Page 55 of Chasing Xander
“What do you mean you’re not leaving? You said the funeral is tomorrow.”
“It is,” Celeste said. “But she’s not going. She doesn’t have a way to get there. And even if she did, she doesn’t have the money to go.”
“Celeste!” Kylie snapped.
That must be what she and Celeste had been fighting about. Suddenly, everything made sense. Not only had she lost her grandmother, but she wasn’t able to go to the funeral. She wouldn’t get a chance to say a final good-bye.
He sat next to her and gently took her hands from her face. “What time is the funeral?”
“Noon.” She kept her head down, refusing to look at him.
He tilted her head up so she had no choice but to meet his gaze. “I’ll be back in thirty minutes. Be packed and ready to go.” He stood.
Her eyes widened, and her jaw dropped. “What?”
“We’re going to the airport.” It wasn’t a question, and he wouldn’t take no for an answer. She needed to be at that funeral, and he was going to make damn sure she was. He was supposed to be on a plane to New York for his mother’s birthday on Friday. He could get Kylie to her grandmother’s funeral and be back in time to catch his flight. Considering he hadn’t gathered the courage to ask her to go home with him, and now that she was dealing with this loss, he wasn’t going to put that kind of pressure on her.
“There aren’t any flights that will arrive in time,” Celeste said. “We already checked.”
“Then we’ll drive,” he said.
“Xander…” Kylie stood. “You have class this afternoon that you can’t miss. Not to mention all your classes tomorrow and Thursday and possibly Friday.” She paced again. “What about your dad? And Brad?” She shook her head. “The earliest we could leave is four thirty. It’s a sixteen-hour drive without stopping. There’s no way you can drive that long. You’ll be tired. And if you stop, we won’t make it in time. I won’t let you do this.”
Right now, he really regretted telling her about his failing grades. But as much as he hated to admit it, she was right. Missing classes meant getting barred from RAT house functions, and giving Brad the satisfaction of enforcing that punishment was almost as painful as washing himself with sandpaper. He stared at Kylie with her red, puffy cheeks and tear-filled eyes, and everything inside of him clenched. “Getting you to your grandmother’s funeral is more important than some stupid class. And you can help with the driving.”
He looked between the two girls, waiting for some sort of confirmation. The longer no one spoke, the bigger the ball of dread became. There was no way she could turn down his offer. Could she?
Kylie tucked her bottom lip between her teeth, and tears spilled down her face. She nodded, and he sighed with relief, letting his eyes close momentarily.
“I’ll be back in half an hour.” He grabbed his bag from the floor and left her room.
“Xander!” Celeste caught up to him at the end of the hall. He stopped and turned toward her. “Thank you for offering to drive her home. She needs to be at that funeral.”
“I agree.”
“I’m not going to tell her this is a horrible idea, but it is.” She crossed her arms. “I don’t know what you’re hoping to gain from doing this for her, but you—”
“Whoa. Wait a minute. What I’m hoping to gain?” His tone was sharp. “All I want is to help Kylie.”
“You’ve been leading her on for weeks, and then you tell her you need to slow things down. And now you’re going to put her in a car with you for sixteen hours, spend the next three days with her, probably in a hotel, and then sit in your car for another sixteen hours. What do you think she”—Celeste stabbed her finger toward her room—“is going to make of that?”
Shit. He hadn’t thought of that. He could feel the color draining from his face as the realization of what this trip would entail smacked him hard. Repercussions from Brad and an even greater threat of getting kicked out of RAT house. The threat of losing his trust fund. Was he willing to risk millions for a girl he’d barely known a month? Potentially missing his mother’s birthday party? The fallout he’d get from his dad if that happened? His only option would be to take Kylie with him. But would she want to go, especially the day after she buried her grandmother?
It would also mean a lot of time together. He inhaled deeply and pressed his lips into a thin line. He’d barely been able to stop from kissing her again like he wanted to. How would he handle days with her? He wasn’t that strong.Fuck.
“Look, I don’t know what’s going on with you, but Kylie is my best friend, and I won’t let you hurt her any more than you already have.”
He cringed.
Celeste scowled. “If you do, I will cut off your nuts and feed them to you with peanut butter.”
“Point taken.” He furrowed his brows and bit his tongue to keep from saying anything further. He understood Celeste’s protective nature. He’d done the same thing for his brothers in the past, but she was wrong about him. Everything he was doing was in an effortnotto hurt Kylie. But how the hell did he explain that without admitting how much of an asshole he’d been in the past? How he’d hurt a girl he liked because he was so quick to jump into bed without any thought to the consequences?
“And there’s something else you need to know.”
He raised a brow, waiting.
“Her father… He’s…well, he’s not a very nice guy, and he drinks. A lot. Don’t be surprised if he shows up at the funeral drunk. If he does, Kylie will—”
