Kiss Me (40 page)

“He’s failed every one of his tests until I started helping him.”

“Oh, so a C is good?”

“Yeah, but we’ve still got a lot of work to do.”

“So the tutoring wasn’t just an excuse to hang out with you? Peyton told me he’s really smart. Sorry, I just, it seemed weird.”

“Speaking of weird, your brother was telling me about something today.” I whisper something into his ear. Something Riley says is supposed to drive a woman crazy.

He runs his hand through his hair. “Jeez, Keatie, pretty soon I’m gonna be failing. That’s all I’m gonna be able to think about today.” 

Then I remember I have a meeting tonight.

“Oh, wait. I have a Social Committee meeting tonight at 6:30. And it might go late. The dean is going with us. We have a lot to plan. Don’t tell anyone, but we may have something really cool planned for Homecoming. You’ll love it.”

“Tell me.”

“Okay, but you can’t tell anyone until we get it all approved.” He kisses me in agreement. “I think we’re gonna have an after-party. At a club. From midnight until six the next morning. Dancing, VIP section, great DJ. It’s gonna be really fun.”

“That does sound fun. That your idea?”

“Yeah.”

“I think it sounds amazing, but let’s go back to your other idea.”

Mesmerized by my tongue.

8:50pm

Our dinner meeting is quite productive. I knew the dean was coming with us to hear our plans, so I decided to wear a really cute dress. It’s got a chestnut leather bodice with a breezy black pleated skirt. I paired it with some funky heavily-studded midcalf boots. A Fendi ponyhair baguette bag. And a necklace I ordered online recently that is made from recycled items. It has a vintage brass number four on it, for my sisters. 

He had already given us his blessing for the project, but tonight he offers to send an email not just to the current students’ parents but to all the alumni asking for donations. Which means our Homecoming after-party is going to rock.

After dinner, Aiden offers me a ride back to school. He leads me to a beautiful creamy white Maserati GrandTurismo MC that I have always admired at school but never knew who it belonged to. I know it has special order paint called Bianco Fuji as well as twenty-inch black Astro wheels. Tommy is seriously obsessed with cars, and the knowledge must have worn off on me. 

Aiden opens the passenger door and I slide onto a black leather seat with custom white contrast stitching. 

“Nice car,” I say. 

He nods his head humbly. “Thanks. Do you want to stop for some ice cream?”

“Sure,” I say excitedly, but then he tells me wants to talk about our dreams. “I thought there had to be weed or alcohol involved for you to tell me about your dreams.”

“I didn’t say there were dreams. I said
a
dream.”

“Oh, sorry. Semantics.”

“Well, I don’t want you to think I sit around and dream about you all day long.”

We get ice cream cones and sit outside eating them.

I take a big lick. “This is good,” I tell him. “Thanks for stopping.”

“Oh, thank you,” he says, apparently mesmerized by my tongue. 

Ha. It’s good to know I have a little power of my own. I like it when Aiden seems like a normal boy. Makes him easier for me to deal with.

“Thank me for what?” I say and then slowly move my tongue around the base of the cone.

He blinks. “Uh, um, for helping me get the C.”

“Oh, yeah, that. But I thought our goal was a B? Or don’t you want to come to France with me anymore?”

I get the god-like smile. Then watch as he licks his own lips. 

“Oh, I’m definitely going to make a B. Can we go to the Eiffel Tower?”

“Well, sure. Our house is in southern France, but we can go to Paris for a couple of days, why not?”

He raises his eyebrows up and down at me. “It’s gonna be very romantic, you know.”

“Maybe I’ll bring Dawson with us.”

He gets his face in close to mine. “You won’t be bringing Dawson. You’ll be with me.”

“You know, you keep saying stuff like that. It makes no sense.”

“Why doesn’t it make sense?”

“Because I couldn’t have a relationship with you. I always know where I stand with Dawson. Our relationship is very simple.”

A flash of irritation crosses his eye.

“So, are you going to tell me about your dream?” I say, changing the subject.

“No, you’re going to tell me about yours first.”

