Keeping Kennedy (16 page)

“Well.” Drake looked anywhere but at her. “It
was a great trip. But it’s good to be back.”

Kennedy squared her shoulders and prepared
herself for his goodbye. “Yeah, it’s good to be back.”

He finally looked directly at her. A current
of sensual electricity flowed instantly between them. “I guess I’ll
go check on Iggy.”

“I have a thousand calls to make,” Kennedy
returned. “I probably have a million voice mails.”

Drake hesitated before he turned away. “If
you ever need me for anything…anything at all, just let me know,
Kennedy.”

She smiled weakly. “Sure, thanks, Drake. You
do the same.”

He got halfway across the hall this time
before he turned back. “You have your key, don’t you?”

She held up her hand and displayed the item
in question. She blinked to hold back the tears now threatening to
humiliate her. If she cried now, he would know the truth—that she
loved him with all her heart.

“Okay.” He stared at the tiled floor for a
moment. “Well, see ya.” He forced a smile and turned his back. This
time he didn’t stop until he was at his own door.

Kennedy turned to her door and inserted the
key. No point in loitering in the hall.

She heard Drake’s door close behind him.

It was over.

~*~

Kennedy dragged herself out of bed on Monday
morning and forced herself to go through the motions of preparing
for work. Never in her entire life had she ever felt so depressed.
So…heartsick. She shook herself and tried psyching up for the
office, but it didn’t work. Dreading work was totally out of
character for her.

Work was her life.

At least it had been until she’d pretended to
be engaged.

A vivid memory of Drake making love to her in
that slow, thorough manner of his zoomed into 3-D focus—but she
couldn’t think about Drake. It was over. They weren’t together
anymore. Certainly not engaged.

Engaged.

The ring.

Kennedy stared at the borrowed jewelry on the
third finger of her left hand. “Oh, God.” She had almost forgotten
the ring. Wouldn’t she have had a fine time trying to explain that
one at the office? She tugged at the ring, but it wouldn’t budge.
Kennedy frowned. It had fit perfectly when she put it on.

Irritated now, she stormed into the kitchen
and rubbed dish soap on her finger. She pulled for all she was
worth. It wasn’t moving. Anxiety tightened like a steel band around
her head. She had to get this ring off. Not only could she not go
to work wearing the damned thing, she had to return it. Today.

Ten minutes later it was obvious she wasn’t
getting the ring off. Her finger was red from her pulling and
twisting. Desperation made her impatient. She glanced at her watch.
She was late. She had to do something.

Now!

Drake would know what to do.

Kennedy grabbed her bag and keys and hurried
out the door. She locked up, since she would need to leave
immediately after he got the ring off her finger.

That thought sent another kind of fear
coursing through her. She had tossed and turned all night long. The
memory of their lovemaking haunted her. The image of her Drake kept
playing over and over in her mind. The way he moved. The way he
talked. The way he kissed her.

God, she was hopeless.

She couldn’t think of him that way anymore.
He was back to being her neighbor. She paused in front of his door.
For all she knew he could already have one of his girlfriends over.
A jealous anger she had never felt before erupted inside her.
Slowly, Kennedy took three deep breaths. This was ridiculous. He
didn’t belong to her. He never had. Drake was simply her neighbor,
and right now she needed him for nothing more than removing a
stubborn ring.

Kennedy pounded on his door. No answer. He
had to be there. She pounded again. He couldn’t have left on some
assignment already.

What was she thinking? Knowing him, he was
probably still in bed. The memory of how he had looked that morning
when she had discovered him naked in his bed suddenly came back to
her. Kennedy shivered. She absolutely had to stop thinking like
that.

He still hadn’t answered the door. She looked
at the ring of keys in her hand and considered using the key to his
door to let herself in, but she couldn’t do that anymore.

Things just weren’t the same.

The door suddenly opened and Drake towered
over her, dressed and ready to go.

“Good, I was just about to call you,” he said
in a rush. He placed his duffel and his camera bag on the floor
outside his door, closed and locked it. “My flight leaves in less
than two hours. Can you give me a lift to the airport?”

