the horrors of having Joe Channing without his edge.” With a toss of her hair and a hint of sarcasm, she rolled her eyes.
I decided to give her a taste. “You know what I see when I look at you? A strong woman who knows what she wants and is prepared to put in the hard work to get it. A beautiful woman who calls it like she sees it and definitely doesn’t need me to protect her…even though if I could, I’d save her from every hurt the world threw her way.”
Kennedy blushed. “Careful, Wiki. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were being sweet.”
“If you tell anyone, I’ll deny it and call you a liar.”
She tossed her head back to laugh and damn if that floral shirt didn’t sound like a good idea.
With a scrape of her chair against tile, she lurched to her feet and swayed in place. “Whoa. Maybe I drank that too fast.” She scooped up her glass and gave it a wiggle. “But that’s not gonna stop me from having another!”
I stood. Took the glass from her, put it down, then rested my hands on the counter, with her between my arms. A smile brightened her eyes. She leaned in and I brushed my lips against hers. Once. Twice. A third time.
I savored her taste. Her touch. Her smell. She was a sleepy morning, buried in blankets with nowhere to be. She was sunshine and fresh air. For the first time in my life, I felt like I’d found home. Like I had someone who wanted me for me.
The thought scared me to death at the same time it made me grin like an idiot.
“What was that for?” she murmured when I released her.
I ran a finger along her bottom lip then stepped away. “I wanted to remind you of the monkey sex portion of the evening before you Painkillered yourself into oblivion.”
“Consider your claim staked.” She giggled as she lifted the pitcher to fill her glass, spilling a little on the counter as she topped up mine, too. “I’ve been thinking. Maybe we should invite Collin over for dinner or something.” Her gaze was everywhere but on me as she sucked in her lips and blushed.
“Why?” I stepped back to lean against the counter. “You plan on sneaking around with him behind my back?”
The joke landed with a resounding thud as a heavy dose of “oh, shit” flashed across Kennedy’s face.
She guffawed, her eyes too wide, her smile too big. “What? I wouldn’t…I mean…that’s ridiculous.” Her cackling laugh echoed through the kitchen and had my bullshit meter twitching.
One of the first things I learned about her was that lying made her more nervous than missing fingernails and dislocated shoulders. The moment she told even a minor fib, her tells would go off like police sirens.
Like they were now.
One. After the other.
After the other.
Any other woman, I’d assume my joke wasn’t as ridiculous as she wanted me to think. It was that obvious she was keeping something from me.
Or, maybe those Painkillers did more damage than I thought they would.
Either way, I needed to know if I had something to worry about when it came to Collin. I couldn’t let the fear just sit in my heart and rot. Nothing good would come of that, especially when I was supposed to be working on trust.
With that in mind, I took a deep breath and said what needed to be said. “If there’s anything between you and Collin I should worry about, please tell me now. Spend a couple years touring with a guy that famous and you’ll find plenty of people willing to use you to get to him. It only takes a couple times of falling for that to start taking it personally.”
“No, no. I promise, Wiki. You have nothing to worry about.”
And yet, the more she protested, the more I worried. Something wasn’t right, and her urgent attempts to make me think everything was okay only proved the point.
She’s had too much to drink, I reminded myself. There’s no reason to be suspicious.
Yeah, well, you’ve said that before, I countered.
But Kennedy was different from those other women…
Even if she had listed Collin as her celebrity yes.
Chapter Thirty
Joe
With Maxine calling off projects for the next couple days, time stretched out crazy long in front of me. Instead of losing myself to my work, I stewed about the strange conversation with Kennedy the night before.