Page 28 of Kyle

Jason shrugged.

"Maybe not. The man is a flake and has always been. But who the hell am I to judge? I'm a mess most of the time."

"There's a reason for it."

He shrugged again.

"Jessica is going through hell."

Kyle felt guilt punch through him.

"Have you reached out to her?"

"I tried. She does not want to hear from me." Jason puffed out smoke, squinting his eyes against the smoke curling around him. "Who can blame her? I allowed things to slip. After losing your mother, I was not much of a father, not much of anything. I figured it's too late to try now."

"It's never too late." Kyle picked up his glass and set it back down. The afternoon had turned cloudy, with the wind whipping through the palm trees. It was too cold for outdoor activities but there was a group playing tennis. The whacking sound of the ball disturbed the serenity.

"Why don't we go down to supper and play some cards?" his father suggested.

"I'm going to take you up on that. Give me a minute, will you?" Sliding off the chaise, he went into the room and pulled out his phone and just stared at it for a minute. Taking a deep breath, he punched the number. It rang three times, and he was about to hang up when he heard her sultry voice.

"Hey, I was about to leave you a message."

"No need for that now. What's up?"

He cleared his throat.

"I, er, I'm with my dad."

"At the club. How's he?"

"Fine. We're bonding." He smiled. "Look, I just called to let you know we might be spending the night."

"Deserting your bride so soon McCreary? Not cool."

"I--"

"It's fine. I'm here in hell, trying to calm my dad down."

"What's wrong?"

"Every once in a while, he gets in this mood and bemoans the fact that Iona is no longer in love with him. This is one of those moments. So, I promised him that I would stay for dinner, and I might just spend the night. When will you be back?"

He felt his heart tripping.

"Tomorrow."

"I'll be there. We could take in those old black and white movies and have some popcorn. I checked out the movie room and it's kickass."

He laughed softly.

"We could do that."

"Okay. I'll let you get back to your business. Tell Jason hi."

"Ingrid?"

"Yeah?"