by Brenda Novak
She sat down. “Have you ever loved her?”
“That’s your response?”
“It’s a fair question.”
Maybe it was a fair question, but it struck at the heart of his guilt. “What do you think?”
She gave him a pleading look. “Can’t we have an honest discussion, Kyle? Please? So much between us has gone unsaid. We were both involved in the same emotional...wreck, for lack of a better word. There was a lot of painful drama. And now there are scars. Maybe it’s time to...to finally address it all.”
“Does Brandon know you’re here?”
“Of course. He agreed I should come.”
“Fine.” He thought they might both live to regret the next few minutes but sank into the chair behind his desk. “What do you want to address? I never loved Noelle. You already know that.” And she knew why, although he wasn’t willing to state the reason. “I tried, but it was a losing battle from the start.”
Her lips slanted down. “Don’t you see how tragic that is?”
So this was going to be a pity party for Noelle? Kyle wasn’t feeling it. “Of course I can see it. Or can’t you see that her inability to function in life is what shackles me to her?”
When she studied him without speaking, he nearly stood as a signal that she should take her leave. What else could the two of them have to discuss? It didn’t matter what residual feelings he might or might not have; nothing would change the fact that she was married to Brandon.
“I’m sorry if I hurt you,” she said.
He rubbed his face. “That’s something you definitely don’t need to apologize for, Olivia. We all know that the whole thing was my fault.”
“I didn’t fall in love with Brandon to get back at you. I’d like you to know that.”
“I understand. He’s irresistible.”
“Really? Sarcasm? That’s how you’re going to respond?”
He cleared his throat. “Sorry. Look, like I told him last week, I’m glad you’re both happy. That’s God’s honest truth.”
“Yes, that’s why we’ve been able to have such a good relationship with you. Not many people would be capable of putting what happened behind them, no matter whose fault it was. And trust me, I have no illusions that Noelle wasn’t as much or more to blame than you were.” When she gave him the small, rueful smile that followed those words, he realized it was the first time since she’d arrived that he’d felt that little hitch in his chest—the one he normally experienced on first sight. “I want to make sure the relationship we’ve built—as a family this time—isn’t getting destroyed.”
Brandon had said the same thing, so they’d clearly discussed it. “Every relationship goes through transitions. We’ll be fine.”
“I hope you’re right.” Her smile grew more relaxed. “So you’re with Lourdes Bennett now, huh? A country music star? Ted said the two of you were in his hot tub last night.”
“We’re having some fun together. It isn’t serious, though.” That was what he and Lourdes had decided to tell everyone. Kyle was happy to do that—and yet there were moments when it didn’t feel totally fake. Moments when he was beginning to feel certain things he’d only ever felt for Olivia.
Lourdes didn’t know that, of course. He’d be a fool to take any of it seriously. He knew he wouldn’t end up with her; they had no chance.
“I see.”
He got the impression that Olivia had hoped he’d be more forthcoming on that subject. He wasn’t going to add any more, but he had a question he’d always wanted to ask her. Had it really been as easy as it seemed for her to get over him? If so, she couldn’t have loved him very deeply. Her ability to bounce back so quickly had left one of those scars she’d mentioned. It was by far the worst he’d ever sustained.
“I knew you’d end up with someone special,” she said.
Biting back The Question, he got to his feet. “Thanks. I’m glad you stopped by.”
She got up, too, then hesitated. “I have something else to say.”
It concerned him that she suddenly wouldn’t meet his eyes. “And that is...”
“Noelle came over today.”
“Don’t you see her quite often?”
“I do, but...I guess you haven’t heard.”
“Heard what?”
“She was fired from Sexy Sadie’s last night.”
He moved around his desk. “What happened?”
She slid her purse strap higher on her shoulder. “She got into a fight with another server.”
Somehow, this didn’t surprise him. “Is the other girl okay?”
“Yeah. Noelle is, too. You’re the one I’m worried about.”
Kyle’s discomfort grew. “Why would you say that?”
“It doesn’t make a lot of sense, but...she seems to blame you.”
Stunned, he stood taller. “How could I have anything to do with her losing her job?”
“She claims you set her up. That you made certain...promises, led her to believe you two were getting back together. And now you’re with someone else. She told me she’s tired of being cast aside whenever you decide you don’t need her.”
“That’s crazy!”
“I know. But I felt I should warn you. The things she’s saying are...harsh and... I wouldn’t put it past her to...to try to punish you.”
He wouldn’t put it past her, either. She’d already gone to the Gold Country Gazette with news of Lourdes’s presence in town, thinking that would land a blow.
Apparently, she didn’t like the way her plan had backfired. “How?”
“I couldn’t even venture a guess. When she was talking to me I just got a funny feeling that she was far angrier than she had any right to be. She was almost delusional in the way she ranted on and on about you. As if you had been sleeping with her and making promises of reconciliation. She seemed completely convinced you’ve been using her.”
Kyle didn’t have words for what went through his mind. All he could get out was “I’ve never led her to believe I have any interest!”
