Page 19

Chapter 18

Guy

Kitty and I caught our breath, facing into each other like we always did. This time, though, we were naked with our legs wrapped around each other.

“What did we just do?” she said on a laugh, turning to face the ceiling.

“What we’ve been meaning to do for years,” I said, tilting her chin back to me. “I made love to the love of my life.”

Kitty was clearly going through some doubts, her lower lip caught between her teeth. “Guy, we’re just getting started. Anything could go wrong.”

“But it’s you and me,” I argued. “We already know each other.”

“Not like this, we don’t. What happens when we get back on campus and girls are all over you again?”

“I’ll tell them I’m with you, and that will be it.”

Kitty looked at me, skeptical.

“I’m serious,” I said. “I’ve never loved anyone but you. Everyone in between was just me killing time, Kitty.”

Her eyes were sad when she turned to me. “Then why didn’t you call all those years? If you loved me so much, why did you let people think I was something I wasn’t in high school? Why didn’t you try to hang out with me as soon as I was at Alden?”

I tugged at her waist to get her to face me fully again. “I can apologize until the day I die for hurting you in high school and it’ll never make it okay. I know that.”

She nodded. “I know.”

“But I hope you know what I was up against. That doesn’t make it alright, but you know how worried I was about being my dad. I still worry about that.”

Her lower lip quivered. “How do I know you’re not going to leave me like that again?”

“I don’t want to. I don’t ever want to live with this kind of regret again, knowing I hurt you. I want to be the man that you deserve, Kitty.”

She took my hand. “I think you can be. Maman thought you could.”

“That’s the other thing. I couldn’t talk to you for a long time after she died, because you reminded me of that loss. Not on purpose, but you were the one who carried me through it. We didn’t get a chance to be normal again after that, you know? It made me too sad to talk to you.”

“I get it,” she said quietly, not mad, just like she understood.

“I never said thank you for that, Kitty. Even when I wasn’t responding to you after you went home, it still meant so much to hear from you. You’re a better friend than I am.”

She blew a raspberry. “I wouldn’t say that. We’ve both screwed up here and there.”

“I should have talked to you, though. I needed you, but I didn’t know how to separate you from the sadness.”

“Are you able to separate it now?”

I traced a finger over her cheek. “Yeah. Seeing you at that party forced me to see you as a whole person again. You’ve lived a whole life between her dying and now.” I swallowed a lump in my throat. “Kitty, I know you didn’t come to Alden for me, but I came for you.”

Kitty’s brow furrowed, her eyes darting over my bare chest. “What do you mean?”

“I knew you wanted to go there for comedy. I had offers from other places, but once I had an offer from Alden, I knew that’s where I had to go. I came hoping you’d get in and we’d get our shot at being together.”

A sea of emotions passed over Kitty’s face: touched, disbelieving, irritated. “And you didn’t seek me out, knowing I was there?”

“Yeah. Chicken, I guess. Afraid I’d think of Maman. Afraid I wouldn’t give you space to be your own person,” I said. Afraid to commit to the best relationship of my life .

Kitty nodded slowly. “So when you say you love me, is it as a friend?”

I thumbed over her lips. “It’s as my everything, Kitty. You’re the person who gets me. You’re my best friend. You’re family. You’re my love. All of it.”

She narrowed her eyes. “You’re so sure about this.”

“I am. It’s okay if you’re not. I’ve put you through hell. That’s why we’re trying.”

“I wasn’t even sure you liked me like that until . . . yesterday? Particularly after the period incident. I don’t know.” Kitty flopped on her back and poked around her stitches. “I’m happy. It’s just a lot to process.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t make you feel as loved as you are until now. That’s my mistake. I should have been clear the night you were sick,” I said, kissing her collarbone and letting my eyes roam her breasts. “I’m willing to make up for lost time, though.”

Kitty met my devilish grin as I grew hard against her leg. “Again? Seriously? I’m sore! My stitches hurt! And my parents want to FaceTime us later. We’ll have to get dressed and out of this bed at some point.”

“What, you don’t want Mark and Heather to see us naked in bed together?”

