The Exception(23)

“Ugh.” I laid my head down on the table. “I didn’t mean to. It just happened.”

“And?”

Lifting my head, I looked up at her. “And then we said goodbye.”

“You said that as if you were sad to say goodbye.”

“Sort of. I don’t know. Drew is —” I sighed. “He’s the type of guy who I could see totally falling head over heels for.”

Kristen gave me a small smile. “It looks to me like you already have.”

“No.” I held up my finger. “I’m in search of me, nobody else.”

“Maybe you found yourself already the moment you sat next to him on the plane. The world works in mysterious ways, Jill. Of all the hotels in Hawaii, he stayed at the same one you did. Plus, he broke up with his girlfriend.”

“I see Kellan filled you in on every little detail.” I smiled. “I was going to tell you everything when I came here. I didn’t want to burden you with my problems when you’re going through so much already.”

“But your problems are my problems, dear sister. Without your dysfunctional life, I’d be bored to death.” She smiled.

I couldn’t help but laugh. “You look tired.” I pouted.

“I am. I hate that I feel like I need to go take a nap when you just got here.”

“Go take a nap and when you wake up, we’ll go to Central Park and sit under a big tree for some sisterly bonding time. In the meanwhile, I think I’ll take a shower and change. I feel gross from the plane ride.”

As the hot water streamed down my back, I couldn’t stop thinking about Drew, and I wondered what he was doing and if he had heard from Jess. She didn’t seem like the type of woman to go away quietly. Running my hands down my body, I swore I could still feel his tender touch. He was a god in the bedroom and I’d never had so many orgasms in such a short period of time in my life. I needed to put him to rest in the depths of my mind. I was living a single, free life now and nothing or no one was going to get in the way of that. My focus was solely on me now and, of course, my sister. She needed me. The only family she had left was Noah, her boyfriend of five years, and me.

Stepping out of the shower and wrapping a towel around me, I sat on the edge of the bed and dialed Kellan.

“Hello, Jilly Bean.”

“Hey, Kel. I finally made it to New York.”

“How’s Kristen doing?”

“She’s okay. She’s napping right now and then I’m taking her to Central Park for a while. Any news on the home front?”

“I saw your mom yesterday and she gave me the evil eye.” He laughed. “Then she had the nerve to come over and try to talk to me.”

“What did she say?”

“Just asked if I heard from you yet and that she can’t believe you would do what you did. She said poor Grant was so broken up, and that the wedding that didn’t happen was the talk of the yacht club. She said she had to leave because of the embarrassment.”

“Ha ha. Good.”

“I told her that I saw Grant with some sleazy-looking chick the other night and he didn’t look too broken up to me. She just huffed and said goodbye.”

“Good for you. Thank you.”

“Anything for you, babe. Hey, how about if I come to New York next weekend for a visit?”

“Ah. I would love that and so would Kristen and Noah.”

“Are you going to get your own apartment there?”

“I was thinking about it, but I don’t want to get stuck in a lease for a year. I may not be here that long.”

“True. I’m sure you can find something with a six-month lease, or hell, just buy a place. It’s not like you can’t afford it. Then when you leave, rent it out, and it becomes an investment.”

“I might just do that.”

“Hey, how are you doing after your little romp with plane guy?”

“I’m okay.”

“Jilly, that wasn’t very convincing. Are you still thinking about him?”

“Sort of. He’s a hard man to forget.”

“Then maybe he’s not worth forgetting. You have his number. Call him.”

“I can’t.”

“You won’t. I dig your whole self-journey, but if he put a real smile on that pretty face of yours, don’t you think maybe, just maybe, he was thrown in your path for a reason?”

“Now you sound like Kristen.”

“Great minds think alike. Listen, Bean, I have to go. I’m being summoned into a meeting. Love you.”

“Love you. Talk to you soon.”

I met Kellan Jones at the yacht club when were thirteen years old. His family had just moved to Seattle when his father took the CFO position for one of the biggest hotel chains in the country. It was love at first sight. We created a bond that day and had been best friends ever since. My parents disapproved at first because he was a boy and they feared some sort of romance was brewing. They couldn’t grasp the concept that a boy and a girl could be nothing more than friends. There was a period of time when my parents tried to stop me from seeing Kellan, but that quickly dissipated when they found out he was gay and no longer a threat.

****

I wheeled Kristen to The Lake in Central Park. Since receiving her chemo and radiation treatments, she tired easily and walking would have been too much for her. I found us a spot on the grass under a big tree near the lake. After helping me spread out the blanket we brought, we both kicked off our shoes and sat down.