We’re back with a new chapter in the Davies series. Sorry for the delay. Life got complicated again. This is a short one so I’ll try to get the next one up a little quicker. Thanks for reading!

Kennedy woke with a start. She was breathing heavily and from the wetness on her cheeks she knew she’d been crying. She didn’t remember this dream, thankfully, but the emotion in it lingered, a mess of grief, fear, and regret. It was probably about her mom, the bad ones always were. Sitting on the edge of the bed, she struggled to remember any detail, but it was gone. Probably for the best.

Through the window she could see the sky was mostly gray with a pink sheen in the distance. Lost in thought she watched at it grew brighter and the sun broke over the horizon, bathing the backyard in light. Her stomach decided it was time for breakfast so she got dressed and headed downstairs.

In the kitchen Ella was already up. She gave Kennedy a chin lift “Coffee;’s made.” she nodded in the direction of the pot. This was a point in her cousin’s favor. Kate rarely made it since she usually drank tea. It was wonderful to be able to pour a cup when stumbling in and not have to take the time to brew it herself. The coffee Kennedy made was more about caffeine than taste so she was pleasantly surprised after the first sip of Ella’s.

They sat at the table in silence at first.  It wasn’t a comfortable one and Ella was the first to break it. “I wanted to say again I’m sorry for yesterday. It was as bad as I worried it would be. I feel horrible and I’m sure he isn’t feeling great either. It had to happen eventually, I’m sorry he had no warning.” She sounded as if she really felt sorry, not sorry it happened, but sorry to be in the situation at all.

            “He’s staying with his friend Owen right now, out at the beach.” Kennedy offered.

“You and Will are close?” Ella asked in an even tone and while she tried to appear casual with her question, her eyes had a kind of panicked look to them. So, if she was more than a friend would Ella have a problem with that? Kennedy thought she might.

            “Will was the first friend I made when I got here and still the best.” She watched Ella’s face for a reaction, but she was shut down. “But I think what you’re asking is if we’re more than friends…we’re not.” Kennedy saw the clear look of relief. “I only want to say one thing to you and then I’ll shut up.”

Ella nodded looking apprehensive.

“Will still loves you.”

Ella closed her eyes for a moment before answering. “Thank you for being honest with me. But please, I can’t…” she broke off and Kennedy saw the unshed tears in her eyes and realized that Ella was no better off than Will was.

            “I’ll shut up. I try to not to judge a relationship I’m not part of. If you ever do need to talk though, please don’t think that I’m only willing to be his friend. I’d like to be yours as well.”

Ella smiled. “Thank you. But of course you’re something better than friend, you’re family. That means you’re stuck with me. I’m here for a while too. I completely blew up my life for what has to be the tenth time.” She laughed ruefully. “If there is one thing I am good at, it’s exits.”

“I can relate.”

“You know, this is going to be fun.” Ella rolled her shoulders and sat up straighter. “I don’t have any close female relatives other than the aunties and now I’ve got you.  I’m fun to be with when not unintentionally inflicting pain on ex-boyfriends.”

She and Kennedy laughed out loud at this.

“We can do some serious damage to the social scene in Coventry. There are probably all of ten people between 20 and 30 in the auntie’s circle.”

            “Oh, I have seen little to no social scene here.”

“That’s because you’ve been with two nice old ladies. I’m not nice or old so we can have some fun.”

            “Not sure how much fun I’ll be.”

“Neither am I.” Ella paused. “But we can rock that. We’ll be all aloof and unattainable, poetically tragic heroines. Everyone will fall in love with us.”

Kennedy shook her head and laughed. Ella’s self-aware kind of humor highlighted that she was willing to be real, to be honest, even when it was painful. It made Kennedy feel like she could trust Ella, that they could be friends and being related made it better.

“I’m completely strung out at the moment.” Ella confessed, reaching up and stretching her arms over her head. “I needed to get out of the drama. My dad and I cannot get along. It’s useless to keep trying. I love it here with the aunties; it has always been my safe place. Even now.”

“It’s become mine as well. Beth and Kate sort of saved me from myself a few months ago.”

“They’re good at that.” Ella acknowledged.