“Do you want Mark to murder you when he comes to get us Saturday?” she quipped.

“Mark wouldn’t. He loves me,” I said, smug.

“He loves you until you’re dicking his one and only daughter.” Kitty yawned. “And I think I need a nap before I can take more dicking.”

“I can get behind that,” I agreed, snuggling up to Kitty and kissing her until we dozed off.

The rest of the day was dream-like. We spent most of the day naked and in bed, napping, laughing, exploring, and zoning into each other. We blew right through lunchtime and raided the vending machine for snacks to hold us over. I got Kitty ice for her head. We showered off all our sex sweat and got dressed for our Bob Evans dinner and FaceTime call. In all, it was a nice way to kick off our relationship, although it was under bad circumstances.

Heather cried when she saw Kitty’s bandage and the bruise around it. Mark’s arm went around his wife, and though it was sad, it was heartwarming. It was how I wished my parents had been growing up. I could see Kitty and me being like them when we were older: loving and comforting each other, loving our children. Being a family.

Frank got on the call, too, asking about my hockey season. I asked about his soccer season, which had just ended.

“Your parents are sweet together, Birdy,” I told her when we got off the call.

She got a wry smile. “They really are. They love you, too, you know.”

“Oh, trust me. I know,” I said with a laugh. “Your mom never lets me forget.”

We walked through the snow to Bob Evans. Kitty said she wasn’t ready for cars yet, and I was fine with stretching our sore muscles a bit. I wasn’t majorly hurt in the accident, but it did mess with my muscles a lot. Between that and going down on Kitty many, many times, my neck was extra stiff.

Kitty’s cheeks and nose were tinted pink from the cold, and with no makeup on, she looked more like the Kitty I grew up with than college girl Kitty. The snow had stopped, but there was still plenty to sift through. I noticed Kitty limping about halfway to the restaurant.

“You hurting?” I asked.

“Just sore,” she said, brushing me off.

“You’re limping, Birdy,” I pointed out.

“Fine, I think my boot is hitting where my driving foot hit the console.”

“Say no more,” I said, scooping her up like she was my bride, carrying her again for the second time in two days.

“Guy, no! You’re sore, too!”

“But I’m not limping, ma puce .” I snuck a kiss into her neck. I mostly got a faceful of her scarf, which carried her light, girly scent.

“I’m not happy about this,” she pouted.

“I am.” A few blocks later, we were at Bob Evans. I booted the door open, still carrying her.

The hostess looked like she didn’t know what to do with us.

“Put me down,” Kitty hissed.

“Table for two,” I announced proudly. Kitty squirmed and wriggled until she fell out of my arms, landing hard on her feet with a quiet “ow.”

“See? You should let me carry you,” I said, self-satisfied.

The hostess led us to our table, eyeing us like we were diseased.

Kitty slid into the booth across from me, stripping her many layers.

“Only my second American Thanksgiving ever.”

“Aw, buddy, did you not celebrate the last two years?”

I shook my head. “Ramen noodles and porn.”

Kitty stuck out her bottom lip. “Don’t tell Mom. She would have driven through a hurricane to come get your ass for Thanksgiving if she’d known you were alone.”

“Oh, I wasn’t alone. I had many moaning women to keep me company,” I said with a grin.

Kitty rolled her eyes. “Definitely leave that part out if you’re talking to Mom. I hope I’m not disappointing you. Sounds like the last two years were pretty hot.”

I laced my fingers with hers across the table. “They were, but this year wins. I wouldn’t change a thing. Except maybe the car accident. I’d rather be charmingly stranded than desperately stranded.”

“Fair,” she said, looking at her menu. “Ready to eat until you’re sick? I don’t know how you Canucks do it, but that’s how we do it in America.”

I’d loved the Thanksgiving Maman and I spent with the Gattos in West Virginia, but this one had it beat. Kitty was mine, after all that time. I gave her a piggyback ride back to the hotel. I iced up her leg and head, curling up around her. We fell asleep to the drone of football on TV. I was with my family, my best friend, and my love all at the same time.