Page 106 of Fifty First Times (Sharing You 0.40)
Aiden pulled his mouth to one side, and shook his head sadly. “Not like this, Jace, not now. You called me to be here for you, and that’s what I’m gonna do. Let’s just talk about what happened. Because if you get drunk and decide you want to go back and talk to Kinlee, how’s she supposed to know if you’re being honest?”
“Who the fuck cares? She told me to leave, she made it clear she wants nothing to do with me, there’s no way in hell she’d let me back in to talk it out with her.”
Aiden shoved me into a booth, and went to sit on the opposite side. “Okay, now what happened? I can’t imagine the two of you even fighting, let alone Kinlee wanting you gone.”
I dropped my head into my hands, gripping at my hair. “That’s because we’ve never fought before tonight.”
“Never? Seriously?”
“Yeah, man, seriously.”
“Dude, isn’t that a relationship rite of passage or some shit? To have your first fight?”
A forced laugh left my chest. “Maybe for some people. But not us, that’s not how we are, you know that. We talk about things, if we don’t agree on something, we’re fine with that.”
“Well then what went down tonight?”
Releasing my hair, I threw my hands out to the side before slouching down in the booth. “I don’t even fucking know. One minute, we’re cleaning up after dinner, the next she’s bringing up the bachelor party, asking all these questions about what went down, why I wouldn’t answer my phone. Next thing I know, she’s accusing us of having strippers there and was demanding to know what I did with them since I passed out that night and she couldn’t get ahold of me until the next afternoon.”
“You’re kidding, right? She has to know you were out cold on my couch, and we’d been playing poker all night. Fuck, I’ll tell her, all the guys will.”
“She’s so mad right now, I doubt she’d believe anyone. She’s gonna think you’re all covering for me.” Picking at a thin coaster on the table, I just kept shaking my head, not understanding how this all happened. “I don’t understand. Kinlee’s never been insecure in our relationship, and she’s never been suspicious of anything, because I’ve never given her a reason to be.”
“So”—Aiden began when I didn’t offer anything for a few moments—“she just kept accusing you and told you to leave, and you did?”
I grimaced. I still couldn’t believe I’d talked to her like that. “Um, no. Not exactly. I said a lot of things that shouldn’t be said to the woman you’re about to marry. Fuck, they shouldn’t be said to a woman period, not just because you’re in love with her.”
Nine years ago
ROLLING TO MY side, I released an aggravated breath and heaved myself off my bed. Earlier that night, I’d been at Kinlee’s thirteenth birthday party, and something a couple of my friends had been talking about hadn’t left my mind since.
I still hadn’t kissed Kinlee.
Well, not since we were five and she punched me immediately afterward. But that didn’t count. We had been little; that was forever ago. She’d been my girlfriend for over two years now, and everyone our age kissed—at least. And I wanted to kiss her so freakin’ bad, it was all I thought about. It just wasn’t something we talked about, and—if I was being honest with myself—I was afraid of what her two older brothers would do if they happened to find out.
Screw it.
Pulling my sweatpants over my boxers, I threw on a long-sleeved shirt and slid on my shoes before quietly lifting up my window. Wincing when it made a piercing screech, I stopped and waited for the telltale signs of someone coming down the hall toward my room. When minutes went by and no one came, I slowly opened the window the rest of the way and climbed out, hopping over my mom’s bushes so I wouldn’t damage them.
Walking next door, I crept around to the back of the house and knocked quietly on the window of Kinlee’s darkened room.
Nothing.
Knocking again, I waited a few more minutes before tapping on the window one last time. And just as I was about to turn around and creep back to my room, her beautiful face and messy dark hair were popping up in the corner.
“Jace?” she asked, her voice muffled by the windowpane. Blinking a few times, she continued to look at me like she wasn’t sure I was there, so I smiled and pressed my hand against the cool glass. Her hand met mine on the other side for a few seconds before she was quickly unlocking and soundlessly sliding open her window. “What are you doing here?” she whispered in an anxious rush.
“I didn’t get to give you your birthday present.”
Her brow wrinkled, and she looked at me blankly again, like she thought she was dreaming. “Uh, yes you did. You gave me the bracelet with the hearts on it.”
Licking my lips quickly, I looked around the backyard to make sure I didn’t see her brothers anywhere. Looking back at Kinlee—her confused expression cuter than ever—I quickly grabbed her cheeks, and brought her face to mine, pressing my lips firmly to hers. Pulling back a little, I looked at her flushed expression and smiling eyes before leaning in to kiss her again. Remembering shows I’d seen, and accidentally walking in on my older brother and his girlfriend, I hesitantly brushed my tongue against her lips. A soft whimper filled the air when she barely parted her mouth, and moved her tongue against mine.
The kiss was uncoordinated, and awkward compared to what I’d seen . . . and the best damn thing I’d ever experienced.
When I pulled away from her, a bright smile was lighting up her face, and I knew I looked the same.
r /> “Jace . . .”
