Playing it Kale (The McCain Saga Book 4) (16 page)

“Nice to meet you,” I say, my voice way
smaller than I would have liked it to be.

The last of the crew finally walks
in.
 
Kale’s parents.

A woman with gray hair and a solid build
walks in and the second her eyes meet mine, a huge smile forms on her
face.
 
“There she is!” she exclaims.
 
She rushes forward, catching me off guard, and
wraps me in a suffocating hug.
 
“Oh,” she
huffs.
 
“I always knew my baby boy would
find someone perfect for him.”

I laugh, hugging her back.
 
“You just met me,” I chuckle.
 
“How could you know I’m perfect?”

I realize it’s an awkward thing to say
to the mother of my boyfriend as soon as it leaves my lips, but it’s too late
to take back now.

“Trust me,” Drake says.
 
“She has this sixth sense.
 
Once you’ve got Mom’s approval, you’re as
good as married.”

My eyes grow wide and scared once again,
this family, the entire situation is so much to process.

“It’s true,” she says with a shrug of
her shoulders and a smile.
 
“I just
know.”
 
She takes one of my hands and one
of Kale’s and gives another happy sigh.
 
“I’ve got a feeling about you two.”

“Slow down, Mom,” Kale says, actually
looking slightly uncomfortable.
 
“You’ll
scare the poor thing away.
 
I’d kind of
like to keep her around.”

“See,” Mom says, giving me a wink.
 
“I’m Robin, by the way.”

“Robert,” the quiet father of the clan
says as he extends a hand.
 
I shake it,
giving an overwhelmed smile.

“Thank you all for coming,” I say,
slinking back to Kale’s side.
 
I slip my
hand into his and press my side into him.

I might be overwhelmed right now.
 
There’s so many of them.
 
They’re so loud, and confident, and
together.
 
And warm.
 
The very opposite of my
academic, stoic family.
 
But this
is also kind of amazing.
 
Kind of incredible.

And kind of feels like
I’m right where I’m supposed to be.

“Dad, are you feeling okay?” Sage asks.

“Me?” Robert says, lifting his head off
the back of the recliner.
 
“I’m
fine.
 
Just tired.”

“You sure?” she asks, her brows
furrowing.
 
“You look kind of pale
tonight.”

“Stop worrying about your old man,” he
says with a chuckle.
 
“I’m just getting
old.”

“If you say so.”
 
She keeps eying him with uncertainty, but
doesn’t pester him further.

“So, how long will you two be back in
Washington for?” Robert says, changing the subject.

We’re all sitting in the living
room.
 
Spread on couches, the floor,
the
rug.
 
The kids are
back in my and Kale’s bedroom, watching a movie on the TV.
 
Except Quinn, who is sleeping peacefully in
Sage’s
lap.
 
It’s kind of an odd sight.
 
Sage
doesn’t seem the motherly type, but her nieces and nephew adore her.
 
It’s easy to see.
 
And she adores them.

“Um,” I take the lead when Kale looks
down at me.
 
“We finished recording my single,
and then we have a photo shoot together on Wednesday.
 
I think they want to do that here.
 
I’m guessing they’ll expect us back down in
LA soon after that’s done.”

“
How’s it feel
,
bouncing from place to place like that?” Robin asks.
 
She sits in a dining chair next to Robert,
her hand in his.
 
“That’s got to be
hard.”

“I don’t know,” I say, searching
internally for how I feel about it.
 
“It’s all been happening so
fast,
it’s kind of
hard to process it all.
 
But yeah, I do
feel kind of…homeless, in a way.”

“I don’t know how you’ve done it for the
past three years, Kale,” Robin says, smiling at him and shaking her head.

Kale shrugs.
 
He’s sitting in the other recliner.
 
I’m sitting on the floor just to the side of
him, my left arm resting on his leg.
 
His
fingers play with my hair, twisting in the strands.
 
He seems relaxed, comfortable.
 
Kale thrives with his family around.
 
He loves them.
 
It’s easy to see everyone adores the baby of
the family.

Quinn gives a gasping sigh, though her
eyes don’t open.
 
She rubs her eyes and
rolls over in Sage’s lap, pushing
herself
forward and
half onto Julian’s lap.
 
