Page 64 of Refusing Kendall

“What is it?” he asks as he stretches.

I snort, “We’re in trouble. Mav texted to come downstairs.”

Rubbing his face, he rolls his eyes, “It’s too early for this shit.”

As we walk into the kitchen, Lucas is sitting on top of the counter eating a bowl of cereal like a kid, while Mav stands next to him with his arms crossed.

He doesn’t even give us a chance to make it all the way into the room before he starts, “I thought we had a deal. The doctor said it would be really bad if she ripped the internal stitches, and we didn’t realize it.”

“He also said that the wound would bleed, so we’d know,” Lucas pipes in, coming to our defense.

Goose throws up his hands in a surrendering gesture, “Look man, she came to me pleading. I wasn’t going to let her down again.”

“Besides,” I toss out there as I pour myself a glass of juice, “I made sure that she didn’t hurt herself.”

Lucas’ spoon clatters against his bowl when he drops it, and I turn to find them both staring at me with an open mouth. I just shrug and chug my juice.

Mav begins to say something else, but Lucas cuts him off, “I think Kendall has been refused enough over the past couple months. I’m going to do something drastic, and you can either be on board with it or not. Your choice.”

He jumps down from the counter to put his bowl in the sink as silence follows him out of the kitchen.

Epilogue

KENDALL

“So, you finished all your classes online?” Ry asks, sitting down in the Rowe’s porch swing with me.

I nod, “Yeah, I think I’ll just do them all that way from now on, frankly. It’s much less stressful.”

“And you never have to leave the house?” she supplies.

She might be right. I shrug, “I just haven’t been feeling up to going anywhere lately.”

“I think that’s understandable,” she agrees, looking out towards the yard where the guys are playing some weird form of non-touch football.

It’s summertime, and they were able to convince me to leave the house long enough to visit for a few weeks. I’d really like to not go back to that house to be truthful, but things will be different this coming year. All but Goose will still be playing ball, but they aren’t freshman anymore. They’ll be able to come home to me at night.

My body is mostly healed and only aches every once in a while. The mental shit is going to take a lot longer. I still jump at small sounds, and my fear of the dark is worse than ever. The idea of talking to a therapist has been thrown out there, but I nipped that in bud before it could go anywhere. I don’t need to talk to anyone about my problems. If the four of them plus Ry and Lincoln aren’t enough, then there’s something unfixable up there.

“You ready to go, sweets?” Teagan yanks me from my thoughts. His hair is pulled up in one of those dude buns that Lucas’ brothers give him shit for, but I happen to think is sexy as fuck.

I stand up to throw both working arms around his shoulders, “If I say yes, will you tell me where we’re going?”

His head falls back as he laughs, “Why do you think they sent me? You can’t break me that easily anymore.”

“Wanna bet?” I ask with a devilish grin.

“Gross, get a room,” Leo calls as the rest of Lucas’ brothers make their way back into the house.

I roll my eyes, and Teagan leads us down the stairs. We walk around the side of the house to the driveway, where the others are waiting in Lucas’ truck. Maverick holds out a strip of fabric that Teagan takes to tie around my eyes.

“Is this some kink thing? Because all you’ve got to do is say so, and I’m game,” I tell them.

Three laughs spill from the truck as Teagan’s chest jumps against my back with his. He kisses my shoulder, “I swear. I love the places your mind goes, sweets.” Giving me a boost into the backseat of the truck, he climbs up behind me.

We bump down the road for what is probably only like ten minutes, even though it feels like an hour. I listen to as much of their chit chat as I can before asking, “Are we there yet?”

They chuckle, and Goose grabs my left hand in his, “Almost.”

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