Heartbreaker (Unbreakable #1)(49)

Disappointment tightened her face. “You don’t?”

“I don’t want to jeopardize our friendship.”

“Oh, right.”

“Maybe…you could trust me.”

She sucked in a deep breath, searching my eyes. Then she let out a heavy sigh. “Maybe…”

Who hurt you? What I wanted to ask, but didn’t. Something had happened to her. She’d gotten burned by a guy. Bad enough to cause her to be guarded with all others.

Logan and Mase strode into our line of sight, Mase’s arm slung around her shoulders, his large black sunglasses on her face. He leaned his head toward her, mouthing something unintelligible. She burst out laughing.

“Hey!” Kiki put her plate down, then glared at Mase. “No corrupting the innocent.”

“You heard the lady.” He gently shoved Logan away from him. “Go easy on me.”

Logan shoved him back. He roped an arm around her neck again then rubbed his knuckles over her head. She elbowed him in the ribs.

I grinned at their playful roughhousing. “What were you two laughing about?”

“Guys.” Logan nudged his hip.

My smile faded.

But before I could ask, Kiki crossed her arms, leaning toward them. “What about guys?”

Mase gave a nod. “Told her guys were pretty much *s until thirty.”

“Hey.” I snorted. “That makes us all *s.”

Logan pushed the borrowed sunglasses back up, then lifted her nose a little higher to hold them in place. “He said ‘pretty much.’ Not always. Or all guys.”

“You misunderstand, young padawan.” He glanced down at her. “All guys. All guys are *s until one proves himself worthy.”

“Exactly!” “Yeah.” Kiki and I agreed simultaneously, hers voiced many decibels louder than mine.

Cade walked up right as Logan wrapped her free arm around Kiki. Then Logan and Mase began to drag Kiki away. She threw me a helpless look. Then she sighed and her expression turned serious. My thoughts flashed right back to our conversation…her fears.

As Cade leaned against the planter beside me, I remembered his warning at the club a couple weeks back. “What did you mean when you said to be careful with Kiki?”

He took a deep breath, then let out a sigh. “She’s more vulnerable than she lets on.”

“Yeah, I got that.”

“Keeps secrets close to her chest. She thinks I don’t know. I may not know exactly what they are, but I know they’re there.”

“Got that too. Tough being an older brother. Gotta figure out how to protect them but still give them space.”

He took a swig of beer, then gave a nod. “Wouldn’t know about the older brother part. I’m the youngest.”

My jaw fell open a little. “Really? Kiki seems so much…how old are you?” I pegged Cade mid-twenties, at least. Kiki seemed younger than me at twenty-two.

“Just turned twenty-five.”

“And Kiki?”

“Twenty-seven…almost twenty-eight. Kendall’s between Kiki and me. Kristen’s the oldest.”

“Huh. I had no idea Kiki was five years older than me. She seems so…”

“Young.”

I nodded.

“Part of her vulnerability. I think she hasn’t wanted to grow up.”

Her one-night stand proposition haunted me—the way she’d been casual but determined. Had I taken her up on her offer, she wouldn’t have let me stick around long enough to be at her family’s barbeque, finding out more about her.

Something lay at the heart of why she didn’t want anyone close.

All guys are *s.

Kiki had reacted to Mase’s comment. Enthusiastically agreed.

A burning question began to surface: Would she make an exception for me?





Kiki…

Over the last week, I’d gotten daily running down to a science. Once faint morning light beamed through my high windows, instead of rolling over and burrowing deeper under the covers, I’d stretch. That goal of a runner’s high got my sluggish body out of bed—even if only half-awake.

Total miracle.

After a loaded protein shake down the hatch and tights pulled on to keep the spring chill out, I’d be off, driving at the early-morning hour toward one of a dozen trails I’d found on Darren’s advice.

Darren.

I gripped the steering wheel. My heart leapt at the thought of him. On a deep breath, I tried to ignore that fact. But no matter what I did, he kept edging into my mind.

Until Darren, I’d only been a “me.” Solitary. The sole person in my head…in my world. Now, ready or not, I’d become a “we” in my head—in my tiny existence, one I’d carved out to protect me. The sudden plurality of my perspective threw me.

My stomach churned each time I analyzed the unsettling development. But then, as if planted there by hackers in my subconscious, memories of little things about him tipped the scales heavily in favor of the “we.”

Could I trust him to be different?

I didn’t know.

Five days ago at the barbeque, he’d hinted that he would be—that I should have faith in him. From that patio wall, I’d stared at clear evidence that men who loved their women became their unwavering heroes: Cade was for Hannah, Jason for Kristen.