Page 58 of Keeping Kara

“It’s not healthy to skip lunch,” she scolded lightly.

“What did you have for lunch?” he countered.

“Uh…we aren’t talking about me.”

Chaos laughed. “So you can lecture me about being healthy when you probably had a Little Debbie Snack Cake and some tortilla chips?”

“Hey, I also ate a PB&J sandwich. There’s a ton of protein in peanut butter.”

They shared a smile, and he shook his head. “Have a seat, I’ll get you a fork.”

“Maybe I should try the chopsticks again,” she mused.

“How about you eat with a utensil that actually gets the food from the plate to your mouth?” The last time she’d tried to use chopsticks, more food ended up on the table than in her stomach.

“Yeah, that’s probably best,” she agreed.

Over dinner, where they both shared several different entrees, they talked about their day. It was adorable how excited she was about balancing spreadsheets and finding errors embedded deep within the numbers. Accounting might not be something she had a passion for, but she was obviously good at it and took pride in her work. She also described how far along in her story she’d gotten, and Chaos was anxious to get to read the finished version.

He told her about the long-ass meeting they’d had that morning and how fun it was afterward to try a few new maneuvers during their flight training.

When they’d both eaten their fill, they packaged up the leftovers together.

After everything was put away, he turned to Kara. “We’re friends, right?”

She looked at him in confusion. “Yes. I’d like to think so.”

“Then talk to me, Kara. Something’s been on your mind, and you’ve been worrying about it for a week. Have I done something to make you feel as if you can’t be open with me? I know you still struggle with flashbacks at night, and I don’t like that you need to leave a light on, but…is there something else? Has something happened?”

She looked startled, then guilty, dropping her gaze from his and looking down at her nails as if they held the answer to world peace.

Reaching out, Chaos gently put his finger under her chin and lifted her head, so he could see her eyes. The blue orbs were turbulent and full of uncertainty.

“Whatever’s going on in that beautiful head of yours, you can share it with me. I’ll always treat you with care, sweetheart.”

She licked her lips, sighed, then took a deep breath. “I know. This is just hard…”

“Take your time.” Chaos couldn’t help himself, running his fingers along her cheek to her hair. He brushed it back from her face, marveling at how soft it was. So different from his own. He’d never considered himself a very gentle man, but with this woman, he wanted to be as careful as he could so as not to scare her. She’d already been through hell, and he wouldn’t do anything that would ever remind her of the violence in her recent past.

“What happened to me…it was bad. Awful. But it didn’t…it didn’t scar me for life,” she said, almost defiantly.

“That’s good.”

“I mean, I’m not going to let him keep me from having a relationship with someone. Being intimate.”

Chaos had no idea where Kara was going with this. He wasn’t uncomfortable with the topic, per se, but thinking about this woman being with anyone else wasn’t something he even wanted to think about. It hurt too much. “Okay.”

She stared at him, almost expectantly, and Chaos felt as if he was missing something⁠—

Then it hit him. Had she found someone she wanted to date? He wasn’t sure how she would’ve done so, since she spent most of her time in his house…but it was possible. She talked to a lot of people online for work, and maybe one of them had clicked with her.

The idea made his stomach cramp, and all the delicious Chinese food he’d just eaten threatened to come right back up.

He suddenly understood what Edge might be feeling a little better. And he felt even worse for his friend than he did before. Because this sucked. It felt as if his heart was being ripped out of his chest.

“You’ve…you’ve met someone you might want to go out with? And you’re struggling with that?” he asked, after an awkward pause in the conversation.

She nodded, looking relieved he’d figured it out.