Page 67 of Kissing Kayley

I knew I could say anything to my brother because he despised Stella, too, but I still picked my words carefully. “How do you want me to approach this? When I’m in DC?”

“Oliver and Norah love you, Kay. Let them cry on your shoulder. They love you like a daughter—they need that more than they need a counselor. But I know you can help be a buffer for them from the public and the press if I’m not right there with them.”

“How’s Elliot doing?”

Leo’s ragged sigh still sounded weighty by the time it reached me all the way from DC. “Jordan and I are keeping him vertical and moving. It’s… complicated.”

“I’m sure it is. Do you want me to talk to Elliot when I get there? With my Dr. Cruz hat on?”

He considered it. “Maybe,” he finally said. “There might be things better coming from you than me. Things that he might discount because he thinks I’m saying them only because I’m his husband.”

“Okay. What about Jordan? I heard he saw the video. Is he all right?”

“Yeah, he was there when it went down. I think he’s dealing with this better than any of us, quite honestly.”

Sweet, innocent Jordan?“That would not have been on my bingo card, bro.”

He snorted. “He’s tougher than you think. Listen, I need to go. See you guys tomorrow.”

“Yeah. Love you.”

He paused. “Kayley, maybe I don’t say this enough in meaningful ways, but Ineedyou to understand I love you and I will doanythingto keep you safe. You know that, right?”

I hated the way my nose prickled, tears struggling to break through. “I love you, too, you stalky weirdo.”

That usually earned me a laugh, but not this time.

“I mean it, Kay. I love you.”

“I love you, too, Leo. You already scared the crap out of me one time—you aren’t allowed to do that again, you know. You scared a good five years off my fucking life falling out of the goddamned sky.”

Finally, a soft laugh. “How about I buy you a drink in the White House when you get here to make up for it?”

“That’s a start, dude.”

I wanted to sleep but now my bed felt achingly empty without Vic in it. We’d texted a few times, but apparently PPD had put him on the team making the arrangements for the funeral transportation, meaning he was busy.

When I boarded the small charter plane with my parents and our security teams on Sunday morning, I felt like crap after another nearly sleepless night.

Mom warily eyed me. “Are you all right, sweetheart?”

“I’m fine. As fine as I can be.”

“Did you have a nice birthday?”

“I did,” I said.

She pointed to my colorful bracelet. “That’s… new.”

I looked at it, at the multi-colored glitter pony beads, and fingered the tracker fob. “It is. Friends made it for me.”

“Um, oh.”

Obviously I wasn’t going to tell them I’d been to a kinky dude ranch. “Long story,” I added.

“Is Vic joining us?”

I didn’t want to talk about this, but if I didn’t, Mom wouldn’t let up.