Love's Rapture

Talon

The minute I walked through the back door of The Hut, three days after my date with Kelly, someone grabbed me by the back of the neck and shoved me into the stock closet. The door slammed behind us, and I whirled when whoever had caught me let me go.

"What's your problem?" I yelled.

I didn't expect Parker to be standing there.

"Parker?"

"What's going on, Talon? I let you prance around here being in love with my little sister, and even go as far as letting you ask her out more than once. All for what? For you to hurt her by not talking to her? For you to make her self-conscious? I thought you wanted to be with her, and now that I think she might want to be with you too, you start ignoring her. You need to explain it."

"You think she wants to be with me?" I asked.

The vein in Parker's forehead popped out, and I realized I'd said the wrong thing.

"Parker, listen, man, I have no intention of hurting Kelly. I wanted to give her time to get to know me even better before our second date. I wanted her to be sure this was what she wanted."

He visibly relaxed some, but I wouldn't count myself safe until the vein disappeared.

"She thinks you got your date, and now you're done. Maybe you need to go explain to her that you're an idiot and just wanted to give her time to think about dating you and junk." He sighed and scrubbed his palms over his face, getting rid of whatever he was feeling. "I'm not cut out for this stuff, Talon. I hate seeing my sister date, especially watching her date you."

He must have seen the hurt in my eyes because he gave me a sad smile and continued. "You weren't there, watching Kelly the days after she lost Breton. I mean, I know you lost him too, I'm just saying, watching someone you love to be ripped apart from the inside isn't easy. He was her best friend, her everything, and she lost him. Then, all of a sudden, she was okay. She stopped crying and started leaving the house for hours at a time. We had no idea where she was going, but we knew whatever she was doing helped her. We all started to relax, finally, and then you showed up, telling my parents what was going on. It shattered my family all over again." He sighed again. "I'm grateful, as much as it hurt watching her grieve when we thought she already had, I'm so grateful that you came through for her. She didn't see it that way, but you saved her from herself back then. I can't watch her grieve again."

"I promise, I'll go make things right, right now. If I'd known she was feeling like I wasn't going to ask her out, you have to know I would have talked to her about it sooner."

"You can't hurt her, Talon."

I let out a humorless laugh. "Believe me. I'm more worried about Kelly hurting me."

He nodded and walked out into the hall, leaving me standing in the closet, wondering when I'd get the chance to talk to Kelly alone.

I got the chance three hours later when Kelly came in before her classes started for the day. I only had thirty minutes before she had to leave, so I'd tried to get my tasks done so I could take a break and talk to her.

"Hey, Kel. Do you mind walking out with me real quick? Parker's in the back and Robby's grabbing some cups from the closet, so they shouldn't need me for a bit."

She looked a little stunned, but she picked her book bag back up before following me out the door. I fought the urge to reach for her hand and grinned at her instead.

"So, did you have fun on our date," I asked.

I watched color fill her cheeks as she pushed her hair behind her ear. "I already told you I had a great time."