He runs his
fingers through the child’s white curls.

“So how much longer are you two going to
wait to start a family?” Robin prods in Lake and Riley’s direction.

They’re seated on the loveseat.
 
Lake’s arm is along the back of the couch,
totally dominating it with his huge size.
 
Riley is snuggled up into his side, looking sleepy and content.
 
But the second Robin asks her question,
Riley’s eyes widen just slightly, and her face turns a shade darker pink.

She looks up at Lake, at the exact
moment he looks down at her.
 
They both
have a little smile that grows on their faces.

“Um,” Lake says, tearing his eyes away
from his bride’s.
 
“I guess this is as
good a time as any to make the announcement.
 
Riley is six weeks pregnant.”

“What?!”
Robin and Kaylee both screech at the same time in excitement.
 
Kaylee bounces up and down on the couch in
excitement.
 
Robin rushes from her seat
and envelops Riley in a huge hug.
 
Riley
just laughs and smiles.

“Congratulations,” everyone starts
saying.
 
Happiness and excitement floods
the room.

“You dog,” Kale calls
over the racket.
 
I look up to him to see a crooked smile on his face.
 
“You’ve only been married two weeks.”

Lake gets that same lopsided smile that
makes them look so alike, and shrugs his shoulders.
 
“What can I
say,
I
couldn’t keep my hands off of her.”

“Sinner,” Drake says, trying to sound
serious and failing miserably.

“Let’s see,” Robin says, sitting down at
Riley’s feet.
 
“You’re six
weeks,
it’s the beginning of September, so that would put
you due in…April?”

“Yep,” Riley says, looking incredibly
proud and happy.
 
“I haven’t been in to
the doctor’s yet, but the online calculators say somewhere around the
twenty-second.”

“Hey, maybe the bun will stay in the
oven a little long and come on my birthday,” Kale says with a lopsided smile, a
raised eyebrow, and a nod.

And with horror, I realize I have no
clue what day Kale’s birthday is.

He must catch the look on my face, because
he quietly says to me, “April thirtieth.”

But he doesn’t say it quietly enough, because
we get these little looks of doubt from half the people in the room.

This is so early.
 
So fresh.
 
We still have so much to learn about each
other.
 

I
love you, and that’s enough for me,
Kale had said.

I remind myself of that, swallow down
the thing that feels like shame in my throat, and scoot a little closer to
Kale.

“Who wants to hear a song?” Kaylee says,
breaking the terrible moment.
 
“Cause I
know I do.”

“Here, here!” most everyone calls.
 
I smile, not quite able to meet all their
eyes.
 
But I’m immensely appreciative to
Kaylee for breaking the awkward moment.

“’K, just let me go grab my guitar,” I
say.

CHAPTER
THIRTEEN

That night, after the family has all
left, Kale and I wrap up in blankets in the hammock out on our private
deck.
 
The lights reflect and twinkle on
the lake outside.
 
I sit between his
legs, leaning back into his chest, listening to him breathe.

“Did you like them?” he says quietly in
my ear.
 
A soft summer breeze sways us
back and forth gently.

“I did,” I say as I snuggle my cheek
into his chest.
 
He relieved himself of
his shirt the second they all left.
 
I stripped
down in the bathroom to just my underwear and put it on.
 

I’ve decided
this
needs
to be our normal.
 
Me in his shirt, him without it.
 
It just seems natural.

“They liked you,” he says as he tightens
his arms around me.
 
“I could tell.”

“Your mom was a little intense,” I
chuckle.

“Yeah,” he laughs.
 
“She’s always been like that.”

We’re quiet for a minute.
 
My head keeps going back to that awkward
moment with his birthday and me not knowing it.
 
There’s still so much we don’t know about each other.

Time to fix it.

“Okay, we’re going to play a little
game,” I say as I shift.
 
I spin around,
my legs draped over his, facing him.
 
“Twenty personal questions.”

“I’m down,” he says, sitting up and
rubbing his hands together.
 
It’s amazing
how his face can instantly light up, like this is the best idea he’s ever
heard.
 
It’s also amazing how his stomach
muscles are flexing in his half-sitting up position, causing his abs to go rock
hard.
 
