Page 42 of Come Back To Me

His brows furrowed, but there was a smile on his lips. “I asked if you’re okay, you’re not listening to me.”

“Sorry, I’m just preoccupied with school.” Preoccupied? Yes.Because of school? No. “What were you saying?”

“I asked if you wanted to go to a concert with me next weekend? A friend of mine gave me tickets to a private show for Halsey. It’s in Denver though, so I figured we could spend the night.”

Alex looked up from his breakfast, and when I didn’t reply immediately, he backtracked. “I mean, we don’t have to spend the night if you don’t want to. I can just drive us home.” He was rambling, which was really kinda cute. It made me smile.

“What?”

“Nothing,” I shook my head. “I’d love to go with you. I love her music.”

“Yeah?”

Poor guy looked surprised, and it made me feel bad because I had my head up my ass.

“Yeah. It’ll be fun.”

Alex’s smile turned wide, flashing his perfect teeth and the dimple that liked hiding in his cheek. He sure was something to look at, and I’d been sitting there thinking about the faceless guy that filled the pages of my journal.

The waitress came by and I ordered another Latte and a chocolate muffin. I wasn’t hungry when we arrived, but now that Alex had pulled me out of my mini funk, my appetite reared its head. When I looked back at Alex, I stopped short and then snorted.

“Oh God,” I mumbled, hiding my laughter being my hand.

His eyes widened, and his hands were poised mid-air. “What?”

I giggled, and then motioned to his top lip. “You have a foam-stache.”

“A what?”

I reached over the table, not quite understanding why I thought he looked so funny, and wiped his lip. We froze, his eyes on mine. “I got it.” My voice was breathy. I sat back down in a rush when I remembered that we were in public, and flinging myself at him would have been wildly inappropriate. Because I think that’s what I wanted to do. I didn’t even have to think twice about wiping his mouth, and when I did my body responded in all the right ways. There was no denying I was attracted to Alex, I had kissed him after all, and from the expression on his face he was attracted to me too. He cleared his throat, and resumed eating. I looked away, suddenly awash with a sense of awkwardness. He had that effect on me too, I fidgeted when he was around and sometimes I rambled. Sometimes I was also quiet, like this morning, but Alex didn’t seem to mind. I think he should have.

We finished breakfast, but fortunately our conversation wasn’t stilted. We were walking out, talking about what else we were going to spend our Sunday doing when someone walked into me on the corner of the street. Well, they didn’t just walk into me, but also stood on my foot, and elbowed me in the head.

“Ouch!” I yelped, tripping over my feet, one of which was trapped beneath the strangers’.

“Shit.” I frowned at the sound of his voice. Why was it so familiar? I looked up, aware that Alex was faffing at my side, and covered my eyes from the sun so that I could see who I’d walked into.

“Kenzi?”

“Oh.” I exhaled. “It’s you.”

Vaughan’s brows lifted. “Nice to see you too.”

Shit. I was being rude. But seeing Vaughan…irritated me. And I started to itch because of it. I had no idea what the hell was going on with me lately, but Jesus. Seeing him just…ugh!

“Why don’t you watch where you’re going, buddy?”

Hearing Alex’s voice reminded me he was there. Because one look at Vaughan and I actually forgot.

“Hey, your friend walked into him.”

I didn’t know that voice, but when I looked to Vaughan’s side I saw a brunette standing beside him. Her hair was pulled up in a high ponytail, and she was regarding me with curious, brown eyes. She was taller than me, and leaner in physique. Her proximity to Vaughan had my hackles rising, and my instinct was to go on the defense. I wasn’t normally like that, but again, I was going to lay the blame on seeing Vaughan.

“It’s okay, Callie.” Vaughan touched her lower back, and regarded her with a slight shake of his head.

“Are you okay?” asked Alex. He touched the side of my head where I’d ‘walked into Vaughan’s elbow’.

“I’m fine.” I stared at Vaughan.