The Summer Deal (Wildstone #5)(81)

“Don’t even try to tell me that this is just about that,” she said. Huh, look at that, she could get angry too. Actually, she was already angry. “For you, this is about you two.”

“Hell, yeah, it is. You already nearly derailed us once and now you’re at it again, all because you refused to tell her everything she needed to know.”

Brynn got out of the car. “What are you guys arguing about?”

Kinsey froze.

Eli did not freeze—he never did. “Kinsey’s being Kinsey,” he said.

He had an answer for everything. Kinsey strode off, heading for the convenience store. She heard Brynn say, “Take it easy on her, okay? She’s probably really nervous about meeting up with our dad.”

And Kinsey’s heart, the one she’d thought dead, slowly rolled over in her chest and exposed its underbelly. Frustrated, scared, she loaded up on goodies. Some days, sugar was better than any anxiety med out there. She’d been working hard at finding a reason to be mad at Deck, at Eli, at Brynn . . . all of them, simply because they’d had the misfortune to be the people she cared deeply about. Like it was their fault that her heart beat for them. She knew this was stupid and irrational. She knew none of them had done anything wrong.

But she couldn’t help herself. She self-detonated her happiness on a regular basis, but this time was different because she was doing it to keep them safe.

From loving her.

And now her own inability to adult was going to cost more than just her own burgeoning relationship with Brynn. It was affecting her and Eli as well.

She was going to need more chips, and grabbed additional bags. Five should do it.

Eli walked into the convenience store to pay and stopped short at the sight of her, arms loaded. Switching directions, he picked up a shopping basket and gestured for her to dump her load into it.

Her eyes filled with tears.

Eli didn’t sigh. He didn’t look pained. He set the basket on the ground and wrapped an arm around her, kissing her on top of her head. And then, like always, he went right for the heart of the matter. “You’ve got the chance to get what you’ve always wanted, Kins. She clearly loves you. She’s not going to blame the fact that your dad’s an asshole on you. But you know her. You know she worries about failing those she loves. She’ll feel like bringing you here was her bad.”

Kinsey sniffed. “I know! But I can’t tell her now that we’re here. And yet I can’t take her there either. He’s going to be awful. It’ll break her.”

“Is that the reason you haven’t told her? Oh, Kins.” He hugged her. “Just talk to her about it. Talk about real expectations, how you’re feeling, and where you’re both at.”

“I’m sorry, have you met me?”

“I just don’t want to see you get hurt, and if you don’t tell her, I can promise you that you will hurt her.”

She sighed. “I just want . . .”

“What?”

“I want her to like me.” There she said it. She closed her eyes. “I know I’m not all that likeable, E. I’m cold. I’m selfish. And such a bitch.”

He gave her a quick squeeze. “We all get over it. I did.”

This had her choking out a rough laugh. She wrapped her arms around his waist and set her head on his chest. “You know what I love about her the most? She’s not afraid to be happy.”

“You could be happy. If you let yourself.”

She sighed. “Don’t you ever get tired of being my person?”

“Never. And for the record, I might not always like you, but I always love you. Always, Kins.”

She sniffed and buried her face in his shirt.

“You’re not snot-rocketing me, are you?”

She just hugged him harder. He was still letting her do that when Brynn came in and smiled. “Group hug!” She squeezed herself in between the two of them and added her love to the mix.

Over her head, Kinsey’s gaze met Eli’s, and she knew there was only one thing to do.

Make sure they didn’t get to her dad’s house.





Chapter 24


Brynn’s nerves were dancing as Eli finished gassing up the car. She’d been trying to put on a brave front because Kinsey had been getting quieter and quieter the closer to Bakersfield that they got, going more and more into her own head with every mile.

She hadn’t even sung along to the ’80s rock station Brynn discovered. Who didn’t sing along to “Livin’ on a Prayer” when it was blasted out the window at full volume on a long stretch of highway with no traffic, the wind blowing back your hair? But Kinsey was still pale, almost green, really, and she seemed tense enough to shatter.

“Do you need food, maybe?” Brynn asked her, not sure how she could with the sheer amount of crap food in a bag in her arms. Brynn herself couldn’t have eaten a bite to save her life, but Kinsey nodded.

“Do you want to eat before we go see him?”

“Yes,” Kinsey said, almost gasped, and so quickly that Brynn was bummed she’d made the offer.

“You sure you’ll be able to eat? It might just be nerves, and the only thing that’s going to be able to fix that is going to see him.”

“Doubt that,” Kinsey muttered.