Dead of Summer - Page 145

A knock on the door makes me look up, and Elena leans in with a smile. “I’m heading out,” she announces, her eyes on Kayde and rife with suspicion. She has to know we’re fucking. There’s no way for her not to know when she’d walked in on us making out a week ago. That had been a particularly embarrassing day, and even Kayde had looked a little ashamed of himself.

“Thanks, Elena,” I tell her, smiling. “I’ll see you tomorrow?” Mom had arranged before she left for Elena to be here every day, and while she’d told me it was for the cats, I’m not stupid. She wants her here to check on me in the mornings and make sure I’m okay.

Though in my opinion, Kayde could do that just as well as Elena. And with the added benefit of not reporting our every move to my overprotective parent.

Kayde’s phone goes off, and he tells Elena his own goodbye before glancing down at the screen. For my part, I get another warning look, and I’m surprised she doesn’t tell us to ‘make good choices’ before she’s gone from the doorway, her footsteps receding toward the stairs.

“I didn’t know you had friends,” I remark, not looking at Kayde’s phone. “Or is that your mom?” Contrary to what I’d assumed, Kayde has a good relationship with his parents.

I’ve even FaceTimed with them.

“You’re hilarious,” Kayde mutters. “It’s Melody, actually.” But he grimaces and tosses his phone on the nightstand after shooting off his own reply. “She’s a lot more, uh, honest with me now that camp is over for good. About the sociopath thing.”

His words make my stomach twist nervously, though it’s not necessarily bad. Melody is too old for Camp Crestview now, but more importantly…I’m not a counselor anymore.

I’d been told by Fink I was welcome to come back. He’d come in and apologized, over and over, telling me he should’ve seen what Shawn was somehow, and that he’d have to be more careful not to let psychos into his camp.

The best part of it had been that Kayde had been in the room for the entire conversation.

But like Kinsley, I’d realized in the hospital that I was done with being a counselor. It isn’t for me anymore, I’d decided. Especially after almost dying there this year. Multiple times.

“Are you sure your parents don’t mind you moving here? Just like that?” I ask, not for the first time.

Kayde sighs and very gently pushes me down onto my back on the bed. He can’t exactly straddle my hips with my leg still a little messed up, and he has to be careful with me, but his hands come down to cup my face, thumbs running over my lower lip. “My parents love you, in case that’s what this is about,” he informs me sweetly, his caramel eyes twinkling. “They think you’re the best future daughter-in-law they could ask for.”

“We’re not even actually engaged,” I point out.

“Doesn’t really matter.”

“It does for looks. And maybe I do want a huge wedding. Melody wants to be, uh, runner up maid of honor, by the way.”

Kayde makes a face, his hand moving down my arms before he nudges my thighs apart gently, careful not to jostle the still-bandaged wound on my right thigh. That and the stab wound under my collarbone are the only things still bandaged, and the last remnants from Shawn’s tirade.

Though we both know I’ll have the scars from him for the rest of my life.

And I’ll show them off proudly whenever the opportunity arises. I’m certainly not ashamed of them. The same way I’ve never been ashamed of the scar my dad gave me.

“That’s a thing?” he asks, settling between my knees. Dressed only in a pair of running shorts and a t-shirt, I’ve made it pretty easy for him to touch me however he wants, and wherever.

And I’m not complaining about that, though my outfit choice has more to do with the heat than him. This is just a happy bonus. His hands massage up my thigh, and he drags me down the bed until my legs are pressed against his sides.

“I don’t think so. But I guess we’re making it a thing for her. Did she want something?” Their sibling relationship that’s formed over the past few weeks is adorable, though I won’t say that out loud.

“She just…” He waves a hand in the air, and sighs. “She wanted to know how you were. And told me about some kid at school. Do all kids text this much?”

“They do when they’re lonely in school and think no one other than you understands them,” I reply kindly, fighting back a moan when his fingers dig into my tense calf muscles. “Did you go to school for this? You’re really good at all of that.”

“Sports massage,” Kayde supplies. “I took a few classes in college. You’re not an athlete, but you don’t seem to be complaining.”

I’m certainly not.

But I do space out a little, completely relaxed, as he moves up to my uninjured thigh. He’s so careful when he touches me, and so thorough as he flexes my knee and moves back down my calves, to my ankles.

It’s only when I’m half asleep that I feel my mouth moving, and my brain struggles to catch up to my words. “I wasn’t afraid of you, you know. That night you killed Shawn.”

Kayde doesn’t reply at first. Just flexes my ankle between his hands. “Yeah?” he asks, voice carefully neutral. “What were you, then?”

A small smile flits across my lips, and I throw an arm across my face before speaking. “I thought it was hot.” Though, I hadn’t realized that for a little while. But I’d been so in awe of him, and so thrilled he’d given Shawn what he’d deserved, that I’d never once thought to be afraid of my sociopathic, murderous boyfriend. “Just maybe if you decide to kill me, don’t stomp my face in before you slit my throat. That looked painful.”