Playing it Kale (The McCain Saga Book 4) (28 page)

“Not having you with me, thinking that
you were just finished with
me, that
was the real pain.”
 
And the ache in my heart, it’s proof of the
truth.
 
“I could have forgiven you.
 
You needed time.
 
But I needed you with me.
 
All you had to do was come back.”

Kale’s
face breaks, and his head falls into my lap again as he cries.

“I’m so messed up, Whitney,” he sobs.
 
“Being alone isn’t good for me, but I’ve
barely talked to anyone since the shit hit the fan.
 
I don’t know much.
 
But I know I was a fool to think that I could
ever figure out who I was again without you.”

Kale told me once how he was terrified
of being alone.
 
He hated it.
 
He needed to be around people.
 
And here is the effect of that, right here in
front of me.

I push Kale back so that he has to look
at me.
 
I hold his chin in my hand so he
can’t look away.

“Love is all those things,” I say,
studying his eyes.
 
Everything in me
still hurts.
 
Eleven months of being
crushed isn’t just going to disappear in an instant.
 
But it’s still there.
 
All those emotions of
before
.
 
All those memories and
desires.
 
Kale and Whitney were
always magnetized.
 
“All of it.
 
We were and are young.
 
And we have a charmed, unreal life.
 
But I love you, Kale McCain.
 
And that’s real.
 
And never changed.”

“I love you, Whitney, and I swear
,
I’m going to spend the rest of my life making everything
up to you.”

And it’s me who can’t hold back a second
longer.
 
My lips rush his, his hands
crush me to him, our bodies molding together.
 
And everything that has been dead in me for so long comes roaring back
to life.

CHAPTER
TWENTY-NINE

I’ve decided kisses on the floor in a
pile of blankets and pillows and a guitar are the best.

Kale runs his fingers down my back.
 
My shirt is all scrunched up around my chest,
so he has plenty of access.
 
I lie on my
stomach, a pillow all wadded up in my arms and under my chin.
 
My eyes slide closed, and
goosebumps
flash across my skin.

He leans forward, gently tracing his
lips across my shoulder.
 

And it’s like heaven.
 
Here in New York in a hotel room on the
thirty-something-
th
floor.

I roll over, and Kale poises over me,
locking my eyes.

My fingers trace from the elastic of his
underwear, up over the worst of his scar.
 
The skin there is twisted and rough.
 
My fingers slide up over his pectoral, an angry ridge that gets narrower
as it rises.
 
My fingers gently tickle up
his neck, and my whole hand comes to rest on his jawline.

“I still can’t believe you’re here,” I
whisper as I stare into those dark hazel eyes.

“I swear
,
I’m
never leaving again.”
 
He dips down, his
body lying flush against mine, and presses his lips gently to my own.
 

I will never take advantage of
this.
 
I learned to live without breathing
for eleven months and twelve days.
 
I’m
never, ever going to hold my breath again.
 

Kale’s left hand slides up my thigh and
wraps around my waist, lifting me clean off the ground.
 
I was right earlier: Kale was incredibly fit
before, but now, he’s ripped.
 
And my
fingers are greatly appreciating the wonderland that is his body.

I sigh into Kale’s mouth, letting myself
go to a place that is fuzzy and glittery.

Heaven.

Kale releases me and traces his fingers
along my cheek.
 
I open my eyes and am
ever in awe.

“I love you,” he says in a low voice.

“I love you, too.”
 
A smile pulls at my lips.
 
We lie side by side, each propped up on an
arm and a hand.

“Is it true, what the media said about
you doing fire academy?” I ask.

“Surprisingly, it actually is,” he
replies with a smile.
 
“I’ve been doing
online school, and I worked on
all the
in person stuff
here in New York before I sold my apartment.
 
I’ve submitted applications to the Seattle Fire Department and am
waiting for their hiring window to open up in a week.”

“It’s really amazing, that you can face
something like that,” I say.
 
“You could
have died.
 
For some people, that would
have made them too scared for life.
 
But
you’re embracing it.”

“Collin died,” Kale says, his gaze
pulling inward.
 
“I don’t know if you
knew that.
 
But he did, about a week
after the fire
happened
.
 
And that kind of wrecked me, too.
 
I had all this guilt that I should have been
able to get him out of there faster.
 
So,
maybe
it’s
penance, but I also just want to do
something that has nothing to do with me.
 
Modeling was always about me, and my face and what the world thought
about it.
 
