Page 88 of Indigo Sky

Hearing my full name come from her lips made my wild heart skip a beat as I choked out, “What?”

“You’ve already made me forget about them.”

With my heart in my throat, I pulled up to the curb and looked past Kate toward the darkened windows on the top floor. Mom and Dad were sleeping; they always were when I got home. They trusted me as an adult living in their house, and suddenly, I worried they’d be disappointed when they found out I’d brought a woman home.

What would their reactions be in the morning? It was almost embarrassing to admit the topic had never been brought up. They knew about girlfriends of the past, of course, and they weren’t oblivious to what I’d done with them. But to be undertheirroof …

God, my stomach was in a thousand impossible knots over a thousand things, and I didn’t know how to work them out other than to just dive in headfirst and handle shit as it came.

“How quiet can you be?” I asked, already lowering my voice as I unbuckled my seat belt, as if there were any chance of my parents hearing me out here in my car.

She offered a salacious smirk. “Are you asking if I’m a screamer?”

My poor dick could only handle so much of this. I groaned and leaned my head against the seat, rolling my eye toward her as if to say,You know exactly what I’m asking, and it isn’t that.

She chuckled softly. “I’ll be very quiet, I promise."

And she kept that promise all the way up the path from the curb to the porch, through the door and the living room, and tiptoeing up the stairs to my open, waiting bedroom. I pressed my finger to my lips as I flipped the light switch and carefully closed the door, wincing as the hinges groaned in protest until it was closed.

"I keep forgetting to oil this damn thing," I muttered, keeping my voice low as I turned the lock. "Then again, I never had a reason to care."

"So, you reallydon'tbring women home," she whispered, sounding like she was actually surprised.

"Did you think I was kidding?" I huffed a chuckle and turned to face her, only to find that she'd begun a self-led tour around my childhood bedroom that, unfortunately, still looked very much like it belonged to a kid in high school.

She quirked her lips with amusement at the five-disc stereo system and the towers of compact discs still stacked beside it.

"Vintage," she commented, then glanced over her shoulder and said, "And honestly? Yeah, I thought maybe you were stretching the truth a little."

I shrugged as I tugged my jacket off my arms. "I wasn't exactly a popular kid," I explained dryly. "Then, I dropped out of high school, got my GED, and went to trade school, which wasn't exactly the best place to meet girls. Nate and I got jobs right after graduation, and we found an apartment not long after that, so …"

"Nate …" Kate touched the top of my dresser, cluttered with folded clothes meant to be put away, then turned to meet my gaze. "Crystal's boyfriend?"

I nodded as I hung my jacket on the hook on the back of the door, never taking my eye off her, as if she might disappear if I did. "That's the one."

"So, when you say you were good friends, you really mean—"

"We were brothers," I said, almost as a whisper, furrowing my brow while remembering what Nate had said after his mother's house went up in flames.

“We can be like real brothers.”

"He's yourbrother?"

I quickly shook my head, sending the faded old memory back to the dusty corner of my mind it belonged in. "No, notrealbrothers, but …" I walked farther into the room and sat on the bed, scrubbing my palms over my cheeks before dropping myhands to my thighs. "We were close as kids. Then, after his mom died, my parents took him in, and we lived together from that point on until a few years ago. That's when I moved back here."

She nodded thoughtfully as her eyes landed on the bed. Her hands fidgeted, her expression suddenly rueful and conflicted. What was she thinking about? From the look on her face, I couldn't tell if she wanted to turn around and run or break down and confess every heartbreaking detail I had yet to know about her life.

"What's wrong?" I asked, tipping my head curiously.

"It's just sad to me, I guess, that we … people … can be so close to someone, and then, one day, it just … ends." Her brows pinched as she frowned. "I've never been able to understand how that happens. I mean, don't get me wrong; I've been there before too. I can't remember the last time I talked to my sisters or mother, and I have no idea when I'll ever want to again. But … how does that justhappen?"

I looked away then to a spot on the floor and shrugged my limp shoulders. "I don't know. I’ve never really thought about it before, I guess. But as far as Nate goes, I, uh … I think I finally realized we would never …growunless we grew apart."

Kate lifted her gaze but swept it up and over, avoiding me altogether as she stared at the blank ceiling above. She fumbled with her hands, chewed at her lip. I recognized this look, this hesitancy and uncertainty. This was the same way she had looked at the diner a couple of weeks ago. Like the moment had shriveled away to dust, leaving behind this beautiful shell of a woman who wanted nothing more than to hide from the world. Or maybe it was just me.

“Hey.” I leaned forward, resting an elbow on one knee while reaching my other hand out to hers. “Talk to me.”

The air left her lungs in an open-mouthed gust as she shrugged loosely, her hand in mine, but not grasping. She licked her lips, then said, "I … I wasn't suppo—" Her voice broke, and she swallowed. "I wasn't supposed to do this," she choked out.

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