Read Online Simmer by Kaitlyn Davis - Free Book Online

would go there is to screw with my head."
    "I'm sorry," Kira said, wishing she could
reach through the phone and comfort him. Just talking, Kira could
hear the obvious strain to his voice. "Did you at least find anyone
there?"
    "No, Diana was gone by the time I arrived.
But, she's heading north. I'll find her eventually," he said,
changing his tone to one of resolve and determination.
    "Enough about that," Kira said, not wanting
to harp on his journey further and further away from her. "I wanted
to thank you, for telling my parents that I'd gone. How'd they take
it? My mom seemed upset on the phone."
    "Please," Tristan scoffed and Kira could
almost envision his grin as if he were lying next to her on the
bed. "Your mom loves me. All I had to do was flash a smile and give
her a hug. She invited me over for dinner later this week."
    Kira smirked at the inside joke, "Too bad you
don't eat food." Her parents always invited him to dinner, but he
always managed to find some excuse. "And my dad?" She asked.
    "I think he still doesn't like me," Tristan
laughed.
    "Yeah, well..." Kira trailed off. Tristan had
told her the story many times. Months ago, after Kira had saved
Luke but almost killed herself, Tristan was the one who rushed her
to the hospital. He made sure the doctors called her family, but he
never left her side. As Tristan described it, he had been caught
off guard when her father was the first to arrive at the hospital
after coming straight from work. Tristan had been leaning over her
bed, giving her a quick kiss on the cheek, when the doors burst
open. He jumped up and reached out to say hello, when her father
promptly tried to punch him in the face. When he stepped out of
reach, it finally dawned on him that he had forgotten to change
into the scrubs the doctors had offered...he was standing in her
hospital room shirtless and covered in blood. Needless to say,
their relationship had been strained ever since.
    "I remembered to change this time," Tristan
chuckled. Kira could only imagine what her father would do if
Tristan had shown up in the bloody, ripped-up shirt she had last
seen him in on that back road in Charleston. "So, did you see it?"
He asked and Kira could sense the excitement in his voice.
    "What?" She asked, getting a little giddy
herself.
    "Have you opened your suitcase?"
    Oh crap, Kira thought to herself. She had
entirely forgotten that Tristan had packed everything for her. She
almost didn't want to know which clothes he had thrown in. She just
hoped he remembered the basics.
    Kira sat up and unzipped the rest of her
suitcase while Tristan urged her on. She peeked inside and resting
on top of her clothes was the picture he had been drawing of the
two of them. She reached inside and pulled it out.
    "You finished it!" Kira was thrilled. She set
the photo out on the nightstand and leaned it against a lamp. In
the picture, he was smiling and crystal eyes stared not out of the
page but across it at her.
    "Not that. Keep looking," Tristan said and
Kira closed her eyes for a second to envision his face. When he was
excited, his eyes widened and his smile stretched out to show all
of his teeth. Usually, Tristan was more reserved and secretive,
showing only a side smile with one upturned lip. But the more he
opened up, the easier it was to make him happy. Kira could tell
when he smiled like that it meant he had forgotten about what he
was for just a moment. When he forgot to keep his teeth hidden, she
considered it a personal victory, and she pictured him that way
now.
    "Did you find it?"
    "Not yet," Kira said, enjoying his
impatience. She shifted her arms until she felt something hard near
the bottom of the bag. Pulling it out, she realized it was a frame.
Tristan always gave her slips of paper, never finding his artwork
worth the grandeur of a frame. She flipped it over and immediately
felt a knot tighten her throat.
    "You didn't," she said in shock.
    "I did," he happily replied. "Consider it an
early birthday