He cleaned up the paper plates and napkins and put the cookie sheet in the sink. He peered out the window before he turned to face her. “You think they killed each other by now?”
A smile claimed her mouth. Her mother detested—that was her word—Hop, but somehow the old guy had managed to get her mother to giggle. It made no sense. Then again, what did she know about sense?
They tried getting into their movie, the one they had been excited about. But Kit’s mind wouldn’t stop reeling. Playing this game to fool her family weighed on her tonight like a new and ugly version of an invasion of body snatchers.
By ten o’clock Mom’s car was still in the driveway and Hop’s truck was not back. Next to her on the couch, Shane yawned.
“You better go to bed.” The word bed tasted foreign in her mouth. It had been one thing to indulge in lovemaking in the heat of the moment. It was entirely another to lie in bed with a man under the blankets, all cozy. Somehow that felt more intimate.
“It’s your call, Kit. If you want me to doze on the sofa, just say the word. When and if your mom stops by, I’ll sneak down to your room.”
She shook her head. “Not taking a chance at this stage of the game.”
****
A little while later Kit lay under the covers with the fireman just inches from her. He smelled like soap, clean. She stared at the ceiling and listened to her foolish heart thudding in her chest. She could hear his even breathing. If she moved her hand just a couple of inches, she could feel his skin.
His words came softly in the darkness. “Kit, I wanted you to know that even though this is the craziest thing I’ve ever done—” He paused to swallow. “—if I had the chance to do it again, I would. Meeting you has changed everything.”
She rolled toward him. “I know I’ve thanked you for getting involved in this sham, but really, you have been such a good sport.”
He turned on his side to face her. His eyes appeared black with the lack of light to illuminate the green of his irises. His hand came up and touched the side of her face.
She wanted to say so many things to him in this moment yet didn’t dare. Her heart was rattled, and her mind was pudding. If she learned anything since the debacle of last Christmas Eve, it was to open her eyes. And right now the darkness in this room kept her from seeing anything.
Her doorbell sounded, making her jerk. She sat up. She and Shane paused for a beat and held a look. Then she went to answer the door. Shane followed.
Bright-eyed and smiling, Mom glided in through the door. “Did I wake you two?”
“Um, no, we had just gone to, you know, bed.” She swallowed. “How did you make out at the vet? You were gone a long time.”
Mom uttered a soft laugh. “The vet was very nice, and he said that although Smokey’s a little skinny, he’s in tip-top shape. He estimates the kitten is about six or seven weeks old.”
“Good news, then,” Shane said. “He’s a lucky little guy that you and Hop rescued him, huh?”
“Oh.” Mom clapped her hands. “Then we went to Walmart and got him everything he needs. A crate, a bed, a litter box, a pooper-scooper, food, and treats, of course.”
“So Hop’s keeping him?”
Her mother’s eyes were a little googly. “That old coot wouldn’t let Smokey go to the pound for all the money in China.”
“Well, that’s nice, Mom. I’m glad you went with him. Maybe you’ve got a new perspective on Hop, huh?”
“Don’t go crazy, Kitrina. He’s still an oaf.” Mom kissed her on the cheek. “Go back to bed, kids. I’ll see you both tomorrow at the shower.” That last statement was in singsong.
“Mom, did you get a chance to eat anything for dinner?”
“Oh yes. Hop bought me a hotdog at the snack bar in Walmart. Surprisingly tasty.” She turned on her heel and left.
“Could they be finding a friendship?” Shane scratched his head.
“I’d settle for a tolerance.”
They held a long gaze. There was no reason now to sleep in the same bed, and they both knew it.
“So I guess we’ll just call it a night.” The words were meant to come out casual, but she heard the lament in her own tone.
“Guess so.”
“I’ll get your throw.”
“I’ll come with you.”
“Okay.”
Together they walked down the hallway to her bedroom. When their gazes locked, the message in her smoky eyes was clear. He and that fuzzy blue Mets throw wouldn’t make it back up to the loft.
