Page 7 of You're My Person - For Always

Ahead of them, Zane had already parked and stood with River outside the bar. She dropped her gaze to the ground, watching her step.

"Are you okay?"

Of course, she wasn't okay. Everything she knew was a lie, and her parents weren't there to make it right again. She had a hard time accepting what she read online. It felt a lot like it was happening to someone else.

"I'm fine." She continued walking.

"We need to talk." He let the bike roll ahead and stopped in her path. "Later. Tonight. Leave your bedroom unlocked."

"There's nothing to talk about." She walked around him.

He rolled after her. "I know I hurt you."

She scoffed. "You were my person."

"I know."

Before she reached her sister and Zane, she glanced at him. "I just want to eat, sleep, and forget about today."

Kingsley inhaled deeply and nodded. She squared her shoulders to hide how much it hurt that he'd accept her pushing him away so easily. Yet, if he fought for her, she'd still walk away.

She had a hard time forgiving people.

Her dad was her hero. For the last nine years, he was alive and hadn't wanted her to see him. He rather have her believe he was dead.

When a parent makes that big of a decision to hurt their child, what was she supposed to think?

If her Dad couldn't love her enough to stay in her life, how could she expect Kingsley to love her?

Chapter Two

Kenna

––––––––

Kenna sat in the middle of the bed with her sketchbook open. A blank, white page stared at her. Since arriving at Gem Haven, she couldn't even pick up the pencil and draw.

Now that she was stuck here, living side by side with Kingsley, he'd not only broken her heart but had also stolen her muse.

Normally, drawing was her escape, a way to express the turmoil of emotions that churned inside her. But she couldn't draw a single line since moving to the unincorporated mountain community where Gem Haven Motorcycle Club ran the bar and the campground and made up its own rules. It was as if the very essence of her had been stripped away, leaving her an empty shell.

A soft knock set Kenna on edge. Each night that week, Kingsley came to her room and tried to see her. And each night, she refused to open the door.

She might live under his roof, but she was here because her sister loved Kingsley's brother. She wasn't going to do anything to jeopardize losing her sister again.

"Kenna? It's me," said her sister from the other side of the door. "Are you sleeping?"

She put her sketchbook and pencil underneath the bed and crossed the room, unlocking the door and letting River inside.

"Kingsley's been asking about you," her sister said gently. "He's been by every night."

Her throat tightened and she nodded. She had known, of course. The way Kingsley's eyes followed her whenever he was around—she hadn't missed a thing. But she had avoided him, hiding behind helping River at the campground during the day and her pent-up anger at night. She no longer knew how to talk to him the way she had before when he was the only link to her sister.

"Are you okay?" River rubbed Kenna's arm.

Even with her sister, she found it hard to communicate. She felt more alone than ever.

"I'm fine," Kenna said, her voice flat. "I just don't have anything to say to him."

---