Angel of Redemption (53 page)

The first three voicemail messages are from my
father.

“Dean, I’m
not sure where you disappeared to, but please call me ASAP.”

“Your
mother has sworn to me that she’s not going to sleep until you call and tell us
you’re okay. I’m just asking you to have mercy on me and check in.”

“Your
brother just informed me that you’ve retired for the evening. Call me when you
get a chance tomorrow, son.”

The last number I don’t recognize, but whoever it
was didn’t leave a message. I send a quick text to Aiden, telling him I’m fine
and I’ll call him later, then sit back and watch Kayla sleep.

For an hour, I stare at her, watching her breathe,
twitch, shift, and smile. I wonder what she’s dreaming about. I don’t let
myself think about what’s going to happen once we leave this room. There are
too many factors. Last night, things felt different. It’s easy to pretend when
you’re all dressed up, when you’re in the moment. Regardless of how I feel
about her, I don’t know what she’s going to expect of me now.

Kayla shivers and sucks in air through her
chattering teeth. She’s cold. She’s going to wake up and see me staring at her
and wonder what the fuck is wrong with me. I climb back into bed and pull her
close, wrapping my arms around her. She curls into me, sighing, and slowly I
begin to relax.

Dean

When Kayla wakes up again,
it’s nearly ten. We have to check out by eleven, so after a few minutes of
mindless groping, she disappears into the bathroom to shower on her own. I turn
on the television just to have some noise. Otherwise, I’d hear the water and
imagine drops raining down over Kayla’s toned, naked body, which is now etched
permanently into my memory.

“It’s all yours,” she announces, coming out of
the bathroom. She’s still wrapping the towel around herself, so I get a peek of
wet skin.

“You’re a tease,” I groan, passing by her to take
my turn in the shower.

When I walk out of the bathroom ten minutes
later, Kayla’s sitting on the bed, still holding her towel around her and looking
lost.

“What’s the matter?”

“I don’t have any clothes.” I look around,
realizing we didn’t bring our bags in from the car. “I didn’t even get my
purse.”

“Shit. Yeah. Okay, stay here, I’ll go get our
stuff.”

“Stay here?”

“Yeah, I’ll be right back,” I say, dropping my
towel and picking up my slacks from the floor.

“Oh. Damn. I thought I’d go check out the gym,
maybe run a couple of miles.”

“You want to go for a run?” I ask, confused,
putting on my wrinkled dress shirt and buttoning it up. Kayla tilts her head
and presses her lips together, waiting for me to catch on. “Smart-ass,” I
mumble with a laugh when I finally do. “Keep your naked self in this room.” I
slip out the door, but grab it just as it’s about to close. “And no porn.”

“Aw, you ruin all my fun.”

I’m still smiling when I hit the lobby. When the
elevator doors open, there are people from the gala everywhere, including my
brother. I should have figured
—it’s checkout time.

I manage to sneak out and get the keys from the
valet service without being detected, but Aiden is standing just inside as I
stroll back through the doors.

“Well, well, well.” He grins, taking in my
obvious morning-after attire. “Rough night?”

“Shut up.”

He laughs and throws a hand on my back. “You
missed a nice show last night, little brother. Got a few minutes?”

“Not really,” I say, shaking my head. My brother
studies me for a minute.

“This is a good look for you,” he teases, tugging
at the strap of Kayla’s purple bag. “Everything okay?”

I give in and smile. “A, I love you, man, but I,
uh
…” I point upward.

“Caseworker cutie?” he asks.

I nod.
“Yeah.”

“What the hell are you standing here talking to
me for, then?” He steps to the side and waves me through. I laugh and almost
jog to the elevator.

When I get back to the room, Kayla’s sitting in
the chair in one of the hotel robes, staring out the window.

“Sorry,” I say, setting our bags down on the bed.
“Got stopped by my brother.”

She stands up, walking toward me. When she starts
unbuttoning my shirt, I stop her. “We don’t have time,” I say reluctantly.

“I know,” she sighs, picking up her bag.

I pull out my change of clothes and begin to
dress. It feels weird with her in front of me, but she’s just slipped the robe
from her shoulders
—I’m not fucking going anywhere. She makes a big
show of every movement, putting her leg up on the chair and bending over to put
on her underwear.

“Kayla,” I warn.

“What?” she asks, innocently peering over her
shoulder.