Chapter Twenty-Five
The parking lot of the Admiral Hotel downtown was packed, and Shane circled the aisles looking for a space to park his truck. Kit was quiet in the seat beside him, balancing a wrapped gift box on her lap. Although he hadn’t actually seen what was inside, she had told him it contained a place setting of the bride and groom’s dinnerware of choice. He’d offered to go in on the cost of the gift, but she wasn’t having it. Oddly, the dismissal caught him off guard. He kept forgetting that their solid-twosome status was a made-up story for Kit’s family. It reminded him what they shared was new, precarious, and maybe even nothing more than a suspended moment in time. What did he know?
He found an empty spot in the back of the parking lot and turned his steering wheel to maneuver into the tight space. Putting the lever in park, he slid his gaze over to Kit. She bit down on her perfect lip. Her fingers, the nail polish a shade of lavender, drummed on the top of the gift she held in her lap.
“Ready?”
Kit blew out a long breath. “As I’ll ever be.”
He reached over and stilled her hand. “We’ve got this, Kit. Piece of cake, right?”
She lifted her gaze to meet his. Her eyes shone with trepidation. Was that look all about the shower awaiting them, or was it something else, too? Was he the only one wondering what this was between them? Was she hoping, as he was, they had begun something with lasting possibilities, or was she admonishing herself for what had transpired?
He carried the box up the steps of the hotel and found the room location on the bulletin board set up in the lobby.
Their shoes clicked on the tile floor as they walked to the Acorn Lounge where double doors were open and tables upon tables were occupied with attendees. At the front of the room sat the bride and groom at a little table for two befitting a king and queen of the prom. Oh brother.
Kit’s mother spied them first. “Over here, kids.” She waved and pointed to two chairs next to hers that were tilted forward, claimed. “I saved you seats. Shane, put that gift over there.” She motioned toward a mountain, a serious heap of wrapped boxes.
He whistled under his breath. How long would it take to go through all that loot?
Kit introduced him to people at the table, and he managed to participate in polite chitchat while the courses of the luncheon were being served in sequence. Between the salad and the entrée, he leaned over to Kit and whispered in her ear. She smelled of that citrusy perfume she used, and he breathed her in.
“How are you doing? Okay?”
She smiled in response. “You’re a trooper, Fireman.”
“When do they start opening up that mass of gifts?”
“Any minute now.”
He shook his head. “I’m going to grab a beer at the bar. Can I get you a glass of wine?”
“Just one?”
He laughed and instinctively squeezed her knee under the table. Those spontaneous gestures of intimacy confused him. He tended to forget they really weren’t this solid, committed couple all of these people around them thought they were.
“Mrs. Baxter, can I get you something from the bar? A glass of wine, maybe?”
“Oh, that would be lovely, Shane.” She flashed an approving look to her daughter. “Such manners.”
He left the table and made his way through the crowd.
****
Kit watched as Shane retreated from the room and felt a tug inside her chest. He was a good guy, and she liked him more than sh
e should. He was just off a relationship, and that was dangerous territory. She would not, could not, go through another disappointment. She reached for her water glass and took a gulp. She’d managed to avoid her dinner roll so far, but at the moment it was calling her from the little plate at her place. Was that a Portuguese roll? Were those pats of butter shaped like butterflies made with herbs? She liked herbs. Carbs will not fix you.
Co-Co appeared at their table and slipped an easy hand on the back of Kit’s mom’s chair. “How are you, ladies?”
They exchanged some small talk that Kit managed to zone out until she heard mention of the wedding dress.
“You should see it, Auntie. Kitty-Cat has outdone herself.” A gratuitous grin broke out on her face. “You’re a marvel, cousin.”
“Thank you.” It was all Kit could think to say. A lump had formed in her throat. It was just a dress, her mind chanted. A flush climbed up her neck and flooded her cheeks. Just an old dress. A garment did not hold sentiment. Hearts did. And her heart belonged to her, and no one was going to take it from her.
