It gives me a chance to look around the living room off to my right. The open space is warm, with a large brown sofa and matching armchair around a light wooden table near the back wall. The TV is on a matching stand across from them with pictures of her family on the various shelves, and movies lining the bottom. I chuckle when I graze my fingers against a Stephen King movie in the mix, smiling and studying some of the pictures on the wall.
The picture of Gavin with a blonde-haired woman and little boy has me shaking my head in awe. They all look happy as they play in the leaves. Older. At peace. Walking to examine a photo of Kinley and her parents beside it, I notice how much her mother and father have aged. Time feels like it’s barely passed since I last saw them, even though I know it’s been almost a decade. Her father’s hair is white, his beard speckled with gray, and her mother’s once dark locks that Kinley got from her are lined with silver.
But that’s not what I really focus on.
When I hear her behind me, I peel my gaze from the AC/DC sweatshirt she’s wearing in the picture and turn to say, “I can’t believe you wore—” My words fade when I see the very sweatshirt in question covering her body. It’s always been too big on her, and she’s swimming in it now.
“The sweatshirt,” I finish. My head cocks as I approach her, eyes trailing on the way her cheekbones are more pronounced than I remember. “You’ve lost weight.”
She plays with the sleeves. “Stress.”
I blow out a breath and reach for what’s in my back pocket. “I got you something. Figured I shouldn’t come unannounced and empty handed.”
When I pass her the red licorice peace offering, I don’t expect her to pale more. “Please get those things away from me, Corbin.”
My eyes widen as I stare down at the Twizzlers. “What do you mean? I thought—”
“Jesus.” She covers her mouth and runs out of the room. This time I follow her until I find her hunched over the kitchen sink in the room over, barely able to hold her back as she empties her stomach.
I walk up beside her and collect her long hair, holding it back and cursing. “What do you need me to do?”
She grips the counter on either side and murmurs something I can barely understand before vomiting again. When she’s done, she runs water and rinses out her mouth, spitting into the sink and making a choked noise in defeat.
After a few moments, she stands up and walks away, my hands letting go of her hair as she grabs a dish towel and wipes off her mouth. I just watch her as she throws it on top of the washing machine that sits off to the side by the end counter.
“Little Bird?” When I step forward, she holds her palm up to stop me. “Need me to get you something? Ginger ale?”
She sniffs and wipes at her face, and it’s only then I realize her cheeks are damp. “What I need is for you to stop doing this.”
“Doing what?”
She walks past me, brushing my shoulder and shaking her head. I follow her up the stairs and two doors to the right. We enter a large bedroom spattered with little color other than blue decorative pillows on the bed, an
d abstract flower pictures hanging on the otherwise plain wall. I take in the photographs on her black dresser, surprised to see one of us from high school.
A door on the other side of the room opens and she disappears into it, leaving it cracked open. I walk over and see her grab a toothbrush from a small vanity and begin brushing her teeth.
I lean against the wall outside the door, studying the black nightstands, my eyes locking on a stack of books. “For what it’s worth, your house is beautiful. It suits you.”
She makes a sound that doesn’t sound very amused, so I push off the wall and walk over to where the picture frames are. My fingers brush the edge of the frame featuring me and her at the winter formal. One of her palms rests against my chest, the custom corsage on her wrist on full display, and the other is wrapped around my back. One of my arms is hooked around her as my lips press against the top of her head. I’m flipping off the camera, making Kinley laugh.
Zach took that picture of us.
Next to that one is an image of her and the cat that greeted me downstairs. They’re both looking into the camera, Kinley smiling and the cat glaring. I chuckle and move on to the frame face down.
When I pick it up, I stare at the dark-haired man standing beside Kinley that I don’t recognize. He has to be around my age, definitely older than her. The way he holds her tells me that they were more than friends at some point. His hold is territorial, claiming. But not as much as the rock on her finger I quickly spot.
“Fuck me,” I whisper, shaking my head.
“What?”
I turn with the picture in my hand. “You never told me you were engaged.” My eyes can’t help but go to her hand, where all fingers are naked of jewelry.
She walks over to her bed and sits on the edge, pulling the baggy sweatshirt away from her body and staring at me like she can’t quite grasp something. “I told you that I’ve had failed relationships in the past. Excuse me if neither one of us went into more detail about our significant others before we jumped into fucking.”
My eyes narrow as I set the picture back how I found it. “Is that how we’re going to be? That wasn’t just fucking, Kinley.”
She shrugs loosely. “It doesn’t matter. You have no right getting angry that I didn’t tell you about Parker. It isn’t like you asked.”