Page 88 of Whirlwind
This isn’t right.
“Isla had to carry Nightmare to the bathroom with her, just so she’d go,” Cillian says, laughing. “We can’t quit holding out on the kid, she wants a puppy so badly.”
“This isn’t right,” I say aloud, this time. “I can’t be here.”
My heart beats wildly, a painful banging inside my chest, as if it’s trying to escape me and run to her. It wants to be with Kit. Not here.Not here.
“Damian and Willa will keep an eye on her,” Zander says.
“That’s not good enough,” I argue. “Do you know what happened to her in Maine?”
“Not entirely. But Willa does.”
As much as I trust Willa to help Kit, it’s not enough. Again, I picture her like she was last night. Alone, shaking and upset. Even on her strongest day, this would be a difficult trip for her.
“It’s not right,” I repeat. “I need to be there.”
“Does she want you there?” Zander asks.
Would she? I can’t answer with certainty, not after last night. But I think she would. Kit is emotional, but not in that way. She isn’t petty or immature. She’d set aside my infraction and take my support. There’s plenty of time to hate me after she buries her grandmother and comes back home.
“I won’t know until I show up.”
“What about the game tomorrow?” Cillian asks, sounding…approving.
“You guys can win one without me,” I say, and he nods, smiling.
“We’ll hold it down, you go help your woman,” he says, patting me on the shoulder. “I’d do the same in your shoes.”
I can’t help but wonder if he’d have a different reaction if he knew the reason Kit isn’t talking to me. That’s not as important,right now, as getting to her, though. Like everything else, there’s time to deal with that later.
“Do you know what flight they’re on?” I ask Zander.
“They’re already in the air,” he says. “I’ll forward you what I know, but it isn’t much.”
“Get in touch with Willa when you get to Bangor,” Coach says. I hadn’t noticed him lurking behind us. “I’ll handle things with management, here, to keep you out of as much trouble as I can with them.”
“Thank you, Coach.”
“I’m relying on you and Damian to take care of my girls.”
“We will, sir.”
It takes me all day to get to Bangor. It was already late when I landed and got a rental car. Then, there was another ninety-minute drive up to the small-town Kit grew up in. Willa gave me the address of Kit’s grandmother’s house. They plan on staying there, but she let me know of a motel nearby. Zander had let her know I was on my way, when they landed. She told Kit, who, I got the impression, was indifferent to the information.
Skipping the motel, I head straight to Kit. There won’t be any sleep until I see her; I’m far too amped up with concern. Maybe it’s stupid to be this worried. I’m not trying to treat her like she’s too fragile to handle this. I know she’s not, and I know she’ll get through this like she does everything. With shaky confidence and an abundance of courage.
If she wavers, I want to be her crutch. That’s all. If by the time she’s ready to fly home, she still wants space from me, I’ll take that shit like a man and give it to her. I’ll hate every fucking minute of it, but that’s the bed I made.
My phone chimes as I pull up to the postage stamp of a house that Kit’s grandmother lived in.
Lottie:
Are you there yet?
I’d called both Lot and my mother while I waited at the airport to board, this morning. Neither is happy with how I screwed shit up. Lottie ran me through the wringer, using every swear word in her arsenal at least twice, before she let me explain what was rattling through my brain when I used the wrong name with Kit.
After that, she settled down and told me she was proud of me for putting my career aside for a woman. Something she didn’t think I’d have done for Isla, when we were dating.