“She builds up every little thing you do in her mind, tells herself you must care about her if you’re willing to pay so she won’t lose the use of her car or whatever. And I’ve known for a long time that she wishes she’d never lost you. She won’t face the fact that it’s truly over and prefers to think there’s nothing standing in the way of getting you back.”
“Only now there is something—or rather someone—in the way.”
“Yes. Lourdes.”
Kyle narrowed his eyes. “She’d never do anything to hurt Lourdes...” He’d told Lourdes she wouldn’t, but the things Olivia was saying about her sister... He wasn’t sure anymore.
Olivia’s troubled eyes finally met his. “I doubt it would be anything too serious. But I wouldn’t put it past her to target Lourdes in some way.”
“Like...”
She spread out her palms. “Write her a hateful letter. Challenge her in public. Post unflattering reviews of her music. Spread gossip and lies—here and on the internet. The usual petty stuff.”
He could easily see Noelle acting so spiteful. “I don’t want anything to ruin Lourdes’s stay here.”
Flashing him another smile, Olivia reached out to squeeze his arm. “You really like her, don’t you?”
Fortunately, Olivia went on before he had to admit or deny how he felt.
“I want what’s best for you, so I’m going to be just as glad to see you happy as you are to see me happy with Brandon. I hope you believe that.”
“I do.” Impulsively, he gave her a hug to make up for some of his surliness, which had very little to do with her and far more to do with her sister, and was reassured when it felt...normal. Not sleazy, as if he was using it as an excuse to get close to her. Or st
iff and awkward like the occasional brief hug convention had foisted upon them at various family holidays. It simply felt sincere and respectful, as an embrace between a brother-and sister-in-law should, not encumbered with the residue of all they’d once been to each other, which had been so hard to escape.
“We may outdistance the past yet, you and I,” she murmured as she looked up at him.
Except that his relationship with Lourdes was a sham. And now, thanks to Noelle and her vengeful soul, Lourdes might have to pay for even the pretense of happiness.
17
“It’s about time I wrote some of these women, don’t you think?” That evening, Kyle sat at the breakfast bar, with his laptop open. “Or at least acknowledge the ones who’ve tried to contact me?”
Lourdes was moving around the kitchen across from him, baking a chocolate cake. She said she’d made up the recipe, and he was going to love it.
The house certainly smelled good. He was enjoying the hominess of having her around. More and more he looked forward to getting off work at night. But he was trying hard not to get too caught up in spending time with her. He was beginning to notice things he didn’t notice about his other female friends—the way her eyes lit up when she liked something, the infectious sound of her laugh, the warmth of her body when she leaned close to show him a picture on her phone. He could still smell her perfume from an hour earlier, when she’d put his plate down at dinner, for crying out loud. They were all classic signs of infatuation; he recognized that. So he was going to do his damnedest to make sure he didn’t get himself into another bad situation.
“You’re on Single Central?”
She sounded slightly startled, and he could see why. Neither of them had mentioned the online dating site since shortly after she created his profile. He’d wondered about that, since she’d been so gung ho at the start. “I thought I should follow up.”
After a slight pause, she said, “Why the sudden interest?”
“I figure there’s no need to waste the time you spent getting me on here.”
“On a site where you didn’t want to be in the first place?”
Feigning greater interest in Debbie Mayo’s profile than he actually felt, he said, “Maybe I was being too closed-minded.” He had to do something, didn’t he? After more than six years of carrying a torch for Olivia, and feeling guilty about it because of Brandon, he was grateful that those feelings were finally dissipating. But he couldn’t let another woman—a woman with whom he had no better chance—replace her. To avoid that, he’d been thinking he should make more of an effort on the dating front, try to meet someone else, someone who might be a real possibility.
Lourdes came over to see what he was looking at. “I can’t say she’s not attractive...”
The scent of her perfume reached him again. It smelled so good he almost closed his eyes and breathed deeply. Fortunately, that was a temptation he resisted. “But?”
“Is there any rush?”
There hadn’t been—until today. He’d thought he had his undying devotion to Olivia to keep him safe from the attraction he felt for Lourdes. But that shield seemed to be wearing thin. And with Lourdes so present and accessible, it suddenly seemed critical that he find another love interest.
“Not really,” he lied. “Why?”
“It’s just that...you know what I told Ed at the Gold Country Gazette. What he printed yesterday.”
“He hinted that we’re romantically involved.”
“Yes. And I led him to that conclusion, since I’m staying in your house and people naturally assume that, anyway. You said yourself everyone’s bought into it.”
“They have.” He indicated the profile of the woman he’d been considering. “But she isn’t from Whiskey Creek. No one in town needs to know I’m dating anyone.”
“I was thinking we should take down your profile, not use it yet. Single Central is a big site. No telling who might see it. And when the other papers pick up the story, the news that I’ve replaced Derrick with someone else—with you—will be everywhere.”
