Page 39 of Promise Yule Be Mine
"Most days. We love each other. In a way my dad's loss brought us closer. I don't know if we'd all still live at home if he hadn'tdied. We all love our mom so much we didn't want to leave her alone."
"That's very sweet of you. And a relief."
"A relief, why?" I raised an eyebrow and finally let Mr. Tummy go.
"Because you also still live at home so you won't think I'm pathetic for doing the same."
I glared at him. "I would never think you're pathetic," I said before I could stop myself.
He smiled and raised the centipede to my face again. The fluff and dust of the toy made me sneeze and Kody laughed.
Why did he care what I thought of him? Why was he being so playful with me when he barely knew me? Did he…did he like me too? And what did that mean for Jenna? Was this a lavender marriage? Was Kody hiding his homosexuality by marrying her? Was that why they hadn't been better prepared for this wedding?
I turned my attention to the boxes marked as books but couldn't help sneaking glances at him, studying his face as if I could read his mind and find out the truth.
We managed to find a whole treasure trove of books that could be appreciated by the children of the town, so Kody got a couple empty boxes and we filled them to the brim with books.
"I think Karim will be very happy with these," I said.
Kody's smiled wavered a little.
Was it because he was jealous of me, or Karim? Did he have any right to be, considering he was getting married at the end of the month?
"I'm sure he will," he answered a few moments later and he carried one of the boxes to his car when a ginger cat started rubbing against my legs.
"Oh. Hello you. Where did you come from?"
Kody chuckled and came around as I picked up the cat.
"Pumpkin! What are you doing out here? You'll catch your death, you silly boy."
He was the fluffiest thing ever, with a pure white bib and toes. From the looks of it he was a Maine Coon.
"Sorry. They're escape artists sometimes," Kody said and took Pumpkin from me but I didn't miss his touch, or how it made me feel.
Or how he paused too.
Was he as affected by me as I was by him?
Kody took the cat back inside and I tried to shake off whatever had gotten into me. Whether Kody liked me or not, it didn't matter because I'd never betray Jenna like that. She had been my best friend for longer than I remembered. It didn't matter that we hadn't caught up in years, she still was. I would never, should never, could never do anything about my attraction to her fiancé. Whether he was gay, straight or otherwise.
"All okay?" he asked me when we were on our way to the library and I nodded.
"Sure. Yeah. Why?"
"You've been very quiet."
I forced a smile on my face and answered him. "Yeah. Just thinking. I'm fine."
He didn't ask any more questions, which I was grateful for because the last thing I wanted to do was tell him what I was thinking about. I was never very good at lying.
"Woah," Kody said a few minutes later and I looked up ahead.
There was a traffic jam in both directions.
"What is going on?" I asked.
"Beats me."
