Page 110 of Bad Love

She turns into my arms. "How was your night?" she askssleepily.

"Intense."

Kendall lifts a cool hand to my face, her thumb brushing my cheek as her breath fans my face. "What's up?" Her usual attentiveness is already entering hervoice.

What's up? It's so innocent, but it has everything tumblingout.

"My grandmother wants to give me the company.” I blow out a long breath. “I don't know where she gets these crazy-assideas."

"Like you get crazy-ass ideas?" She sits up, even though I can just make out the silhouette of her face in the dark. "Maybe you rub up against each other because she sees what you're capableof."

"I'm not that guy. I'm not Monty. I'm the hype man, not the guy who does performance reviews and balances budgets." I struggle to put it into words. “It’s like… when I’m there, I’m all there. And I’m fucking good at what I do. But there are just some things I’m not good at. I’m not the guy to measure twice and cut once. To watch everyone’s back. Not because I don’t want to. I just…” I rub both hands over my face. “I fuck itup.”

"You don't have to be Monty. You have to be you.” Her hands find mine, thumbs stroking soothing circles over my palms. “That doesn’t mean you don’t need to grow or that it’s not hard. But human beings are resilient, Logan. We’re built tobend."

I think of her situation, finding herself a single mom. What that must've been like. Her strength to get through it. I hold her tighter as I blow out a long breath. “I don’t know anyone as brave as you,Peach.”

"Being with Blake wasn't the bestexperience."

Hearing his name has my bodytensing.

"But it taught me about the kind of person I want to be,” she says. “Everything teaches us something if we're willing tolearn."

I turn that over in my head as I try tosleep.

* * *

The next morning,I get up before Kendall and, after dropping a light kiss on her lips, head downstairs. My mom's in the kitchen with a pot ofcoffee.

"Some party. You did itagain."

"We always do." She pours me acup.

"Conned money out of any big corporations lately?" Iask.

"Lots." With a smile, she tells me about herwork.

After a sip of the dark roast she has imported especially for her, I say, "You like it. Does it get boring after a while? I mean, you could do anything youwant."

If she knows why I'm asking, she doesn't let on. "It does and it doesn't. There's repetition. Following up with people. It's hard, but that makes it goodtoo."

I'm relieved to see Kendall coming down the stairs. "Morning."

She's wearing faded skinny jeans and a white sleeveless top, plus bright pink-and-gold bracelets. Her hair falls in waves around her shoulders. The smile she sends my way has my bodyhumming.

I’m reminded of our talk in bed last night. I can’t remember opening up to anyone like that before. When the words spilled out of me, I wasn’t expecting anything other than for her to be there and hearthem.

But of course she did better than that. She alwaysdoes.

"What are you two getting up to today?" my mother asks, jolting me out of my Kendall-inducedhaze.

Kendall looks at me. "I'm not sure," she says at the same time as I say, "We have bigplans."

"Big plans?" Kendallasks.

"I thought we could go snorkelling. You bring a bathingsuit?"

She shoots me a guilty look. "I wasn't sure what to bring, so I broughteverything."

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