Fumbling Perfect (Raymere Grove Series Book 1)

by Nikki Kwiatkowski

  Everyone in school knew her. Rich girl. Her dad owned McCallister Industries. Genius. She’d probably end up going to Harvard. Beautiful. If she cared more about her looks than studying, no doubt she’d be on a billboard somewhere. Yet, with everything going for her, she was as cold as ice and had very few people in her corner. Maybe with everything she had going for her, people failed to see that she was severely lacking in some areas. It took that very moment for Kyler to realize it.

  She turned to him, her eyes now dry, but he could tell she was trying her best to keep more from surfacing. “Jolee is out of state for the weekend. I was waiting at the library to hear back from Alice. It turns out her parents let her drive to a conference in the city. I tried calling my dad, thinking maybe he could get me a hotel room, but he didn’t answer, besides if he knew that…” She let her words drift off. She absolutely should not be telling Kyler about her parents’ marital problems.

  “You have nowhere to go…”

  “I know what you’re thinking. How pathetic.”

  Kyler stepped forward. He wasn’t sure what he was thinking, or what was coming over him, but all he wanted was to have her in his arms. Just to hold her, to make her feel wanted. Instead he blurted out the most ridiculous statement he could have made. “That’s not what I think at all. Why don’t you stay the night with me?” He quickly corrected himself after Lilah’s eyeballs nearly dropped from their sockets. “I mean, at my house. Why don’t you stay at my house?”

  He repeated the words to himself in his head after saying them. Perhaps he should have ran the statement through his head prior to vocalizing it. What in the world was he thinking?

  Lilah felt like the burger was about to make a second debut. She couldn’t have heard him right; however, the eerie and awkward silence suggested differently.

  Kyler shifted his weight uncomfortably and waited for her response.

  Lilah’s head was a jumbled mess, but if she looked past it all, the only lingering question she had was where she planned on going.

  “It’s not a big deal, you can crash on the couch for a night,” Kyler finally spoke. He could tell that a million different thoughts were running through Lilah’s head, ones that he knew she’d never share.

  Lilah swallowed heavily. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

  “Why?” Kyler closed his mouth. He didn’t want to come off as persistent, and Lilah was right. It wasn’t a good idea.

  “It’s a nice offer, I just…” She couldn’t find a good excuse. That was wrong. There was absolutely one very good excuse, but she didn’t plan on treading into that territory, not tonight. “I just don’t know you that well.”

  Hoping to lighten the mood, Kyler did the best thing he knew and made a joke of it. “You think I might murder you in your sleep.”

  The smile on his face eased the tension and Lilah took a deep breath. “I’m worth more to you alive than dead.”

  There was a little sparkle in her eyes and Kyler longed to keep it there. He couldn’t stand to see her cry.

  “Well, what do you say? If it makes you feel any better, my sister cooks awesome breakfasts on the weekend,” he began, this time attempting not to come on so strong.

  Lilah had a hard time looking at him, something about the light, or lack thereof, and his gorgeous features. He looked so sincere and innocent, and against her better judgement, she found that she wanted to accept his offer. She told herself it was only because it was getting late and she was running out of options, but the loud beating of her heart told her that wasn’t the whole truth.

  “On one condition,” Lilah pointed out just as they reached his truck.

  It was almost like he could read her mind. “I’d prefer that no one at school find out either,” he said with the cutest boyish smile that nearly made Lilah melt right there.

  Chapter 18

  “Is this the cheerleader,” were the first words out of Krista’s mouth when Kyler walked in with Lilah.

  He watched as Lilah’s expression turned into an icy cold hostility. Not only did his sister just assume that she was a cheerleader, which for some reason Kyler didn’t think Lilah would find as a compliment, but the statement also suggested that there was clearly a cheerleader in the picture. While nothing had progressed since the kiss a couple weeks ago, Kyler still didn’t want Lilah getting the wrong impression.

