Effortless (Thoughtless, #2)(109)

As she laughed again, I blushed even more. When I’d finally noticed that she was home, I’d scrambled to get Kellan disentangled from me and redressed. He’d chuckled, not bothered in the slightest, and had wanted to take Anna up on her outlandish offer. I’d made him go for a walk with me. Anything to douse the fire in my lower body.

Dropping my head into my hands, I shook it. “Why are you bringing that up?” I glared at her again. “Just to humiliate me?” She twisted her lips, then tilted her head. “No.” Dropping her spoon into her bowl, she leaned back on the ugly couch where the intimate moment had happed. “Do you remember what Kellan said?” I bunched my brows, trying to remember anything aside of embarrassment. Seeing that I didn’t, Anna smiled. “He said, don’t worry about it, Kiera. When we’re old and gray, you’ll look back at this moment and laugh. We’ll tell our grandkids about it…and completely gross them out.”





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I looked down, finally remembering him saying that. Anna grabbed my chin, making me look back at her. My eyes felt misty when I did. “I brought it up to remind you that Kellan is thinking long term with you.

You’re not just a girl he’s seeing. You’re THE girl. You’re it for him. I see it in his eyes when he looks at you.” She sighed, wistfully. “He’s completely, madly, deeply in love with you, and he wants a lifetime with you…so stop stressing.”

Exhaling slowly, I felt a weight lifting from me. She was right. I was fearing the fear…everything was okay. Nodding at her, I considered calling Kellan, just to tell him I loved him, when the front door was knocked on.

Anna ruffled my hair and went back to her cartoons while I got up to see who was here.

Opening the door and seeing Denny’s warm smile behind it surprised me almost as much as bumping into him yesterday. It was one thing to hang out for a little while last night, it was another for him to just drop by. I guess he’d missed the friendship just as much as I had.

“Hey, Kiera. I was going to call, but I thought I’d stop by instead since I was in the area. You doing alright?” He tilted his head as his dark eyes searched my face.

Feeling better after talking to Anna, I shook my head and laughed a little. “Yeah, I’m fine. I overreacted last night.” I flung my hand towards where the offending laptop lay in my bedroom; I was definitely returning it today. “I flipped out over nothing.” He nodded and smiled and I put my hand on his arm. “Thank you, for…being a friend. I can’t think of too many guys who would have been as…supportive in the situation.”

He looked down at my hand on his arm then shrugged. “You and I have been through a lot, Kiera, and most of it was good.” His eyes flashed back up to mine. “I don’t want to see you in pain. I don’t have a…vendetta against you.” In a whisper that I almost didn’t hear, he added, “You’re my best friend, still, and I’d do anything for you, Kiera.” 305



I swallowed, hating and loving the sentence he’d just said. Knowing I shouldn’t, I reached up and gave him as friendly and platonic a hug as I could. He held me back, equally platonic, with a huge gap between our bodies. “You’re my best friend, too, Denny. I know it may not seem like it sometimes…but you are.”

Just as I was thinking that maybe that had been our problem all along, that we’d been more friends than lovers, an explicative sounded from the couch.

Denny and I released each other and twisted to look back at Anna. Her mouth was wide open as she stared at Denny in our doorway. With everything that had happened, I’d forgotten to tell her that he was back in town. She was looking at him like he’d magically materialized into the room.

I stood aside and motioned for him to come in while she sputtered,

“Denny? What the hell? Did I wake up three years ago?” She looked over to the window with a view of Lake Union. “God, we’re not back home in Ohio are we?” Her brow bunched into a perfectly adorable pout.

“Because I cannot go through living with Mom and Dad again, Kiera.” Denny chuckled at her while I rolled my eyes. “No, Anna, you didn’t time travel in your sleep. Denny’s back in town for work.” She narrowed her eyes at him, eyeing him both suspiciously and a little unhappily. Denny wasn’t really Anna’s favorite person anymore, not since he’d beaten Kellan to a pulp and rattled my melon. I don’t think she’d ever forgive him for kicking me. It really wasn’t his fault, I was the one that had stupidly used my body as a shield, and Denny hadn’t exactly been in his right mind. But Anna couldn’t get past the fact that he’d hurt people she cared about…even if we had sort of asked for it.

“Hey, Denny…long time, no see.” She said it with a very slight edge, like she’d preferred the “no see” part.

Denny looked away, guilt flooding his face. He knew how Anna felt about him. She’d bluntly pulled him aside and told him. My sister 306



wasn’t one to mince words. If she had a problem with you, you’d know it. “Hi, Anna.”

Not liking the tension building, I twisted to Denny. “So, shouldn’t you be at work or something?” I glanced at the button-up shirt he had on, the coordinating slacks. He looked like he’d just stepped away from a GQ