“Hit me.”

“Alright,” I say, unable to not smile
when he’s smiling.
 
“Um…okay.
 
Got one.
 
How old were you when you got your first
kiss?”

He actually rolls his eyes.
 
“You had to start with one of
those
kinds of questions.”

“Come on, Kale,” I say, taking one of
his hands in mine.
 
“I want to know
everything.
 
And this goes both ways, I
have to answer all your questions.”

“Fine,” he says with a chuckle.
 
“Okay, I was fourteen.
 
It was with Chrissy Baker during lunch break,
behind the school.
 
It was stiff and
weird.”

“Fourteen?” I say.
 
“Aw, man.
 
You were a heartbreaker so early on.”

Kale shrugs and raises one eyebrow.
 
“When it comes natural…”

I just shake my head.
 
“Your turn.
 
Ask a question.”

“When’s your birthday?” he asks
sheepishly.

“June third.”

“Ah, so you’re only a bit younger than
me,” he says as he traces his fingers up and down my arm, sending a million
goosebumps
flashing across my skin.

“My turn,” I say, trying to not let my
eyes slide closed in bliss.
 
“What were
you into in high school?
 
Did you play
football?
 
You said your dad was the
coach.”

“Ugh, high school,” he groans.
 
“Let’s just say academics were never my
strong suit.
 
I got detention too many
times for not paying attention in class or being late.
 
I didn’t play football cause that took more
dedication than I had in me.
 
I think Dad
was always a little bugged that I couldn’t commit.

“I also didn’t have the best of friends
back then, either.
 
My best friend, Collin,
got into drugs really heavy and tried to drag me down into them with him.
 
Drake and Sage campaigned pretty hard to keep
me out of all that.”

Once again, I find myself questioning
the fact that we are somehow together.
 
I
can imagine Kale in high school.
 
He was
that beautiful kid in school that every girl threw themselves at.
 
He was the one who had his pick of the herd,
who always got exactly what he wanted in school.

And I was the girl who didn’t even go to
an actual school.
 
Who was going to
college when she should have been going to
prom.
 
Who was learning about molecular biology,
instead of getting her first kiss under the bleachers after the
game.

We’re so opposite, in every way.

“My turn,” Kale says, moving on, oblivious
to my scared and fragile thoughts.
 
“You’ve
mentioned having a boyfriend before, but never talked about him.”

I lace my fingers through his, holding
our hands up between us.
 
I study his
hands.
 
Strong, lean.
 
There’s a small scar on his right knuckle.

“His name was Thomas
Moir
,”
I start.
 
“We met two years ago at UW in
a nerd class.
 
He was one of the few guys
that
was
taller than me, and he was fairly cute and
persistent.
 
So, he asked me out.
 
We ended up dating for about two months, but
in the end,” I look up at Kale’s eyes, “there wasn’t any passion there.
 
We were just keeping each other company,
really, with a few awkward kisses in between.
 
It wasn’t that bad when we broke up.”

“That’s the damn saddest love story I’ve
ever heard,” Kale says, leaning forward and pressing a brief kiss to my
lips.
 
“But I’m glad it wasn’t true love
and all that happily ever after shit.”

I laugh, Kale sounding completely like
himself, even when he’s trying to be romantic.
 
“What about you?
 
How many girls
have you seriously dated?”

He lets his breath out in a little huff,
leaning back in the hammock.
 
“Well,
there was Pam Letter in high school.
 
We
dated most of my senior year, until I caught her texting some pretty sketchy
stuff to one of my friends.
 
I broke that
off, but she didn’t really get we were done.
 
That went on for almost another year.”

“That’s terrible,” I say, feeling anger
and heat rise in my blood at this girl’s actions.
 

“Yeah, that got old,” he says,
scratching his jaw.
 
“And then there
really wasn’t anyone serious until Angelique two years ago.
 
She was nice and pretty and liked to party as
much as I did, so I guess it just seemed natural.
 
But to be honest?
 
She was boring.”
 
He traces his fingers up and down my
shin.
 
“All we did together was go to the
gym, or stand in front of the camera.
 
She’d talk about what movie she had coming up next.
 
And it was just…
work
.”