  Thankfully a slobbery black and white mammoth cut the tension by nearly knocking Lilah over. She braced herself on the back of the couch and Kyler pulled the dog back, realizing that Lilah looked absolutely terrified.

  “Sorry. Max really likes people.”

  “No, it’s fine. He just took me by surprise,” Lilah insisted, but Kyler had already started pulling the dog to a set of sliding glass doors.

  He cautiously released Max. “Really? It looked like you were afraid of dogs.”

  “Of course not.” Her voice rose a bit and a genuine smile came to her face as she knelt closer to the floor to be on the same level with the dog. “We’re just not allowed to have them,” she admitted.

  Kyler watched her with Max and a rush of feelings came soaring through him. He hated how she kept doing that. He wished that she would have stayed that same girl that he thought he had known for years, that cold and distant know-it-all.

  Krista finished drying a plate and placed it in the cabinet. Once she hung the dish towel in its place, she came around to the living room where Kyler and Lilah were playing with Max.

  “Sarah, I presume.”

  Lilah stood just as Kyler began shouting. “Seriously?! What is wrong with you?”

  “Actually, it’s Lilah,” she shyly corrected, feeling slightly uncomfortable staying in Kyler’s home after remembering that wonderful piece of information.

  “Lilah,” Krista questioned, looking to her brother.

  The awkwardness ensued. Great. Kyler had never mentioned her name to any of his family, and why should he. She was no one, other than a tutor, to him.

  As if a lightbulb went off, Krista’s demeanor softened. “The cupcake girl?”

  Lilah quietly repeated the words to herself, her eyes narrowing in confusion.

  Kyler huffed. He supposed it was payback for all the times he embarrassed his sister in front of her boyfriends. The only difference, he was a kid, he got a pass for that, and of course Lilah wasn’t his girlfriend. It was still all very embarrassing.

  “She’s standing right here,” Kyler grumbled.

  Krista rolled her eyes. “My brother isn’t the best with introductions,” she began, now more eagerly and much more nicely than when she assumed Lilah was a cheerleader. “I’m Krista, his much older and wiser sister.” She extended her hand and Lilah took it.

  Attempting to ease the tension, “And the chef, right?”

  A feminine laughter that easily resembled Kyler’s masculine one came from Krista.

  “I figured that’s all he sees me as,” she joked.

  It wasn’t until then that Krista noticed the pink bags near the entrance. Her eyes shot to Kyler and a sibling intuition kicked in. When Kyler became uncomfortable under her hardened gaze, she knew that he was hiding something.

  He sensed that Krista was on the verge of asking to speak with him privately. Before she got the chance, he rushed over and reached for Lilah’s bags.

  “Krista, I’m going to show Lilah to my room, then I’ll–”

  “What,” they both gasped.

  Lilah could feel her face heating and reddening. When Krista didn’t speak another word, only waited for further explanation, Lilah spoke up. “I thought I was just going to crash on the couch?”

  Kyler sighed. “Hospitality and all,” he grumbled. “I’ll sleep on the couch.”

  Although Krista spoke not a single word, her eyes seared through him, saying all that needed to be said. He was sure that once Lilah was out of earshot, she’d have some not so lovely things to say.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  Lilah hovered at the doorway and wa
tched Kyler plug his phone into a charger extending over his nightstand. His fingers slid rapidly over the screen as he checked over something and then he placed it down.

  He glanced back to Lilah and chuckled. “You can come in.”

  Lilah took a few steps into the room. She felt drunk from the whole situation. No, that wasn’t right. She didn’t know what that felt like. She felt like she was in a dream. Never in any world did she ever see herself standing in Kyler West’s bedroom, let alone staying the night at his house. She also couldn’t believe the nature of his room.

  Since she had never been in a teenage boy’s room before, she expected what she had read in books or seen in movies, a complete disaster. Smelly socks. Soda cans. Paper plates growing mold. Walls covered in superhero posters.

