Chapter Thirteen

Life was perfect, Kim couldn't help but think.

After their amazing first date—and a perfect first kiss—Kim and Jared had gone on three more dates. (Embarrassingly, this of course meant that her mom had gotten the chance to take a ridiculous number of pictures of the two of them.) And when Jared wasn't working—wherever it was he worked, because he never had really given a straight answer to that question—he tended to show up at Kim's house "just to spend time with her" because he was adorable like that.

Everything was perfect.

Well, almost everything, Kim corrected herself.

Today, Jared was taking Kim over to his friend Sam Uley's house so that he could introduce them. He was calling it their fourth-and-a-half date because it was going to be more than just hanging out like they did most days, but yet not quite a date because his friends would be there, too. Naturally, this made Kim nervous because she was meeting someone new and that always tended to make her slightly anxious, especially since it was clearly important to Jared that she meet Sam.

But none of that was really what Kim had a problem with or what kept her life these days from being completely perfect.

No, the problem was that Paul was going to be at Sam's house, too.

Paul, whom Kim hadn't seen since learning he was actually her younger sister's half-brother.

Kim had no idea how she was going to get through this situation.

It had been easy enough to promise her mom not to say anything. And not having Kylie around for the past week and a half made it simple to just not think about the younger girl's parentage. Plus, it was hard to think about much else than the present moment when she was in Jared's company, which was rather a lot lately. But that was all before being faced with the prospect of being about to spend several hours in Paul's company.

How on earth was she going to keep her cool when she knew a secret that could have such a huge, potentially life-altering impact on Paul?

This might not end well, Kim concluded to herself as Jared parked in front of a tiny house. Caught in a bout of anxiety-induced melancholy as she observed the house with its fading gray paint, clearly weathered front door, and the overgrown window box beside the door, Kim couldn't help but think that the house was rather sad-looking.

"Are you okay?" Jared's voice broke Kim out of her thoughts. She shifted slightly in her seat to see that he was looking at her in concern. Belatedly, she realized the ten minute drive they had just taken had been made in relative silence, save for their greetings when he had first picked her up from her house.

"I'm fine," Kim replied, forcing a weak smile onto her face. "Meeting new people just isn't always my thing," She continued, and it was entirely true, even if it wasn't the majority of the reason for her recent silence.

"We can leave, if you want," Jared offered immediately. "Sam will understand. And even if he didn't, I would never make you do something you're not comfortable with."

He spoke so earnestly that Kim couldn't help but smile for real now. Jared could be so sweet and sincere. And if there was one thing Kim had picked up on in the past month of spending time with him, it was that Jared would go out of his way to do basically whatever she wanted. Truthfully, it was a bit of a perplexing trait for a teenage boy to possess, but he didn't smother her with it, so it worked out alright.

"Jared," Kim said firmly, "I want to meet Sam; I just tend to get nervous and psych myself out about these kinds of things. I'm sure everything will be fine."

And she was sure. At least so far as meeting Sam Uley was concerned.

"It'll be great," Jared replied, an easy grin spreading across his face as he unbuckled his seat belt. "Sam is really excited to finally meet you."

"Finally?" Kim questioned as she also unbuckled and got out of the truck.

"Oh…er…" As he walked around the truck to stand beside Kim, Jared rubbed the back of his neck looking the slightest bit embarrassed. And Kim was secretly pleased to see that for once he was the one blushing about something. "Yeah…" He continued slowly, "I may have mentioned you to him a few times."

"More like he never shuts up about you," A familiar voice suddenly sounded.

Kim looked to her right to see that Paul was now standing on the front porch, a smirk on his face and a tall, muscular, vaguely familiar-looking man standing behind him.

"Shut up," Jared replied immediately, and Kim looked back at him to see that his blush had darkened more. She grinned.

"So this is the famous Kim?" A deep, slightly gruff voice spoke up and Kim turned her full attention to Sam now.

"This is Kim," Jared responded, wrapping a warm arm around Kim's shoulders. Seriously though, he was always so warm. Like…chronically warm. He was like a space heater. But that was something better left to ponder another time, Kim thought to herself. Meeting new people was bad enough, it would be so embarrassing if she missed her introduction because she was too busy thinking about how hot Jared was.

And yes, for the record, that was more than just hot temperature-wise. It was pretty difficult to completely ignore how ridiculously attractive Jared was when she was in such close proximity to him. But again, she digressed.

"It's nice to meet you, Kim," Sam said then. And, although he was easily bigger than both Jared and Paul and as a result quite intimidating-looking, she thought she saw a mischievous glint in his eyes. Sure enough, he continued, "Jared does mention you quite often; I'm glad I can finally meet you face-to-face."

"It's nice to meet you, too," Kim replied, immensely proud of herself for not whispering her reply. Huh. Maybe she was finally getting over that god-awful aversion to meeting new people thing.

"Well as great as this is," Paul suddenly spoke up, making Kim visibly start in surprise, "I think I'm going back inside where I can actually sit down and relax."

Sam rolled his eyes as Paul pushed past him to head back into the house, but quickly followed him in. Keeping his arm firmly around Kim, Jared guided her over to the small house as well.

Once inside, Kim could easily tell that this was the home of a very single twenty-year-old guy. There was fishing gear just inside the door alongside a small pile of shoes that, at quick glance, did not appear to contain any pairs. And, although the interior walls had clearly been painted more recently than the exterior, they were all still a plain white, without even a single picture frame as decoration. Once Jared had directed her further into the house—through the entryway/kitchen where Sam appeared to be getting drinks for everyone—they ended up in the living room, which was sparsely furnished with a beat-up couch, an even more beat-up armchair, and a flat-screen television hanging on the wall. Paul was already occupying the armchair, remote in hand.

"What were you guys even doing outside?" Jared asked him, finally—sadly—removing his arm from around Kim as he took a seat on the couch, only to grab her hand and pull her down beside him.

"You're lucky I like sitting next to you," Kim informed Jared before Paul could answer the question. "Otherwise we'd be having a lovely discussion about that man-handling just now."

Paul let out a loud, almost bark-like laugh. "I've missed Sassy Kim since school ended."

Jared ignored Paul in favor of turning wide eyes to Kim. "It's because I love every second we spend together and can't bear to be parted from you for longer than a moment?" He offered, though it came out sounding more like a question than an explanation.

Kim merely rolled her eyes good-naturedly and looked back at Paul expectantly.

"I heard the truck pull up and thought you were the pizza guy," He explained with a shrug.