“If you’ll excuse me.” She stood and placed her napkin on her chair. “Need to find the restroom.”
Thankfully, the corridor outside the dining room blasted her with cold air-conditioning. She could feel the heat dissipating from her cheeks. In the ladies’ room she wet a towel and dabbed it on the back of her neck and on her forehead.
Leaving the room, she headed back toward the dining room and ran smack dab into Brian.
“Hey, you,” he greeted. He wore a pale-blue collared shirt with white pindots. She liked the fabric, but it didn’t fit him well and made his shoulders look scrawny. He appeared thinner. Had his bride-to-be put him on one of her famous diets? She bet he hadn’t eaten his dinner roll.
“Hi.”
“You look nice.” He cast his eyes down her form, and heat rushed to her face. She looked down at the dress she wore as though she’d forgotten what she had on.
“Thanks.” An awkward pause hung between them. She needed to fill the space. “Boy, um, you two have a lot of gifts out there, huh?”
“People are generous, that’s for sure.”
“Well, then…” She took a small step away, and Brian reached out to touch her arm.
“Hey, Kit, can I talk with you a second?”
Her insides stopped. “About what?”
“This guy you’re with. Shane. Look, it’s none of my business…”
“You’re right. It isn’t.”
“But.” He flashed a smile. He’d had his teeth whitened. They were neon like Co-Co’s. “I just hope you’re not rushing things. I mean, I feel kind of responsible if this is a rebound kind of thing. I know I brought this up before, but it’s been on my mind.”
“Brian…”
“I’m sure it’s not easy dealing with all this, and I hope you’re thinking clearly, that’s all. I mean, what do you know about this guy? What’s he even know about you, Kit?”
“If you have a question about me, why don’t you ask me?”
Kit turned to the voice, knowing it was Shane. He closed the space between them and put an arm around her shoulders.
“Hey.” Brian shuffled his feet. “I was just asking Kit if she thinks you two are rushing things, that’s all. I just wondered how much you two know about each other.”
“Brian, I know more about this lady than you ever did.”
Brian’s mouth quirked. “I doubt that.”
“I do.”
“You didn’t know about her cat, Blue.”
“I know what makes her laugh, what makes her cry. I know what makes her jump for joy. Do you know why she likes the color teal? I personally think it’s a stupid color—no offense, babe—but it’s not green, and it’s not blue. It’s kind of both. But that’s why she likes it. She likes it because it’s the result of two things coming together.”
“Um…”
“And what’s she scared of more than anything?”
Brian looked from Kit to Shane.
“Spiders. She’s terrified of spiders. Does she drink coffee or tea? Coffee. She likes it dark and sweet. What’s her weakness? Anything with flour in it. Her favorite movie? She’s got two—Gone with the Wind and Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The old one made in 1956. She takes vitamins, the chewable kind because she hates swallowing pills. She wears a size seven shoe, and she hates heels. She’s allergic to penicillin. Gives her a rash. She loves guitar and wishes she knew how to play.”
“Wow.” Brian put his hands up in surrender. “Okay. Point taken.”
“Ready, babe?” He tightened his arm around her shoulder.
On the way back to the Acorn Lounge, Kit and Shane did not speak. They didn’t need to. He gave her hand a squeeze, and she returned the gesture.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Parts of the event felt like an out-of-body experience, especially watching Brian, the man she had known, the explorer type who had a world map on the wall in his living room with colored pushpins jabbed into all the exotic locations he wanted to see. Where was that guy? Where was the man who wanted to hike mountains and camp on the land? She watched him oohing and ahhing over serving trays and ice buckets and thought for sure the body snatchers were running rampant in Sycamore River.
Co-Co was in her element today, however. All the attention, all the gifts, all the very air in the room belonged to her. She yelped over bedsheets and matching duvet covers. She pressed bath towels to her face and moaned in delight. “Here, Bri-Bri, feel how soft,” she said as she pressed the fern-green terry fabric to his cheek.
