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Jen’s words, her story, was what Kelly needed to hear, no matter how hard it was reliving everything that’d happened.
“Don’t you see?” Jen asked when she was done. “None of this was your fault. It was Rhys and Jim Parker and the people who ran the ring that are at fault for every last piece of this. You were just hurt and scared and struggling. If anyone’s a bad friend, it’s me.”
“What? No!”
“I mean it, Kelly,” Jen pleaded, her voice shaking. “If I’d been a better friend, I would have checked in with you more. I would have noticed the changes in your behavior and gotten you away from Rhys. I wouldn’t have left you alone when you’d just gone through hell and you needed a friend.”
She looked up at me then—they both did. Seeing the tears in their eyes had my heart clenching in my chest and my knees shaking again. I lowered myself until I was kneeling at Kelly’s side, and she leaned against me, taking my comfort and strength in a way that made me want to beat on my fuckin’ chest.
She was mine. This girl was mine, and I fuckin’ needed her as much as she needed me.
“I can’t believe you’re together,” Jen said, her awe-filled words quiet. “The best boss a girl could ask for and my best friend.”
At that, Kelly’s gaze shot back to Jen. “Best friend?”
Jen tipped her head to one side, smiling, though her face seemed to crumple at the same time. “You’ll always be my best friend, Kelly. And I’ll always be here for you.” At that moment, Rosie tossed her arms in the air and let out a squeal that had us all choking on our laughter. Jen bounced her in her arms while she looked straight into Kelly’s eyes. “Even when things get tough, or it feels like there’s too much going on, or too much between us”— she glanced down at her child— “I’ll be here for you.”
“Thank you.” Kelly’s voice got lost as Rosie squealed again.
Jen gave both of us an apologetic look. “She’s hungry.”
“Oh.” Kelly glanced at me, then turned her attention back to her friend. “Is it…? Can I…?”
“You want to stay?”
Kelly nodded fiercely and turned a pleading look to me. “Can I?”
“’Course you can.”
Jen gestured to the door. “Vinny should be in his office if you want to see him.”
I pressed a kiss to Kelly’s temple, then did my best to stifle the groan I made when I climbed from my knees. Kelly giggled before mouthing the words old man, and my heart swelled until it was bursting in my chest.
Loved it when she smiled like that. When she laughed and played like she hadn’t been through hell. Wasn’t much in life that could make me happier than seeing her happy.
Leaving the girls in the nursery, I took a right in the hall and knocked on Vinny’s office door. He was sitting at his desk, watching the five computer monitors in front of him.
“Lee!” Vinny jumped from his chair and met me halfway through the room, taking my hand and shaking it like he hadn’t seen me in a year.
It’d been a while. With Jen being out on maternity leave and everything that went down with the FBI, neither of us had been able to break away.
“How’s it going?” He gestured to the oversized chair that sat to one side of the room, and I took a seat while he sat back at his desk.
“Doin’ okay. Been trying to take it one day at a time.”
“That’s all we can do sometimes.”
“You taking care of yourself?”
Vinny’d had bags under his eyes since he was hospitalized after jumping out of the fuckin’ helo to try to save Jen. With his past health concerns, with the sickness he was so prone to, I’d been conscious of that fact every time I looked at him.
Now, Vinny shrugged. “Trying to. I don’t know how we’d be able to manage without Rose.”
“Your dad pissed you stole her away?”
He let out a laugh as he tugged at the sleeves of his sweater. “He was at first. I don’t think he appreciated just how much she did for him until she was gone. But she’s been back to help with things, training his new staff and helping out when he needs to entertain guests.”
“When she’s not too busy with you.”
