I couldn’t stop staring at her, couldn’t help but be absorbed by her intoxicating green eyes. For good or bad, so much had begun here. And ended here. My kitchen was a conflux of pleasure and pain, a swirling storm of emotional highs and lows. But the tempest was over, and our love had prevailed.

Kiera seemed to be just as lost in me as I was in her. So much so, that when the phone in the kitchen rang, she jumped. Even though the sound had surprised me too, I had to laugh at her reaction. It was so nice to know I could affect her that deeply, almost as deeply as she affected me.

She thumped my chest in response to my laugh. “Hello?” I said, picking up the corded phone and smiling at Kiera.

A voice I hadn’t expected to hear met my ear, and my smile widened. “Kellan, hey, good morning, mate.”

“Hey, Denny, long time, no hear.” When Kiera and I had split…and Kiera and Denny, too, I guess, I’d talked to Denny quite a bit. He hadn’t wanted to speak to me at first, but eventually my persistence had worn him down. Then we’d talked all the time—mainly me bugging him. But now that Kiera and I were together, and he was happy with Abby, well, our conversations had become a lot less frequent.

“Yeah, sorry about that. Things have been crazy here…work and stuff. And I want to catch up, but uh…I was actually looking for Kiera. Is she with you?”

The feeling that washed through me then was strange. It was heat mixed with ice, comfort mixed with confusion, contentment mixed with jealousy. I knew Denny and Kiera were still friends, and I knew they talked on occasion, but Denny had never called me…looking for her.

Kiera was turning away, like she was giving Denny and me privacy. Little did she know, we didn’t need it. They needed it. But I didn’t think I could give it to them. I just wasn’t at that level of comfort yet.

Doing my best to push aside every ounce of insecurity, I told Denny, “Yeah…She’s right here…Hold on.”

Kiera froze when she realized the phone was for her, not me. Holding the phone out to her, I said, “He called here for you.”

Her eyes widened as she studied my face. I had to imagine she felt strange too, maybe guilty. She shouldn’t…but then, I shouldn’t feel jealous. And I did. I couldn’t deny that. But I didn’t have to admit it. I could seem completely fine. Because I should be fine. They broke up. She’s with me now.