  Kyler’s room looked like someone who was practical, clean, and grownup. The walls were free of holes where juvenile stuff might have hung in the past. There was no dirty laundry on the floor. Absolutely no cans or remnants of food were seen in any corner.

  “Are you okay,” he jokingly asked as she took in his room.

  “Yeah. It’s just so…I wasn’t expecting…”

  “You thought I’d be a slob,” he laughed.

  She turned red. He had been nice. Ever since the library he was near perfect; she really didn’t want to go on and insult him with her preconceptions.

  Kyler allowed her to look around. It was strange having a girl in his room that wasn’t related to him. As she hesitantly made her way from one end to the other, to the window looking out below, Kyler quickly rummaged through his drawers, grabbing any clothes he’d need later after his shower.

  “So, the bathroom is directly across the hall. Make yourself at home I guess?”

  She spun around quickly. “This is weird isn’t it?”

  “A little,” he admitted.

  “I’m sorry,” she began.

  He wasn’t used to seeing her apologetic, and he was about to let her continue, but he remembered how horrible she felt earlier, and he didn’t want her feeling that way by thinking she was an imposition.

  Before she could continue, “It’s fine. Do you want to talk about it?”

  “No,” she answered, perhaps a little too quickly. She glanced away and toward the bed. Attempting to change the subject, “Do you have fresh linens somewhere?”

  “For what?”

  She looked back at him. “So, I can change the sheets.”

  He shrugged. “They’re pretty clean.”

  “Pretty clean,” she repeated as a question, now scrunching up her face.

  Kyler couldn’t believe her. One minute she was crying because she had nowhere to stay, and now her biggest concern was how clean his sheets were. Did she seriously have someone come in and change her sheets every day like some hotel?

  “I shower before bed, so yes, pretty clean.” He crossed his arms and raised a brow, waiting for a snotty remark. When no words came, only a sigh, he added, “Unless you count Max.”

  “I’m sorry?”

  He hadn’t thought about that. “Yeah, Max likes to sleep on my bed with me. I’m not sure if he will with you, just close the door and make sure he isn’t in the room when you go to bed.”

  Her eyes softened. “Do you close the door and leave him out?”

  Kyler watched her carefully, concern blossoming across her entire face. “I usually sleep with the door open.”

  She took her hand and pressed on the mattress, gauging its firmness. Quite firm. “Then I’ll keep it open. He might not understand what’s going on and I’d hate to upset him.”

  Just like that, just when Kyler thought what a snobbish brat she was because of the sheets, she had to go and say something like that.

  He had things to do, and suddenly he couldn’t stand to be around her. “Do whatever you want,” he mumbled, clenching the clothes in his fist as he left his room.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  “She’s not a stray puppy!”

  “It’s just for one night. Don’t be so dramatic,” Kyler reassured his sister.

  Krista was balled up on the recliner, already in her pajamas, watching one of her cooking shows. Kyler knew she’d be asleep in her room by the time he got done with his work, so he had nothing to worry about when it came to her keeping him up.

  “Does mom know?”

  “I’m an adult and–”

  “Her roof, her rules. I’m twenty-three and I’m pretty sure she’d flip if I had a boyfriend stay over,” she scoffed.

  Kyler seriously had to set her straight before she embarrassed him anymore in front of Lilah. “First of all, she’s staying on a completely different floor. Secondly, cut it out with any mentioning of boyfriend and girlfriend.”

  “You are, aren’t you,” Krista pressed. She no longer appeared annoyed, as now she wanted saucy details that Kyler knew weren’t there.

  “She tutors me in English. We’re barely friends. So, no.” He turned and headed out the door to the garage, hoping to drop the conversation.

  “So, a girl that’s barely your friend–”

  “Goodnight, Krista,” he called out, quickly pulling the door behind him.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  Lilah rolled her eyes from the end of the hallway near the stairs. Perhaps if she stayed close by for college, she imagined that would be a near identical chat that she and Rover would be having one day. Jamie had forgotten all about them when she went off to college, and Lilah didn’t plan on doing that to Rover, especially now with their wreck of a family. Actually, Jamie was always that way, an older version of Sarah. When Lilah was a sophomore, Jamie was a senior, and of course head cheerleader. Lilah couldn’t even remember a time that her sister spoke to her in school.