“So,” Kennedy changed the subject. “Did you take the blue room with the truly awful purple/pink wardrobe or the yellow room with the dangerous daisy chain?”

“I love Beth’s funky art!” Ella sat up straight. “The yellow room is like enforced cheerfulness, you can’t escape it and that daisy chain in genius. It’s screwed into the studs so it really can’t fall on your head.”

“If you say so.”

“Do they have you up in the attic?”

“Yep. I love it. It’s private and ginormous in comparison with every bedroom I have ever had.”

“Ugh, no way, that room is cold in the winter and hot in the summer. Well, to each her own.” They fell into a more comfortable silence. Ella was the first to break it again. She looked up at Kennedy with an appraising stare. “So…Owen huh?”

Kennedy smiled to think that Will had said that same thing a week ago. And of course her answer hadn’t changed. “Owen what?”

“Don’t be coy with me honey, Beth and Kate both said he’s sniffing around.”

Kennedy winced at that phrase. It made it sound like he was a dog, and so, for that matter, was she.

“Owen is Will’s friend, not mine.”

“I doubt Owen is interested in being your friend.” Ella said suggestively. Kennedy shrugged. She wasn’t going to play along. “Well, if you’d rather not share, it’s cool with me. I can hardly talk. But I will say that Owen isn’t as bad as you may have heard. I don’t know him super-well, but I’ve never known him to be an A-hole. He’s a nice guy, but he’s used to being fawned over and has a bad habit of dating women who are evil.”

Kennedy laughed out loud at this. “So you’ve met Renee?”

“Renee Witten?” she gasped. “She’s a babe for sure, but…I can’t believe he went out with her.”

“I’m not sure they ‘went out’ really.”

“Ah, a drive by. Well, that’s his reputation right there. He’s used to being pursued by pretty girls and I doubt he often says no. That and he’s not really boyfriend material.”

“I know.” She realized right after the words came out of her mouth that they sounded a little regretful; like she was sorry it couldn’t be otherwise.

“So, there’s hope for Owen after all?” Ella asked like she was reading her mind.

Owen ‘as is’ Kennedy was not interested in, but the idealized version of him her head had begun to create – that man did have a chance. That Owen was unfailingly kind, attentive, monogamous, and considerate. Fiction. “It’s hard to say no to the idea of him, even if the reality is no good for me.”

“Ah, that I can understand. You know he’s had the local talent all but throwing themselves at him for years. The idea that you come out of nowhere and land him without trying… Expect to be the subject of conversation for a while.”  Ella sat back and rubbed her stomach. “What do you think the chances are of Kate miraculously appearing and fixing us breakfast?”

“I can do that.” Kennedy said. “She’s finally cleared me to cook. She still won’t let me garden beyond pulling a weed or two, but she has cleared me to operate the stove.”

“Yes, but if we sit for another ten minutes, I bet she’s up and doing it for us. She’d rather, you know.”

It was true and Kennedy wasn’t enough of a cook to really love it the way Kate did. She didn’t mind the wait, and it wasn’t a long one. Ella’s prediction came true in five minutes. Kate shuffled into the kitchen in her robe and slippers and exclaimed with delight when she saw they were both up. “Good morning girls. Are you hungry?”

            “Starved Auntie.” Ella said and Kate happily started breakfast.

*************************************

Owen sat patiently watching the game with Will, Chuck, and Kevin waiting for an opening. He wanted to let Chuck and Kevin know that Ella was back without saying her name in front of Will and sending him off the deep end again. It had only been a few days since she had shown up and Will was as tightly wound as the day she left.

Finally Will got up to buy another round and Owen leaned over his empty stool “Hey, so the two of you are prepared, Ella is back in town.”

            “What the…” Kevin started. “Why?” He asked angrily.

“No idea, not my business, I wanted to let you know because Will is a mess again, and this is not likely to be fun. Apparently, she’s pretending he doesn’t exist.”

                        “Nice.” Chuck snapped. Owen, Chuck and Kevin had been front and center for the disastrous end of Will and Ella’s relationship. “I’m not sure I can take another month of Will in post-Ella mode. Can we not hook this man up with someone?” Chuck asked. “He needs to get over this chick.”

