Page 27 of Wait For You
“A few days later, you took her home and…” Kenan circled his hand in the air.
I let out a sigh as I ran my hands through my hair. “I don’t know what I’m doing.”
“Dude, you know if you hurt her, McKenna will kick your ass.”
I rolled my eyes. “As if I don’t know that. Nobody can know. You have to keep your mouth shut about this.”
Kenan leveled me with a look. “You know I won’t say anything to anyone.”
“I know.”
He was quiet for a few beats. “Her ex is a fucking piece of work. Total asshole.”
“What do you know about him?” I couldn’t help but ask.
“Well, you know Quinn does all our legal stuff.” Quinn was Kenan’s wife, and they’d been best friends for years before they came to their senses and admitted they loved each other.
“Yeah, and what does that have to do with her ex?” I asked slowly.
“Just that I’m at her office pretty often. She’s here a lot, but she works at her family’s offices too. Her cousin Colin handles all the family cases. I heard him telling Quinn that Tessa’s ex would keep her in court for years.”
Protectiveness rose swiftly inside me, tension tightening around my chest. “He’s a fucking asshole.”
“News flash: plenty of men are assholes,” Kenan pointed out.
“Remember that girl Rich dated in college?”
My brother nodded. “I do, don’t remember her name. I don’t know Rich well and don’t want to.”
I nodded in agreement. “Yeah, he treated her like shit, jealous, controlling, the whole mess.” I took a slow breath.
“I haven’t thought much about it since, but I remember. She finally dumped him, and he called her all kinds of names. It was ugly,” Kenan added.
“Yeah, well, he was worse with Tessa.”
Kenan studied me. “This seems like more than just something casual for you.”
I narrowed my eyes. “I don’t know,” I hedged. When his eyes narrowed, I lifted a hand in the air, letting it fall to my desk with a thump. “I don’t even know what the fuck is happening. Honestly, I never really noticed Tessa before. Now, I can’t not notice her, and I can’t stop thinking about her.”
“She’s a single mom. Whatever you do, be aware of what you’re walking into,” he pointed out.
“I know.”
Another silence fell between us. “Do you, though?”
Do you, though?
Kenan’s question repeated in my thoughts. I thought I knew. Growing up in a big family, we were accustomed to the push and pull of somebody always needing something.
Kenan and I were in the middle of the pack with our other set of twins. I knew what it was like to have a single mom. And holy hell, we’d paid a bitter price for our mom being overwhelmed. Our grandparents helped, which meant years of our grandfather’s verbal and emotional abuse, with our oldest brothers being subjected to the worst. We all paid the price. To this day, I wondered how he had treated our father. Our dad had been an only child, and so had our mother. That was why they’d wanted a big family.
Kenan’s comment should’ve given me pause, yet it didn’t. It was late in the evening, nothing unusual for me. I was often the last person to leave our offices. I enjoyed the quiet after-business hours.
Without letting myself dwell, I reached for my phone. Tapping the screen to life, I pulled up Tessa’s contact. My lips unconsciously curled into a smile.
Me: What are you doing tonight?
I felt like I was back in high school when Julie and I used to text. I wanted to wait and see how quickly Tessa would respond.