“Well, I’m glad it wasn’t true love and
all that happily ever after shit,” I echo him with a smile and a laugh.

“Me too, angel,” he says as he leans
forward and kisses me again.
 
I’ll never
get tired of them.
 
He can kiss me
however, whenever he wants.
 
“My turn,”
he says when he backs up.
 
“Um…how old
were you when you lost your virginity?”

And everything in me turns all the
stiffer.

I don’t want to look up and meet his
eyes.
 
I want to crawl into the nerd hole
I used to live in and be invisible again.
 
I don’t want to be seen by beautiful eyes and have the attention on me
that I never know how to handle.

I take too long to answer, and that in
itself is his answer.

I feel Kale’s hand come to my cheek, and
it’s soft and gentle.
 
“You’re still a
virgin, huh?” he says quietly.

I still can’t look up.
 
I just nod my head.

“Hey, don’t ever be ashamed of that,” he
says, and the concern in his voice pulls my eyes up to his.
 
“That’s an incredible thing.
 
You still have that one thing you can never
take back.
 
That’s an accomplishment, not
something to be ashamed of, Whit.”

I study him, trying to be sure that he’s
being sincere,
cause
oh how I want him to be.
 
How I
need
him to be.
 
“You really think that?”

“Do I ever say anything I don’t mean?”
he says with a chuckle.
 
“I mean that one
hundred percent.
 
You shouldn’t just give
that something precious you have to give to just anyone.
 
It’s not something that should be wasted.”

The evidence that he did just the
opposite of what he said is all there in his voice.
 
It’s not hard to put the pieces of that
puzzle together.
 
And I don’t want to
ask.

And as soon as I can accept that he
really isn’t going to judge me for being a virgin, the hard knot in my chest
loosens.
 
“Whew,” I literally breathe
out.
 
“That’s kind of a huge deal to
share.
 
Thank you.”

Kale actually chuckles as he leans
forward and presses a brief kiss to my lips.
 
“I swear
,
you’re freaking hilarious
sometimes.
 
I’m not a jerk, angel.
 
I’m just a confident guy who’s in love with
the quirkiest, most fun girl I’ve ever met.
 
Just be honest with me, and that’s always going to be enough.”

“I’m sorry you
keep
having
to remind me of that, over and over,” I say.
 
“The honest truth is just that…well, I’m
always afraid of how different we are.
 
I
mean, we’re pretty much polar opposites in every way possible, and I just worry
that someday that’s going to pull us apart.”

“Not
us
,” Kale
shakes his head.
 
“I’m on you like crap
in a diaper.”

“Kale,” I screech.
 
“Gross.”

We just laugh, and he places a hand on
either side of my face.
 
I lean forward,
rocking myself until I’m straddling him.

“I don’t want to be a virgin for
forever,” I say quietly.
 
“I’ve just
always been waiting for the right person and the right time.
 
That time might not be tonight, or any time
too soon, but…”
 
My eyes drop away from
his for a second.
 
Opening yourself up to
something so personal and deep is scary.
 
“I want you to be the person I lose it with, Kale.”

There are so many mixed emotions playing
across his face.
 
Lust,
heat, sincerity, love.
 
It’s all
there in a crazy war.
 
“Every word that
comes out of your mouth just makes me love you more,” he says.
 

As my position shifts, the opening of my
legs settles right on top of him.
 
And
he’s hard.

“And damn, you kill me, woman,” he
laughs as I scoot back, and he actually blushes.

I bite my lower lip and lower myself
onto him, so I’m lying directly on top of him.
 
He wraps his arms around me, and I can feel the want, the need rolling
off of him.

“You have no idea what it does to me,
knowing I can do this to you,” I whisper into his neck, just before I tease the
skin there with my lips and teeth.

This is about the most scandalous thing
I’ve ever done with anyone.
 
And I’m so
glad it’s with Kale.

“I’m not sure if you’re the angel or the
devil on my shoulder right now,” he grows into my neck as he bites me there.

And oh.
 
My.
 
Heavens.
 
What that
does to my hormones.

I may have said that I want to take this
slow, but I
really
don’t think that’s
going to last much longer.

Cause I want Kale.
 
I want all of him.