Page 4 of Forbidden You

“What!? It’s true! Great city. Oh, and they have this really nice place on Fisherman’s Wharf. They have teriyaki tuna that is to die for.”

“This is not funny!” Rae yelps. “You got kicked out of college, Kayla! What are you going to do?”

It’s not funny, but I don’t want to shed another tear.

“Work at Wendy’s?” I joke.

“Kayla Lockheart!”

“Okay,” I concede, rolling my eyes. “I don’t know, okay? I have no clue. All I know is that I’m on my way to the airport right now, ready to take a flight home. Or anywhere but here.” I mutter the last words, but I mean them.

When I arrived here eighteen months ago, I was ecstatic about the future. I love San Francisco, but now the memories I have are all tainted by the memory of me leaving. I don’t think I ever wanna go back, simply because it’s too painful.

“You’re coming home?”

“I’m on my way to the airport as we speak.”

“What?!” she clips, clearly having a hard time keeping up. “Right now?”

“Yup. So, I hope you’re ready for some cousin bonding time. We can go to the spa. Have some drinks. We can nag your nana together while we force her to make fried chicken. We’re gonna have so much fun!”

“You know I have to work, right? Nana is going to finally retire and I’m swamped in all the work she keeps shoving my way.”

“Yeah, but we’ll work around that.” I brush her words away while bright ideas to keep myself busy are flooding into my head. “We can host dinner parties together like Thanksgiving! That was fun. Oh, wait! I can come stay with you and Jensen! That would be so much better than staying with my parents. Oh, please, Rae, can I stay with you guys?” I plead, pretending that wasn’t my plan all along.

My lashes flutter like I’m about to take off even though she can’t even freaking see me, fueled by a sting of hope. Staying with Rae and Jensen would at least be a ray of sunshine in my now very clouded life.

“Err, I don’t know, Keeks. I love you. But I’m not sure Jensen loves you enough to have you in his personal space the entire time.”

I already expected him to be the hard one to win over. We get along great, but Jared James Jensen is a man fond of his privacy. He said so himself when I walked in one day at nine AM on a Sunday. Good thing he wasn’t naked.

“What?” I exclaim incredulously. “Jensen loves me!”

“Who are you talking to?” I hear a man’s voice in the background, my ears pricking up.

“Is that him? Put me on speakerphone!”

“Keeks.”

“Just do it!”

She pushes out a breath before the sound on the line changes.

“Okay, you’re on,” she says, her voice now a little less clear.

“Hey, Jensen,” I sing-song sweetly.

“What do you want, Kayla?” He sounds like the broody hockey player that he is, and many people would take it as a sign to back the fuck up and continue on with their day. But I’ve seen the fucker with my cousin.

Deep down, he’s a big ass softy and I’m pretty sure he can’t resist my charm. Besides, I’m the one who helped him get her back when he royally screwed everything up.The motherfucker owes me.

I smile. “I’m kicked out of Stanford. On my way to the airport and bound to move back in with my parents. You and I both know that will not end well. I’ll either walk away from home because they’ll drive me nuts, or I’ll drive them nuts and they’ll kick me out. Getting kicked out of college is traumatic enough, so surely you don’t want to give me another trauma on top of that by forcing me to go back to my kin. Besides, what am I going to do? I have no job, no degree, no fucking life.” I huff dramatically.

“If I go back to my parents’, I’ll have to take a job at Walmart and eat dinner with those boring old people every single day, giving me no stimulation whatsoever. I’ll be dead of boredom within weeks. But you wouldn’t let that happen, right? It’s way better if I’m surrounded by successful people like you and Rae. I mean, you’re an NHL player. Fuck, you’re the best defender in the league. You won the Holy Grail! It took hard work to get there. Living with you would be the best inspiration I could get. Not to mention the fact that I can cook for you guys. Doesn’t it sound nice to have dinner waiting for you after an intense day of practice? So, what do you say? Can I please, please, please, come crash with you guys?” The silence that follows after my word vomit is deafening, and I cross my fingers for my good luck while I squeeze my eyes shut in anticipation.

“You can cook?” The surprise in his voice is slightly offending.

I scoff. “Of course, I can!”

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