Inhaling a deep breath, I dug out my cell phone. Careful to not let my mind piece together any letters and form them into words, I scanned the incoming messages. Most were from Hailey…but one was from an unprogrammed phone number. That’s from him. Jesus. He really did text me. Fuck.

My stomach knotting, I ignored Hailey, ignored Gavin, and texted Kiera. ‘I miss you’. And I did. So incredibly much.

The phone in my hand instantly started ringing, and I smiled as Kiera’s name appeared on the screen. Just seeing it made the hurt evaporate, made good feelings start to return to my overcome body. Great feelings.

“Hey,” I said into the phone as relief rushed through me.

“I miss you too,” she said, both longing and amusement in her voice.

Suddenly feeling light as air, I smiled at the image of her in my head. “You sound…pleased. Is that because of me? Did I do something?”

She let out a soft laugh. “I just…can’t get over that picture.” She laughed again, and grateful for the distraction she was providing me, I laughed with her. Kiera had found Jenny’s steamy photo of me a lot sooner than I’d thought she would, and as I’d predicted, she loved it. “Is there really another one?” she asked. “Because I’ve searched everywhere…”

Lightly laughing, I shook my head. When she’d found that one, I’d teased her that there might be more hidden about, and I had hidden some regular photos of us for her to find, but that was the only one of me mostly naked. Damn. Maybe I should have had Jenny print out the entire session. Too late now. Guess Evan was right—I shouldn’t have made Jenny delete them all.

“You know…I just can’t remember,” I teased. “You’ll have to keep looking.” Because she still hadn’t found the letter. And I kind of wanted her to find it.

Kiera laughed again, then she sighed. “I can’t wait to see you. How are your shows going?”

A flash of pain struck me so hard, I couldn’t speak for a second. No. Don’t think about that, don’t think about him, don’t think about Hailey. Right now is just about Kiera. Instead of divulging the recent events that had me twisted in near-debilitating knots, I told her something that I knew she’d find entertaining. “For me, it’s going great. For Matt…it’s been an adjustment.”