Page 6 of No More Spies

His parents were perfect. Oh, they’d had trouble in thepast, but their problems had been about something traumatic that had happenedto his mom. His parents knew how to talk to each other. Shouldn’t those skillsbe in his DNA?

Except he didn’t share their DNA because Alex and Eve McKayweren’t his biological parents. He didn’t know what was in his DNA.

He let out a low groan and moved back to the door leadinghim into the kitchen. He wasn’t going into that tonight. He had way biggerissues than how he fit into his family.

He pulled his cell out and pressed the number connecting himto someone who was almost as familiar as Kala.

“Hey, what’s going on, Coop?” Kenzie Taggart sounded bouncyand happy, with pop music playing slightly too loud in the background.

She wasn’t going to sound so happy in a moment. “I thinkyour sister and I just broke up.”

Had they been together? It wasn’t like they did a bunch ofstuff in public. Only in private. Just for them.

“What?” Kenzie asked, and there was the sound of someonemoving and then the music was off. “You broke up with Kala? How exactly can youbreak up when you refuse to acknowledge her publicly? Is this more like youfinally cut her loose?”

Whoa. He hadn’t expected the… What did he even call the tonehe heard in Kenzie’s voice? “It’s not like that. Look, I think we should slowdown, and when I told her she freaked out on me and left.”

“Slow down?” There was the muffled sound of Kenzie tellingsomeone else to give her some space. So Tash was listening, too. All theTaggart women were going to hate him.

Anxiety made his gut tighten. He was causing trouble. It wasthe thing he didn’t do. His parents were great. He didn’t intend to ever givethem a reason to regret taking him in. “Kenz, you know how intense she can be.I wasn’t trying to hurt her.”

There seemed to be some kind of argument going on, and thenTasha’s voice came over the line. “Cooper, how long ago did she leave?”

Tasha would be fair at least. When he thought about it, hewas kind of happy Kala’s twin would take her side without having to hear any ofthe circumstances. He was pretty sure Hunter would do the same for him. “Acouple of minutes. She should be there soon.”

A sigh came over the line. “Or she’ll go to Boba Babes anddrown her sorrows. I’ll call her.” She was quiet for a moment. “How harsh wereyou with her?”

“I didn’t think I was. I just…” He couldn’t tell them whatKala had proposed. It was too personal. She might have told her sister, but hecouldn’t be sure, and he wasn’t giving it away. “She wanted to go to the dance,and I told her I’m not ready to be her permanent boyfriend.”

He was pretty sure he loved Kala Taggart. But he wasn’t surehe could handle everything loving her would mean. He wasn’t sure he couldhandle the intensity.

He mostly wanted to play ball and hang with his friends andyes, she was one of them, but she wanted more than he could give her.

A huff came from Tasha’s end of the line. “Okay. Well, I’llbake some cookies and have a talk with her when she gets back. I think youshould stay away for a while.”

“I don’t want to stay away from her, Tash. I…” He wasn’tgoing to say love. He wasn’t ready for that word, either. “She’s been myclosest friend for a long time.”

“But you don’t like your other friends to know,” Tasha saidnot unkindly, though he could practically hear Kenzie cursing his name.

“She tends to be rude to most of my other friends.” Hewasn’t the bad guy here. She was stubborn and would walk all over him if he lether.

“It’s her armor. If they would give her a chance…” Tashastopped. “None of this matters now. She’ll stay away. She won’t be a problemanymore.”

His heart was the one breaking now. He was going to loseeveryone. Lou would absolutely take Kala’s side, and TJ would, too, since hewouldn’t risk losing Lou. In so many ways, his best friend TJ was in the sameposition he was in, but he was handling it so much better. TJ wasn’t going tolose his friendship with Lou because she was in love with him.

“I’m going after her.” He knew in that moment he couldn’t.He couldn’t lose her this way. He was being a whiny ass. He did love KalaTaggart, and he wasn’t sure he could be whole without her. So he would suck itup and not care what anyone else thought, and they would find a way through.

He grabbed his jacket and walked out the back, locking thedoor behind him. It didn’t matter if she was going to throw some punches hisway, he was going to make it right.

“I don’t think seeing her again tonight is a great idea,”Tasha replied. “Give her some time to cool off.”

If he gave her time to cool off, she would ice him out. “Iwould rather take the punishment now than three months from now when shedecides to talk to me. We’ve been friends forever. We’re not ending like this.We’ll work something out.” He got to the gate and jumped it with the grace ofan athlete. He didn’t even put down his phone. “I’m going to make this right.Even if I have to drink way too much boba.”

It was her go-to. When she was stressed, she either icecoffeed or boba’d.

“She’s going to toss it in your face,” Tasha warned, and heheard Kenzie’s wild enthusiasm for the idea.

He would have to work on her, too. “The good news is I canalways clean up. I’ll text you when I’m with her.”

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