Page 12 of Now That It’s You (The Can’t Have Hearts Club #5)

“Ex-fiancée.”

“What?”

“Nothing,” Kyle said, reaching out to shake the man’s hand. “I’ll be in touch. Enjoy the sculpture.”

Meg handed Kendall a blue and white flowered bowl filled with popcorn, then dropped onto the sofa beside her.

She tucked her legs up under her butt and reached behind her to scratch Floyd under the chin.

The cat gave a soft purr from his perch on the back of the sofa and stretched his paws out in front of him.

“This is what I love about coming here.” Kendall shoved a fistful of popcorn in her mouth.

“The pleasure of my company?”

“That, too, obviously. But also that you don’t just cram a bag of chemical-laden crap in the microwave and call it popcorn. What is this, anyway?”

“That one’s drizzled with rosemary-infused olive oil and dusted with truffle salt,” Meg said. “The one we had earlier was popped in bacon grease and laced with chives and bacon crumbles.”

Kendall grinned and shoved another handful of popcorn in her mouth. “If there’s anything better than having a caterer for a best friend, I don’t know what it is.”

“How about a really wealthy best friend who likes to shower all her pals with cash?”

Kendall snorted and chewed her popcorn. “Can’t help you there. I take it you’re still stressed about getting the money for Matt’s parents?”

Meg shrugged. “I’m working on it. I’m pretty close. I have a job in three days for a charity event at Sunridge Vineyards that should have about three hundred guests. If I take the check from that and call the lender for my student loan to ask for just a few extra weeks?—”

“This is bullshit.”

Meg sighed. “Don’t start.”

“Come on, I was sitting right there in your living room when Matt offered to take those stupid cookbook photos. He said, and I quote, ‘You can pay me in blowjobs, babe.’ Didn’t he even write it on a napkin?”

“Ew.” Meg made a face. “We were all tipsy that night. How do you remember that?”

“I was scarred for life by the visual. I just remember he was a royal prick about it. Very condescending.”

“It was a long time ago,” Meg said for lack of anything better to offer.

“Not really. You guys were only a few months from the wedding at that point, weren’t you?”

“We both had a lot on our minds.”

“You mean like how to bone someone else before walking down the aisle?” Kendall stuffed another handful of popcorn in her mouth.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound harsh,” she puffed around the kernels.

“But seriously, what in the world would possess him to stick his dick in another woman when he had a beautiful, willing partner at home?”

“I have no idea.” Meg poked a finger into the popcorn bowl, not willing to admit how often she’d wondered the same damn thing. Not willing to admit how often she’d wondered if she’d done something to drive him to want to sleep with someone else.

Deep down, didn’t that cross the mind of every woman whose man found himself in another woman’s bed?

Floyd stood up and stretched, then dropped down onto the couch beside Meg. He cast a disdainful look at Kendall, then bumped the bottom of the popcorn bowl with his head.

“Cut it out, asshole cat,” Kendall muttered.

Floyd responded by purring and rubbing his mouth on Kendall’s arm, leaving a streak of drool across her wrist.

“I swear you have the weirdest cat on the planet,” Kendall muttered. “He only likes people who insult him.”

“Which explains why he loves you.” Meg scooped up her indignant feline and rubbed behind his ears.

Floyd growled and struggled to get down, so Meg set him on the ground at her feet.

He gave a plaintive meow and twined himself around Kendall’s ankles a few times before jumping back on the couch.

He stomped across their laps and headed for the far end of the sofa where he curled up and fell asleep.

Kendall picked up the remote and aimed it at Meg’s television. “You want to watch another episode?”

Meg shrugged and stroked a hand down Floyd’s back. “I’m kinda burned out on all the kissing. Let’s watch something else.”

“You? Burned out on kissing? This is a first.”

Meg reached up and touched her earlobe, then thought of Kyle. She felt her face flush with heat and she dropped her hand to her lap feeling a weird mix of guilt and desire.

“What?” Kendall said, watching her face. “What is it?”

Meg bit her lip. “I almost kissed Kyle last night.”

Kendall blinked at her. “You did?”

“Or he almost kissed me. I’m not really sure. It all happened so fast.”

“Why did you stop?”

