Chapter 27
When I woke up, the first thing I noticed was Kaden’s smell. The second was the fact that Kaden hadn’t let go of me the whole night. He lay behind me, his arm over my belly, his face on my shoulder, and our legs were so tangled with each other and the blanket that I couldn’t move. I closed my eyes and savored his peaceful, rhythmic breathing against my neck.
Kaden White was a cuddler. Who would’ve thought?
A flutter spread in my chest, and I smiled into my pillow. This felt so right. And it wasn’t just about the sex—which had shaken my world—but mainly about the fact that we’d dropped our defenses. We connected. Kaden knew everything about me and still wanted me. A little voice in my head warned me to be careful, but I ignored it.
“Your thoughts are so loud that I can’t sleep anymore,” mumbled Kaden behind me. “Cut it out.”
I giggled into the pillow.
He pulled me even closer. His fingers covered my ribs, and he pressed his lips behind my ear. I trembled.
“I have a weakness for your laugh,” he sighed as he buried his nose in my hair. “To be frank, I have a weakness for pretty much everything about you.”
I laughed again. “Same here. You’re pretty tolerable yourself.”
In one second he had me on my back and was straddling me.
“I’m pretty tolerable?” He raised an eyebrow. His eyes sparked playfully.
I shook my head. “On a scale of one to ten you’re a solid seven.”
“Seven?” he repeated in shock.
I had to laugh out loud at his dumbfounded expression.
“Oh, Bubbles. That was a mistake,” he growled, grabbing my hands and holding them up over my head. Then he placed his face right in front of mine. I stopped laughing and looked at him. He rubbed his nose against mine and let his lips wander over my face, resting against my neck. His stubble scratched my skin, driving me crazy in a good way, and my body reacted. Now it was Kaden who was laughing.
“So let’s turn the seven into a ten,” he growled.
And that’s how we spent the next few hours.
Kaden and I were inseparable the entire day, from our morning in bed to our shared shower, getting the entire bathroom wet, and then our cozy afternoon on the couch, watching the latest episodes of our favorite series.
Now I was leaning on Kaden, wearing one of his T-shirts. His chin rested on my head, and once in a while, I would tip my head back against his shoulder to look into his shining eyes.
Oh man. It had really happened.
The doorbell interrupted my reverie. It must be our food. Kaden jumped up, grabbed his wallet from the table and went to the door.
I heard him open it. But instead of the usual exchange (“Hello” … “That’ll be such-and-such dollars” … “Here’s something extra for you” … “Enjoy”), there was silence. I stretched out across the back of the couch, but could only see Kaden leaning against the doorframe.
“Hey,” he said. “You want to come in?”
“Do I want to come in?” a voice huffed.
Alarmed, I sat up straight. It was Dawn. And she sounded pretty angry. “You stupid jerk! This is for Allie. And for Spencer’s black eye.”
Kaden gasped in surprise as Dawn suddenly groaned in pain. I was on my feet and dove toward the door.
What I saw made my mouth hang open.
Kaden was holding his chin and staring at Dawn, who was shifting her weight and clutching one hand with the other. Tears spilled from her eyes.
“Dawn?” I asked in shock, and she looked past Kaden at me.
“You have got to be kidding me,” she said, staring at my naked legs and Kaden’s T-shirt. Then she looked me in the eyes. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“It’s complicated?” I sighed, looking at Kaden’s reddened chin from close up. He was still staring at Dawn, stunned.
“You hit me,” he said, as if it had just registered.
“And probably broke my hand at the same time,” my friend blurted out, examining her fist. It was already swollen and the first two knuckles were red. I grimaced. That had to hurt.
“She hit me,” Kaden repeated, looking at me. If I hadn’t been worried about Dawn, I would have laughed at his shocked expression. “I think she hurt herself more than she hurt you,” I said, going over to Dawn. With an arm over her shoulder, I drew her into the apartment. “Let’s put some ice on that.”
“I was just so angry, because he’d treated you like shit and then you didn’t call, and I thought … forget it. Anyway he deserved it,” she hissed and at the same time grimaced in pain. A tear dropped from the corner of her eye. Dawn wiped it away with her good hand.
I dashed to the fridge and grabbed a bag of frozen tortellini, wrapped a dishtowel around it, and went back to Dawn, who was standing—confused—in the middle of our living room, as if she didn’t dare to sit down.