Kennedy snapped her open mouth shut. He was
leaving.

Today.

Now.

He slung the bags over his shoulders and
grabbed Kennedy by her arm. “Come on. We can talk on the way.”

He was leaving. She had been right. Nothing
they had shared during the past week had changed the way he felt
about her. She was still simply his friend. A handy neighbor for
feeding his pet and giving him the occasional ride. By the time
Kennedy stopped ranting silently, they were at her car. He snagged
her keys and opened the trunk. She studied the impassive expression
on his face. How could he feel nothing at all? How could he be
so…so nonchalant?

“Wait,” she fairly shouted, anger fueling her
indignation.

Drake’s head came up. He closed the trunk
with a resounding thud. “What?” he asked, the picture of utter
innocence.

“I don’t have time to go to the airport,
Drake. I have a job, too. Or have you forgotten?” she railed hotly.
The very idea that he would pick up where they left off. She had to
admit the man had some nerve.

He frowned, a study in concern. Kennedy
seethed. The same old Drake. Treating her like a pal already. Why
in the world had she ever believed that anything that happened had
affected him the way it had her?

She was a fool.

“I’m desperate, Kennedy. You know how hard it
is to get a cab around here at this time of the morning.”

And how could he look so damned sincere? And
why did she care? Kennedy blew out a frustrated breath. “Fine.” She
jerked her door open and sat down behind the wheel. If he could act
like nothing had happened, so could she.

Once they were on the street, Kennedy kept
her attention focused on the morning rush hour traffic, but she
could feel Drake’s gaze on her.

“What?” she finally demanded, shooting him a
sharp glare.

“Nothing.” He looked straight ahead then.

“You were staring at me, Drake,” she
countered crossly. “Why? It’s not as if you don’t know what I look
like.”

He sighed mightily. “I was just thinking how
beautiful you are.”

Heat swirled inside Kennedy, followed
immediately by renewed ire. “Don’t even start. Our little ruse is
over. O-ver,” she added for good measure.

Pretending not to notice her foul mood, he
smiled at her the next time she looked his way. Kennedy rolled her
eyes. She was, without a doubt, the biggest fool who’d ever walked
the earth. She’d decided that days ago, and then again minutes
ago.

“Did you need something this morning?” he
asked abruptly. “Is that why you were at my door?”

Kennedy thrust her left hand at him, awkward
as that proved. “I can’t get it off,” she fretted, suddenly
remembering her dilemma.

Drake held her hand and pulled on the ring.
It didn’t budge. A car honked. Kennedy swerved back across the
line.

“Maybe we’d better wait until we get to the
airport,” he suggested tightly. He placed her hand back on the
steering wheel.

Fifteen long, silent minutes later, Kennedy
whipped into a no-parking zone. She jumped out and rushed to the
trunk to unlock it. Drake reached in and retrieved his bags, once
again draping them over his shoulders.

“I have to get my boarding pass, then I’ll
get that ring off.”

Kennedy had to run to keep up with his long
strides as hey hurried to the airline counter. While Drake checked
in, she suddenly wondered where he was going.

Of course, she wasn’t supposed to care.

But, dammit, she did.

Drake finally returned, without the duffel.
“Okay, let’s see that stubborn ring.”

Kennedy lifted her gaze to his. “Where are
you off to?”

He glanced up, his fingers still twisting the
ring back and forth. Those silvery eyes called to her, as did those
sinfully full lips. God, she was pathetic. He probably hadn’t given
their time together a second thought.

“I have to be in Colombia as soon as
possible.”

“Colombia?” Kennedy suddenly thought of all
the bad things that cold happen to a person while traipsing through
the jungles of South America.

He pulled her hands to his mouth and licked
her finger, all the way around the stubborn ring. Kennedy’s
breathing hitched, then stalled in her lungs.

“I’ll be back in about a week, though,” he
continued as he worked the ring back and forth over her dampened
skin. “You’ll feed Iggy?”

“Sure, I’ll feed him,” she murmured, her
concentration still focused on the feel of his tongue on her skin.
He had touched many other parts of her body with that skilled
tongue of his. The memories made her shiver.

