Always and Forever by Karla J. Nellenbach Page B

tossed the jeans onto the ever-growing pile of things she'd be taking home with her. “You still haven't told me what happened today.”
    I frantically wracked my brain for something, anything to say in response. “Well…” Thankfully, a soft knock on the door saved me.
    The door slid open a few inches, and Kal poked his head in. “Hey.”
    “Hey,” I breathed. My whole body sagged with relief at seeing him.
    He slipped into the room but stopped short when he saw the state of things. “What's all this?” he asked. His eyes darkened with worry. “Is everything alright?”
    “We're cleaning out Mia's closets,” Ricki shouted from inside my closet.
    Startled, Kal shot a questioning look my way before he turned and walked over to where Ricki was robbing me of every last article of clothing I owned. “And, you, being the good friend that you are, decided to do all the heavy lifting?”
    She rolled her eyes and snorted. “That about sums it up. What about you, loverboy? Did you miss Mia so much that you had to come right over and see her again before she went to bed? Or were you planning on spending the night?” She giggled knowingly and disappeared back into my closet. Really, it was a miracle I still had clothes left in there for her to pilfer.
    Up went one dark brow in question, but before he could open his mouth to speak, I grabbed hold of his arm and yanked him toward the bathroom. “Uh, Ricki? I just need to talk to Kal for a minute. We'll be right back.” I told her.
    The only response I got was a loud grunt, and more clothes tumbled out of the closet.
    Inside the bathroom, I shut, locked, and then leaned against the door. Kal stared at me for an unending minute and then very quietly said, “Mind telling me what that was all about?”
    “You don't even want to know,” I groaned. When he still said nothing, I relented. “Ricki has it in her mind that you and I didn't go to visit your grandmother today. That we were out. Together .”
    He choked, crimson splashing across his cheeks. He cleared his throat loudly. “Is there a reason why she's suddenly so obsessed with our love life?”
    My insides went all hot and tingly at his words. My heart pounded against my ribcage with the heaviest sledgehammer at the way our love life rolled off his tongue as if he expected us to eventually haveone. As if we'd be together always and forever. Not just friends but lovers, too.
    As if I had that kind of time.
    “Well, I'm not quite sure, but—” I started to explain about her and Adam but stopped short. Ricki definitely wouldn't want Kal to know the dirty details about her relationship problems.
    He waved off my words. “Never mind about that. What about you?” His eyes burned so hot that for a minute there, all I could do was just stare I was so lost in his gaze. “Mia,” he prodded, “what did the doctors say?”
    “What?” I shook my head, forcing my thoughts back on Kal's words and not the way his coffee-colored locks fell into his eyes or the way his lips moved when he talked, especially as he said my name. “Oh, yeah…that.” I forced a broad grin across my face. “I'm fine.”
    “Really? You're okay?” He rolled the words around on his tongue, testing them, measuring the weight of truth there. Did he see the lie in my eyes? Hear the dishonesty in my voice? “You're not dying?”
    I swallowed, pushing the smile out even wider as I assured him, “Not of cancer.”
    His answering grin was quick and bright, blindingly so. He let out a whoop and caught me up in his arms, crushing me to him. “Oh, Mia,” he breathed against my ear, squeezing tighter. “That is so…” He pulled back, kissed me—a very brief, chaste peck on the lips that shot straight through me like a bolt of lightning—and then yanked me back in so he could bury his face in my hair. “It's so wonderful . I can't…I can't even find the words. That's how great this is.”
    “I know,” I whispered, cringing inside. What did I