Page 56 of The Wrong Side of Kai
“I changed my mind,” I say with a shy smile. I’ve never left a party early before. “We walked home.”
“In this weather?” Dad looks flabbergasted at the thought of me walking home in such minimal clothing when it’s thirty degrees outside. “Hot chocolate coming straight up!” He spins around with the frying pan and disappears back into the kitchen.
“What the hell?” I ask the air. Has my father been possessed? I have no idea who this man in my house is.
“What’s wrong?” Kai asks. He carefully takes his snowy Jordans off and sets them down by the door, then joins me by my side again.
“My dad. . . Never mind,” I say, shaking my head. Kai wouldn’t understand why it’s blowing my mind that my dad is offering to make us hot drinks. Something so normal. . . yet so strange in this house.
I grab some blankets from the living room and keep one for myself, then give the other to Kai. We wrap ourselves up in them, like two giant marshmallows, and then pad through to the kitchen to join Dad.
“I don’t have any whipped cream. Sorry,” Dad apologizes as he sets down two mugs of hot chocolate on the dining table. His glasses have steamed up a little, so he removes them and gives them a wipe with the hem of his T-shirt. “Sorry, but I was a little caught up in my own world the other night. Vanessa, do you mind introducing me to your friend again?” he says, studying Kai as he slips his glasses back on.
“Oh, yeah, right,” I mumble as I slide down into one of the kitchen chairs. I wrap my hands around the mug of hot chocolate to hopefully bring back some feeling in them, because at this point, my hands are entirely numb from the cold. “So, this is Kai Washington. We’re. . . partners.” I exchange a look with Kai and he tries to hide his smirk.
“On the school assignment?” he finishes, and I’m surprised to find he actually heard me the other night. Maybe hedoeslisten.
“Yep,” Kai says. “Nice to meet you, Sir.”
“Oh, please,” Dad says, holding up a hand. “Just call me James. And let me know if you guys need anything.” He takes his own mug of hot chocolate from the countertop and leaves us in peace alone in the kitchen as he crosses over to the living room. He sinks down into his favorite armchair and pulls out his laptop. It’s not hard to guess what he’s looking at – probably more scenic non-negotiable sights in Ireland.
Kai sits down at the opposite side of the table from me and reaches for his own mug. We’re both still wrapped in the blankets, pulling them tight around our shoulders, and we’re silent for a few minutes as we let the warmth of the house, the blankets, and the hot chocolate melt the ice from our bones. We take long sips from our drinks while mirroring each other’s smiles over the rims of our mugs. It’s such a nice moment, the two of us perfectly content in the silence.
“I can finally feel my toes again,” Kai says after a while. He gulps down the remainder of his hot chocolate, pushes the mug away, then pulls the blanket tighter around him. It makes him look so adorable, and the sight of this boy with the slit in his eyebrow and the bruised eye and the swollen knuckles wrapped up in Kennedy’s favorite fluffy white blanket makes me giggle.
“And I can finally feel my face,” I say. I reach up and touch my eyes just to double check that no icicles have formed on my eyelashes. I never would have imagined that I’d be sitting in my kitchen late on a Saturday night drinking hot chocolate – made byDad, of all people – with Kai Washington, the enigmatic stranger who I spilled my vodka soda on.
I stand and collect our empty mugs, then dump them in the sink and leave them there because I don’t have the energy to wash them. I walk over to Kai and lean down into him from behind, wrapping my arms around his shoulders, pretty much covering him up with my own blanket. My chin nestles perfectly into the crook of his neck, and I inhale the scent of his musky cologne.
“I’m sorry for being angry at you,” I murmur. I didn’t need to go off on him the way I did. He’s right – I was convincing myself of things he wasn’t guilty of, so my anger definitely wasn’t justified.
“And I’m sorry for being a complete idiot last night,” he says, reaching up to take my hands in his own. We stay like that for a few moments, my body pressed into his as I hug him, my head resting on his shoulder, my eyes closed.
Is this what I’ve been missing all this time? All these special little moments that happen when you least expect them to? Is this what being with someone you really like entails? Are moments like this what makes the inevitable pain at the end of a relationship worth it?
“Let’s go upstairs,” I say, straightening up behind Kai. I’m reluctant to let go of him, but I finally unwrap my arms from around his shoulders and allow him to rise to his feet.
We head for the stairs, two giant marshmallows bobbing through the house, but I catch Dad’s eye before I even step one foot on the staircase. He’s watching us from his armchair, and he makes a dramatic point of checking his watch. He frowns, then shuts his laptop.
“It’s getting late, Vanessa,” he tells me with a subtle edge to his voice. “I think your friend should head home.”
“Oh, yeah, of course,” Kai says, his words babbling out of his mouth before he can stop them. For a guy who’s usually so smooth and charming, he sure is awkward when it comes to meeting my father.
I raise an eyebrow at Dad. Kai was literally in my room four nights ago and Dad didn’t even so much as bat an eyelid, yet now he’s asking Kai to leave? What is even going on? I don’t want Kai to go, but I also love that Dad isn’t just sitting by and letting me take a guy up to my room. This. . .thisis what I have been waiting for all this time.
An actual parent, doing actual parental things, like reminding me to wear a jacket and making me hot chocolate and not-so-subtly kicking a guy friend out of the house when it gets late.
It’s too glorious. Dad has really taken my feelings on board, and although his effort may be forced, I appreciate that he is already trying to be better within twenty-four hours of me exploding on him. Maybe all this time he wasn’t non-existent because he didn’t care, but rather he was absent because hedoescare. He said so himself – he thought giving Kennedy and me our own space and freedom was the right thing to do.
“Is it okay if I hang here for five minutes?” Kai asks. “Just until my mom picks me up?”
I laugh. As if Dad is going to say no and force Kai back outside into the blistering cold. Even Dad chuckles, tells Kai it’s no problem, then opens up his laptop again and returns to his browsing.
Kai and I sit down on the bottom of the stairs together. He texts his mom my address and she pings back immediately that she’s on her way. Kai can’t bike when the snow is as deep as it is tonight, and I doubt his vital organs could handle another walk out in that weather.
“So, can I see you tomorrow?” he asks, putting his phone away. His eyes dance with amusement and the same hopefulness that was in his expression back at the party, like he’s waiting for me to panic and say no.
But the radiant smile I give him is nothing but reassuring. “Nessie wouldloveto see you tomorrow, Captain Washington.”
