She opens her mouth to speak but the words never come. She chews her bottom lip again and closes her eyes for a moment. When she opens them, I see the steely resolve she’s put up against me. “A friendship with me isn’t on the table, so you’d do best to focus on the sure thing—Kai.”

She moves to open my door but hesitates. “Hey, Kylie?”

“Yes?”

“I still have your friendship bracelet. I never forgot you.”

Her grip on the door handle tightens, but she still doesn’t turn back to look at me. “Good for you. I burned mine.”

She doesn’t close the door behind her. She just runs to her car and races off.

Hours later when Kai gets home, I tell him about the bag Kylie dropped off. “Why didn’t you have her drop it off at your office?”

He scratches the back of his neck. “I may have had it in my head that if you two saw each other maybe you could at least start a conversation. Maybe that’s what you need to move forward.”

I pull him into a hug, and he settles his head on top of mine. “That’s sweet. I appreciate the gesture but it didn’t go well.” I recap the conversation we had, and he looks pained by the idea of me never reconciling with his sister. “She’s not you, Kai.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means you accepted me back with open arms, no questions asked. I still don’t know why but it means a lot that you have. Kylie isn’t willing to do the same and that’s fair. That’s actually the more logical response. She needs time and she needs answers. Answers I haven’t given her. Or you. You can’t force her to accept me. She might never accept me again, and that’s my cross to bear.”

“I get that. I just know how much you meant to each other. I want you to have that again.”

“Time will tell, I guess.”

“Fair. I’ll leave it alone.”

“Thank you. And thank you for trying. It really was a sweet gesture.”

“Hmm.” He leans down, our lips mere inches from each other. If I just tip my head up a little more, we’ll connect. Ah fuck. I drop my eyes to the floor.

“I’m, um, gonna go take a shower.”

The disappointment in his sigh hits me in the gut. “Okay, Olivia.”

I have to get my shit together before I cause any more damage.

Chapter Nineteen

Olivia

“I don’t need the contact info for another PT. I already have one.”

“One that’s not doing a damn thing for you.”

“What are you talking about? As far as I know you haven’t attended a single session, so you haven’t seen how much I’ve improved.”