It's Always Been You

Chapter 9

"So are you and Kelly boyfriend and girlfriend now?" Scotty asks, causing me to almost aspirate on my food.

Kelly snorts a laugh and sips his coffee as he eyes me, waiting for me to answer.

"No, honey." I say. "Kelly and I are friends."

"Oh. ." Scotty trails off and looks down.

"Is something wrong?" I ask and put my hand on my son's arm.

Scotty shrugs. "I just thought since he stayed the night you guys are dating now."

I laugh again and ruffle my son's hair. "Kelly just made sure I made it home last night."

"Oh. Okay." Scotty says and continues to eat his breakfast.

The rest of the meal is filled with small talk and passes easily, but I can't help the butterflies I feel when I catch Kelly looking at me.

******************************
"Hey, feeling any better today?" Shay asks as I walk into the locker room.

Yesterday I spent my day hung over as hell, getting dragged around the city to take all the preventative measures needed to ensure my family's safety from Robert.

I open my locker and pull my clothes out. "Yeah. A lot better today, actually." I smile at Shay and look back to my clothes.

"So I couldn't help but notice that Severide took you home and didn't come back." She says with a hinting tone.

I roll my eyes and hit her with my shirt playfully. "Nothing happened if that's what your suggesting."

"You're telling me Kelly Severide, the sexy straight man who has the hots for you, took you home last night and nothing happened?"

"That's right." I smirk as I pull my shirt off to change.

"I find that hard to believe." Gabby Dawson's voice rings through the air.

I pull my CFD shirt over my head and throw my head back. "What's so hard to believe about that?"

"You're his insanely hot childhood friend who he totally has a thing for." Gabby says as she opens the door to her locker. "There's no way he got in your house and didn't have his way with you."

I sigh heavily as I close my locker door. "Trust me, I tried." I lean against my locker, embarrassed. "I threw myself at him and he didn't do anything."

"Wow." Shay replies with surprise.

"What?" I question as I feel my hands clam up with anxiety.

"He really likes you if he's not trying to sleep with you when you're drunk."

"Really?" I smile and pull my phone out of my pocket. No messages.

Gabby nods now. "Oh girl, he likes you. A lot."

"Good." I grin and walk out to the kitchen to eat some breakfast.

I'm standing in line for food, making small talk with Otis, when I see Kelly walk in. He sits down at a table and opens the paper. He doesn't even look my way. Ouch.

"Hey, everything okay?" Peter Mills, Truck 81's candidate, asks as he piles a couple of pancakes on my plate.

"Yeah.." My voice cracks. "Why?"

"You seem a little off is all. Turn that frown upside down." He tells me with a grin that makes me grin.

"Smooth, Mills." Otis chuckles from behind me as we move along and I grab some bacon off a plate.