I need to do something that
has nothing to do with me and everything to do with paying back the world.”

“That’s beautiful,” I say, rocking
forward and pressing a kiss to his lips just briefly.
 
“And I think it’s incredible.”

“What about you?” he
asks as he places a hand on my hip.
 
“What does the future hold for Whitney Ford?”

It takes me a second to answer that,
because I’m not really sure.
 
“I told the
studio I need some time off.
 
I’m burned
out.
 
It’s been so intense for the last
year plus.
 
Two tours, two albums.
 
I need some me time.
 
And they were happy to give it to me.
 
So the possibilities feel kind of endless.”

“Look at you,” Kale smiles.
 
“A year ago, you were scared for anything to
happen.
 
And now you’ve seen the world
and
all the
world knows your name.
 
And you’re up for anything now.
 
You’ve changed, Whitney.
 
You were always amazing.
 
But I don’t even have a word for you now.”

I blush at his compliments.
 
I still don’t know what to do with them.

So I change the subject.

“So what are we doing for the next few
days?
 
The next few
weeks?”

“I think it’s time to go home,” he
answers after a moment of thought.
 
“I’ve
messed things up with my family, and I need to fix it.”

“Me too.
 
I’ve been trying to fix things with my
parents and Ming.
 
But I need to see
them.
 
Let’s go home,” I say as he closes
the distance between us, his chest against mine, my legs wrapping around his.

We talk of home, but really, I’m already
there.

CHAPTER
THIRTY

The plane lands in Seattle, and the day
is drizzly and gray.
 
There are so many
people milling about Boeing Field.
 
I
pull on my sunglasses.
 
I look across and
see Kale do the same thing.

“Let’s go,” Tony says, adjusting his
suit and going to the door.

He walks down first, followed by Kale,
and then by me.
 
The rain comes down in
misty waves and my skin instantly feels hydrated.
 

Welcome home.

Eyes glance over at us as we descend,
but they don’t linger.
 
Here, we are not
the most exciting people coming and going.
 
The Seahawks plane is parked not too far away from my jet.

Tony and a whole crew of security people
lead us to the car that is waiting, and the three of us climb in.

“I just realized, I have no idea where
you live these days,” Kale says as the car starts out.
 
“I’m guessing you’re not still in your
grandma’s apartment.”

I smile and look back out the
window.
 
“I still own it, and I’ll always
keep it,” I say.
 
“But I bought a place
in Madison Park while on tour.
 
I wanted
somewhere to go home to, but honestly I’ve never even seen it in person.
 
I had Sage’s friend,
Avia
,
decorate it and get it all ready for me while I’ve been gone.”

The drive doesn’t take long.
 
Madison Park is the northeast corner of
Seattle.
 
We pass the heart of the city,
with its towering skyscrapers and locks.
 
My heart gives a little squeeze when we drive past my old apartment and
my old work.

It feels like a lifetime ago when I was
a research assistant.
 
My life was
science and biology.
 
Now it’s music and
dodging crazy crowds.

We pull off the freeway and make our way
toward the waters of Lake Washington.
 
Down we drop.
 
And then we pull up
to a set of ornate gates.

I really wanted to buy a place in
downtown Seattle.
 
It’s where I grew up,
where I lived all my life.
 
Right in the heart of the city.
 
But the city also means a lot of people and a
lot of people who will recognize me.
 
I
need some peace and quiet, so I opted for the edge of my city.

The gates open, and we pull forward onto
a well-manicured entryway.
 
Perfectly
trimmed hedges line the driveway.
 
Flowering bushes trying to hang onto the last of the warm fall weather
are splashed everywhere.
 
A spacious lawn
stretches out on each side of us.

And there’s the house.
 
It’s a remodeled sprawling thing that was
built in the twenties.
 
And it’s
beautiful.

“Nice place,” Kale breathes as we both
take it in.

“It’ll do,” I say with a breathy laugh.

The car stops in front of the house, and
Tony opens the door for us.
 
We climb out,
and I immediately reach for Kale’s hand.
 
It’s there without hesitance.

He reaches for the door and pushes it
open.

The smell of food is what seems off at
first.

And then Kale flips a light on.

“Surprise!”

My heart jumps to my throat, and I duck
behind Kale with a scream.

There, in the entryway of my new home,
is
everyone
.

My parents.
 
Ming, Henry.
 
Robin.
 
Sage,
Julian, Lake, Riley, Drake, Kaylee, the kids.
 
Even Carson.
 
