Chapter 6

Connor

“OK.” I watched Kendall hold out her hand and it took everything I had not to grab it and yank her closer. “You’ve got a deal.”

But I didn’t touch her because I knew the minute I did, I’d get lost. I’d feel how small her hand was in mine and I’d… Instead, I nodded and then walked over to the bedroom door, opening it to show her where she’d be staying.

There was a reason why we were always invading Kendall’s room when she was a kid. It was her space, completely and utterly, and that always hit me the minute we walked in the door. Her scent, sweet and floral. Her things everywhere. The little feathers she used to find when going for walks with her mum. The rocks, polished smooth in pastel shades of blue, cream and buff that she liked to collect from the beach. A shell as delicate as her ear sitting amongst the clutter on her windowsill. And her books, so many books, lining the bookcase, piled up precariously beside her bed only to spill onto the floor. Coming into her room uninvited was like walking into her mind, her soul. As I walked into the spare bedroom, it wasn’t hard to see it, the big open space made smaller and more intimate with all of the details of her.

“Oh my god, it’s huge…” the best friend said, looking around.

“Girls always say that when they come into my room.” Gage and I shot Van a dark look, his eyes widening as his smile faltered. ‘What?’ he mouthed silently.

“You could get a new bed, a queen size this time,” the friend enthused, waving a hand around in the air. “Some bedside tables. A couple of nice lamps.”

I liked what she was doing a whole lot, imagining the space transformed for Kendall. It was what I wanted too, but this Barbie had an actual idea about how that would work. We gutted houses, transformed them, but when it came to making them liveable, that’s when the interior designers came in and used the company credit card to buy textured rugs and decorative elements.

“My bed is fine.” Kendall shot me a wary look. “This is only temporary. I need to get back to my place to pick everything up.”

“We’ll come.” I watched Van step closer. The bloke was like a puppy, his tail wagging furiously, desperate for a pat, and I barely resisted the urge to tell him to chill the fuck out. Kendall was ready to bolt and setting his Golden Retriever arse on her was enough to start her running. “I mean, we can help move you in.”

“Oh no—”

“Do you have a trailer?” I asked, far too sharply. “How’re you getting your stuff over here?” Calm down, I told myself. Take a deep fucking breath and stop barking questions at her like they’re orders. Because if Van was a Golden Retriever, then I was a German Shepherd. Every muscle was tensed and at the ready to protect and serve her, whether she wanted it or not. But I forced them to unwind as I stared into her eyes. “It’s just we’ve got the van and a trailer and with three strong blokes—”

“Yes.”

The best friend stepped forward, eyes twinkling as she smiled at me, making clear she saw through my bullshit right away.

“Barbie—”

“Kendall would love it if you could give her a hand. What?” My girl had poked her friend hard in the back. “If we get these guys helping, then you’ll be moved in within the hour. Another one to put that goddamn bed frame of yours together… Do you remember the first time we did it? Death by flatpack. Our friendship nearly didn’t survive it.”

“Because you wouldn’t follow the instructions…” Kendall muttered.

“Instructions are for losers.” The girl waved her hand around. “I prefer to forge my own path, but…” She took a slow step towards us. “You guys work in construction, right?”

I knew that look well. We often had girls sidle up to us for similar reasons. Because they had work to be done on their cars, their houses, or just them and that made me stiffen.

“Right,” Gage replied, the word somehow dragged from the big guy.

“Well, maybe you could put together Kendall’s bed for her?”

And didn’t that conjure up a pretty mental image. Of setting up the bed frame, then the mattress, laying the girl on it last of all. I’d follow her down, my mouth finally on hers as we—

“Jesus, Barbie…” My girl pushed her way forward, putting herself between me and her friend and that was just fine by me. The closer the better as far as I was concerned. “You don’t need—”

“Yes, we do.”

I felt the guys cluster closer, knowing exactly what was going through their heads, because mine was thinking the same. We’d build a bed for Kendall from scratch, complete with a bookshelf for all her novels, if that was what it took, because she didn’t know…

We’d planned all of our pranks meticulously, gleefully discussing what we’d do in Finn’s bedroom, but the last one we hadn’t included him at all. Kendall finishing school, becoming an adult, that meant all bets were off. She wasn’t Finn’s kid sister anymore, she was her own woman.

And all three of us wanted to make her ours.

That was what we had planned back then, one last prank, but instead of one to torment her, we’d… I shook my head, trying to dispel the memory of everything we’d done in preparation for that night.

Only for her to not turn up.

Her dad found the note she’d left, spluttering and going on about how ungrateful she was, but we knew. She’d left to avoid us, to avoid the pain we caused. I’d watched Finn and his dad talk, getting louder and louder, trying to fill the space Kendall had left with their angry words, but they didn’t. Kendall’s mother had shaken her head then looked at the three of us, making clear what we all knew.

It was our fault Kendall had bolted, disappearing off to somewhere in the city. Away from her family, friends, us… But she was back now, and we had a second chance to make things right.

“We fucked with your bedroom enough times,” I said bluntly. “So let us make this right.” I moved closer, as close as I dared. “We’re a dab hand with flatpacks, and if your bed frame’s no good, we can build another one without too much effort. Just give us a second to grab our keys and our tools.”

Just give us a chance, that went unspoken but I thought on some level Kendall heard it. Her eyes widened just slightly, those beautiful brown depths threatening to swallow me whole. I wanted that, the unguarded moment, more than anything, but it only lasted a short time, her defences slammed up tight in seconds. She frowned slightly, ready to say no, so her nod took me by surprise.

“OK,” she said, “you can follow me in my car.”