About That Kiss Read online

  Kevin followed her gaze and sighed, scrubbing a hand over his face. When he looked at her again, his bafflement was gone, replaced by resignation. “All you had to do,” he said, sounding very tired, “was agree to authenticate my work so I could make enough money to fund my own gallery instead of working for a bunch of big corporate idiots who know nothing about the art of furniture making.”

  “I couldn’t do that,” she said. “I couldn’t authenticate what wasn’t his. Surely you knew that.”

  He shrugged. “You made your choice, I suppose. But now I have to make mine.”

  Kylie’s heart sank to her toes and she slowly slid her hands into her pockets. Her right hand encountered her phone. She swiped the screen and thumbed what she was pretty sure would be her phone app. Then she tapped the screen near the top, hoping like hell that first, she had service now that she was away from all the buildings and on the water, and second, that she was calling the last person she’d attempted to call—Joe.

  “I can’t believe this,” her mom said. “I knew right from the start that you were a bad apple.”

  “Right,” Kevin said dryly. “Or why else would you have dated me?”

  Her mom’s eyes narrowed. “And what’s that supposed to mean?”

  Kevin snorted. “It means you only date assholes. And you’re a mom! What kind of idea was that supposed to give Kylie? It’s amazing that she’s not all kinds of screwed up.”

  Ha. Little did he know, Kylie thought. “Okay,” she said quickly when her mom started looking around, probably for a bat to hit Kevin over the head with. “This is about Grandpa’s work, not you two’s past—”

  “Shut up,” they both said in unison, glaring at each other.

  “You said you were the exception!” her mom yelled at Kevin.

  “And you said you’d changed!” Kevin yelled back.

  Kylie sighed and, keeping one eye on the children, she looked around for something to help the situation and caught sight of a couple of pieces of furniture against the far wall. An armoire and a matching mirror. “Oh my God,” she said. “Those are my grandpa’s too.” She looked at Kevin. “They were also in his shop on the day of the fire, where supposedly everything burned.”

  “Most,” he said. “But not everything.”

  Her mom’s eyes were wide. And pissed. “How did you get this stuff?” she asked. “His stuff?”

  Kevin shrugged. “You know how the guy was. Brilliant artist, shitty businessman.”

  “So you took advantage of him through me?” Kylie’s mom asked.

  “Hey, he’d offered to pay me to finish some things for him,” Kevin said. “And I did exactly that, only he didn’t pay me. He couldn’t.”

  “He’d never do that,” her mom said. “He was the most honest man I ever met.”

  Kylie had gone still. “The horses,” she whispered.

  “What?” Her mom looked at her. “What horses?”

  But Kevin was nodding, confirming Kylie’s fear. “He did love the races,” he said. “And the betting.”

  The truth was, her grandpa had been a gambling addict—though Kylie had believed him to be a recovered addict. Her mom was looking stunned. Kylie’s grandpa had been so good at so many things and it seemed one of those things was keeping secrets.

  “He kept promising me he’d get me the money,” Kevin said. “Only it never happened.”

  “Why didn’t you just tell me?” her mom asked.

  “Because he begged me not to. He didn’t want anyone to know.” Kevin sent Kylie an apologetic glance. “But I needed money too. So I helped myself to one of his pieces now and then and sold them.”

  “That’s stealing,” her mom said.

  “I called it getting paid. He owed me.”

  Kylie’s gaze fell on something right past the Polaroid camera. A high-grade food processor. Her penguin was perched on it, inches from certain destruction by rotating whipping blades if the processor got flipped on. Her stomach fell and in shock, she shook her head. “How is it that he never caught you taking stuff from his shop?”

  She saw the flash of guilt and her gut tightened. “He did catch you,” she said.

  “Once,” he admitted. “He walked in on me late at night loading up a few things into my truck. He said something like, ‘I knew someone was stealing from me. I just didn’t think it would be you.’”

  That was exactly like her grandpa, seeing only the good in people. “He cared about you. I’m sure he was devastated.”

  “Devastated? Not exactly,” Kevin said. “He pulled a gun on me and I dove to the ground when he actually squeezed off a round.”

  “Wait—he shot at you?” Kylie gasped in shock.

  “No, he shot at the ceiling. A warning, I guess. The bullet ricocheted off something and hit the electrical socket where the soldering iron was plugged in. The place went up in flames in seconds. It was a fluke. He just meant to scare me off. Like this.” Reaching behind him, Kevin produced a gun.

  With twin gasps, Kylie’s mom and Kylie both dove to the floor.

  “I’m not going to shoot you,” he said, sounding horrified at the thought. “I’m trying to show you what happened that night and how it couldn’t happen again in a million years. It was truly a one in a million shot.” He squeezed the trigger and bam, a bullet hit the ceiling. And ricocheted off somewhere else.

  And then . . . nothing.

  “See?” he said, shrugging. “Accident.”

  Kylie shot to her feet, such fury flowing through her that her entire body was shaking with it. “You can’t just fire a gun into a closed area. You’ll hurt someone!”

  “I wasn’t aiming at either of you.”

  “Oh my God!” Kylie managed. “There’s a reason they don’t like dumbasses to have guns, you know!”

  “You’re overreacting.”

  “I’m overreacting?” she asked. “Are you kidding me? All these years I blamed myself for that fire!”

  “Well, that was stupid,” Kevin said. “You weren’t even there.”

  “I was earlier in the day! And you knew I blamed myself!” she cried. “You could have told me all this right after it happened!”

  “Oh, right. And I’m sure the police would’ve understood about me just taking what I was owed.” He let out a mirthless laugh. “I might’ve gone to jail. And I’d have hurt your grandpa’s reputation while I was at it. Did you think of that? He was good to me—I mean, other than the whole not paying me thing. I didn’t want to jeopardize his career.”

  “You lying, two-faced, thieving bastard,” Kylie’s mom said, getting back to her feet.

  “Seriously?” Kevin asked, taking a step back from her. “You want to go there? How many times did you borrow money from him?”

  “I’m his blood! If you don’t admit to occasionally stealing money from your parents then you’re not being honest.”

  “I never stole money from my parents,” Kevin said.

  Nor had Kylie, but she couldn’t think. She was shaking with anger and her head was spinning. “Why didn’t anyone find the gun or the bullet that night?”

  “Your grandpa freaked that he’d lost his temper. He said the gun wasn’t registered. He made me take it and I don’t know why they didn’t find the bullet or casing. I took the gun and left, not knowing the fire was already smoldering, gaining steam. I’d never have left him there if I’d known what would happen.”

  “I can’t believe this,” she said. “I thought for sure you’d have a good explanation and be just another dead end. I didn’t want it to be you. You were nice to me. I thought you liked me. But then you bailed on us, and now . . . now you’re a deserter and a thief.”

  Kevin’s eyes softened. “I liked you too, Kylie, and I never bailed on you guys.”

  “Yes, you did,” her mom said. “You told me that we were good together, that you saw a future. Then one day you said you had to go to New York for a job but you’d call when you got back.”

  “And I meant all of that,