Pretty Thing (Naughty Things 1)

But none of that matters. You send that letter on faith. Because you have things to say and you can’t keep them in.

That’s what this is.

I’m writing Kyle letters with my voice and sending them out into the world—to some cloud server, I guess. Trusting that one day he’ll get my message.

When I’m done it’s nearly three in the morning. I’m not sure if I just hang up or what, so I press pound for some reason. And then Kyle’s voice comes on again and he says, “Thanks, sis. Now, if you want to hear more from me, just press nine.”

“What?” I say.

“I made hundreds of messages for you, Kali.” Kyle says this like he heard me. “I have two years’ worth of messages for you saved up. One day you’ll have heard them all, but until then, pretty sister… just enjoy. Enjoy everything, Kal. All of it.”

I swipe new tears away from my cheeks and then…

I press nine.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN – AIDEN

I have one more problem.

The Jeep.

It was on the lift for another couple weeks before I started seriously thinking about what to do with it. Every time I came downstairs to work Clyde would side-eye me, then the Jeep on the lift, then me again. Sending me not-so-subtle messages to get that thing out of here.

But he didn’t say anything. It’s like he knew I was trying to figure it all out and just let me think.

But in the end I decided not to kill it. It wasn’t mine to kill in the first place, it’s Kali’s Jeep now. But I’d like to think I’m it’s true parent since I did build the thing. And Kali didn’t interfere when I said I had an idea. She patted my shoulder and said, “Surprise me.”

At first I was just gonna put it back together and give it a paint job. But then I got to thinking about the off-road competitions coming up. Clyde, Jesse, Len, and Gary did the last two without me. We can’t just… not go. Every December we come up with a new custom project so we can attract new business and these competitions are where we show them off. So attendance isn’t optional.

I put Kali’s Jeep back together with lots of cool custom options and then designed a lightweight off-road trailer to pull behind it. At first I was thinking this would be great for families. Little space to carry gear while on the trail. Gas cans, and water, and shit like that. Maybe a pop-up tent on the roof.

But most of the trailer was made out of aluminum and it was so light when I was done, I decided to turn it into a little camper instead. And then I thought… you know what? I bet people might like to eat a cupcake or two when they’re out at these crawler competitions.

And oh, hey? Would this be the perfect way to advertise Kali and Alison’s new baking business and give out samples on the trail?

So that’s what I did. That’s what I turned Kali and Kyle’s Jeep into. A Custom Crawler Cupcake Creation.

The whole thing is teddy-bear blue. Which was not a real color before Clyde mixed up a special batch just for this occasion, but it is now.

It was a hit. Especially with Alison and Kali driving it around.

To say things only got better from there would be an understatement. Kali and Alison got their business off and running and Kali stayed in the city most days to bake. But she came to see me on the weekends. Or I went to see her.

But their six months is almost up at Alison’s parents’ house and I’m not gonna lie, I’m pretty excited about that.

So excited. Because Kali’s parents gave her Kyle’s house and helped her turn it into the perfect commercial baking kitchen. So she will be moving home and we won’t be living in Kyle’s house—or above the garage. Which means we’re house-hunting now.

“What are you smiling about?” Kali asks.

“Just thinking about our future, that’s all.”

“Mmm-hmmm,” she says. “Tell me again why we’re at our parents’ townhomes in the middle of the night?”

“You’ll see,” I say, leading her across the guest parking lot towards the woods.

“What?” She laughs. “What are you doing?”

“Just come with me. Kyle and I had a little chat about tonight.”

“Did you now?”

I nod at her and smile.

After Kali told me that Kyle has secret messages for her I went looking for some on my app. It took me weeks to find them. Fucker. Wanted to make me work for this until the end, I guess.

But I did find them eventually. Just a few. Nothing like the cache he left for Kal. But the last one I found was an idea for a perfect date—should I ever get up the nerve to ask Kali out.