Page 83 of Love Lessons

Finley stared up at her with wide eyes. “He has his own room?”

With Finley preoccupied with the dog, Kendall nodded for me to follow her onto the front porch. “I’ve really got to get that girl her own dog,” I said, letting the screen door swing shut behind me.

Kendall leaned against the porch railing and turned to me. While it had been warm most of the day, there was a chill in the air now—and she hugged her arms against her chest. “I was starting to think you guys might not come tonight,” she said.

“Wanted to save this for last.” I leaned onto the railing beside her, facing the road. “Thanks for inviting us.”

Kendall turned toward me, furrowing her brows. “But Finley—” Her mouth gaped open, and she began to smile. “Wait, this wasn’t your idea, was it?”

“My idea? No, Finley said you told her—” Suddenly, I understood the reason behind Kendall’s grin. “That manipulative little… invertebrate sea creature.”

Kendall leaned her head back and laughed. “She parent-trapped us.”

“I guess she did. That girl is too smart for her own damn good.”

“Did she give you the puppy dog eyes?”

“Not this time,” I said, running a hand through my hair. “Believe it or not, it didn’t take a lot of persuasion to get me to come here.”

Kendall's gaze held mine for a moment, the warm glow of the porch light softening her features. It took everything in me not to close the gap between us and kiss her right then. But I knew I couldn’t—not again. Not now. Especially not with Finley laughing and playing with the dog just on the other side of the door.

So instead of kissing, which I knew was on her mind as much as it was on mine, we talked.

We talked about Owen and Sarah, laughing at the image in our heads of them having to clean all of the toilet paper out of their yard in the morning.

We talked about her Halloweens as a child—how she and Jamie would trick-or-treat in nicer neighborhoods because they gave out better candy. The more she spoke, the more I realized the neighborhood she was describing sounded an awful lot like mine. I wouldn’t point this out to her, though.

And we talked about the trunk-or-treat incident with Traci—which turned into a rant about all of my recent interactions with the woman. Kendall listened to every word, and by the end of it, I think she disliked Traci as much as I did.

We could have been out there for ten minutes or an hour—I lost all sense of time on that porch with Kendall. And as the temperature plummeted, we inched closer and closer together until we were standing shoulder-to-shoulder, the warmth of her body melding with mine. Just as I turned to face her, to ask if she wanted to go back inside, the door behind us opened.

“Um, your kid is totally passed out on our couch,” Jamie said.

“You’re kidding.”

“What’d you guys do to her?” Kendall laughed as we followed Jamie into the house. Sure enough, Finley was curled up asleep on one end of their couch, still clutching an open bag of Kit Kats. Her jellyfish costume was crumpled up beside her on the floor.

“We tried to wake her up, but she’s out cold,” Daya said.

I shook my head, smiling at the sight of drool collecting on the couch next to Finley’s mouth. “Yeah, she’s a deep sleeper. She could sleep through a freight train, to be honest.”

Jamie let out a loud, melodramatic yarn. “Speaking of sleeping—I think we’re going to head to bed.” She turned to Daya and widened her eyes, nodding her head toward the back of the house. “It was nice meeting you, though.”

“Yeah, you too.”

Jamie and Daya said goodnight and disappeared into their bedroom. And just as I prepared to scoop Finley up and say goodnight myself, Kendall reached for the fleece blanket draped on the back of the couch and covered Finley with it. Then, kneeling on the floor beside her, she gathered up the empty Kit Kat wrappers surrounding her and gently pulled the bag of candy from her hands, putting everything on the coffee table. Turning back to Finley, she tenderly brushed her hair out of her eyes, tucking it behind her ear.

“She’s so peaceful when she’s asleep,” Kendall said, glancing up at me with a soft giggle. I sucked on my bottom lip as she continued to stroke Finley’s hair. There was something about this tiny, nurturing gesture that tugged at my heartstrings—it came so naturally to Kendall. While I knew she would be this gentle and caring with any of her students, there was love in her eyes as she wiped chocolate from the corner of Finley’s mouth with her thumb.

I was lost in a daydream, fantasizing about some imaginary future with Kendall completing our family, when I realized she was staring up at me. “Are you okay?”

Swallowing the lump in my throat, I said, “I’m fine.”

Kendall rose to her feet. “I’m sorry, you probably need to go. It’s already—”

“Can we talk?” I blurted these words before I was even aware of what would come next. I only knew I needed Kendall to understand how I felt—and why I couldn’t be around her like this. “I’ve got just a few things I need to get off my chest.”

chapter thirty-two

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