“Yah, hasn’t he been seeing her cousin?”

“No.” Owen said a little more forcibly then he meant to. He knew confessing to an interest in Kennedy was only going to get him grief so he proceeded with caution. “She’s like a sister to him. That would never work. I tried before with Jenny and she said no way because she wasn’t interested in being a rebound.”

            “How about Renee?” Kevin asked laughing.

“Shut it, will you?” Owen asked. “Seriously, I don’t think it’s going to work. He does need to get over her, but I think he needs to work that out himself. A hook up is not going to change anything.”

            “We’ll have to trust the expert.” Kevin shared a grin with Chuck. Owen chose to ignore this when a commotion drew their attention up to the bar. A guy was trying to get into Will’s face, starting to shout something incoherent. Beside him was a petite blonde who looked like she was trying to get him to stop. At first Owen panicked, thinking it was Ella, but when she turned her face they looked nothing alike. Owen got to his feet as Kevin and Chuck pushed through the forming crowd to try and get between the two men.

Will was stoic at first, but when the guy shoved the woman clinging to him, Will threw a punch that audibly connected to the guy’s jaw. Owen grabbed Will from behind, pulling his arms back with his own and dragging him a foot or two away. The guy rubbed at his face for a second, then his head snapped up and he was about to charge. Keven and Chuck got there first. With the skills gained in eight years of playing football they blocked him, got a hold on him, and marched him out of the bar.

The crowd cheered. Nobody tolerated a guy waltzing in and picking a fight with a regular any more than they would have okayed a guy pushing around a woman whether she was with him or not. Owen looked at Will’s face and could see he was calmer at least. The woman had left as soon as Chuck and Kevin had dragged the guy out.

“What the hell was that?” Owen asked.

Will shrugged, took his beer and headed for their table. “Can you get the others?” he asked, nodding at the three full beers sitting on the bar. “My hand hurts.” And that’s all he said. He sat down at the table and looked back up at the Red Sox who were now in the bottom of the eighth and had tied it up.

Chuck and Kevin came back in. “We got lucky.” Kevin explained. “Pete Ryan was driving by as we were throwing the guy out. He’s not going to arrest him, just hold him till he sobers up.” Pete was one of the town’s three officers and a regular on his nights off. Owen was glad it was him since nobody wanted this to be a thing.

“What was his deal anyway?”

            “Will told him to get his giant-sized head out of the way so he could see that last run.” He pointed over his shoulder at the game playing on the screen behind him. “He didn’t care for Will’s tone and started to get in his face, the girl tried to get him to back off. The guy called her some unpleasant names. Will took exception to that and the fun started.”

“Great. Did he break anything?”

            “Nah, he’s fine. Pete said he’d let him sleep it off. Apparently the guy’s wife (that was not the blonde by the way) is going to pick him up in the morning and that should be punishment enough.” Kevin laughed at this as he and Chuck joined Will at the table to watch the rest of the game.

Owen sighed. This was not how he was hoping the night would go. He was getting a bit tired of feeling like Will’s babysitter and seriously hoped that either Will would snap out of his depression or that some woman would take pity on him and try to pull him out on her own.

Dani would do it in a heartbeat. Owen had warned Will he saw trouble there ages ago. Dani might be young, but she was an old soul and had no problem with the fact that Will was almost old enough to be her dad. Will had shut that down the first time he caught her making cow eyes at him. It was bad enough to be a single guy and have two teenage girls as your only staff, but the town would talk if one of the girls started acting like they were something more.

It certainly hadn’t helped the situation with Ella. Although Will never said it out loud, it was obvious Ella was suspicious that Dani was more than an employee. That was one of the bricks in the wall between them though. Owen considered going to Ella himself to get her to meet with Will for some closure or whatever bull the man needed to let this go, but he didn’t see a way of making that happen without some drama.

Drama the last thing any of them needed.  Although he had never been in Will’s position before, he now understood what it was to want someone you couldn’t have. Kennedy was as much out of his reach as Ella was out of Will’s. He could appreciate the pain Will was in and he was just as powerless to end it.