“Shh!” Kennedy said with a laugh. “You’ll wake my mom.”
“I don’t want to wake your mom.”
“Then lower your voice,” she hissed.
I laughed. “You lower your voice.”
“Oh my God, Matt. Are you drunk?”
“No,” I somehow managed to say with a completely straightface. Because I was plastered.
“Are you sure about that?” She raised one of her eyebrows in away I could only describe as overtly sexual. Yep. That was it. Overtly sexual.
“Absolutely positively not drunk,” I said. “Here’s your icecream.” I shoved the bag into her hands. “They had your favorite.” I knew herfavorite ice cream. Because I knew her. I knew everything about her. Well,everything but a few things. My gaze wandered to her lips for just a beat.
“Really? They had the forbidden chocolate? I haven’t had thisin years.” She reached into the bag and pulled the container to her chest withthe most orgasmic sigh.
“Shh, your mom will hear you,” I said.
“Hear me sighing?”
“I have no idea what she’ll think if she heard the noise thatjust came out of your mouth. Come on.” I grabbed her around the waist andlifted her in the air.
“What are you doing?” she said with a laugh as I flipped herupside down over my shoulder. “Matt, put me down.”
“No, I’m taking you back to the couch where you belong.” Ileaned down with her still balancing on my shoulder to grab the ice pack she’ddiscarded on the floor. Somehow one of her hands slid down to my butt.
My whole body tensed. Not because I didn’t like it. Because Idid. But I didn’t know if she knew her hand was perched precariously on my leftass cheek. And it seemed like a good idea to tell her just in case it was anaccident. “Kennedy, I need to inform you that your hand is on my ass.”
“Would you just put me down, you big oaf?”
I laughed and tried to gently put her down. I collapsed onthe couch next to her. “You touched my butt,” I said and pulled out the Frenchfries I’d picked up after I’d gotten her ice cream.
“I didn’t mean to.”
“Sure,” I said. But I was pretty sure she’d meant to.
“You’re really drunk.”
“Am not.”
“You’re talking so much louder than you realize,” she saidwith a laugh. “Oh my God, this reminds me of one night when Brooklyn and I camehome drunk. Do you remember that party at Felix’s place?”
“Yeah, I remember.” Brooklyn had looked so beautifully out ofplace at that party. I hadn’t been able to stay away from her.
“Oh no, wait. Uncle Jim was pissed after that. But not aspissed as he was after the party at your house. Because we came back drunkagain. He tried to ground her for life.”
I shook my head.
Kennedy leaned forward and for a second I thought she wasgoing to kiss me. But then she just gently touched my neck, right below my ear.I tried not to orgasmically sigh like she had. I may have groaned though. Just alittle.
“Why do you have mud on your neck? Or is that chocolate?”
I scratched the side of my neck where there absolutely wasmud. That was going to look great in Poppy’s pictures. Serves her right.I rubbed it off on my sweatpants. “Don’t eat that,” I said and grabbed Kennedy’shand in case she was about to put her fingers in her mouth. I pulled her handonto my lap just to ensure she wouldn’t do something crazy. “It’s definitelymud. I have the best story,” I said and started laughing.
Kennedy just shook her head as she smiled back at me. “Aren’tyou going to tell me the story?”
“So I went on a terrible blind date a few weeks ago. So badthat the girl actually jumped in a lake to try to avoid me tonight. I helpedher out. She must have gotten some lake gunk on me. Oh, but get this…”
“I’m still stuck on the fact that this woman jumped in a laketo avoid you. What the hell happened on your date?”
“She was super late and tried to set my dick on fire.”
Kennedy laughed and somehow her fingers wound up intertwinedwith mine.
I didn’t pull away. And neither did she.
“Wait, I need more than that,” Kennedy said.
“Right. I was about to tell you more. She was married toCupcake.”
Kennedy cringed.
I would have missed it if I hadn’t been staring right at her.Fuck. Why had I mentioned Cupcake to Kennedy after everything he’d doneto her? That was a sure-fire way to ruin the night. “I’m sorry…”
“It’s fine. Really.”
I held her hand a little tighter as she fidgeted with astrand of hair that had fallen from her bun. “I was actually asking for moredetails about how this girl set your penis on fire.”
“Almost. She didn’t succeed in her attempts. My dick is fine.But it was crazy. Just picture a candle and some of that oil you dip bread in. Itwas an accident. I think.”
Kennedy laughed. “Well, phew. Close call, huh?”
“Very close.” And speaking of close, her hand was prettyclose to touching my dick right now. Except I was holding it still. And as muchas I wanted her hand on my dick, I actually really liked holding it.
“Did she say why they got divorced?”
“Hm?” My mind had been preoccupied with thoughts of Kennedy touchingme. “What did you say?”
“The woman you went on a date with. She divorced Cupcake?”
I knew what she was wondering. If he’d hurt Ash too. He had,but not in the same way. At least, I was pretty sure. “He cheated on her.”
“What a dick.”
“What a dick,” I said. “Someone should set him on fire.”
Kennedy laughed and placed her chin in the palm of her hand. Andshe just stared at me.
It was unnerving. I felt like I needed to get up and runaround her small apartment. But I didn’t want to move because I didn’t want tolet go of her hand. So I just stared back at her. “What are you thinking aboutover there?”
She sighed. “Do you ever just feel like you’re stuck?”
It was like she was speaking
