Page 51 of Reviving Kendall

Walking out, he shoots me a wink before closing the door. I have a moment of panic where my heart feels like it’s going to beat out of my chest and my palms get sweaty. Taking a deep breath, I remind myself that I’m not one of those stage five clingers. It will be ok. I may not be strong enough on my own and I may need them for a crutch for a little while, but it will get better.

I can’t tell you how long I sit in the bath for. I know it’s long enough that my fingers turn to prunes and the water gets chilly. It takes me a minute to stand on my own, but I finally manage and wrap one of our shitty towels around myself, which brings me to the next problem. We didn’t think to bring me any clothes in here. I’ll run naked around the trailer park before I put that black dress on again. Out of the corner of my eye, I see that Lucas forgot his shirts on the floor. The thought of him walking around the house without a shirt because he’s too chivalrous to come back in and get it, makes me giggle. Oh well, you know what they say, finders keepers.

I wrap his dress shirt around my body and do up the buttons. Thankfully, it hangs past my thighs and hides the fact that I’m not wearing panties. I set the dress and his under shirt on the sink before walking out towards my room. I’m hoping that I can get some clothes on before anyone sees me.

Not a chance.

Goose is propped against the wall in my full-size bed with Mav’s camera in his hand. He’s lost the dress shirt and shoes, so sitting there in nothing but a white shirt and suit pants with his blonde hair looking like he just rolled out of the bed, he’s making it really hard to stay focused.

“These are really good,” he says without looking up. “We need to get these…” those green eyes finally find me, and he loses his train of thought for a second before he finishes, “printed.”

“I forgot to take any clothes in with me. It was on the floor. Think he’ll mind?” I ask tugging at the bottom hem.

Goose shakes his head slowly as he starts with my toes and works his way up, “He’d be an idiot if he did.”

Trying to hide my red face, I turn to my drawers. Shit. Now I’ve got to make the decision of grabbing my panties and making a run for it, or just sucking it up and putting them on in front of him.Oh, excuse me. I need to go put my panties on while I’m in your buddy’s shirt.Yeah, fuck it. I try not to look at him, but I still see him out of the corner of my eye watching me as I slide a pair of boyshorts up my legs.

“Sorry,” I say turning around and making my way over to the bed.

He gives me that golden boy smile, “I’m not. That was the hottest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”

I roll my eyes as I crawl up next to him. He scoots down until he’s lying flat and lifts his arm for me. Putting my head on his chest, I let out a sigh as he wraps his arms around me. The camera sitting abandoned beside him. I doze off with the beat of his heart in my ear and the smell of him and Lucas filling my nose.

The next thing I know, I open my eyes to find Maverick standing in the doorway. Goose and I are in the same position we were in before except he must have fallen asleep too. Lucas is pressed against my back with his arm thrown over my hip. This probably looks so fucking bad. I watch Maverick’s face as I wait for him to explode.

I want to cry as a soft smile crosses his face, “Hungry?”

Love and Desire

I take the next week off from school. There are still a lot of things to get done, and I’m just not ready to get back to normal everyday life, no matter how much the guys say it’ll help. Which is another problem, I’ve yet to sleep alone at the trailer. It’s mostly Goose who spends the night, because his parents are never home anyways. He says we can stay at his, but I don’t want to risk the chance that they may make a surprise visit.

There’s a ton of stuff on my list to do. First being the trip to see Mr. Bishop. I’ve put it off as long as I can, but he’s called me every day since the funeral. I was going to go around lunch time, but Lucas made me promise to wait on him. After he gets out of school he drives me over to the office and sits in the waiting room while I talk to Mr. Bishop. I’d love to have him in here with me, but this is one step closer to getting back on my feet.

“I’m glad to finally have you here, Ms. Davis,” he tells me once all of the pleasantries are out of the way.

“Yeah, I’m sorry about that. I haven’t felt up to doing much in the past week,” I admit.

He nods, “That’s completely understandable, and again, I’m sorry for your loss.”

It feels awkward when people say that, because you’re supposed to say thank you, or it’s ok, and it’s neither one of those. Instead, I plaster a small smile on my face, “You said there was stuff that we needed to discuss?”

Shifting some papers around on his desk, he says, “Yes, yes. I need you to sign some documents for your grandfather’s life insurance policy. They went ahead and took care of everything with the funeral home, but I need your signature on a few things.”

I shift in my seat, “Are you sure that Gramps had a policy? He never talked about one, and I know that Nana didn’t have one when she passed away.”

He nods, “Oh yes. I’m sure. When he came to see me, he was very detailed with everything. It was an expensive policy, because he was so sick. I’m sure you understand.”

Yeah, I understand alright. That’s why we never had any money, because he spent so much on life insurance. Tears well up in my eyes and threaten to spill over at the thought of him trying to take care of me even after he’s gone. We suffered pretty bad when Nana died. If it hadn’t been for one of the local churches that Nana had often volunteered for, we would have been up shit creek without a paddle. They did some kind of candlelight offering service for her and raised enough to help us. Gramps was too prideful at first to take it, but he had no choice.

Mr. Bishop brings my attention back to him, “Ms. Davis?”

“Sorry,” I say trying to dislodge the rando thoughts bouncing through my head. “How much was the policy for?”

He shuffles the papers around on his desk, “I don’t have the figures right here in front of me, but I can get them for you.”

I shake my head, “That’s ok. I was just curious.”

“Well, everything has run smoothly thus far, so just as soon as I have your signature right here, it shouldn’t take any more than thirty days for the claim to be processed. Your grandfather gave us an account that he said was a joint account with you. I’ll need you to confirm that when you sign.”

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