I pull my brows in. “He might know something’s up if I let Kai answer my phone for me.”
“He might not,” Wren says, lounging on his favorite couch in the corner with Levi and Callie on either side of him. “Kai’s a protective bastard over you. That’s something he would do.”
Kai shrugs behind me as he tosses the pieces of the broken cup in the trash. “That’s true.”
“But you told him to call her,” Derek says, his arms folded across his chest as he watches us all from his spot in the corner. “She needs to be the one to talk to him. We can’t risk him coming here to tell her himself. I don’t want him anywhere near her.”
“He wouldn’t dare?—”
The door opens, cutting Kai off as James walks inside. “Wyatt’s here.”
Kai growls. “I’m gonna kill him.”
“No,” Damon says. “React how you would react normally,” he reminds him.
“Knocking his teeth out is how I’d normally react.”
“Kai.”
“Damon.”
Exasperated, Damon sighs and drags his hands over his face. “Can I get a coffee please, Hailey?”
“You want a coffee?” I ask. “Has your little brother finally driven you to caffeine?”
He gives me a little smile and a wink and holds up his credit card between two fingers. I shake my head and tell him to put his damn money away. Grateful for the distraction he’s offering me, I turn around and busy myself making him a latte.
“Hey,” Wyatt says as he walks inside.
“Morning, Wy,” I say over my shoulder, my heart pounding. “You want coffee?”
“Sure. Thanks.”
Damon nods his approval at me.
Kai glares at the side of Wyatt’s face, and Wyatt side-eyes him, awkwardly stepping around him when Kai makes no move to get out of his way. When Wyatt passes me to get to the kitchen, Kai not so subtly moves with him, making a point to keep his body between mine and Wyatt’s.
After I pass Damon his coffee, Kai wraps his arms around me from behind.
“You’re staying, right?” I whisper, hating the fact that I need him but needing him all the same.
“Baby, I’m never letting you out of my sight again,” he says in my ear.
I chuckle weakly. “You promise?”
“I promise.”
Chapter 36
KAI
It’s Saturday, which means instead of hanging out here for an hour in the morning and a couple hours after school, we’ve been sitting here all day. Which wouldn’t be a problem if I didn’t want to murder Wyatt every time he moves, speaks, or breathes.
I want Hailey to fire him and throw him out on his ass, but Damon says she can’t do that, so we’re fucking stuck with the guy. It’s making me twitchy.
When Hailey called me out for smothering her an hour ago, I was forced to swap places with Callie. Now I’m sitting on the couch with my brothers and Derek while she keeps Hailey company behind the counter, helping out and getting Hailey to teach her how to make different kinds of drinks when it’s not so busy.
“I could just?—”