Forever With You (Silver State Series) by Renae Kelleigh Read Free Book Online Page B

smile on his face.  “It feels scratchy,” he explains.  “It tickles.”
    I giggle.  “I’ve never known a cat to give kisses like that.”
    Kyle chuckles as he pulls his hand up into his lap and takes up his fork again.
    “Now do you mind if I ask you a question?” he asks, all joking aside.
    I nod for him to continue, sobered by the change in his expression.
    “Feel free to tell me if this is none of my business… I know you had cancer.”
    He stops and looks at me, as if to make sure it’s okay for him to go on.  I offer him the tiniest hint of a smile.  As much as I hate talking about my disease, I don’t want him to feel uncomfortable.  At the same time, I’ve struggled to not let it define me, and I can only hope Kyle is able to look at me without associating me with that awful part of my past.  Maybe talking about it will enable him to put it behind us.
    “Are you…okay now?” he asks tentatively, his eyes never wavering from mine.
    I wipe my mouth with my napkin and push back slightly from the table.  “Yes, I’m fine.  My last biopsy was June second four years ago.  That’s when my oncologist told me I was back in remission, so I’ve considered myself cancer free ever since then.”
    He smiles as his shoulders relax in evident relief.  “And it won’t come back?”
    “Well, I suppose it could …but my doctor seems optimistic that it won’t.  Especially since I’ve gone this long without it relapsing again.  I mean, I just have a feeling it won’t, if that makes sense.  I feel great – stronger than I did before the first time it came back.”
    His eyes are riveted on me with an expression akin to reverence – it’s making me a tad uncomfortable.  I flash him one more reassuring smile, then stack his plate on top of my own and head to the sink with it.
    “Leave it, I can do the dishes,” Kyle says as he comes up behind me.  “We don’t have a dishwasher.”
    I turn on the faucet anyway, letting the hot water flow over the plates while I scrub at them with a sponge.  “I don’t mind,” I tell him.  “You cooked, I’ll clean.”
    He turns around and leans back against the counter next to me, trying to catch my gaze.  I remain focused on the dishes, rinsing away the soap bubbles before placing them in the dish rack on the opposite side of the sink.  I’ve just shut off the water and begun shaking my wet hands over the basin when Kyle softly catches my upper arm.  When I glance at him I’m surprised by the pleading in his eyes.
    “I’m sorry I asked you about it,” he says.  “You probably don’t like talking about it.  I promise I won’t talk about it again unless you bring it up.”
    I sigh and lean my hip into the counter next to him as he releases his hold on my arm.  My heart hammers in my ribcage in response to the proximity of our bodies and my perceived intimacy of the moment.  “It’s totally fine, Kyle.  I didn’t mean to act the way I did.  It’s sort of like a defense mechanism for me.  A big part of the reason I wanted to come here was to get away from the people I grew up around, because I was tired of them looking at me like they felt sorry for me.  I wanted to meet people who could see me without immediately drawing a connection to my illness.”
    He nods in understanding.  “That doesn’t mean I don’t want to be your friend,” I ramble on, not at all sure where I’m going with this.  “It’s actually really helpful to be around familiar faces – you just have to promise me you won’t think of me as ‘the girl who had cancer.’”
    His eyes crinkle as he smiles down at me.  “You have my word, Tawny Read.”
    My heart soars at his utterance; I open my mouth to thank him, but I stop short when I hear a key turning in the front lock and the sound of female voices.  Kyle turns and our moment slips away.  A girl pops her head in the doorway and says, “Were you planning to use the TV tonight?  They came over to