tears me out of my memories. I pick up my head and must look confused because he clarifies, “For your car.” He motions with his head.

“You assume I’ll be sleeping over,” I joke, my best defense mechanism, but he just gives me a tight smile and opens the door for me.

Before he shuts it, he reminds me, “You said you wanted me alone. The stipulation is in my bed for the night.” He chuckles quietly and the door clicks shut, leaving his last statement hanging in the air.

See, he gets me. I needed humor in that moment and he understood it. We make the drive back to the house they all share in silence. I’ve only ever heard about it, I’ve never actually stepped foot in there. When he pulls his car in the driveway, there’s a line of cars and a feeling of dread, not able to be alone, comes over me. “We live so close to downtown, we walk a lot. They might not be home,” he assures me, getting out of the car.

We enter through the back door into the kitchen, and he’s wrong because a group of guys is sitting around the table, slinging back shots with a pile of cards in front of them. I spot Dex, but I don’t recognize the others. They all stop what they’re doing and eye us at the door.

“TREY!” a guy yells.

“About time, grab a chair,” another says.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” Trey says to one of them with dark spiky hair. Instantly the guy stands and walks toe to toe with him.

“Isn’t she a little too girl next door for you?” The guy stares me up and down, making me inch behind Trey slightly.

“Fuck off, jackass,” Trey places his arm in front of me, scooting me the rest of the way behind him.

“Give it a rest, Rob,” Dex says from his position shuffling the cards.

That’s Rob? Jessa’s ex Rob? Man, he’s an ass, but a hot ass. Not that I would ever tell that to Trey. But the guy’s got a jaw line that could crack marble. No piercings, but just as many tats as Trey.

“Hey, Trey’s never been opposed to me looking at the goods before. What’s up, Michaels? You’ve gone all soft, like Brady? Shit another one loses the battle,” he calls out as he makes a check mark in the air with his finger, and the table of guys laugh. He peeks around Trey, staring directly at my chest. “She might be worth it–might,” he sneers, and Trey’s hand leaves my hip and cracks him across that perfectly lined jaw.

He stumbles back before catching his footing, cupping his chin. “Get used to seeing me, Michaels, since Jessa’s living with her Frat Boy, I’m back in.” He gives Trey a condescending smirk and sits back down, turning his attention to the game.

Trey grabs my hand and two beers before pulling me to the stairs. “I’m gonna fucking kill Brady,” he mumbles as we get to the top of the stairs. And this is exactly my reason for not living with your best friends. Don’t get me wrong Kim and I are acquaintances and go out occasionally, but for the most part, we live separate lives. Unlike this house where all their lives intertwine somehow like a labyrinth.

“Kill me, huh?” Brady appears at the top of the stairs with Sadie two steps behind. If those two ever do anything separate, I’d be floored.

“What the hell? Why would you allow him back in?” Trey shakes his head in disbelief.

“Trey—,” Sadie starts, but Brady places his hand on her arm.

“Listen, Jessa’s living at Grant’s now. He’s down, the band threw him out. I’m sure he’ll find another band soon and leave. I know he’s done some questionable things, but haven’t all of us,” Brady tries to reason, and, surprisingly, Trey relents.

“Don’t expect me to be here much then,” Trey says over his shoulder, walking to his room.

“You have to leave what happened between him and Jessa between them. She’s forgiven him, you should too,” Brady adds, and I just give them an uncomfortable tight smile while being pulled by Trey into his room.

Trey slams the door after we’re both in the room, cracking open the beer, he guzzles half of it down before resting it on the nightstand. Not sure what to do, I stand there in front of his bed, shifting my feet from side to side. “Sorry,” he mumbles, “that guy just knows what buttons to press with me.” He quickly stands and places his arms around me. “This isn’t how I planned this night to go.”
Me neither,
I think to myself
.

“Why do you hate him so much? Other than his vulgar mouth,” I ask, knowing there’s something with Jessa, since they used to date.

“Mostly Jessa, the way he treated her when they were together. The way they broke up, it’s unacceptable the way he treated her,” Trey begins to tell me, but stops and shakes his head. “Enough about the dickhead, I finally have you alone in my bedroom, willingly,” he chuckles.

“Are you telling me you had thoughts of dragging me up here against my will?” I saunter over, positioning my legs on each side of his.

“The idea of tossing you over my shoulder and locking you in my room might have crossed my mind a time or two,” he admits while his hands grab a hold of my ass, pulling me to him.

“I might not have objected,” I say, keeping my voice low and sultry. My hands reach around clasping at the back of his neck. The stubble of his short dark hair rubbing against my palms.

