Page 84 of Chasing After You
“Oh, so man flu.”
Mirabelle chokes back a laugh and shakes her head. “I’ll be back in like a half hour. Maybe try an ice pack so my uncle doesn’t murder me for being the reason you’re walking bowlegged.”
“I am not acting like I have man flu. Why don’t I knee you in the nuts and see how you like it, Kait?” I ask, and she shakes her head as Mirabelle disappears out the front door, but not before I catch a glimpse of her sweet ass in her leggings.Damn.
“Well, that’d be crazy because I don’t have nuts, and you shouldn’t hurt women.”
“I would never hurt a woman,” I add seriously. It was a joke, but still, I need her to know that.
“I know,” she says, smiling for real now.
I reach for my coffee mug, adjusting how I’m sitting again while trying not to wince because I don’t have man flu. “So, I would normally segue into this better, but Mira’s probably going to be back sooner than she said. Do you know what’s going on with the twins?” I ask, and Kaitlyn immediately looks down at her lap.
“I don’t know,” she mumbles, and it’s as convincing as a steaming pile of shit.
“Kait, please. If you know anything, I need you to tell me.”
Kaitlyn sighs and turns the other way. “I don’t know what you want me to say.”
“I want you to be able to look me in the eyes and tell me whatever it is you know. Pretty damning that you can’t look at me right now.”
“Hunter is mad because Bailey won’t tell him what’s going on with him. I knew Bailey had quit soccer, but he wouldn’t tell me a reason other than he didn’t see the point anymore. He’s been pretty upset since the fire, but every time I ask him what’s wrong, Bailey shuts down.” She shrugs her shoulders, stealing a glance at me.
Don’t get upset with her. She’s still a kid. “Why didn’t you tell me he quit soccer?” Why do I get the feeling that’s not everything she knows?
“Because I thought if I let B sort through his shit without involving you, or Mira, or our parents, it would all be fine. I didn’t think he’d get drunk at school,” she says, and I take a sip of my coffee, trying to process this rationally. I can’t blame Kaitlyn for thinking that. Getting drunk at school is pretty extreme when it comes to teenage rebellion, but wishing she had told me then doesn’t change anything now.
“I get that.” Kaitlyn grabs a pillow and groans into it dramatically, and I raise my eyebrows in surprise. “You good?”
“Can I tell you something that you have to promise to keep a secret?” she asks, pulling the pillow down to peek at me.
“Does it involve anyone getting hurt?”
“I don’t think so, but you can’t tell Mira,” she says, and damn, if that doesn’t make me second-guess wanting to know.
“Kait, I want to make that promise, but if it involves Bailey, I don’t know if I can,” I say honestly, and I hate that I have to say it. It’d be so much easier if I could lie to her, but I can’t.
“IkissedBaileyorhekissedmebutweweredefinitelykissingandnowheisnottalkingtome,” she rambles, and I’m not sure I caught any of that.
“Um, maybe I’m getting fucking old, but I need you to repeat that slower.”
Her cheeks are flaming red, as if someone took an insane amount of makeup and painted them with it. Kaitlyn nods, hugging the pillow to her chest. “I kissed Bailey, or he kissed me. I’m not sure who started it, but we kissed the other night. I don’t know what to do, Henry.”
Okay, pushing aside the fact that hearing about my sister kissing a boy makes me want to shove nails into my ears, it entirely catches me off guard. I’m not sure what I thought she was going to say, but it definitely wasn’t that.
“Can you say something?” Kaitlyn asks, and I shake my head.
“Need a minute,” I say, getting up to take a second to think.
Kaitlyn and Bailey kissed?
She wants me to keep that a secret from Mirabelle?Fuck, Mirabelle is going to kill me if I don’t tell her, but how do I share that when Kaitlyn told me in confidence?
Goddamn, this ice pack better help, or Owen is going to kill me. Who knew Mirabelle’s knees were lethal? I certainly didn’t, or I would have stayed on the fucking floor.
I snag the ice pack from the fridge and make my way back to the living room where Kaitlyn is texting on her phone. She immediately puts it away when she spots me, and looks like a kid caught with her hand in the cookie jar. “Are you mad?”
“I’m not mad. Mildly irritated you didn’t tell me sooner, but I’m also trying to pretend you didn’t tell me at all. I’m your older brother, and I know exactly how teenage boys think, and you picked a Walker boy?” I ask, leaving the rest unsaid. I know I’ve given her shit over the years about the twins, but I didn’t think anything would happen.