So that was why she’d backed off the online dating idea. It’d been for strictly practical reasons. He’d been tempted to hope there was something else at play, that maybe she was starting to feel some of the attraction he was. The way she looked at him sometimes suggested it.
Or maybe he was making things up...
“I could’ve been wrong when I assumed word would spread that far,” Kyle argued. He’d been wrong about the people of Whiskey Creek, hadn’t he? Plenty of his fellow citizens had approached him when he was out and about, but no one had come banging on his door the way he’d feared. “It’s possible Ed’s article will go completely unnoticed, except by the people here. Who cares what’s printed in the Gold Country Gazette?”
“Interest may seem localized at the moment. But there are services that scour the smaller papers for anything that might be of interest to the bigger papers and gossip rags. They’ll find this.” She wiped some flour from her cheek. “I’m sorry, but I didn’t consider that when I was so flip with Ed. I thought I was doing us both a favor, since a ‘relationship’ with you allows me to save face, and you to get out from under the stigma of being hopelessly in love with your brother’s wife.”
“I’m still good with that plan.” He just hoped it wouldn’t make matters worse...
“Are you sure?”
“Of course.” He gestured at his profile. “Go ahead and pull this down. You can help me put it up again when you’re ready to leave.”
She slid the computer over. “It’s done,” she said a few seconds later. “Thank you. The last thing I need is for someone to recognize you and notify the media that you might be as much of a cheater as Derrick. They’d say that I couldn’t keep a man or something similar.” She made a face. “The gossip rags love that type of thing.”
“The Jennifer Aniston treatment.”
“Yes.”
He couldn’t leave her exposed to more scandal. Lourdes was just beginning to relax and feel safe here. He wanted to give her the time she needed to heal. “So when’s this cake going to be done? I’m ready to have a slice.”
She got up and gave him a hug. “Soon.”
Cursing the sudden awareness that flooded through him, he moved into the kitchen the moment she let him go. If he couldn’t date—couldn’t even distract himself by searching for someone he found attractive—he could be looking at the longest three months of his life. “I haven’t told you what I heard today.”
“What’d you hear?”
“Noelle got into a fight at work and was fired last night. I’ve been told it was because she was so upset about that article.”
“She asked for that article! She’s the one who told Ed I was in town!”
“True, but calling Ed is nothing compared to what she could do. Maybe I should go over there, see if I can defuse the situation.” Noelle was the last person he cared to see, but if it would stop her from doing something spiteful to Lourdes...
“Please don’t. I’m beginning to think she’s the kind of person who’d hurt herself and say you hit her. The more I learn about her, the less I trust her.”
“It’s not me I’m worried about,” he said. “I’m not a public figure, so I’m far less vulnerable than you are.”
“Don’t do it for me,” she said. “She has no reason to go after me.”
“Jealousy is...jealousy. It isn’t rational.”
“True, but there are no guarantees that going over there will help—especially since you can’t give her what she wants. I say we go on as if she doesn’t exist.” She gestured toward the living room, with the Christmas tree lit up in one corner. “It’s the holidays. Let’s forget anything and everything that’s upsetting and just enjoy the next few weeks.”
“What about that
album you need to write?” he asked.
She gave him a hopeful smile. “I’ve started my first song, although progress is slow. I’ve lost so much confidence that nothing seems to be any good. But I’m hoping the process will get easier with time.”
“You just have to keep at it.”
“Exactly.”
He rested his hands on his hips. Maybe he’d be doing Noelle as much of a favor as he’d be doing himself if he quit trying to set a new standard for amicable exes and shut off all communication. Except that monthly check, of course, which he’d agreed to pay.
Actually, considering how much she’d borrowed, he didn’t owe her a check, not for six months or more. But if she’d mind her own business and leave him alone, he’d be happy to send it. Now that she’d lost one of her jobs, she was going to need that money more than ever—
Suddenly, he realized that he did have some leverage with Noelle.
“Don’t worry,” he told Lourdes. “Everything’ll be okay.”
* * *
It was after midnight when Kyle called Noelle. It had taken that long for Lourdes to go to bed. He didn’t want her overhearing the conversation, but he also didn’t want to let another night pass without trying to head off any future trouble. As much as Lourdes felt he shouldn’t do anything, Noelle wasn’t the type to back off on her own—not when she was as fixated as she’d been of late. Lourdes just happened to come to town at a bad time, during one of the many periods when Noelle wasn’t preoccupied with any other relationship and was making another run at him. She felt displaced and rejected, and Kyle guessed she’d make their lives miserable if she could.
As he paced on the back patio, waiting for her to pick up the phone, some of their worst arguments paraded through his mind. She’d often lost her temper and thrown things, broken things or come at him as if she was going to strike him. That was part of the reason he’d refused to buy her the big house and expensive jewelry, trips and clothes she’d demanded. He wasn’t going to be that foolish with his money. Just because business was good didn’t mean it would always be good. He had to prepare for the worst. But he also wasn’t interested in rewarding her behavior.