All the family and all the most important
friends, they’re here.

“Holy poo, you scared me!” I say in
shock as I hold my free hand over my heart.
 
It’s still trying to jackhammer out of my chest.

Everyone laughs.
 
“Welcome home,” my mom and Robin say at the
same time.

“How’d you all know we were coming
back?” Kale asks as he pulls me close to his side and wraps an arm around my
waist.

“Tony called,” Julian pipes up.
 
“He thought maybe you all could use a
reunion.”

I turn back to look at Tony.
 
He just gives a little smile and a shrug.

“I knew something was up when you called
me,” Lake laughs as he sits back on the couch.
 
“That was just too out of the blue after too long.”

“To be fair, I tried calling Sage and
Kaylee first,” I say with a blush.
 
“But
I needed to know what was going on.”

“I’m glad you called,” Lake says with a
wink.

“I think we all are,” Robin says.

Half the family is here in the living
room, lounging around on the couches.
 
The other half is in the kitchen or dining room, laughing, talking,
eating
.
 

It’s exactly how it should be.

“So how long is it going to be before
the media gets word that you two are back together?” Ming asks as she tries to
slyly check Julian out for the fiftieth time tonight.
 
She should be careful.
 
I don’t think Sage will react well if she
notices.

I sigh, lace my fingers through Kale’s,
and look over at him.
 
“If
we never leave the house?
 
Maybe a while.
 
But it
won’t be long.”

“So are you two officially moving in
together?” Riley asks with a sly smile.
 
“I mean, you don’t have anywhere else, right Kale?
 
Unless you move in with one
of us.”

“I’m not completely broke, you guys,” he
says with a slightly offended smirk.
 
“I
was famous once and managed to do pretty well for myself.
 
But…”

He looks at me to answer her question.

“I lived without him for eleven months,”
I say, looking at him seriously.
 
“I’m
not letting him go anywhere.”

A smile breaks onto Kale’s face, and he
leans forward, pressing an intimate kiss to my lips.

“Take it to your room!” Lake yells
through a smile.

“It’s her house,” Kale says, even as I
pull his ears to keep him captive.
 
“She
can have her way with me wherever she wants.”

“You love each other, you’re going to be
living with each other,” Robin says as I let Kale go with an
embarrassed
blush.
 
“Why don’t you two just get
married?
 
It’s going to happen eventually
anyway.”

My shocked expression snaps from Robin
to Kale.

And he looks a little taken aback,
too.
 
But it goes from surprised, to a
smirk.
 
I see something shift in his
eyes.

“I’m all in, Whitney,” he says, taking
both my hands in his.
 
“I’m done not
being with you all the time for the rest of my life.
 
I’m all in, Whitney, because I love you, and
I’m never going to get enough of you.
 
Ever.”

My heart breaks out into warp
speed.
 
But I’ve never said truer words
when I say, “Let’s do it.”

Just then, my parents walk into the
room, followed by everyone else.
 
Kale’s
eyes shift up to them.

“Mr. and Mrs. Ford, may I please, pretty
please have your permission to marry your daughter?” he asks with a smile and
hesitance in his eyes.

“Aw, snap,” I hear Ming say, but barely
register.

I look back at my family.
 
Carson has his awkward expression his
face—surprise and embarrassment.
 
Mom’s
eyes are a little wide, but Dad just has a smile.

“I’ve never seen my daughter happier
than she is right now,” Dad says.
 
“Who
am I to say no to that?”

“Mrs. Ford?” Kale asks.

“Well, at least when you two have
children, they’ll be brilliant
and
beautiful.”
 
And she says it with a
smile.

Kale’s face breaks out into a brilliant
smile, and he looks back down at me.
 
He slides
off the couch, shifts down onto one knee.

The smile on my face is out of control.
 
And the glow in Kale’s eyes could power the
world for a year.

“Whitney Ford,” he says, looking so
happy.
 
“You are my one in seven point
two-two billion.
 
I don’t want to spend
another boring second without you.
 
Will
you freaking marry me?”

And everything in me breaks free.
 
“Kale McCain, you’ve got yourself a
wife!
 
Yes!”

I launch myself at him, knocking the two
of us to the ground and crushing my lips to his.

Everyone starts clapping and
whooping.
 

“I don’t want to wait,” I say to his
lips.
 
“Let’s do it.
 
Like, as soon as we can get a marriage
license.”

“I’m all in, angel,” he breathes.
 
“Let’s do this.”