I may have locked you out, but you’ve always had the key.
Happy Birthday, Kail.
29
Kailani
The next morning, my mom wakes me up early to eat breakfast, but I know she really just wants to talk to me. As I suspected, when I get dressed, she’s waiting for me downstairs with a smoothie bowl and a smile that betrays her motives.
“Thanks, Mama.” I take the bowl and sit down at the counter.
“Did you sleep okay last night?” She busies herself at the cutting board, chopping up some fruit for herself.
“Pretty good.” I shrug.
Truthfully, I don’t think I slept at all after Landon left. All I could think about was him getting an earful from my mom and Theo before they sent him on his way.
“So…” She wipes her hands on a towel and tries to act casual. “Is everything okay with you and Landon?”
“Yep.” I shove a spoonful of fruit into my mouth.
She frowns at my one-word response.
“Honey, can I ask… is there still something going on between you two?”
She looks worried, and I know she’s probably torn because she doesn’t know how to handle this situation. My mom cares about Landon—that much is obvious—but she doesn’t want to hurt me either.
“There’s nothing going on anymore,” I tell her. “I don’t know if there ever really was.”
“Oh, okay.” She sounds a little disappointed by that revelation. “Well, I just didn’t know if you wanted him here for dinners anymore.”
I pause with the spoon halfway to my lips and stare at her. “Landon loves you and Theo. And I know you guys love him. We’re not going to tear each other’s throats out, I promise. You don’t need to banish him from the house or anything like that.”
She releases a tiny, almost inaudible sigh of relief. “Alright. I just want you to be comfortable in your own home. That’s the most important thing.”
“I am.” I polish off the bowl and carry it to the sink. “But I’d like to move back into the pool house soon if that’s okay with you.”
“I don’t know, Kail.”
“It’s all secure now,” I remind her. “Nobody can get in unless I let them in.”
“I’ll think about it,” she says. “Are you sure you don’t want me to drop you off at school?”
“I told you Jared is picking me up.” I grab my backpack and double-check that my homework is in there. But as I’m doing that, something else catches my eye. Something I was not expecting to see again.
My tablet.
My stomach flips, and my mom says something else, but it doesn’t register. Where the hell did this come from? Did Landon put it there last night?
“Kail?” My mom waves her hand at me, trying to get my attention.
“Huh?”
“Jared’s here.” She points at the alert on her phone.
“Oh, right.” I nod. “Okay. I’ll see you later.”
Jared escorts me inside the building, and we head for my locker first. When I see Landon there, waiting for me, I nearly burn skid marks into the floor.
“You okay?” Jared asks as he looks back and forth between us.
“Yeah.” I force a smile. “I’ll just put this stuff in my locker, and we can go.”
“I’ll be right here.” He leans up against the bank of lockers a few feet away and meets Landon’s irritated glare with one of his own.
“Are we playing this game again?” Landon asks as I open my locker and start stuffing my books inside. “I thought we were past the fake boyfriend bullshit."
“Cool your jets.” I roll my eyes. “Why do you care who I’m with? And why are you standing here waiting for me?”
“I told you we need to talk.” His voice lowers, and from the corner of my eye, I can see him reaching out to touch me before he thinks better of it. “I fucked up, Kail. I get that. And I have so much to say, but I need you to listen to me. I’m trying to make things right.”
His words are everything I thought I wanted to hear. Except he can’t make it right. He can’t erase the sound of Audrey touching him. The auditory loop I hear on playback every single night won’t go away just because he apologizes. I’m not even angry with him anymore. I’m just… hurt. It hurts so much, and I know I can’t go through this again. Too much has happened, and Landon has proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that he’s capable of breaking my heart. I have to preserve