My heart breaks for her and everything she experienced at a young age, let alone any age. It had to be difficult to live through her parents’ hostile divorce, but the fact that she did it alone—without any family to lean on—had to be the hardest part of all.
“What is your relationship with your parents like now?”
Her face falls. “It’s been a few years since I talked to my father. I hear from my mother occasionally, but only when she needs someone to cry to about her latest boyfriend breaking her heart or when she needs money for rent.”
I reach across the table, taking her hand and rubbing small circles on the back of it. “I hope you know that you deserve so much better than that. And while you may not have the best blood family, youdohave family, Kelsey. Your friends would do anything for you.”
She smiles softly. “I don’t know what I’d do without them.”
“Thanks for sharing with me. I know that can’t be easy to talk about, but I like learning about you, Anderson.”
Kelsey blushes and moves a rogue fry aimlessly around her takeout container. “Thanks for not telling me sorry, by the way.”
“What?”
“You told methat sucksrather than that you were sorry for me, and I appreciate that.”
“You’re a capable woman who came through a tough situation. While I wish your past was easier, I know it only made you stronger on the other side.”
She stares at me like I have four eyes. “Who even are you?”
“What do you mean?” I laugh.
Her eyes narrow playfully, but she also looks a little skeptical. “How do you know how to say the perfect thing?” She pulls her hand from mine and leans across the picnic table, grabbing my ear. “Are you being fed the perfect lines by one of my friends?”
“I’m not saying the perfect thing, just the truth.”
She sits back and sips her Diet Coke. “I was wrong about you, McDreamy.”
Hope rises in my chest. “As long as you’re seeing the real me now, that’s all that matters.” I lean my elbows on the wooden table with a smile. “How about some rapid-fire questions?”
Her eyes glint playfully. “Try me.”
“Favorite color?”
“Sage green,” she answers immediately.
“Morning person or night owl?”
“I’m more of a mid-day kind of girl.”
I’m not surprised by that at all. “Go-to karaoke song?”
“‘…Baby One More Time’ by Britney Spears.”
I stop, my eyes wide. “Not a Taylor song?”
“If I’m singing it with my roomies, yes. They would be mad if I sang one without them.”
“Fair enough. Beach vacation or mountain getaway?”
“Mountain getaway.”
“Favorite ice cream topping?”
“Cheesecake bites.”
“Sounds like we need to go on an ice cream date next,” I say.
