Page 33 of All for Love

Or maybe I just want to think this is who he really is and that’s the act.I didn’t know, but I also didn’t really care. Right now, I needed him to be exactly the way he was being and he was delivering in spectacular fashion.

“He’s not mad at us. He’s mad at me.” Kody lowered his forehead to mine, not exactly holding me but certainly making himself vulnerable.

It was probably a sad testament to the state of my romantic life, but this was a more genuine moment than anything else I’d ever had with a man. “You guys were arguing. If he’s not mad at me yet, he will be after that.”

“Nah. That’s not your fault and he knows it.” Kody’s chest expanded into mine as he dragged in a deep breath and closed his eyes for a second. “I’m sorry for putting you in this position, Mercedes. It wasn’t my intention and I won’t do it again.”

“How did he find out?” I asked, my voice hushed.

I didn’t particularly want anyone to hear us, but the truth was that I was so overcome by emotion that my voice seemed to have stopped working. Kody was making me feel all kinds of things by being so tender and real with me, and while I didn’t want to feel them, I couldn’t deny that I did.

My chest was suddenly warming and there were butterflies waking up in my stomach, lazily stretching their wings as they prepared to take flight. His breath ghosted across my skin as he released it.

“He figured it out last night. I knew he had, but I was hoping we’d talk about it where you wouldn’t hear it. I’m sorry you walked in on that. Not exactly the way you wanted to start your week, huh?”

“No, not exactly,” I admitted in a small voice. “It’s my own fault, though. I dragged you into that bathroom last night. If he figured it out because of that, then this is on me.”

“He was always going to figure it out. That’s not on you. Besides, if we’re going to go out, I’m glad we did it with a bang.”

An unexpected, soft chuckle slipped out of me. “Did you have to say it like that?”

“Everyone always has a problem with the way I phrase things,” he teased lightly, reaching up to tuck my hair behind my ears. “I just call it like I see it, but anyway, I really won’t put you in this position again. You have my word.”

“It’s admirable that you’re trying to take all the responsibility for this, but it’s not necessary. I was a present and willing participant. The only positions you put me in were the ones I wanted to be in.”

Kody let out a quiet and surprised laugh. “Look at you, making puns.”

I smiled. It wasn’t a big, wide, radiant smile. More of just a slight curve of my lips, but I couldn’t help it. He’d put it there, and as much as he’d made me want to burn him at the stake, I appreciated that he’d made me smile now.

“Is he going to tell on us?” I worried my lip as I thought about my mother and how disappointed she was going to be in me.

“No, he won’t. He’ll keep this to himself for our father’s sake. You have nothing to worry about.”

“I’m so embarrassed.” I dropped my forehead to his chest and just took comfort in the steady beat of his heart and his warmth for a moment as I breathed him in.

“Don’t be.” I heard the smile in his voice when he said it. “My brother and I have done a lifetime of stupid shit together. Kaden will move on quickly so long as we do too.”

I nodded and fought back more tears. His kindness had thrown me off completely. Not only had he come after me, calmed me down, and made me smile, but he was also making it so easy for me to feel what I was feeling and let go.

“Do you really think so?” I lifted my head and looked back up at him, staring past his perfectly chiseled, clean-shaven jaw into his eyes.

He smiled again. “I don’t have to think because I know. He’s not going to say anything, Mercedes. Worst-case scenario is that he’s pissed at me for a couple of days, but he’ll get over it. It’s nothing I haven’t dealt with before.”

To my utmost surprise, he wrapped his arm around me and pulled me in for a hug, resting his chin on top of my head. “I’m sorry about all this.”

“You’ve said that.” My hands slid around his waist and I leaned into him, that steady heartbeat now against my ear as I held him right back. “You can stop apologizing now, Kody.”

A low chuckle rumbled through his chest. “Are you sure? I think I have a few more in me.”

“I’m sure. It’s nice to know that you’re capable of humbling yourself enough to offer a sincere apology, but this isn’t your fault alone. I’m sorry you had to see me crying. I should’ve been able to keep it together.”

“What for?” he asked, sounding genuinely confused. “I’m an ass and I know it, but I don’t like to see people get hurt. Especially good people. You’re a good person and you got hurt. I don’t think you have to apologize for crying.”

“Really? So you’re not completely freaked out?”

He pulled back to look into my eyes, a more familiar expression on it now as he smirked at me. “Does it look like I’m freaked out?”

“No.”

“Exactly. I may be an ass, but I can handle tears.” He ran a hand up my back and brought it to my head. He pulled it gently closer again before his chin found it’s spot at the top of my head once more. “If you want to cry, cry. I’ll be right here, Mercedes. Bodily fluids leaking out have never bothered me much.”

“Kody,” I groaned, biting back laughter. I shook my head where it was fitted against him. “Did you have to say it like that?”

“I just call it like I see it, Mercedes,” he repeated softly, tightening his grip. He held me until it didn’t feel like the world was about to end anymore. If anything, it felt like a whole new world was opening up and that world was just beginning.