Free Can't Let Go by Michelle Lynn Page B

Michaels.” Jessa tosses her hand in the air.
    “You must think I’m horrible.” The brunette rushes over to me. “I’m Kailey,” she introduces herself and wraps her arms around my shoulders. When I don’t reciprocate, but rather stand there stiff, she pulls back. “Sorry, I’m just really happy right now. I didn’t mean to overstep your personal space,” she practically whispers, and a small smile crosses my lips. She’s nice and kind. My shoulders relax a little with her presence. “Come on over to the island.”
    Kailey catches up with the two other girls, answering their stream of twenty questions. From what I can gather, she and Trey had recently split up. This is his parents’ house, he took her to some tree house last night and now they are happy again. Even with Jessa’s persistence, Kailey shyly shakes her head back and forth not giving any details.
    After the gossip session, Kailey shows us out to the porch that opens up to more open land. A swing set to the left, a fire pit to the right. Two little girls run around the yard, blowing bubbles while a smaller boy waddles around in the grass as a woman, I assume is Trey’s mom, follows closely behind. They have three kids? Shit, I can’t even imagine. No wonder they weren’t talking for a while.
    Leaning against the side of the pergola, the girls scream and cheer on at the two smaller girls tickling Dex. The sun streaming down on my face between the wooden slants, I watch Dex, so carefree and fun. Trey’s eyes veer to mine, and I instantly turn them back down to the ground. He jumps up, and the pit of my stomach fears he’ll come over and try to engage me, but instead he joins the masses. A few minutes go by with laughter shrieking throughout the yard. When everyone stands, Dex’s eyes find mine immediately and the smile falls from his face. That’s when I realize, this is the last place I should be. He has his life, and me showing up in his perfect shell is unfair.
    Already regretting my decision to call Dex in the first place, I keep my distance for the remainder of the night, allowing him to have fun with his friends. He doesn’t engage me very much, only telling me even more that he wishes I wouldn’t have invaded his perfect life. By the time we go to bed, we venture into the room that is reserved for the two of us. I guess when you come with so many couples, it negates the whole guys in this room, girls in the other equation.
    I escape into the bathroom and change my clothes. By the time I return, Dex is already in his pajama pants, digging in his bag. He drops his phone and bends down to retrieve it. As he steadily stands back up, his eyes roam up my body and a warm current in my blood swirls, following the path of his eyes. He bites his bottom lip and takes a deep breath. “I’ll be back,” he says with a husky voice.
    Once he rushes out, I climb under the covers to disengage any sexual urges neither one of us will entertain tonight. In this moment, I wish I could be one of those girls. The ones who could sleep with Dex only to feel the comforting arms of a man, but it’s the fear of after that keeps my hands pinned around my body. The fear that he slept with me out of pity, or worse, that he only did it for his own pleasure and release.
    He opens the door, and his blue eyes focus on the television and anywhere but at me. “I’ll sleep on the floor,” he murmurs, never casting a glance my way.
    “Don’t be silly. We’ve done this before.” I flip to my side.
    “When we were fourteen, Chris.” He grabs the pillow.
    “Really, Dex. I trust you,” I tell him, facing him head on, and oh my lord, his muscles are everywhere. He’s always been built, but holy mackerole, he’s insanely big now.
    He looks at me long and hard for a few seconds and then pulls back the covers. As he’s sliding under the crisp white linen sheets, the mattress dips next to me. I turn around so my back faces his. We both reach over and turn off the