“I’d like to say it was because we both realized it was a stupid idea and we were channeling our grief in an unhealthy way.” Meg frowned. “In reality, the oven beeped.”

Kendall looked thoughtful as she scooped up another handful of popcorn and chewed. “Why is it stupid?”

Meg rolled her eyes. “Um, because I spent ten years in a relationship with his brother?”

“At least you already know the family.”

“The family hates me. Besides, nothing really happened. Thank God.” She hesitated, rolling an unpopped kernel between her fingers. “There was this other time about three years ago, actually.”

“What?” Kendall gaped. “You kissed Kyle three years ago?”

“No! Absolutely not. Not even close.”

“Then what?”

“It’s nothing,” Meg said, wondering why she’d even brought it up.

“We were out for a walk and I saw this dead dove on the ground and a living one on a wire overhead, and I know they mate for life and—” she stopped, surprised to feel tears spring to her eyes after all this time.

“Anyway, I kept thinking about it all evening and getting choked up, so I ducked into the den so no one would notice.”

“Kyle noticed.”

Meg nodded. Kyle, not Matt. She didn’t need to ask how Kendall had guessed.

Which also meant her best friend understood it was about more than just a dead bird.

“Yes,” she said, clearing her throat. “Kyle noticed, and he came back to check on me.”

“Did something happen?”

“No. Not exactly.”

Meg shook her head, remembering the way he’d stepped into the room smelling like cloves and firewood, his gray-green eyes glinting in the amber light from the desk lamp.

“I googled it,” he’d told her, his voice soft and urgent. “ You’re right about the doves. They mate for life.”

Meg had nodded, not wanting to say anything for fear of bawling like a stupid baby.

“But the thing is,” Kyle had continued, “if something happens to one of them, they almost always re-partner.”

A lump had risen in Meg’s throat, and the tears inched closer to the corners of her eyes. She’d glanced toward the door, but the clatter of dishes in the kitchen and the blare of football-fueled shouting in the family room told her the rest of Matt’s family was nowhere near.

She’d turned back to Kyle, startled to realize how close he was. “ Thank you,” she’d whispered, not needing to say anything else.

He looked at her then—really looked at her. The first time anyone had done that for a long time. Neither of them said a single word, but their gazes seemed frozen together like a tongue on a metal flagpole. They’d stood at least a foot apart, but it was the closest she’d felt to anyone for years.

Maybe ever.

“Nothing happened,” she told Kendall now, her voice firm enough to jar her back to the present. “There was this—connection, I guess. But we didn’t even hug. He did touch my elbow.”

“Your elbow?” Kendall gave a mock gasp, pretending to be scandalized.

Meg smiled and looked down at her lap. How could she explain that with that single, half-second touch, he’d left her feeling more unraveled than she’d ever felt before?

She looked up again to see Kendall studying her. “You think he wanted to kiss you? Or you wanted to kiss him?”

Meg dropped the popcorn kernel back in the bowl, not willing to answer either question. “I never would have let that happen. Seeing how infidelity shaped my parents’ relationship—it’s not a line I’d ever cross.”

“Not like Matt did.”

“Not like Matt did,” Meg repeated, feeling hollow. “Anyway, it’s possible the connection with Kyle was all in my head. He moved to Montana a week later, and I was so busy with wedding planning that I put it out of my head. I really hadn’t thought about it until last night.”

Kendall nodded, looking thoughtful as she grabbed more popcorn. “I always liked Kyle. I wish he had kissed you. Last night, I mean.”

“Not a good idea.” Meg shook her head. “Can you even imagine?”

Kendall shrugged. “I’m not sure it would be the weirdest thing in the world.”

“No? Look at the underside of the popcorn bowl.”

“What?”

“The bowl you’re holding. Look at the bottom of it.”

Kendall frowned, then raised the bowl overhead and peered at it. “ M plus M equals butt cheeks?”

“It’s supposed to be a heart,” Meg said. “My grandmother painted it before she died, which is why I can’t get rid of it despite the fact that it’s really damn creepy to eat popcorn out of a bowl with my dead ex’s initial on it.”

“Your initial is there, too,” Kendall pointed out as she lowered the bowl.

“I’m just saying. There’s too much baggage there with me and Kyle. No matter what, we’d never escape all the ghosts of that other relationship.”

