It's All Relative(17)
She wasn’t sure how she would be able to handle spending that much intimate time with him, but she nodded anyway. They were family, and it was the least she could do for him. “Yeah, of course.” Another moment of silence passed between them, but there was a comfortable companionship in the silence this time. If they weren’t who they were, their personalities would have been very well matched; they probably would have made an amazing couple. But as fate would have it, they were who they were, and any companionship between them had to be purely platonic.
Grumbling in her head over how unfair the universe was, Jessie crumpled the empty cup in her hand. “What do we do now, Kai?”
He reached over for her ruined cup. “We go see how our grandmother is doing. I continue getting my place together, and getting ready for my new job. And you…you go back to your life.” He gave her a serious look. “And we forget this ever happened, and never tell anyone about it.”
Jessie’s eyes misted again. He made it sound so easy, but she knew it wasn’t. “Yeah…no one.” There was no one she could tell anyway. Or no one she wanted to tell at any rate.
Kai’s gaze flicked over her face as he nodded. His eyes locked on hers, and he leaned in slightly. Jessie leaned in as well. Without even thinking about it, they had considerably closed the distance between their faces, and Jessie found herself lost in the perfect ocean of his eyes. Kai leaned in just a fraction more, and her lips parted as her breath increased; her heart started pounding. Even knowing what she did, her body still reacted to him. Biting her lip, she struggled to remember that he was family, and this was wrong. Very, very wrong. Kai paused, and his eyes narrowed, like he was struggling to remember that too.
This was going to be harder than they thought.
Expression intent, Kai shifted his movement and gave her a light peck on the cheek. Even still, Jessie found herself closing her eyes at the tender touch; she only reopened them when he pulled away. He quickly shifted to stare at the cracks in the worn concrete at their feet. He seemed just as dazed as she. Jessie hated that the only guy she’d ever been able to so physically effect was a blood relative. Figured.
Kai exhaled slowly, then stood up and glanced back at her still sitting on the bench. “We should get back to Gran. I told my dad I’d keep an eye on her.” His face suddenly turned guilty, like he felt that he’d failed in his duty since she’d gotten hurt. Jessie smiled as she stood with him; he seemed to have the same sense of responsibility for their grandmother that she did.
He watched her rise, then they headed back into the hospital together. A comfortable silence fell around them as they made their way to the second floor. Jessie watched his back as she followed a step behind. Images of his broad shoulders flooded her head, and she had to shift her gaze to his shoes to redirect her thoughts. Remembering what he’d said about getting his place together, Jessie recalled the piles and piles of boxes she’d seen in his tiny apartment. Then she remembered him sweetly telling her that she could stay if she wanted, right as she’d been hurrying to leave.
A soft, wistful noise escaped her at the memory, and Kai turned his gaze her way; concern darkened his beautiful face. “What?” he cautiously asked. By his wary expression, he clearly thought she was going to break down at any moment. He also seemed unsure about what he would do if she did. His nervousness made her laugh, and as they approached the stairs to the second floor, his cute look shifted to a disgruntled one. “What?” he asked again, less cautiously.
Jessie shook her head, her curly ponytail swishing back and forth. “Nothing, you’re just…nothing.” Knowing she couldn’t call her cousin adorable, not under these circumstances, she sighed and let it go. Kai just looked confused by her answer, so she softly explained with, “I was just thinking about what a mess your place was. Do you want some help arranging it?”
He frowned at her summation of his home, but then he smiled. Studying the ground for a moment, he murmured, “Yeah, not the coolest spread to bring a girl back to.” Flinching, he looked up at her; he seemed worried about how she would respond to a clear reference to their steamy encounter.
Jessie paused on the steps. Kai took one more, then stopped and looked back at her. A small sigh escaped him as their eyes locked. Jessie knew that they could easily destroy any connection they had, familial or otherwise, if they let this guilt they felt consume them. Even though her stomach was still clenching with horror, she decided that he was right when he’d said that they hadn’t known, and they couldn’t be faulted for knowledge they hadn’t had. Not knowing any other way to dissolve the building tension, and wanting that comfortable feeling to return, Jessie decided to try some lighthearted humor. Giving him a crooked smile, she coyly said, “Well, it worked. You got me.”
While Kai gaped at her, shocked, Jessie smiled and walked past him up the stairs. Her heart was hammering as she listened for his reaction. Then she heard him chuckle and mutter, “Well, all right then.” Smiling, she looked down in relief. He was going to try and not let this weirdness enter their relationship either. Good.
Once they both got to the top step, they were smiling at each other. Now that Jessie was looking for it, she thought she could spot some similarity to her in the bridge of his nose, the fullness of his lips. It was fleeting though, and she really could have been seeing something simply because she was told to see it; like a shape in the clouds, because someone let you know it was there. In all honesty, his looks were unlike anything she’d ever seen before. A beautiful blending of genetics that made him his own person, inside and outside.