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of mind. He was just like hanging out with Olivia or Jackie, only I wanted to strip him down and lick every inch of his body.
    So not like Olivia or Jackie at all. I rolled my eyes and walked into the kitchen.
    "Something smells like heaven." I opened the oven and bent over, breathing in deeply.
    "It's a pot roast. My grandmother taught me and Mandy how to make one before she passed a few years back." He moved up beside me and smiled.
    "Nice. I love pot roast." I wanted so badly to reach for him. It felt so natural to do it. "How are you? You holding together?"
    "I'm better now." He reached out and took my hand. "Forgive me for Saturday."
    "You already said that." I pulled his hand toward my chest and cupped it in both of mine as I leaned down and pressed my cheek against his palm. "I've been so worried about you."
    "Thank you for caring." He stepped closer. "I'm not sure how this is supposed to work out between us, but I can't not see you. I haven't dated in two years and if I'm being completely honest, it's sucked so damn bad."
    "I can imagine so." I pulled our hands down and took the last step between us. "I'm not the kind of woman who would ever be okay with a friends with benefits relationship, but if there's the promise of something more in the future…"
    "When you graduate?" He leaned down and brushed his nose by mine, stealing my heart completely. He was into me. I could almost feel heat rolling off of him in suffocating waves.
    "Yes, or sooner if I can make that happen." I lifted to my toes and brushed my lips by his. "I'm sorry for not saying something about Amanda. I didn't know what to say."
    Fuck. I wasn't going to bring up anything controversial. Getting comfortable around him had me speaking my mind without filtering my thoughts.
    "What about Amanda?"
    "Her death date. Or expiration date or whatever fucked up term they use." I moved back and wrapped my arms around myself. "I just don't believe in that, you know? People can hang on as long as they want to. The human spirit is unquenchable."
    "Don't I know it?" He reached out and touched the side of my face.

Chapter 6
    Kendal
     
     
    Was she beating herself up over Mandy still? She had no control over when my sister died or how long she lived.
    "No one knows the day and time of our deaths. That date on a folder doesn't mean shit. Let it go." I brushed my fingers down the side of her neck, her skin like silk. "And honestly, I've heard of people dying on the date the doctor prescribed as if they had no other choice. I wish they would do away with their fucked up estimates. People would do better with not knowing."
    "I couldn't agree more. I wanted to tell you that I'd seen the date the last time you and I shared dinner, but I couldn't force myself to do it. It felt too much like a death sentence."
    "Is that why you were so upset? It wasn't Mr. Jackson, then?" My lip lifted in a smirk. She wanted to condemn herself and there was no way I was letting that happen. The two of us had been hurting enough already. It was time to move past the darkness and take for ourselves what little bit of happiness we might find in each other as friends.
    "It was him, but it was Mandy too." She turned and walked to the fridge. "Do you have the stuff for a salad?"
    "Sure do. Grab it and I'll whip us up one." I walked toward the counter and hopped up to watch her move around. She was everything I wanted snuggled up to me at night, confident, caring and curvy as fuck. My body hardened just watching her juggle cucumbers, carrots and lettuce. I was in for a long night.
    "I got it." She laid everything on the counter and glanced up at me. "Why the change of heart?"
    "I think I mentioned about six years ago that I fell in love with one of my students, and her parents had a fit over us being together. She somehow decided during all of the bullshit that I wasn't the right man for her because I wasn't willing to quit my job at the University and I ended up with a nasty hand slapping and a