Page 8 of Reckless Curves
Chapter Three
Even though her first instinct was to snap 'no’ at him, Kendra remained calm. “Don’t tell Marcus, not yet. You and I have too much to sort out first. Marcus being the overprotective, angry big brother won’t help our situation.”
Ever since her scare with cancer, Marcus had been overprotective. She’d just been told she was in remission, and at sixteen her world was glowing with promise. She remembered the first time she’d laid eyes on Tom. Marcus had seen the attraction too and didn’t like it. She remembered the scene like it was only yesterday…
She’d stood on the terrace in her parent’s back garden, lifting her face to the sun. Six months in remission and she was in love with the world once more. Excitement engulfed her. Who would have believed at sixteen she had a life ahead of her once again, filled with endless possibilities? Determined to decide for herself what she wanted to do with her second chance at life, she now jumped out of bed each morning to greet the world.
She wanted to take risks and face her fears. After all, she’d faced the biggest fear anyone should have to face and kicked its ass. The world was there for her, and she wanted to conquer it.
“Come inside, Kendra, you’ll catch cold.”
Her smile faded. “Mother, it’s 82 degrees out here. Besides, Stella’s coming over soon.”
“Lovely. I like Stella. She was a true friend while you fought the cancer. She was always there for you. She’ll ensure you don’t overdo it.”
She grinned. There her mother was sadly mistaken. Stella would take Kendra’s side. She always had and always would.
“Let’s wait for Stella in the kitchen with a nice cup of tea.”
“I want a walk in the garden.”
While she tried to argue through the open French doors, Kendra walked down the steps into the garden until she couldn’t hear her mother any longer. She thought she heard her older brother talking with someone by the pool. At twenty, Marcus had just been hired to drive his first formula two race car with Honda. They’d thought so highly of his skill they had given him his own head mechanic, a guy around his age, Thomas Lorde. Mom told her Tom was staying the weekend too, but she’d yet to meet him.
Kendra looked over her shoulder, ensuring her mother wasn’t chasing after her with a coat, and followed the sound of her brother’s voice to see what he and his friend were up to. As she rounded the corner of the garden, she could hear they were lounging around the pool.
It was as if an invisible wall blocked her way as she stopped short, her mouth gaping open and her body flooding with heat. A near naked bronzed Norse God with fair hair, which at the moment because of her chemo was longer than her dark locks, was standing under the outdoor shower five feet from where she stood. He hadn’t seen her, thank god, because she imagined she probably looked like a dork right now with a woolen jersey on in this temperature, so she drunk in his broad shoulders, strong thighs, and ripped stomach. But what made her mouth water was the tattoo of an eagle in flight covering seventy percent of his chest. It must have hurt a great deal getting inked like that. She understood how painful needles could be! It was truly a work of art. Every time his pecs moved, the bird looked as if it was soaring.
“Are you going to swim or merely stand there staring?”
She started, heat invading her cheeks at being caught ogling him. His voice was gravelly and fluid, like rain falling on a tin roof.
“My mother would freak if I got in the pool.” She pulled her eyes away from his chest to watch a drop of water slide down his crooked nose. “I’ve been ill and my mother insists I don’t overexert myself.” Why’d she have to say that? She hated people knowing about her illness. They looked at her differently, before escaping as fast as they could, as if she could pass her cancer on to them.
He turned off the shower and walked towards her, water running down over his body and she’d never wanted to let her fingers follow that flow on any boy—man—before.
“I’m Tom, your—”
“I know who you are. I’m Kendra—”
“I know who you are,” he said with a sexy smile. He stopped before her with a genuine look of puzzlement on his face. “Marcus told me you’d beaten the cancer.”
“I have. Six months clear. I’m in remission.”
He eyed her up and down. “You look pretty healthy to me.”
“I am,” she said proudly. And she was proud. It had been a tough few years of constant trips into doctors’ offices and hospitals. Being kept in isolation, prodded, poisoned with chemo… She’d lost contact with her friends and a few were hard to connect with again, some people didn’t know how to interact with you when you were ill, when really all you wanted them to do was treat you like you were normal for a little part of each day, so you could forget that there was something eating away inside you. Luckily, she’d had Stella.
“So, what’s stopping you? If you want to swim get in.” When she hesitated, he moved so close droplets of water dripped on her clothes. “Swim or don’t swim I don’t care, but if I had ever let anyone prevent me from doing what I wanted to do, I would not be going with your brother to race in Europe.” His attention swung to the pool house as Marcus emerged with two beers in his hand. “Marcus tells me you’re a fighter, Kendra. Don’t let anyone or anything hold you back.”
Marcus must have told him about her illness and also told him how overbearing her parents were. “I can’t blame my family for caring too much.”
“No. You can’t. And you shouldn’t. But you can blame yourself for letting them decide for you.”
With that, he sauntered off to grab his beer.
Kendra looked at the water and let the anger build. Who the heck did he think he was? It wasn’t as if she asked his opinion. But with a shiver, she knew Thomas was right. This was her life, and she’d fought hard to keep it, given everything she had gone through. And even now she knew the odds were still strong that she might have to fight the disease all over again.
Fight. And that’s truly what it was. The pain had been beyond bearable, and emotional, she wasn’t even sure if she would make it… it had been hard to keep her spirits up.
