Breaking Free (Tom Holland) Book Two

BFB2 Chapter 19

"I'm so sorry Kyle. I completely forgot you were here," I apologized as Tom and I broke apart.

Tom cleared his throat. He approached Kyle and held out his hand. "Nice to meet you. I'm Vanessa's boyfriend Tom."

Kyle shook his hand. "Nice to meet you too. I hope you don't mind that I'm still here."

"Not at all. I really appreciate you helping Vanessa out with her garden. I felt bad that I wasn't able to do it."

"I ordered food for the two of us so Kyle will be here a little while longer," I informed Tom.

Tom nodded. "I'm going to go ahead and take a shower," he said. He gave me one last peck on the cheek and nodded towards Kyle before heading into our room.

"I'm really sorry," I said to Kyle as we both settled into the couch.

"This is your home. You're allowed to do anything you want in it," Kyle snorted.

"Even so I still think an apology is in order."

Kyle opened his mouth to say something but a knock on the door interrupted him. I got up to answer it and retrieve our food. When I came back to the living room he was absentmindedly flipping through channels. "Is there anything you want to watch?" He asked.

I gave up on trying to continue our previous conversation. "Not really. You can put on whatever you want."

Kyle flipped through a few more channels before he landed on one for reality TV. We ate our food in silence letting the sound of the show fill in the void between us. Tom came out of the room drying his hair. "Your food smells so good. Now I'm hungry again," he commented.

"Are you sure you don't want me to order you some food? I think the restaurant is still open," I asked him.

Tom opened the fridge and began to rummage around inside of it. "It's alright. I'll find something to eat in here. Kyle do you want anything to drink?"

"No, thank you. I was actually about to head out in a bit. I have a shoot tomorrow morning."

"You do? Why'd you let me keep you so long then?" I wondered.

Kyle turned his signature lopsided grin in my direction. "Because that's what friends are for. And also free food."

I watched as Kyle stood up and stretched. "Well thank you again for your help today. I honestly couldn't have done it without you," I told him.

Kyle smiled as he replied, "Any time. I'll see you two later."

Tom jumped on the couch and snuggled down next to me. "I'm so glad I wasn't home super late tonight. I've missed being able to laze around on the couch with you for a few hours."

I wrapped my arms around Tom's abdomen. His scent seeped into my nose as I nuzzled my head into his chest. "I've missed this too."

Tom was gone by the time I awoke the next morning. My heart ached as my hand lightly brushed against the area where he would have been. I could almost feel the warmth that his body left on the sheets. But alas, it was just my mind playing tricks on me.

My life fell into an unpredictable pattern. Although my work schedule was all over the place I could always count on Tom or Kyle to keep me from being lonely. Zac was ecstatic that I had found someone to hang out with.

"I still feel really bad for leaving you so abruptly," he told me one day while we did our weekly video chat.

"You don't have to feel bad. I'm doing alright. Everything is falling into place little by little. How's your mom?"

"She's doing much better. She's at home resting now. Aiden practically lives here so I have some help taking care of her."

"That's good. I'm glad she's improving. Is she excited about the wedding?"

"She's overwhelmed to be honest. You know she always treated you and your siblings like you were her own children so she's heavily involved with their weddings as well as mine. We keep telling her to calm down but she refuses."

I laughed. "That sounds just like your mom."

"Now are we going to talk about you and Tom? I need an update asap."

"Update? There's nothing to update."

"Ugh you guys are so boring. We're all getting married over here. You're falling behind the pack. You'll be the only non-married one in our group of married people."

"Kyle's not married."

"Kyle isn't a part of our group. We don't claim him."

I scowled. "If you say so. Tom and I haven't really discussed marriage and I don't think we're going to be doing that anytime soon."

"Boooooooooringggggggggggg," Zac whined. "Maybe seeing your sister in her wedding dress will get him motivated to pop the question."

I rolled my eyes. "I doubt it. Besides, he's seen me in wedding dresses before. I actually did a wedding photoshoot with Kyle the other day."

"That's different. How's Tom taking your new friendship anyway? He's not having any fits?"

"Of course not. He's totally fine with it. Honestly he's just happy that I'm not sitting around all day being bored. And Tessa is extremely happy to have someone to play with."

"That's good. From the way you were talking about Kyle when you first met him I never would have thought you would become friends with him."

"If I'm being honest, I didn't either. He was definitely a little weird when I first met him. But after working together so much everything just fell into place."

"Still, be careful. You've only known him for two months."

"I promise I'll be careful."

Zac nodded in approval. "Well, my food is here so I'm going to go. Unless, of course, you want to see me eat on camera."

"Absolutely not. Have a good night Zac," I chuckled.

I lay on my bed after the video call and stared at the ceiling. It was true that everyone closest to me was getting married. But that didn't mean I had to. Still, as I looked at the pictures of me from the wedding photoshoot, I couldn't help but wonder how it would feel to wear one that was meant for my own wedding.