Should’ve Known It’s You (Not You Again #7)

Chapter 24

CHAPTER 24

KENNEDY

A fter going to check out the final product of our float, I was walking on sunshine, so excited that I could burst and in desperate need of a coffee after the anticipation had kept me up for half the night. I popped into a café near my apartment as I sent some pictures to Austin. My head was buried in my phone as I flipped through the photos I’d taken, trying to decide on the best ones to share.

I couldn’t wait for him to see it with his own two eyes, but for now, this was the best I could do. I felt warm, tingly, and swoony just thinking about how well it had turned out—and that he was responsible for making it possible at all.

Our float was so much better even than I’d expected, elegant and inviting just like I wanted our event to be. In my mind’s eye, I’d been picturing a larger-than-life dining-room table. Inspired by nostalgia, I’d asked the manager to make it less about all the modern-day fixings of hosting a dinner and more about the feelings of gratitude, love, and family.

Anita had nailed it that first day when she’d encapsulated what it was all about to me, and they’d done a spectacular job making my vision come to life. I really couldn’t believe it, but when I’d walked in there today, my jaw had hit the floor.

I was utterly and completely blown out of the water.

I grinned as I swiped through the pictures on my phone, in love with the dreamy quality of the float. With white silhouettes in all twelve seats around our massive table, it had special projectors that showed images and short videos of people laughing and talking as the float moved.

The tabletop had also been designed to rotate, and every minute, it spun to the next scene. The first was a traditional family dinner at Thanksgiving, the images and videos corresponding to typical scenes one would find around a table with your family at that time of year.

Next came a gathering with friends, the images projecting people simply having a good time together while eating comfort food out of baskets with drinks on the table. Another was a fun dinner with kids, with faux hunks of spaghetti dumped out on the tabletop. The pictures projected were of children enjoying themselves at the dinner table, their hands and mouths dirty while their parents laughed and tried to clean them up.

The final scene was one that included photos and videos of family and friends all gathered together for a special occasion, with glasses being raised and a beautifully decorated table.

All things considered, our float was the coolest thing I’d ever seen.

Austin was going to love it.

After I collected my order, I went to find a seat, still smiling as I looked through a few more pictures, knowing I’d taken more than some parents on their kid’s first day of school, but jeez. I really loved it. Especially since it had “The Dahlia Hotel and Restaurant” emblazoned on the sides.

It felt like my aunt was really with me again, and I could only imagine how excited she would’ve been if she’d been here right now. I was finally honoring her the way she deserved to be honored and it was an incredible feeling.

“Kennedy? Hello?”

I blinked hard, frowning as I suddenly realized someone had been saying my name. As my eyes jerked up from my screen, I looked over to see the last person I’d expected.

My ex, Danny.

Standing right in front of me with a takeout coffee cup in one hand and a pastry in the other, he smiled and my blood ran cold. The man had done such a number on me that I still hadn’t fully recovered. I didn’t know if I ever would.

I didn’t want to see him and I definitely wasn’t hung up on him. He’d damaged my ability to trust men in relationships severely, and whenever I thought about my future, it was his face that came to mind. Not because I wanted him to be in my future at all, but because I felt like he might’ve taken it from me—the ability to enter into and maintain a healthy and happy long-term relationship.

I had no clue whether I would ever believe it again when a guy told me he would be working late, nor would I ever fully trust it if anyone told me they were going golfing with the boys for a weekend.

“There you are,” he said when my gaze met his blue eyes. “I was starting to wonder if you’d developed a hearing problem. What’s so interesting on your phone?”

“None of your fucking business,” I said coolly, my eyes sweeping across his golden hair and tall, lanky frame. “What are you doing here?”

“Buying coffee,” he said easily, playing it off like it was such a coincidence that we’d run into each other and maybe it was, but I didn’t know.

Danny West wasn’t known to hang around this part of town, his own home much closer to my parents’ than mine. In his gray slacks, expensive shoes, and powder blue cashmere blazer with a dress shirt underneath, he stuck out like a sore thumb in my bohemian, artistic neighborhood.

“What are the odds that I run into you here?” He pulled out the chair across from me at the table, sat, and regarded me with an expression that made my skin crawl.

“I’m meeting someone,” I lied, but he remained seated.

“I’ll go when they get here,” he said as if I didn’t have a choice in the matter.

I dragged in a long, slow breath through my nostrils, my jaw tightening. I couldn’t believe I used to want to marry this man. For the longest time, I’d honestly thought he was the one who was going to make all my dreams come true.

I not only believed wholeheartedly that we would get married, but I even thought we’d have a bunch of kids together and live happily ever after. Danny was the guy my parents would’ve chosen for me if they could’ve plucked any man in the world out of obscurity and dropped him right in my lap.

They loved him. He made good money. He came from a ridiculously well-off family with whom he had a decent relationship. He dressed like he belonged to a country club—and he did. I was pretty sure he belonged to all of them actually.

Things had just been so easy with him. There hadn’t been any resistance anywhere in my life, and sure, our relationship hadn’t been the most passionate or the stuff that dreams were made of, but he and I had made so much sense.

Until I’d found out that he’d been cheating on me for ages. With anyone who wore a skirt and sat still for long enough.

Discreetly pulling my phone out of my pocket, I sent Austin a text and asked him to meet me here as soon as possible. SOS.

After dropping a location pin, I slid my phone back into my pocket and looked up again, praying that he got the message and arrived here soon. Danny was oblivious to how badly I wanted him to crawl back into whatever sewer he’d emerged from—and that the smile on his face made my very blood itch as he looked into my eyes.

“I’ve actually been meaning to call you,” he said. “How’re you doing, Kenny? How’s Winrey? Is she still seeing that paint slinger who was looking for a sugar mama?”

My eyes slammed shut as I tried to control my temper. “Don’t you dare talk about him like that. Benji is a much better man than you will ever be.”

“I’ll take that as a yes.” Danny was completely unperturbed by my tone, but I hadn’t expected him to be.

The guy never had cared much about what I had to say. As he kept talking, asking questions I refused to answer and trying to pretend that we were just two old friends catching up, I found myself constantly glancing at the door, praying to see a certain dark-haired investment banker appear in it.

Just before I gave up on him, he showed, his features settling into a deep and intimidating scowl as he strode up to our table without skipping a beat. “You’re in my seat.”

Danny blinked before he glanced up at him. “Excuse me?”

“Leave.” Austin managed to make his protectiveness sound polite, but the expression he wore meant business and Danny definitely understood it.

Shrugging, he shoved the chair back and smirked at Austin. “Relax, dude. Just saying hi to an old friend. You have a good day now, Kenny. I’ll see you around.”

He gave me a smile that didn’t touch his eyes and then he left. I sagged back in my chair, my shoulders slumping as the tension finally fizzed out of my muscles. Austin watched attentively as Danny disappeared out the door, a grin on his lips as it swung shut behind him.

“The assholes are out in full force today,” he said. “I wonder if the National Prick Society sent out a memo saying it was time for them all to prove their worth. Sorry it took me so long to get here. I—” He cut himself off abruptly when he finally turned to look at me. “Kenny? Are you okay? Who the fuck was that guy? Do you need me to go after him? It’s not too late if you want me to beat him up for you.”

I managed a weak, watered-down smile. “If there was memo from the National Prick Society, wouldn’t you have received it too?”