  She put her thoughts of the past aside and came back to reality. It was barely after nine, but she already had a shower, dried her hair, and brushed her teeth. She had a couple books in her bag that she could read in bed before falling asleep. That would probably be for the best. After hearing that conversation, she thought it would be safer to steer clear of Krista for the remainder of the evening. Although she wasn’t exactly sure why, she didn’t care to see Kyler anymore either.

  She had the door nearly closed when she remembered Max. A little bit of excitement ran through her as she thought about him coming and sleeping on the bed with her. She had always wanted a dog. Her parents insisted that they shed, even the ones that supposedly didn’t shed. As she got older, she knew it was just an easy excuse, one less thing for them to worry about.

  She was only about thirty pages into her book. Normally she could read a book a night depending, but something about being on Kyler’s bed messed with her focus. It wasn’t only the smell of his room and his pillows beneath her head, there was a constant tapping outside that wouldn’t allow her to take in the words on the page. Feeling frustrated, she put the book down on the nightstand next to Kyler’s phone. She scrunched her face. There was no way that she would leave her phone alone with a stranger.

  Lilah pulled back the sheets, a slight anxiety running through her veins. She was going to spend the night in Kyler West’s bed. When it was just that thought alone, it sounded exhilarating and exciting; however, in the end she assumed that he saw her as pathetic and alone, and tonight was nothing more than pity. She turned off the lamp light and was just about to crawl beneath the covers when she saw the light pouring through the blinds. She went to close them and that’s what she saw what was going on below.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  Kyler wanted to get it done by eleven, before his mother got home. She had been complaining about the broken railing and rotten boards on one particular end of the deck for over a month now. It was something on his list that he put off. She recently told him that she had met a contractor that did small side jobs, but he didn’t want her wasting money on hiring someone for something so simple that he could learn. After looking online, and finally finding the boxes of tools that belonged to his dad, he decided to give it a go. It’s not l
ike he could mess it up more than it already was. Once he figured out the saw, everything came together a lot faster. He had used the drill for countless things, but ever since he was a kid the saw had terrified him. That was a long time ago though. He wasn’t a kid anymore.

  He stepped back to look at one of the sections that he finished. He put the level on the bannister. Not a hundred percent perfect, but pretty spot on, and it saved his mother from having to pay a contractor. He slid a few of the 2x4s farther down the deck toward some of the rotten ones still in place. He then reached for the crowbar and began the removal of two boards.

  An eerie feeling came over him, causing him to stop and check his surroundings. An owl hooted in a faraway tree, but that was the only company he had for the night. He didn’t even have his music from his phone; come to think of it, he didn’t even have his phone. He didn’t need it now. It would only serve as a distraction.

  He glanced behind him to see if Lilah had turned the lights off yet. She had. That was good. It looked like she needed sleep. Something in the window, other than the lack of light, caught his attention. At first it frightened him, seeing someone standing there. Then he realized it was Lilah. She was watching him.

  She gave a slight wave, to which he responded back with one, and then she disappeared.

  Thankfully he didn’t have to hide the smile that made its way to his face. Deep in his stomach he knew that he was in trouble. There was something more to Lilah than everything he assumed, and the more he got to know her, and the more time he spent around her, the more he wanted…her.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  Lilah nervously bit her lip as she climbed into bed. That was weird. He saw her watching him, just staring at him. She wasn’t sure how long she had been at the window, but she couldn’t tear herself away. A little flutter ran through her. She had expected that he needed to be with friends or on a date, and yet, he was doing household repairs this late on a Friday night.

  Didn’t he have football? Wasn’t there always a game Friday night? She made a mental note to ask him about that. If things became awkward, it would be a nice icebreaker.