Page 27 of Meant to Be

I stared, blinking, angling my head. The questions began flooding my mind. Kayla had been one of the most self-assured girls in our class. She always had a confidence about her. So, her standing there asking me to teach her self-defense rattled something in me. My gut was telling me there was something more to this than meets the eye.

Moving closer to her, I let the silence encompass us both. I stared down on her, still not responding.

“Forget it, I just—”

I caught her by the arm as she tried to walk away. “I’ll teach you.”

Three little words. But there was a promise in them. And once it was made, Kay’s eyes sparkled for just a moment, and I’ll be damned if a warmth I’d only experienced once spread throughout my chest.

“Damn, I’ve missed you, Kay.” A truth that fell from my lips before I could tell my mouth to shut the hell up.

“I’ve missed you, too.”

Her words were sincere, honest, which prompted me to ask, “Then why the hell did you leave in the first place?” The accusation was written all over the question.

Her shoulders sank and she pushed out a breath. “I had to, Josh.”

“Why? Say the words,” I insisted. I already knew where this was going but I needed to hear the words out loud.

“The kiss.”

“In my car.”

She nodded and averted her gaze, turning her head.

“That’s the only reason?”

She turned back to me, eyes wide. “That wasn’t enough?” She paused, taking a step back, and this time I let her create space between us. “I should apologize. I’m sorry for doing that, especially after where we had just been. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

“You were upset.”

“So were you, but …” She looked up at me. “No hard feelings? For the kiss, I mean. It won’t happen again. I’m sure your girlfriend wouldn’t like that.”

I grinned inwardly. She still thought Denise was my girlfriend. “I don’t have a girlfriend.”

“Really? I thought Denise—”

“Is a woman I met the night of the fundraiser.”Why the hell am I explaining myself?Not my typical M.O.

“Oh, well that’s good, I guess. So, no hard feelings?”

I ran my tongue across my bottom lip, pondering before I shook my head. “No hard feelings.”

“Great, when do we sta—” She was cut off by a phone alarm.

“What’s that?”

“Time to take my pills. You have a bottle of water?” she questioned while pulling her phone from her pant’s pocket to turn off the alarm.

“Flat or sparkling?”

“Flat.”

I turned and headed up the stairs, listening as Kay’s footsteps followed me.

“Good, you didn’t take up the bag with my medicines yet.” She headed for one of the suitcases remaining in the foyer.

I pulled out two bottles of water from the fridge, placing them on the granite top of my kitchen’s center island. Kay returned with a large case in her hand, placing it on the island. A sour feeling rose in my stomach as I watched her open the various lids of the case that held a different type of medication. I counted, there had to be at least five types of drugs, but some dosages had more than one pill for them. Kayla carefully counted out each pill and proceeded to open her bottle of water. I remained silent, watching as she swallowed the pills with her water.