“Okay, so when it started out I was, like, in this clearing in the woods. It kinda looked like the cave, but there were streamers and ribbons and flowers hanging from all the tree branches. It was gorgeous. Everything was cream-colored, like your car, and golden. I was going to get married there. I had on a white dress with beautiful gold embroidery—it was very Robin-Hood-marries-Maid-Marian feeling. Anyway. I’m getting married, and I don’t know who the person is that I’m marrying because I can’t see him through my veil, but, like, I know in my heart it’s the guy I’m in love with. So, we get married and even when he kisses me, it’s through the veil.” I stop. “This sounds really stupid, I can’t tell you the rest.”

“No, it’s interesting, go on.”

“Fine. Okay, so then I’m in a dorm room. I’m sitting on my husband’s lap, maybe kinda straddling him in his desk chair. He slowly took my dress off. And pretty soon I’m naked on top of him, but I still have the veil on and can’t see his face. So we start, uh, consummating the marriage. But I still have the veil on. And then in the middle of it, he lifts the veil, so I can finally see his face.”

“Wait, go back to the dorm room part. You done something like that lately?”

“Um, sorta?”

Aiden walks to his car, gets in, and starts it. I’m not sure what to do, so I throw what’s left of my cone away and get in too.

He doesn’t even look at me, just slams through the gears, driving. 

He squeals into the school parking lot, gets out of his car, slams the door shut, and starts walking away. Doesn’t say a word to me.

I get out of the car. I’m not sure what to say. I mean, I thought he would love the dream. It was him I was with. He was the guy I married. I was going to tease him about how the stuff that he says is, like, affecting my brain.

“Don’t you even want to know who I married?”

“No, not really,” is his response as he marches away from me.

I text Dawson.

Me:  Hey, just got back. 

Dawson:  Come give me a good night kiss.

I follow the marching god to his dorm. When he turns to open and go through the door, he notices me. “Are you following me?”

“Uh, no. I’m going to see Dawson for a few minutes before curfew. And we’re going to be gone this weekend. At that weekend Whitney planned, so I won’t be able to tutor you.”

“Good,” he says and marches up the stairs. 

Friday, September 23rd

I wish we didn’t fight.

12:55pm

Garrett calls me as I’m leaving lunch. I tell Dawson that I have to take a quick call and send him off to his next class. I’m freaking out a bit because Garrett never calls me. He always texts me and has me call him back.

“What’s wrong?”

“Did you tell Vanessa where you are?”

“No.”

“Keatyn, it’s important that you tell me the truth. I won’t yell at you if you did. I know this has been hard on you, but if you did, it’s imperative that I know.”

“I swear to you on my sisters’ lives that I’m telling you the truth. What’s going on?”

“Vanessa may be missing.”

“Missing how?”

“She apparently posted something on Facebook about how she talked to you. That you wanted everyone to know you were getting better.”

“She just wants to act like she knows what’s going on.”

“Well, that may be, but she went to a club last night and RiAnne says no one has seen her since.” He swallows loudly. “Vincent was at the same club.”

“And you think something’s happened to her? But you told me if I kept my friends in the dark they’d be safe. Did you lie to me? Do you think he’s done something to her?”

“We don’t know. We aren’t running surveillance on him twenty-four-seven anymore.”

I’m shocked. “Why not?!”

“I was told to cut back.”

“By who?”

“James.”

“Is it a money thing?”

“I think they were pretty surprised at how much the bill was, yes. But in their defense, it’s been almost a month and we haven’t produced any compelling results. The goal was to gather information that we could use against him. Other than him being at the same places as some of your friends, his going to Oregon, New York, and a few coincidental Facebook things, we have nothing. Nothing we could take to a judge, anyway.”

“Do you think for my safety we should be watching him more?”

“I don’t know that twenty-four-seven is the answer, but, yes, I’d like to have the freedom to do what we think is best. For example, my man followed him to the club, but then went off duty.”

“From now on, you have the freedom to do what you think is best. Just bill me. And you need to give me more details about Vanessa because what you’re saying doesn’t make sense. Vanessa never went to a club alone. She made RiAnne and me go with her. And she may not have told RiAnne who she was leaving with, but she would have told her she was leaving. RiAnne was
always
her cover.”