“Let’s not waste any more time.” His hands roam up my back, bringing chills in the wake of his path. Then his tongue licks across his lips before bringing my face to his. At first he’s gentle and soft, letting our lips graze over each other. His teeth tug on my bottom lip, dragging it down, teasingly. My hands firm against his neck, not wanting him to stop. He releases my lips with a pop and smiles up at me before licking his way down my jaw line and up to my earlobe. “I want you tonight,” he whispers and the chills reappear, making my body shiver.

As though he knows exactly what he’s done to me, he tightens his arms against me, hugging me into him. “I’ll be right back,” I say and stand up, laughing at Trey’s baffled expression. “I need to use the bathroom,” I embarrassingly admit.

Still puzzled to why I pulled away, he points me to the door. “Make sure you lock the other door, it leads to Dex’s room.” He sits back on the bed.

I escape into the bathroom, thankful that the panty liner is void of any sign of my period. A smile creeps across my face that it’s over, and I’ll be able to finally be with Trey tonight. As embarrassing as it was to leave in the middle to go to the bathroom, it would have been worse for him to find out another way. Going over to the sink to wash my hands, I let my eyes wander over the contents. His toothbrush, toothpaste, hair gel, and razor are all positioned neatly across the counter. So different than Dex’s side, whose toiletries are strewn across the counter, as though he lays it down wherever he is when he finishes using an item.

Being the snoop that I am, I open the drawer and a small bottle of perfume rolls down, hitting against the drawer door. I pick up the sample size and slowly take off the cap to smell it. A crisp flowery fragrant scent hits my nostrils. The smell is nice, but I don’t find a name on it anywhere. I half wonder if this was something some girl left behind or worse some ex-girlfriends that he never got rid of. The image of him picking it up and smelling it to remember the arms of someone else pangs me. Suddenly, the last thing I want to do is go back into that room. But how can I hold it against him, I knew he had a past before I got together with him. Fighting every fiber of me that wants to flush the bottle down the toilet, I reluctantly place it back in the drawer and will myself to forget my findings from my snooping.

I open the door and Trey is staring into his phone, but instantly looks up and smiles at me when he finds me in the doorway. “Do me a favor, baby? Shut that door and swing that latch over it,” he instructs, pointing to the small metal to flip lock on the door, so no one can get in.

I follow his directions and walk quietly over to the side of the bed. Trey watches me intently the whole way. “What’s up?” he asks still wearing that amazing smile of his.

“Nothing, I just had to check something,” I tell him, slowly sitting next to him, keeping my feet planted to the floor.

“Everything good?” he questions, scooting up against his headboard more. I just know I need to know whose perfume that is. I can’t sleep with him, thinking there’s a girl out there he still wants.

“Yeah...no,” I honestly stutter out. “I snooped in your drawers,” I shamefully admit. If I could have left well enough alone, I’d be half naked with him by now.

“Okay,” he patiently waits, not concerned about what I could have discovered.

“I saw something in your drawer. A bottle—.”

“Shit, Kailey,” he interrupts, shaking his head. “It’s not what you think.” He inches closer to me, swinging his own legs to the floor.

“I know it shouldn’t bother me. I know you had a past, we all have pasts,” I begin to ramble. It shouldn’t have felt like a knife to the heart, but it does.

“Fuck,” he mumbles and stands up. “I wanted to tell you, especially after you shared so much with me today. I just didn’t,” he closes his eyes and shakes his head before starting again. “I’m scared to lose you.

Standing up, I reach for his face bringing his eyes to mine, “Is it another girl?” I ask, swallowing the large lump drying in my throat.

“Yes,” he mumbles, and I step back, “but it’s not for the reasons you’re assuming,” he says, continuing to stand in place with the look of dread all over his face.

“Then who? Just tell me, Trey.” I keep my voice low and concerned. The last thing I need him to think is I’m accusing him of something.

“Let’s go,” he says, grabbing my hand and his keys.

“Where are we going?”

“You’ll see.” He pulls me through the door. The boisterous laughs of the boys mixed with sounds of clinking bottles and poker chips being tossed fill the downstairs. Trey sneaks us through the front door and to his car. “Hey, Mrs. F.,” he hollers across the street and waves to the lady across the way who’s collecting her mail before opening his car door for me.

Silence fills the car, but his hand remains in mine, his thumb rubbing against my knuckles in a calming manner. I periodically glance at him while his eyes remain on the road ahead. How on earth can he be so relaxed? Oh yeah, he knows what he’s about to tell me. Thankfully, we only drive for ten minutes before he pulls into the historic house museum and country estate known for their numerous gardens, which occupy the acres of land.

He parks the car, and I can’t help put be confused why he would bring me here. As soon as I step out, the smell of flowery scents fill my nostrils and embeds in my mind. I can’t help but compare it to the perfume that rests in Trey’s drawer. Taking my hand once again, he meanders us through the parking lot and up to the landscaped hill. As we walk by a blooming cherry blossom a light sweet scent lofts in the air.