Chapter Seventeen
Kailey pulled into her drive-way about five hours later. As soon as the car was out of gear and turned off she pulled her phone from her pocket and called Marc. “Hello Kailey.”
“Hey Marc, I just got home.”
“I’m glad you made it safely, we’re on our way to Bridgeport.”
“Tell her I say hi!” Came from the background.
“Was that Colby?” Kay asked, smiling.
“Who else would it be,” he laughed.
“Shit,” She had just looked out the driver’s side window and saw what a few months ago would have made her happy; Jared was coming across the street. “Jared’s coming across the street so I’ll talk to you later.”
“Okay, bye Kay.”
“Goodbye Marc,” she closed her phone and shoved it in her pocket as she got out of the car. “Hey Jer.”
“How was your trip?”
Her trip was fine; she had been away from him. When did she start thinking like that? She loved him. She did love him but with each passing day he was becoming more and more clingy. Always asking where she was and who she was with when she wasn’t with him. He hadn’t always been like this, had he? She had only started to notice is lately. Only since she had told him that she wasn’t able to hang out with him because she was driving across the state to see another man. He had no reason to be untrusting. She was friends with Marc and nothing more. She went to see him because he was in within a window that was considered a reasonable drive time and they hadn’t seen each other in months. “It was good, I had fun. The won one and lost won. All of the guys were pretty cool. I think my favorite though was Colby Armstrong.”
“I’m glad you had a good trip. How’s Marc?”
Was he genuinely curious about the well-being of the man who he had claimed was his friend or he trying to figure out what all had happened when he wasn’t there to watch his girlfriend. Kailey was seriously questioning the trust issues happening in her relationship. She hadn’t done anything to make him not trust her, had she? “He’s doing well. How was school while I was gone?”
“It was school, I have your homework.”
Kailey ended the conversation as quickly as possible by walking to Jared’s house with him to get the list of homework that was due for her on Monday. She would do as much of it as she could tonight. If she could do all of it she would, but she was sure that most of the books she would need were still in her locker at school. “Thanks Jer,” she said when they had walked back to her house again. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Okay, I love you.”
“I love you too.” A hug and a kiss followed and soon Kailey was sitting in her room trying to focus on her work. She had missed three days of school and had a ton of work to do. Now if only she could focus. Deciding that the only way to relieve her stress was to go out back and take a few heavy slap shots she put her pen down and went outside. Her ‘outside stick’ had been leaning against the back of the house but was now being held loosely in her hands as she lazily stick handled the ball. She took the ball to the edge of the concrete before letting a hard shot fly. After about then or twenty shots, it was probably closer to twenty, she felt a little better.
She loved Jared, she really did, but he not trusting her wasn’t going to fly. Kay didn’t want to confront him about it because then he would ask questions and she would have to tell him about sleeping in the same bed as Marc. She couldn’t lie to him. Kay would just let things play out. Maybe the time away from Marc would help, although did hadn’t the last time.
***
The Baby Penguins series with the Sound Tigers went to seven games, the Penguins were victorious. They went on to play the Philadelphia Phantoms, the Hartford Wolf Pack and finally the Milwaukee Admirals. The Admirals swept them, four games to none, in the Calder Cup Final. All of the guys as well as Kailey were obviously devastated.
It was the beginning of June; Kailey, Jared and Amy had all just graduated from high school, Marc was returning to Canada and Jared and Kailey’s relationship hadn’t gotten any better or worse.
“Can I come over?” Jared asked Saturday morning.
“Sure, I’ll see you in a few minutes.”
Less than five minutes later Kailey met Jared at the front door with a loving embrace. A kiss followed. “Can we sit down?” Jared motioned towards the swing. They sat down Jared taking Kailey’s hand. “Kay, I love you”
“I love you too Jer.”
“I really do love you and I want what’s best for you.”
“Where are you going with this?”
“I know that you love Marc and I want you to have the chance to be with him when he’s ready. I don’t know how he feels about you, but why wouldn’t he love you. You’re you. Please don’t try to talk me out of this, I’ve made my decision. Trust me there are no hard feeling and we can continue to be friends. That is if you want to, I hope that we can. I love you Kailey.”
“I love you too.”
“Thank you for an amazing year.” With that he kissed her lips and then stood and started to walk away without another word.