“What do you mean, her cover?”

“It’s just not that unusual for her to go off with a guy for the weekend. And when she did that, she always told her dad that she was staying at RiAnnes. What did RiAnne say, exactly?”

“On her own wall, she said that Vanessa is missing, but on your Facebook wall she said,
Vanessa is off radar and I’m going to be pissed if you two are having a reunion without me
.

“Off radar means RiAnne has no idea where she is. You need to send her a message. Don’t write on her wall. Send her a direct message. Tell her that Vanessa is not with me. That I haven’t spoken to her or anyone else since my party. Tell her—and this is important—that I pinkie swear. She’ll come home, Garrett. She always does. I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that he was there.”

“Like it was just a coincidence that he was in New York at Brooklyn’s tournament? I don’t think so. When she comes home, Keatyn, I’d like her to come home alive. We can’t find Vincent either.”

“What do you mean?”

“We can’t find him. He’s not at home. Didn’t go to his office today. His assistant said she wasn’t sure when he’d be back.”

“Wow,” is all I manage to mutter out. My mind is going in a million directions. Trying to process it all.

“When she went off with guys before, did she go to the same place? Is there somewhere we can look for her?”

“Not really. She’d take off and come back with some amazing story. And pictures. Always pictures. Do you really think she could be with Vincent?”

“I don’t believe in coincidences.”

I remember her telling me that Vincent was hot that day at the hotel. “You might check The Chateau. It’s her favorite hotel and it’s where she met Vincent to begin with.”

“I’ll call you if I hear anything. You swear to me, she doesn’t know where you are? If she does, I want you out of there now. I’m serious.”

“I swear.”

I hit the end button on my phone with a shaking hand. I know at any moment I’m going to burst into tears. I can’t go to class. 

I run my hand through my hair, look up, and see the chapel at the top of the hill. I put my head down and quickly walk toward it. 

The heavy wooden doors open with a creak. Thankfully, no one is here. I choose a pew in the back row and plop down. I fold my hands and say a prayer. 

Please, God, let Vanessa be okay. I don’t understand this. I gave up everything. My friends. My family. My home. I wanted to put as much distance as I could between us. I did it because I thought it would keep them safe. They told me it would keep them safe. I was so sure of my decision when I made it. I can still see the photo of the girls. I can still hear the voice in my head that told me they’d be safe. I don’t want anyone hurt because of me, and they are really the ones I did this for. They are the ones I gave my life up for. And I’ll give it up forever as long as those four little smiles stay safe. 

Tears stream down my face as I’m praying, but when I think about the girls, I start bawling. I just put my face in my hands and cry. I miss them so much. 

A hand touches my knee and a silky voice says, “Boots.”

I look up and Aiden’s eyes meet my tear-filled ones. Those green eyes that see straight through me. Those green eyes that always make me feel emotionally naked. 

I close my eyes and start crying again. I don’t know why he’s here. He’s supposed to be mad at me. But he doesn’t act like he’s mad anymore. He wraps his arms around me and I melt into his chest. He whispers soothingly in my ear, “Shhhh, it’ll be okay.” And maybe I’m desperate, but when Aiden says it, I somehow believe him.

I shudder, sob a bit more, then soak in Aiden’s touch. The way his hand is tangled into the back of my hair. The way I can feel his heart beating against my cheek. The way his chest rises and falls with every breath he takes. The strength I feel in his muscular arms. 

“Why aren’t you in class?” I whisper. But I don’t move.

He runs his hand through my hair. “I saw you sitting on the bench, talking on your phone. You had your head down the whole time. I was waiting so I could apologize for last night. Again. It feels like I’m always apologizing to you. But when you looked up, I could tell by the look on your face you were upset. And when you marched straight to the chapel, I knew you must be really upset. What happened?”

“I got some bad news from my family. Um, my friend, she has this guy who has been stalking her. She’s maybe missing right now.”

“And they think the stalker might have hurt her? What was their relationship? Did they date?”