Kendall shrugged and drained her wineglass. “I disagree.”

“No, it’s true. There’s no way around the fact that I was engaged to his brother.”

“Of course. I’m just saying that’s not insurmountable.”

“It is,” Meg insisted.

“It’s not ,” Kendall replied. “But I’d rather watch that cupcake show than argue with you. What channel is it on?”

“Not a clue.” Meg stood up and grabbed the empty wine bottle as she headed toward the kitchen. “You want to stick with Pinot Grigio, or do you want something else?”

“You don’t have any red open, do you?”

“Half a bottle of Chianti from when I made lasagna a few days ago.” She picked the bottle up off the kitchen counter and studied it. “It’s probably still good. That was the night before Matt died, actually.”

Meg thought about the lasagna, remembering how she’d carefully layered the cheese and sausage and noodles and sauce while rehearsing in her mind what she’d say to Matt at the hospital the next day.

Look, I know we both did some things we regret, but I wanted to tell you I’m sorry and that I’d like to put it all behind us and maybe even work toward renewing our friendship if ?—

“Meg!” Kendall shouted. “Get in here now!”

“What?”

“Hurry!”

Her pulse sped up and she started back toward the living room with the Chianti bottle clutched in her hand. “Did you spill the popcorn? It’s okay, just?—”

“No, right now, come here!”

The volume on the television slid to a deafening level and Meg sprinted out to see Kendall aiming the remote at the screen with a wide-eyed look on her face.

“... So, yeah,” the blonde actress was saying as she crossed her legs saucily. She leaned into Jimmy Fallon’s desk, making her sequined gown twinkle. “I’ve already made three recipes from this book and I have to tell you, I’ve never felt so?—”

“Horny?” Jimmy Fallon flashed a salacious grin at the audience, who responded with applause and loud whoops of encouragement.

“Oh, stop!” The actress gave Jimmy a playful swat, flashing a wedding ring that could have doubled as a paperweight. “I’m not kidding, I can’t believe this aphrodisiac stuff works, but if you read the little sidebars?—”

“That’s my book,” Meg said, dumbfounded.

“No shit, Sherlock,” Kendall said.

“My book is on The Tonight Show .” She gripped the back of the sofa, not believing her own eyes.

“It would appear that way.”

“How did Kiki-Fucking-Corso get my book?”

“I have no idea. Can’t anyone order it on Amazon?”

“Well, yeah, but no one has. I’ve had the link up there for almost three years and I’ve sold less than a dozen of them. None in the last year. How did the most famous actress in the universe get my?—”

“So, Kiki,” Jimmy said, and Meg stopped talking. “Are you the new pitch-woman for this book or something?”

“Not at all,” she said, tossing her trademark blond tresses. “I’m just enjoying the benefits of it, and also really loving the little details. You know, the character I play in my new film is a chef, so I’ve been reading everything I can get my hands on and?—”

Kiki prattled on about her new movie, but Meg stood staring at the cover of her cookbook perched on the edge of the host’s desk.

“I don’t understand,” Meg said.

Kendall picked up her phone. “Siri, how many viewers does The Tonight Show have?”

Meg swallowed hard as Kendall stared at the screen of her iPhone. She held it up, though Meg couldn’t possibly see anything from this distance. “Four-point-five million. Four-point-five people just saw Kiki Corso recommend your cookbook.”

“I have to sit down.”

Meg felt her knees start to buckle, but she gripped the edge of the couch tighter to keep herself upright. Somewhere in her hazy peripheral, she saw Kendall stand up and set the popcorn bowl on the coffee table and walk around the sofa to Meg’s side, but Meg’s eyes stayed glued to the screen.

“Are you okay?” Kendall grabbed the wine bottle from her hand, and Meg looked down to see she’d spilled some on the floor.

“I’ll get that,” Kendall said, hustling into the kitchen to grab a rag as The Tonight Show faded to a commercial. “Why don’t you go sit on the sofa and let me wait on you?”

“What?” Meg blinked and looked away from the television, her gaze shifting to her best friend. “What the hell for?”

“You’re about to be famous, hon.” Kendall grinned. “I want to be the one who poured you your first glass of champagne.”