I get my pants done up, but I have to adjust
myself. She’s wearing a pair of dark blue lace panties and she pulls out a
matching bra, facing me to put it on before adjusting her tits. I wait until
she gets her jeans on before pulling my own shirt over my head. Watching her
dress is almost as much fun as watching her undress. Okay, not really.

Quickly glancing around as Kayla packs away her
dress, I spot a hint of red under one of the sheets
—which are now
mostly on the floor—and pick up the remnants of last night’s
undergarment. I clear my throat to garner her attention and dangle the scrap of
fabric out in front of me. Kayla smiles and reaches for it, snatching it out of
my hand.

“Sorry.” I smirk.

“No, you’re not,” she laughs. “But here.” She
slips them into the front pocket of my jeans. “For good luck.” When she tries
to back up, I pull her to me and plant a firm kiss on her mouth.

“Thank you.”

“My pleasure,” she says, licking her lips.

I know there will still be people downstairs, but
there’s no way to avoid it. The front desk has Kayla’s purse and the coats we
left at coat check last night. When the elevator doors open on the foyer, I
take a deep breath, reach for Kayla’s hand, and step out. Kayla looks up at me
and smiles when I wink.

We make it to the desk before our luck runs out.
My parents are standing near the door, talking to some people I recognize from
the gala but don’t know. New money, I guess—I’m sure I’ll know them soon
enough. Both of them look over at the same time. My father’s eyes move between
Kayla and me and then focus on our linked hands. My mother looks, too. The
expression on her face is confusing. I’m not sure if she’s mad, but she
definitely wants to talk to me. She moves like she’s going to come over, but
Dad stops her, whispering in her ear. I silently thank him with a nod of my head
before the woman at the front desk hands over our things. We book it out of the
hotel and hand the valet our ticket.

“Are you hungry?” I ask Kayla once we’re in the
car. I could take her home and drop her off, but I really don’t want to.

“Starving.”

“Where do you want to go?”

“I don’t care. Somewhere with food.” As if on
cue, her stomach rumbles loudly.

“Wanna go see Mita? I can show you some of her
dad’s artwork.”

Kayla’s face lights up. “Absolutely. Wait, is
that so you don’t have to pay?”

“Ha!” I bark. “Absolutely, sweetheart. That’s
exactly why.”

On the drive, Kayla’s phone starts chiming like
crazy.

“Everything okay?”

“My little sister,” she sighs. “She’s been acting
weird for a few months. I
’m not sure if it’s just normal teenage stuff
or if it’s something else.”

“Like what?”

“I don
’t know. My stepdad is a
controlling, overprotective asshole. If Claire is trying to spread her wings in
a direction other than the one he has planned for her, it’s not going to go
over well. I’m worried about her. I barely survived the mental and emotional
abuse he subjected me to, and I’m a lot stronger than Claire.”

“What can you do about it?”

“Probably nothing. She wants to come live with
me, but there’s no way. Even if I thought I could take care of her, Mom and
Richard wouldn
’t ever agree. In fact, I’m pretty sure Richard would
rather kill me with his bare hands.”

“That’s a bit melodramatic, isn’t it?” As soon as
I say it, I want to shove a fucking sock in my mouth. And by the way Kayla’s
looking at me, so does she.

“Melodramatic? One of these days, I’ll introduce
you,” she bites. “You think those people at the gala were bad? My stepfather is
a miserable, spiteful person who does nothing but hate anyone not of his
caliber, including me.”

“I didn’t mean it like that.”

“I know. You ‘
can’t say shit right,’”
she
mumbles.

This is not how I was hoping our day would go. I
stay quiet for the rest of the ride, and by the time we pull up to the Jumping
Bean, Kayla doesn’t seem as agitated with me. She even lets me open her car door.

Mita looks up from behind the counter as we walk
in. “Hey, guys,” she greets cheerfully, wiping her hands on her apron and
coming out to meet us. “How was the gala?” I shrug. The actual gala was fine.
What happened once we left is none of her fucking business. “Shut up, you,” she
says, shoving my shoulder. “I wasn’t even talking to you.”

“I didn’t say anything!” I protest.

Mita gives me a scowl and turns toward my girl. “Hi,
Kayla.”

“Hi,
” Kayla answers. She glances at me,
and I wink. “It was okay,” she says, smiling at my cousin.

Mita reaches behind her, grabs a newspaper and
slaps it down on the counter next to us. There’s an entire page of photographs
with a write-up about the gala in the middle. One of the pictures is of Kayla
and me. My arm is around her and we’re laughing at something.

