An Unknown Place (10 page)

The bar was not in the best condition, but the food was absolutely phenomenal. Best burgers I’d ever had. I felt since I was there, I may also owe them an apology for never explaining why I didn’t show up to work or why I had left so quickly. I was broken then. I needed to see them.

“How about Annabell’s?”

Yes, Terry had named the bar after his wife. It was sweet.

“You’ve been there?”

I knew it was a craphole bar, but he didn’t have to sound
that
disbelieving.

“I used to work there.”

“Annabell’s it is.”

Kellan got off the highway without another word. We pulled up in front of Annabell’s before I knew it.

Kellan

Mac had picked the one place in Baltimore that I loved to go to and no one knew about. She had worked there when she’d lived in Baltimore. How was that even possible? It made me wonder how many times I had walked past her on the street or eaten with her as my waitress and never realized who was in front of me. What if I’d met her but never really saw her?

Given, Annabelle’s had only become my favorite place for the past two years. But I ate lunch there at least three times a week, always by myself.

I walked around the car and opened Mac’s door. Her legs were the first out, and that’s when I noticed how tall the black patent leather heels she wore were. She didn’t have long legs, but they were slender and toned. I held my hand out for her to take, making sure she didn’t fall on the uneven pavement. This was not the best part of Baltimore, but it wasn’t the worst either. I closed the door to the car, but didn’t let Mac’s hand go.

She didn’t fight me on it so I figured that was my green light. I wove my fingers through hers so I didn’t feel like I was holding my mom’s hand. I had never been one to hold hands, but this was more than just holding hands. This was Mac letting me get close to her. I would take what I could get.

I felt her hand pull back on mine, and realized she had stopped moving.

“You okay?”

“I can’t believe it looks the same.”

“I think it’s been the same since it was opened.”

Mac’s tinkling laughter danced around me. She squeezed my hand, and I wasn’t really sure what that meant.

“Probably.”

We moved to the entrance and I let go of her hand so we could go inside, the doorway was slim enough to the point that an overweight person might not be able to fit through it. I also didn’t mind the view of Mac’s ass from where I stood, holding the door open. I followed her inside.

I heard screeching before we were even fully inside, and Mac was engulfed by Anna. Mac had to know them better than she was letting on for them to act like high school students who hadn’t seen each other in years.

Mac

“Oh my God. You’re alive. We filed a report with that cop you’d been dating. The one that came in here with you a few times. He said he never found anything. That you’d moved on. Where have you been, I swear to God – you couldn’t even call me!?”

I put my hands up to try and ease her out of her anger, but mostly saw relief on her face.

“Woah. Okay, I will explain. Is Terry here?”

“Terry, get out here! You won’t believe what the bear drug in!”

Anna had always made every regular saying into her own.
Why be like everyone else?
She had been an inspiration for me when I’d worked for her.

I had been getting ready to take my GED test so I could start college in the fall when I left Maryland. I had felt guilty. But more than any of that, I felt fear. I couldn’t believe she had registered a missing persons report on me with the asshole that had made me go missing. He probably hadn’t even filed it. There would’ve been too many questions.

Anna peeked around me, just noticing Kellan.

“Kellan. Just grab a table and I’ll get your drink.”

Not at all what I was expecting. I turned to Kellan.

“You’ve been here before I see.”

“He eats here all the time. Loves Terry’s food.”

What were the odds? It was like fate had thrown us together and made sure we had a connection outside of the one we created with each other.

“Then I don’t have to introduce you.”

Thank God, because I really didn’t know what to call him at this point, my boss? My friend? My soon-to-be-more?

“You all know each other?” Anna asked.

“Let’s sit down and talk,” I said.

After we took the table in the corner, Kellan’s
usual table
, Terry came out. He picked me up out of my chair and swung me around.

“If I put you down, are you going to disappear again?”

“No. But I live in Vegas now. So eventually I have to go back.”

“You know what I mean, girl.”

I did. He wanted to make sure that I wasn’t just going to disappear out of their lives again. And I wouldn’t. I was getting better. Terry sat down at the table.

“Where have you been, Mackayla?” Terry asked me.

“So the guy I was dating? Just don’t talk to him again…he …scared me the night I left. I decided to leave to avoid that again. I went to Vegas and have been there since.”

I knew it was vague, and I knew from the look on Terry and Anna’s faces that they didn’t believe me. Kellan reached under the table and held my hand. He was giving me the silent support I needed to tell the two people who had been like parents to me, the truth.

“He raped me.”

I couldn’t believe I’d said it out loud. But since I’d told Kellan about it, it hadn’t felt as Earth shattering as it had before.

Terry was out of his chair the moment the words left my mouth and he was pounding on the wall, making several large holes in it. Anna was shielding her eyes from me, face parallel with the table. Kellan squeezed my hand. He was grounding me in a moment that I knew could change everything.

I looked at our intertwined hands, up his arm, to his shoulder, finally to his face and found the oddest expression there. It wasn’t all anger, which was there of course, it
was
Kellan we were talking about, but there was pride, too. He leaned over and kissed my cheek. I leaned my cheek into his lips because I needed that comfort.

I felt eyes on me, and noticed that the forceful noise of Terry hitting the wall had stopped. Anna’s eyes were on us, while Terry was inspecting his bleeding knuckles and leaning against the wall.

Terry and Kellan were two peas in a pod. They both had tempers, but I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt, that neither of them would use their tempers against me.

“At least some good came out of it all.” Anna’s red, wet eyes crinkling at the edges.

Since I had come into Anna’s life all those years ago, she had gotten on me about getting serious with a guy rather than bouncing from one to another. I had never brought a guy in to meet them but they had met a few on occasion when they would pick me up from work.

