Free Kiss Me by C. C. Wood Page B

when her door opened and Jake stepped through.  Kaylie heard herself growl.
    “Get out, Jake.”
    He shut the door behind him, turned the lock, and leaned against the jamb with his arms crossed.
    “No,” he said.
    The dull ache in Kaylie’s head spiked into a fierce stab of pain, probably from the fact that her blood pressure had suddenly shot up to one million over two million.  She stood up and stomped over to him, reared her leg back, and kicked him squarely in the shin.  Kaylie stepped back quickly, hopping on one foot.  Damn, that had hurt.
    Jake had his leg up to his chest, rubbing his shin.
    “ Dammit, Kaylie, I thought you might have grown out of the whole kicking-in-the-shin thing.  That stings.”
    She glared at him as she hobbled back to the bed.  Because she’d be damned before she admitted that her foot hurt, Kaylie only whined within the safety of her own head.  Peep toes had been a bad idea.
    “Jake, seriously, just go away,” she sighed as she sank down on the bed, absently rubbing her temple.
    Jake just stared at her for a moment and headed to the attached bathroom.  Kaylie stood up and took one step toward the door before Jake’s voice stopped her.
    “If you leave this room, I will chase you down and carry you back up here over my shoulder if I have to.”
    With her escape foiled, Kaylie went back to sit on the bed.  Having argued with Jake on more than one occasion, she knew he wasn’t bluffing.  He never said things he didn’t mean.  A few moments later she looked up as he came back from the bathroom with a paper cup full of water and a bottle of ibuprofen.  Without speaking, he handed her the cup then shook out two pills into her hand.
    Kaylie didn’t argue even though she really wanted to, she just swallowed the pills down with the water in the cup.
    Grudgingly, she looked up at Jake.  “Thanks.”
    He nodded and loomed over her, his arms crossed across his chest.  Kaylie gulped down the rest of the water and set the empty cup on the nightstand by her wineglass.  She was a small woman, less than five-five in her bare feet, so his attempt to intimidate her was wasted.  Most people towered over her and Kaylie was used to it.  She leaned back on her hands.
    “ Are you going to stand there or are you going to talk?” she asked, crossing her legs and swinging her foot as if she didn’t have a care in the world.
    Jake scowled at her.  “You are a very irritating woman.”
    Kaylie smirked back at him because she had heard those exact words on more than once and usually from his mouth. 
    He sighed and moved to sit beside her on the mattress.  “ Kaylie, I honestly don’t know what to say.  I do know that we can’t keep acting like this.  With Kevin moving back to Austin, I’ll be around a lot more often.”
    Kaylie cocked her head and eyed him for a moment.  “Okay, what do you propose we do?”
    Jake shrugged.  “I don’t know.  I’m not the one going around kicking people in the shin.”
    She had to smile.  When they were together, it had become almost like a contest.  If Jake made her mad, she would kick him in the shin.  After a while, he expected it, so she had to become creative in how she distracted him before she attacked.  Fortunately, he seemed to enjoy her feisty behavior, well, at least until he dumped her.
    Kaylie’s smile disappeared when she remembered that.  Still, he had a point.  Jake and Kevin had become friends in the four years that Jake and Kaylie dated.  They were still close.  As much as Kaylie would have liked to throw a huge hissy fit after she and Jake broke up, she knew her brother really liked Jake, so she pretended the break-up wasn’t a big deal and that it didn’t bother her if her brother remained friends with her ex.
    “Fine, Jake.  I’ll put on a polite face.  We’ll make conversation and I’ll try to curb my shin-kicking tendencies.”
    He studied her intently.  “Are you happy, Kaylie?” he asked.
    Kaylie