She looked me up and down. “Are you okay?” she whispered. Typical. She’d probably broken her fingers, but she was asking how I felt.
“Fabulous,” I said and noticed how this blissful smile was stealing over my face, kind of inappropriate at the moment. But I couldn’t stop it. Damned hormones.
“So he was nice to you after the two of you disappeared yesterday?” she probed.
“Yes. Very nice. He always claims to be an asshole, but in reality—”
“I can hear you—I’m right here,” Kaden snapped.
I ignored him and put the cool towel carefully on Dawn’s hand. She winced.
“You should go to the hospital,” I murmured.
“Let me see,” Kaden said, coming over. He took Dawn’s hand and examined it tenderly.
“That looks pretty nasty.” He raised his head and looked at me. “You’re right, she needs an X-ray.”
The three of us made our way to the hospital. In the emergency room, we filled out the forms for Dawn. The waiting room was packed, and it was hard for me to sit around like this. We waited and waited and watched—as her fingers kept swelling like balloons until she couldn’t move her forefinger and middle finger at all.
“It’s going to be okay,” I repeated for what seemed like the hundredth time.
Dawn and Kaden looked at each other across me.
“She’s just saying that to keep herself calm,” whispered Kaden too loudly.
“Yes, and she’s saying it because she feels guilty.” Dawn nodded in agreement. “After all, it was thanks to your fight with each other that I hit you. Well, that was at least sixty percent of the reason.”
“And the other forty percent was for Spencer?”
She nodded. “Someone had to avenge his swollen face.”
“That’s so honorable of you,” I said and grabbed her intact hand. We intertwined our fingers. Dawn was the best girlfriend I’d ever had. And even if I wanted to shake her for having hurt herself for my sake, we both knew very well that I would have done the same for her.
“If your ex crosses my path, I’ll give him what for, too,” I promised her.
She grimaced. “That would be great, but let Kaden show you first how it’s done. Otherwise you’ll end up like me.”
“Ms. Edwards?” a nurse called from across the room. “Please come into treatment room three.”
Dawn and I both stood.
“You don’t have to come with me,” Dawn said with a glance at Kaden.
“Cut it out. Of course I’m coming with you,” I said, and then turned to Kaden, considering whether to kiss him goodbye. But he made the decision for me. He grabbed my hand and murmured—his lips on mine—“I’ll wait here for you.” Then he kissed me, swift but firm. My face glowed as I followed Dawn out of the waiting room.
In the hallway, she dug the fingers of her healthy hand into my arm. “He kissed you.”
“And that’s not the only thing he’s done with me,” I whispered in her ear.
Dawn turned bright red, then laughed out loud.
The X-rays showed that no bones were broken. Her pointer was just bruised, and that would heal quickly. But her middle finger was in worse shape: A small fracture had formed in the bone, causing pain and swelling. She’d have to wear a splint for two weeks, take painkillers, and avoid using her fingers until her follow-up appointment in three weeks.
When we left the treatment room, Dawn placed her head on my shoulder. “Please don’t tell Spencer about this. That would be embarrassing.”
“My lips are sealed,” I promised her with a laugh, and even gave the gesture that went along with the saying. But Dawn wasn’t looking at me anymore. Instead she stared into the waiting room at Spencer, sitting there next to Kaden. Kaden said something, Spencer laughed and patted him on the back. His right eye looked bad: blue and purple and nearly swollen shut.
Why was he here? Had Kaden called him?
As if he’d read my mind, Kaden looked up. He began to smile but stopped when he saw the bandage on Dawn’s hand.
We went over to them. Dawn was shifting her weight from one foot to the other. I’d never seen her embarrassed.
“The way the two of us look,” she murmured, raising up her bandaged arm. “Like a gang of thugs.”
Spencer grinned. With his swollen eye he did look pretty scary. “An unsuccessful gang of thugs. And Allie is our boss or something like that. She’s the only one who’s come away unscathed.”
“Spencer,” growled Kaden.
“Of course I could help out with that and give you a few black and blue marks, so you could feel like you belong. What do you think?”
Kaden’s fist went into his arm.
“Oh, come on, dude! Do you have to?” Spencer groaned and rubbed the spot.
“Yes,” we chimed in together.
Then we all burst out laughing.