That’s how they’d met Deputy Richard Cintas. He had picked me up from work for one of our dates. Giving Anna and Terry all smiles and charm, to the point where they found him afterward and thought they could trust him to file a missing persons report on their behalf.

But Anna was right. The road I had traveled had led me to Kellan, and I could never be upset about that.

“Alright, I am going to cook you two the best damn lunch you’ve ever eaten,” Terry said as he pushed off from the wall.

“Wash your hands!” Anna yelled. “And maybe some gloves. I saw those knuckles.”

She followed him into the back and I knew they were talking about what I’d just told them. Probably planning to poison Dick Cintas, dismember him, maybe planning a special on the menu that used him as the special meat – I could only imagine. I knew how wild the two of them could be when they put their minds to something.

“How long have you known those two?” Kellan asked, snapping me out of my imagination.

“I lived with them when I first moved here. They are the only parents I’ve ever really known.”

“They’re good people.”

He was right. They were amazing supportive people.

“What is the one thing you want out of life?”

I don’t know why I had asked him that question. It wasn’t an easy one, but it also was one I’d been wondering about.

“What’s the fun in wanting one thing out of life?”

“The thing you want most, then.”

“You.”

I could feel my mouth moving but no words were coming out. My brain couldn’t wrap around what had just come out of his mouth. I wanted him too, but was I strong enough?

“Seriously?”

Maybe it was a joke.

“Seriously.”

Guess not.

“Well, you are a friend of mine. I look forward to our phone calls. I want –”

“Look at this spread, will ya?!”

Terry interrupted, carrying a tray with plates barely hanging onto the edges of it. The man’s timing was horrid.

“Looks amazing. Will you and Anna eat with us?” I asked. Trying to escape the moment of intimacy Kellan and I had just been in the throes of.

I had been about to tell Kellan I wanted
more
because honestly, that is what I wanted. I did want more with him.

“Uh, Terry. Can you just give us a minute?” Kellan said.

Terry put down the rest of the plates on the table. I think he may have actually given us one of everything on the menu. And some things that were not. We each had five plates. I knew this was what Terry did when he was upset. He cooked like a mad scientist. Anna said when his mother passed away they had to take the extra food to the homeless shelters because he had literally cooked for a week straight.

Terry left Kellan and I sitting in the silence of our awkwardness. Or maybe I was the only one feeling awkward.

Kellan had an expectant look on his face, so it turned out I
was
the only awkward one.

“You’re not getting out of it that easily. What were you going to say?”

“I want to eat?”

“So, we’re friends, you look forward to our phone calls and you want…to eat?”

“Yes?”

“Okay, Mac.”

I could see Kellan shutting down. He had a mask that mirrored the one I used on a regular basis. I could see his features becoming impassive.

“I told you I’m no good at this.” I said honestly. I knew I’d be like a bumbling idiot when it came to a relationship.

“I just want the truth. I don’t think that’s asking too much.”

“It’s not asking too much. It’s just not the easiest thing for me to come out and say, so Kellan, I thought about it and I know I was a total bitch when you were in Vegas, and I can’t quite figure out why you’ve stuck it out this long with as screwed up as I am, but I’d like to give us a shot?!”

My voice had risen during my word-vomit tirade. Shit. I had just said exactly what I wanted to in a rush of frustration. I was breathing hard. Kellan’s expression was unreadable.

“Two things about that.”

Here it came. He was going to tell me I wasn’t worth it. He was going to say he realized in our time apart that I’m too damaged.

“One, I’ve stuck it out, because you draw me. Something in you calls to something in me. You’re strong and wonderful – not to mention gorgeous. And two, I’d like to give us a shot, too.”

Had he just called me gorgeous and said he wanted a shot with me? I was elated, uncertain and terrified. The emotions in me clashed together and stuck to one another like Big League Chew.

“Hey,” Kellan said, pulling a piece of my hair behind my ear. God, I loved his touch, even if it was only my hair. “You okay?”

“In shock I think,” I laughed.

Feeling relieved but completely lost as to what to do next. Kellan leaned in and I took a breath. He approached me slowly, leaning in and looking at me carefully, trying not to spook me. I knew what was coming: he was going to kiss me. And I wanted him to.

Kellan

I couldn’t believe she’d blurted all of that out in one sentence. I could tell she was freaked by her emotions, but I couldn’t help the way I felt. And if she wanted a shot with us, I needed her to trust me. If she trusted me, then she’d let me kiss her. At least, that is what I talked myself into when I leaned in to kiss her. Should I’ve let her kiss me first? Probably. But how could I hold back, when I had wanted to do nothing but touch her since the moment I saw her.

I prayed she wouldn’t pull away from me when I kissed her. I would be chaste, no tongue. I promised whatever higher power there was I’d be good. I also hoped I could follow through on that promise, for her. I hoped I didn’t lose control when my lips touched hers.

I approached her slowly, letting her know with my slow movement and the tilt of my head what I was about to do. She didn’t lean away from me, and I didn’t see panic. Right before I kissed her I saw her close her eyes. I knew I was golden.

Our lips touched, and I moved a little closer. It was everything I had imagined it would be and more. She was my kryptonite. If she told me to drop to my knees and kiss her feet I would. But I’d be damned if I told
anyone
that.

Mac slid her tongue along my lips and I immediately opened for her. Thank the Big Guy for that. She was an incredible kisser. I could do this for hours with her. I was gripping the table tightly as well as the back of her chair. If I moved my hands I knew where they were going: On her, anywhere I could reach.

Mac moved her hands through my hair and I was very glad my eyes were closed. I enjoyed the fact she was comfortable enough with me to do things I didn’t think she would. I played my tongue over hers and she moaned. It was a shot straight to my groin, and I knew I’d have to eat lunch while sporting a hard on.