Shane leaned in close to Kit’s ear with a whisper that tickled her skin. “He’s Bri-Bri now?”
She turned to face him.
His eyes danced. “Is it a prerequisite that they all have double names?”
She covered her mouth to suppress the laugh that threatened to escape.
After all the gifts were opened and the cake was cut, she was thankful she and Shane could say their goodbyes and get out of there.
Sitting in the passenger seat of Shane’s truck, she turned to him. “Thanks for enduring the shower.”
He shook his head. “That was quite an event, huh? They’re not going to have to spend a dime on a thing.”
“Crazy, right?”
“Did it bother you to see Brian amidst all that hoopla?”
She paused before answering. She kept envisioning the world map on Brian’s wall. “Bother? No. Seeing him in that scene seemed so foreign from the guy I knew. It’s like he abandoned who he was and what he planned for his future.” She tilted her head. “He must love her that much, I guess.”
“That doesn’t sound like love to me. Not the way I see it, anyway.”
She studied him, the memory of Shane coming to her defense when Brian targeted her appearing in her mind. “About what you said to Brian.”
He nodded as he kept his eyes on the road ahead of him.
She continued. “How’d you know all those things about me? I mean, I know we crammed with details of ourselves, but we did not cover all that.”
“Is that okay?”
She uttered a soft, nervous laugh. “It’s just that I didn’t realize how transparent I can be.”
“You’re not transparent, Kit. I just pay attention.”
Her heart whirred in her chest. This man who had come out of nowhere, this good sport who had agreed to play along with a ruse to fool her family, was finding his way into her heart, and it scared the hell out of her. She turned to look out the passenger window. The trees and mailboxes whizzed by. They moved so fast it made her dizzy.
****
Back at the house, Kit kicked off her shoes and padded into the kitchen to grab a bottle of water. She went to the sink with her water and sipped as her eyes focused on the group of trees outside and the sight of the river beyond them. It was a dusky hour, and a purplish hue seeped into every cranny of the space in the woods, consuming every inch, all encompassing. The lyrics to
a John Denver song wafted through her mind.
Another sip was a relief, the coolness sliding down through her. Still, she and every single cell of her body were acutely aware Shane Dugan was there in the room. All she had to do was turn to him.
The sound of his cell phone jarred her, yet she didn’t flinch or turn away from her view of the outside. Not that she was into eavesdropping, but even after he had stepped away, his footfalls sounding on the hardwood as he strode into the living room, she heard his responses to the conversation coming at him from the phone.
“No, that’s not how things are. No. Absolutely not. Where’s this coming from?” An agonizingly long pause came next, and then he continued. “Okay, you too, Dana. Yes. Of course. Bye.”
When the call ended, silence filled the space in the house like the purple presence of nightfall outside. The only sound she heard was the swallow of water traveling down her throat. Dana. The call had been from Dana. What had his responses meant? Absolutely not what? Of course what? Her mind was a zigzag.
Shane’s footsteps sounded as he approached, and at last she turned to him.
“Don’t ask me how, but Dana has heard that I’m dating.”
“What?”
“Yeah, someone from home must have seen you and me, is all I can think of.”
“She didn’t react well to that?” Kit already surmised the answer to her own question, but she didn’t want him to know she’d been not just listening but assessing the words that came out of his mouth in response to Dana.
“No, but it doesn’t change anything. She and I are on different wavelengths. There’s no debating that.”
Suddenly the space between them was too thick, and her lungs suffered for air. “I, uh, was going to head over to Rylee’s for a while.”
She put the water bottle on the counter and moved to grab her purse.
Shane just stood there with his eyes on her.
She searched the pouch for her key.
“Kit…”
She pulled the key out with a flourish. “I hate these small purses.” She slipped her feet back into her shoes. “You can lock up. I’m not sure how long I’ll be.” She made her way to the door.
Mr. Maybe Page 14