“You gonna miss me?” He put her finger in his
mouth this time. Her self-control vanished when his tongue did
another little wicked glide around the ring.

“W-what?” Kennedy stammered.

He twisted the ring some more. “I asked you
if you were going to miss me.”

Something in his gaze told her that he was
serious. “Yes,” she told him in all honesty. Kennedy bit her lip
nervously. “Apparently I grew quite fond of you during our—our
engagement.” Had she really said that? Hurt and humiliation
tightened her chest. Kennedy averted her gaze and tried hard not to
cry. Please, if only the floor would crack open and swallow her up
right now.

His fingers closed around her hand. “I guess
you could say I got a little attached to you, too.”

She lifted her gaze back to his and offered a
weak smile. “Well, we’re still neighbors,” she said noncommittally.
“It’s not like we won’t see each other or anything. I mean…it’s
pretty much like it used to be…I guess.”

Was she imagining it, or was he closer
now?

“That’s true, I suppose,” he said softly.

Somehow the idea that she wouldn’t see him
for a whole week made her deathly ill. She didn’t want whatever had
started between them to end. But it had, for him anyway.

“I have to go.”

She nodded. “I know.”

He didn’t move. He just stood there, looking
at her and holding her hand and the confounded ring that still
wouldn’t come off.

“The ring,” she reminded.

He never took his eyes off hers. “It doesn’t
want to come off.”

Kennedy tamped down the hope building in her
chest. “I can’t just keep it. I borrowed it.”

“What if I bought it for you?”

Kennedy’s heart stilled for an endless
moment. “Why”—she cleared her throat—“why would you do something
like that?”

He moved closer. Kennedy could feel the heat
from his body. “Because I stayed awake all last night and did a lot
of thinking. I kind of liked things the way they were in Friendly
Corners.”

“But that would mean we would have to be
engaged for real.”

Uncertainty flickered in his eyes. “You don’t
want to be engaged?”

Kennedy laughed, a choked sound. “Normally
when you’re engaged it’s because someone has asked you to marry
them. I don’t recall you asking.”

He frowned. “Oh, yeah. You’re right.”

Kennedy glanced at the boarding area, then
back at Drake. “You’re going to miss your flight.”

He glanced over his shoulder, then settled
his silvery gaze back onto her. “That’s a very strong
possibility.”

She drew in a deep, calming breath to try and
slow her racing heart. “Drake, I—”

He went down on one knee. Kennedy couldn’t
come up with a response to that move. She could only look at him,
totally speechless.

“I know this isn’t the most romantic place to
propose, but” he lifted one shoulder in a hint of a shrug “neither
of us is particularly conventional.”

“We can talk about this when you get back,”
Kennedy offered, her mind spinning. He couldn’t possibly mean
this…could he? Her heart quivered with hope.

He shook his head. “I want you to keep the
ring. I love you, Kennedy, and I’d like to keep
you
. Will
you marry me?”

A smile spread across his trembling lips.
“Drake, are you sure about this?”

He gave her that lopsided half grin. “More
sure than I’ve ever been about anything in my entire life. I don’t
want to lose you. I want to wake up with you next to me every
morning for the rest of my life.”

Tears welling in her eyes, Kennedy
nodded.

“Is that a yes?”

“Yes. I’ll marry you.”

He shot to his feet. “Good, ‘cause I gotta
go.” He planted a quick kiss on her cheek and ran like hell for the
boarding area.

It hit Kennedy then that she hadn’t said what
she needed to say. “Drake!”

He skidded to a stop and turned back to
her.

“I love you, too.”

He smiled and every female in the place
stopped to take notice, then he winked and said, “I know.”

Kennedy stood there, uncertain what she
should do, and watched him walk away. Profound sadness enveloped
her. She looked at the ring and smiled. A tear trickled down her
cheek. He loved her. They were engaged—for real.

But he was leaving her anyway.

Slowly, she walked to the wall of windows to
watch his plane taxi away. Would it always be this way? Him rushing
off for some unexpected, possibly dangerous, assignment? Kennedy
pressed her hand to the glass, her heart aching. “Goodbye,” she
murmured.