And Then He Kissed Me (34 page)

Before it all went so terribly wrong.

She might be able to picture Hunter in her mind’s eye, but just as clearly she could see Kieran on his motorcycle on that dark road. Her breath came in razored gulps, ragged and uneven. He’d been the one person she’d needed to see, and he’d been there.

He would always be there.

She knew it now, of course. She’d fallen and he’d caught her—just not in the way she had expected.

Not that it mattered. He was right in front of her, hers for the taking, if she decided to reach out and accept what he offered: his heart, his love.

She’d be a fool not to.

And life was too short for foolishness like that.

There was a soft knock on the door and Audrey turned. The doctor entered, her steel-gray hair pulled into a neat knot at the base of her neck. Her tiny frame was cloaked in a white coat.

“We’ll send your tissue and urine samples to the lab,” she said, looking at notes on her clipboard. “It’ll be a few days before we have the results, but certainly less than a week. Everything else, health-wise, checks out. Your heart rate is still a little high, but that’s to be expected. You’ve had quite a shock. Best to go home and get some rest.”

“Right,” Audrey said, feeling like she might never be able to sleep again.

“Do you need something to settle your mind a bit?” the doctor asked gently. “I can give you a prescription for a sedative, if you think it would help.”

Audrey shook her head. The last thing she wanted to be was groggy and out of it. Sleep would find her eventually.

“No, thank you,” she replied.

“In that case, you’re all set. Your family is waiting for you.”

Audrey hopped off the table. “Family?” she asked, wondering if they thought Kieran was her husband. Or perhaps the Knots and Bolts crew had somehow gotten word of her predicament.

“Your sister, Casey. She’s in the reception area.”

Audrey’s abdomen constricted. How had Casey known to come? She wracked her brain, trying to remember if Casey was listed as the next of kin on any of her medical paperwork. But even so, there was no cause to call next of kin. She wasn’t dead, for crying out loud.

Still, relief flooded her. Casey was here.

No matter what had happened, her big sister was still by her side.

*  *  *

She thanked the doctor, then headed toward the waiting room. Pushing her way through the lobby’s door, she caught sight of Casey in one of the cheaply upholstered waiting-room chairs. She was ready for her sister to lecture her on safety and the importance of carrying Mace and how she could have avoided all this if she hadn’t agreed to meet Kieran—but what she saw instead stopped her in her tracks.

Casey was crying.

No, not just crying.

Casey was sobbing—huge, shoulder-heaving howls that echoed in the otherwise empty room. But it wasn’t just the tears that anchored Audrey to her spot on the waiting-room carpet. It was the fact that she was bawling on Kieran’s shoulder. And he was patting her sympathetically, like you would a friend.

Except these two were
not
friends.

“What is going on?” Audrey asked, stepping forward cautiously. Casey’s head shot up and her mascara-streaked face went slack with relief.

“Audrey,” she said, standing. She was wobbly on her feet, and Kieran stood, too. “Oh my God, I’m so glad you’re okay. I heard what happened and I—”

“How?” Audrey asked.

Casey’s mouth pursed in confusion. “How what?”

“How did you hear what happened? How did you know I was here?”

Casey jerked her head in Kieran’s direction. “He told me. He called me.”

Audrey’s confused eyes found Kieran’s steady ones. He nodded. “I figured she should know.”

Audrey’s already overwhelmed brain struggled to make sense of this. “But after what happened,” Audrey started, “why would you—”

“We make mistakes,” Kieran said, waving a hand. “All of us. But family is still family. She needed to know, Audrey. She’s your sister.”

Audrey wanted to argue further, but she didn’t know what to say. Deep down, her arms ached to hold her sister, for them to cling to one another like they had when they were kids.

“I—I’m fine,” Audrey said after a moment. “I was taken…there was a fireplace…I just had some tests.…”

She was scrambling her words, struggling to communicate what had happened, and to say that she was all right. Only none of it was coming out correctly. It was as if she’d swallowed all the pills the doctor had offered to prescribe.

Before she could process what was happening, she felt her sister’s arms around her—bony, even through the fabric of Casey’s light jacket.

Her heart surged with relief. Things weren’t perfect between the two of them, but they were going to be all right.

Casey tightened her grip. “I couldn’t believe it when Kieran called. He said you’d been kidnapped and the police had gotten involved. For heaven’s sake! When he told me you were at the urgent care clinic, I panicked. I got here and he told me the whole story but it didn’t help me feel any better. I thought you might not live. I worried you’d
died
, Audrey.”

“No,” Audrey said as the two of them separated, “obviously it was nothing so dramatic as tha—”

“But you could have died,” her sister insisted, “and I would be the horrible person who let you pass away without telling you what a jerk I’ve been. I’ve been thinking about you constantly since the diner, but I was too afraid to call you and say anything. And then to find out someone had
taken
you. I could only ask myself what I’d do if I never saw you again.”

Audrey was filled with pity at how disheveled, at how broken, her sister looked.

Casey’s hand fluttered to her throat. “And when I thought about the answer to that question, I knew I would have lived the rest of my life with deep regret that I hadn’t been a better sister. I would have rued the day I didn’t tell you I was so, so sorry for interfering in your life. I would have carried remorse with me like a prisoner’s shackles, wishing I could go back and let you love whomever you wanted to love.”

Audrey struggled to digest what she was hearing. She had never heard her sister say she was wrong about anything—ever. She looked at Kieran, whose keen eyes were already on her.

“People aren’t always lucky enough to get second chances,” he said gently. “But I knew your sister was looking for a way to make some of this right.”

“How could you know that?”