“Just okay?” she
tsks
. Neither
Kayla nor I comment. “Fine, whatever. Be that way,” she scoffs. “If you don’t
want to tell me, you don’t have to. I’ll just call my other cousin, my
favorite
one, this afternoon and get the lowdown. What do you want?”

Kayla orders a huge black coffee, a blueberry
scone, and a spinach-egg-tomato-and-cheese breakfast burrito.

“You sure that’s enough?” I tease.

“I haven’t eaten in almost eighteen hours, Dean.
Next time you plan on keeping me up all night, bring snacks.”

“Like Pop-Tarts?” I smirk.

“Pop-Tarts’ll work. Lots of carbs. I also hear
nuts are good for keeping you energized.”

“I’ve got nuts. I can bring the nuts.”

“Mmhmm,” Kayla hums, stuffing a piece of scone in
her mouth.

“So, uh, last night was just okay?” I ask,
repeating Mita
’s question and taking a sip of my coffee.

“Really?”

“Just curious.”

“The ‘oh God, Dean, sooooo good’ didn’t convince
you?”

I cough out a laugh, scratch the back of my neck,
and look around. She actually moaned the sentence pretty loud. No one’s paying
attention other than Mita, who smiles and goes back to washing out the steamer.

“I don’t remember those exact words.”

“Oh, well, next time I’ll scream them louder so
you can hear me.” Kayla looks down, focusing a little too intently on cutting
her burrito. She’s being playful, but I can tell she, like me, doesn
’t
quite know where we stand.

We finish eating and Mita is quick to snatch
Kayla away from me to show her Pietro’s work. I’m a little irritated that she
won’t let me go with them.

“Don’t pout,” she scolds quietly. “I’ll bring her
back. You’ve had her all night. I just want her for twenty minutes.”

I sit, drinking another cup of coffee and
fidgeting with my hands for over half an hour while Mita leads Kayla through
the shop and then upstairs to her studio. Finally, they come back downstairs.
Mita’s whispering and Kayla’s laughing. That’s really not a good sign. I stand
up, grabbing our coats and handing Kayla her purse.

“Are you leaving already?”

I look up at the clock on the wall. “We’ve been
here for over an hour.”

“In a hurry for some reason?” She smiles widely
and pulls Kayla into a hug. “It was good to see you.”

“You, too,” Kayla replies. “Thank you. His work
is really amazing.”

Mita winks at me as we turn to leave. “Bye, Dean.”
I’m beginning to think that introducing Kayla to my family might have been a
mistake.

“So,” she says, clearing her throat. “Tell me
something.
”

“Anything,” I answer opening the car door for her.

“Do you still dress up in girl’s clothes, or was
that just a passing, youthful preference?”

Ah, fuck.
“I was four!” I protest. “I didn’t
know any better.”

Kayla laughs.
“You were awfully cute.”

I’m seriously going to murder my cousin.

Kayla sticks with me the rest of the day. We do
mundane things. First, we return my tux to the rental company. They don’t say
anything about how wrinkled it is, but as rough as I must look today, I suppose
they’re probably happy it’s still in one piece. Afterward, Kayla asks me to take
her to The Shops at West End. She needs to get a birthday present for her
sister and there’s a jewelry place that makes one-of-a-kind necklaces. I’m not
a huge fan of shopping, but I don’t complain because she kisses me right after
she asks and her tongue tastes like coffee and one of those mints Mita keeps on
the counter of the Jumping Bean. I offer to make her dinner at her place
because my place is a dump and I’m still in a fucking Kayla bubble that seems
to decrease my anxiety and makes me think I can be what she needs.

She buys the necklace and gets it wrapped up in a
silver package with a blue bow before stuffing it in her purse and threading
her fingers through mine. I buy a couple of steaks and a bottle of red wine
before we head back to her place.

I don’t do anything too fancy, just broil them
with some Worcestershire sauce and a few spices. Kayla cooks asparagus, and we
roast potatoes.

As we’re finishing dinner, Kayla takes a really
big gulp of wine and a deep breath.

“Can I ask you something?” Shit. Here it comes.
The what-are-we conversation. My leg starts jumping up and down under the table
as I nod.

“What?” I ask more aggressively than I intended.
Kayla stares at me for a minute as though she’s deciding whether or not to keep
going.