Effortless (Thoughtless, #2)(24)
You can sleep in until your school starts.” Resting my chin on his chest, I peeked up at him; his dark blue eyes seemed completely rested, intense and alive with a passion waiting to be stoked, just under the surface. “If you’re up, I want to be up.” Scrunching my brows, I added, “Why do you get up so early, when you’ve got nowhere to be?”
Sighing softly, he looked away from me. “Well, let’s just say that my childhood trained me to wake up at the crack of dawn.” Looking back to me, he shrugged. “Waking up on my own was preferable to being woken up.” Shaking his head, he softly added, “I guess the habit stuck, now I can’t seem to stop waking up early.”
I bit my lip, hating what had been done to him at such an early age, hating that it still affected him, even years later, even with the abusers dead and gone. Feeling a remembered melancholy seep into his eyes, I shook my head and forced myself to smile brightly. “Well, I’m glad you do. Quiet mornings with you are some of the best memories that I have.” His sad smile widened into a peaceful one as he ran some fingers back through my hair. “Me too,” he whispered. “I always looked forward to you coming down to see me.” He shrugged. “Even if it was just for a little while, it still made me feel like we were…together.” His smile started to fade and I reached up to cup his face. “We were, Kellan. We were together…even if it was just for a little while.” Memories of all of our stolen moments together swept over me as I touched his face—laughing with him, quiet conversations, holding him, being held by him, being angry with him, being insanely jealous over some harlot he’d been with the night before, even though I’d had no right to be. Falling in love with him… Most of it had started right here in his kitchen, waiting for the coffee pot on the counter to finish brewing.
67
Lost in the memories, lost in the dark blue depth of his eyes studying mine, I nearly jumped out of my skin when the phone rang. Kellan smiled and chuckled at me as my heart raced about a million miles per hour. I smacked him on the chest as he gently pushed me back and walked over to the obtrusive thing. The shrill sound stopped when he picked up the corded handle.
“Hello?” Leaning back, Kellan smiled at me as I took some deep, calming breaths. Then his eyes shifted over to stare out the window as he listened to the voice on the other line. “Hey, Denny, long time, no hear.” My eyes widened as I listened to my boyfriend greet my ex-boyfriend.
It was…odd. I knew they still talked, I still talked with Denny too, it just rarely happened when I was in the room. Tilting my head, I considered leaving Kellan to have a private conversation with the man that I knew he still considered family, despite everything.
Just as my body turned away, Kellan’s voice stopped me.
“Yeah…she’s right here…hold on.”
I twisted back to Kellan holding the receiver of the clunky, green phone out to me. Shrugging a little, he whispered, “He called here for you.”
His face and voice were smooth as he said it, but I thought I saw a slight crease in his brow, and I wondered how he really felt about me still talking to Denny. Knowing he had nothing to worry about there, since Denny and I were completely over, not to mention distanced by thousands of miles since Denny was back home in Australia, I smiled comfortingly and grabbed the phone from him. Kellan remained where he was against the counter, making no attempt to leave me to my privacy. I could understand why.
The butterflies in my stomach flared up again as I brought the receiver to my ear. It had been a while since I’d talked with Denny last, a couple of months actually. The time apart was making me nervous to talk to him again. Well, that and Kellan standing a foot away from me. Remembering that Denny was still a good friend to both of us, I relaxed as I greeted him. “Good morning, Denny.”
68
He laughed, the sound instantly taking me back to the countless lazy afternoons we’d spent together in Ohio. It tightened my heart a little bit.
Over or not, I still missed him. “Actually, it’s evening here. Did I wake you?”
His accent was thicker now that he was back at home. It was delicious to the ear and I smiled and laughed at his comment, remembering the massive time change between us. “No, Kellan and I are up.” I bit my lip, also remembering that he’d called me here, and had asked if I was awake, which meant he figured I’d spent the night, which meant he probably also assumed I’d slept with Kellan, in the figurative sense.
And he’d be right, if he thought that. I hated him thinking about it, much like I still hated to think about him with his current girlfriend, a sweet woman named Abby that he’d been with for a while now, longer than Kellan and I had officially been together.
He didn’t react to me lumping myself together with the man who’d stolen me away from him, though. Kellan, however, smiled devilishly.
“Ah, good. Did I miss it?” Denny asked anxiously.
I furrowed my brow and shook my head. “Miss what?” Kellan repeated my gesture and I shrugged at him.
Denny quickly filled in the blanks for me. “Your first day back to school. Is it today, or did I miss it?”
My mouth dropped open as I understood why he was calling. “Did you call just to wish me good luck on my first day of school?” Tears stung my eyes that he would still be so sweet to me. He shouldn’t, not after everything I’d done to him. He should curse my name and vow eternal vengeance on me. But that…just wasn’t Denny.