“Her
other
tell,” he said simply.

“Which is?”

“She frowns the same way you do when you’re not sure about something. She was doing it when we left the diner. It’s this little off-to-the-side movement.”

“I do not do that,” Audrey said, fingers touching her mouth self-consciously.

“Yes, you do.”

“While I appreciate the two of you talking about me like I’m not here,” Casey interjected, “Kieran’s right. About me being unsure, anyway. I just wanted to help you, Audrey, and I was doing it the same way I always had, even though we weren’t kids anymore. I guess part of me wanted to know you still needed me. I know I went too far. With Kieran, with that principal, Kyle Williams. I don’t know if you can believe me, but deep down I really did want the best for you.”

The deep lines of worry and sorrow on her sister’s already creased face were heartbreaking.
Harrowed
was the word that came to Audrey’s mind.

“I apologized to Kieran, too,” Casey said, glancing upward to Kieran’s chiseled face.

“But I told her she didn’t have to,” Kieran added. “The debt we hold is to you, Audrey. We hurt you, not each other.”

In the middle of the medicinal-smelling room, Audrey searched for the right words to say next. It didn’t feel right that she held any debt at all. She didn’t want whatever they felt they owed her. She just wanted to move forward.

But how was that supposed to happen? Should she just trust her sister, the same way she’d decided once again to trust Kieran?

And then she remembered the Knots and Bolts offer from Betty.

“Things need to be different between us,” she said to Casey, “but I don’t think anything will change if we do the same things over and over. Quick lunches, brisk phone calls. So starting next week, we’re doing something totally out of the ordinary.”

Doubt flickered in Casey’s eyes. “Which is?”

“You’re coming to a recipe exchange with me. I know I’ve told you about it before. It’s at the fabric store in town, Knots and Bolts. Go in through the back. There’s a room there, and that’s where we meet. It will be me and four of my closest friends on Thursday evenings.”

Casey’s face shadowed with doubt. “You’re inviting me to hang out with your friends?”

“Yes.”

“Why? Won’t that just make me odd man out in your clique?”

“It’s not like that,” Audrey insisted. “These are good people. And they know how to model good friendships. And right now, Casey, you and I need to figure out how to be friends.”

Casey looked like she was going to argue further, but managed to stop herself. “Of course,” she said. “I’ll be there.” Then, after a moment, another question: “If it’s a recipe exchange, what should I make?”

Audrey smiled slightly. “I thought it would be obvious.”

“You’d better tell me. I’m new to these kinds of things.”

Audrey was grinning fully now. “Humble pie, of course.”

C
HAPTER
TWENTY
-
EIGHT

A
udrey’s hands shook so hard she couldn’t get the key into the lock at her front door. “Here, let me help,” Kieran offered, gently steadying her hand. When they were inside, he sensed that both of them were relieved to be away from the rose petals on the front walk, the tear shapes heavy with early-morning dew and disintegrating on the cement.

“Can I get you coffee?” Audrey asked, stepping through the neat front room—with its loveseat and secondhand coffee table—and into the kitchen. Kieran followed her, leaning on the counter as she grabbed a filter and a bag of grounds from the cabinet.

He watched her try so hard to be normal, acting like this was just any other day and he was stopping by for a chat. He could see the strain in her face, but knew better than to push her. He’d probably want to act like everything was fine, too, if he’d been through even half of what she had.

“If I say no, you’re just going to make coffee anyway, aren’t you?”

Audrey stopped and fixed him with a smile. After everything that had happened, it was a dazzling sight. He wondered at her beauty, even in a torn dress and muddy shoes.

A pressing silence filled his ears. He realized how very alone they were.

“Audrey, I don’t want coffee.”

Her smile faltered. “I guess it’s silly, isn’t it? Coffee when we’re both so wired. What would you like instead?”

In two steps, he’d crossed the kitchen and pulled Audrey into his arms. The grounds fell from her hand to the floor with a dull thump. “I want
you
,” he said, closing his eyes against the anguish that bubbled up in him—the breadth of a thought of what it would be like to live in this life without Audrey. “I never want to feel like I might lose you again. I want you near me, Audrey. Always.”

He opened his eyes to find her gazing at him. “Always?”

“Yes, sweetheart. Always. I can’t be in this world and not have you by my side. Forever.”

“I—I want that, too,” Audrey said, the words filling a gaping hole in him. “I want to be with you, Kieran. I want to trust that this is real. That we’re real.”

“We are
so
real,” he said, the wonderful truth of it making his chest hurt. And then, to prove it, he placed his lips on hers gently—a kiss of promise and hope and affection and everything his gambler’s heart had risked and won in a last, desperate hand.

She knew the truth about him and wanted him anyway.

The thought had him pressing his mouth against hers more earnestly. He inhaled her sweet vanilla-and-detergent scent and nearly saw stars. On another woman it would be too simple. But on Audrey it was perfect—uncomplicated but desperately alluring in the way it mixed with the scent of her hair, her skin.

He pulled her lower lip between his teeth, and she let out a sigh of pleasure. Her breath was warm on his skin, and his hunger surged. Unable to stop himself, he turned their kiss into an open-mouthed firestorm. He wanted her impossibly close, wanted his tongue to tell her how deeply he cared for her. He pressed himself to her. She trembled against him.

He slid his hands up her arms, savoring the feel of her soft skin underneath his fingertips. He pushed away the dark tendrils of her hair until he had exposed the long length of her neck. Leaving her mouth, his lips found the sweetness of her clavicle, the hollow of her neck, up to her ear until she was twined against him, just to stay upright.