Page 32 of Now That It’s You (The Can’t Have Hearts Club #5)
“ F or the love of all things holy,” Kyle growled as he sat back, pulling his hands off Meg’s bare back like he’d been burned. “What the fuck are the odds? Seriously, are all the mothers in the world conspiring?”
Meg jumped like a kid caught making spitballs in church, and Kyle wondered if all these maternal interruptions would give her some sort of complex.
“Hang on, Mom,” Meg called as she tumbled off Kyle’s lap and landed with a thud on the floor.
She scrambled up before Kyle could offer her a hand, and he felt weirdly relieved she seemed more undone by the appearance of her own mother than his.
He watched her sprint for the door, tugging down the hem of her T-shirt in a way that made her look guilty as hell.
But Meg’s guilt was the least of Patti Delaney’s problems. That was clear the instant Meg threw open the front door.
“Oh, sweetie—I knew you’d be home,” Meg’s mom sobbed. “Something awful happened.”
Kyle stood up, trying to gauge from this distance whether “something awful” was a hangnail or a death in the family.
In his limited experience with Patti, he’d learned it could be either or nothing at all.
He moved toward the front door with Bindi falling into step beside him, Floyd on her heels.
He felt like the leader of a bizarre inter-species parade.
“Hi, Patti,” he said, stepping beside Meg. “Do you need help?”
“Kyle,” she said, startled enough to take a step back. She regrouped quickly though. “I didn’t realize you’d be here. I’m so sorry about your brother, honey.”
“Thank you.”
He stole a glance at Meg. She wore a guarded expression, which, come to think of it, was exactly how it was anytime he’d seen her around her mother.
“Come on in, Mom,” she said. “What’s wrong? Tell me what’s going on.”
“I’ll tell you all about it in the living room. Could I maybe get a glass of white wine?”
Okay, so whatever was going on wasn’t life-threatening.
Kyle turned and led Patti toward the living room even though she clearly knew the way.
The bulky charm bracelet on her left wrist clattered and tinkled, prompting Bindi to prick her ears and prance behind them with her nose angled up toward the bracelet.
“Honestly,” Patti sniffed. “I just don’t know what I’m going to do.”
“I’m sure we’ll figure something out,” Kyle said as Meg hurried off toward the kitchen.
Leaving Patti in the living room, Kyle ran to the bathroom and grabbed a box of tissues. He set them on the coffee table, wondering if he should make a quick exit. Meg probably needed time alone with her mother right now. It was getting late anyway, and?—
“Kyle, can I get you another glass of red wine, or would you like white?” Meg called from the kitchen.
He looked at Patti, who was busy trying to pet a snarling Floyd. “Here, kitty, kitty . . .”
Floyd growled and skittered under an end table. Kyle turned back to the kitchen to see Meg looking at him with a pleading expression, but he wasn’t sure if she wanted him to stay or go.
“Actually,” he said, “I was thinking I should probably get ho?—”
“Red!” she shouted, grabbing the bottle off the counter with a maniacal look in her eye. “Coming right up.”
“Uh, red would be great.” Okay, so he wasn’t going anywhere.
“Have a seat, Mom,” Meg called. “I’ll bring your wine right out and you can tell me all about what’s going on.”
Kyle turned to see Patti had given up on Floyd and was puttering around the living room picking up picture frames and putting them back down again.
She snatched a little glass tiger by the neck, turning it upside down to admire the bottom.
Her bulky charm bracelet hit the edge of a small elephant figurine, and it toppled from the edge of the table toward the ground.
“Oh!” she gasped as Kyle leapt forward and caught the figurine six inches from the floor. He set it down on the table as Patti wandered off. Glancing back toward the kitchen, he was rewarded by a thankful look from Meg.
She had a bottle of white wine in some sort of chilling sleeve, a white wine glass, and a bowl of something he recognized as her homemade cheese straws.
Sticking around didn’t seem like such a hardship with those cheese straws to fortify him, so he headed back to the couch.
“Why don’t we have a seat, Patti?” he suggested. He started to guide her toward the loveseat, then realized that would put him on the couch beside Meg. Something about that didn’t feel right. He should be the one seated as a bystander to whatever emergency mother and daughter needed to discuss.
“Right here,” he said, settling Patti on the sofa before claiming a spot on the loveseat. Bindi trotted over and parked herself at his feet, while Floyd ambled behind his new best friend. The cat paused long enough to sniff Patti’s shoe, then growled and hopped up on his favorite paisley chair.
“So, Mom,” Meg said as she set the tray on the table and seated herself beside her mother. “Talk to me. What’s wrong? What’s happening?”
“It’s your father,” Patti sniffed. “He’s having an affair. Again .”
Meg winced, and Kyle wished like hell he could put his arms around her. She didn’t look terribly surprised, but she did look defeated.
“I’m so sorry,” Meg said, placing a hand on Patti’s knee. “How do you know?”
“I found text messages on his phone from the whore.”
“Hell,” Meg said. “You’re sure she’s not just a friend?”
“Do you send your friends photos of you naked with your ankles behind your head?”
Kyle choked on his wine, but Meg managed to keep a little more dignity.
“Not usually, no,” Meg said.
“Then I’m guessing she’s not a friend.”
Meg swallowed a big slug of wine while Kyle tried to think of something helpful to say. “Did you—uh—confront Greg about this?”
Patti nodded and fiddled with a cheese straw. “He said, and I quote, ‘Patti, I don’t have time for this right now. I’m late for a meeting.’”
“Oh, shit,” Meg said. “So now what?”
“Now I pack up all his things, set them on the front lawn, douse them with lighter fluid, and?—”
“Not again.” Meg sounded resigned. “Remember what happened last time?”
“I learned my lesson from the fire department, dear. I went out and bought one of those portable outdoor fire pit things like the one we used to roast marshmallows on when you were little. Actually, it’s in the back of my car right now, and I could use some help unloading it at the house. Kyle?”
“What?” He blinked, not sure if she was soliciting his help to move the fire pit, light clothes on fire, or help with s’mores. Either way, he suspected his answer should be no.
“Kyle has plans, Mom,” Meg said, swooping to his rescue. “Besides, I’m sure he doesn’t want to risk ending up with an arrest record.
“This is true,” Kyle agreed. “Though those s’mores do sound tempting.”
“Let me ask you something, Kyle.” Patti turned and pointed a finger at him, and Kyle suddenly wished he’d made that escape.
“Can you think of any reason for a grown man to look at his faithful, loving, loyal companion and think to himself, ‘It’s totally fine if I go screw someone else behind her back?’”
Kyle glanced at Meg, pretty sure he knew the right answer here, but not certain he should get in the middle of this. Meg gave him a small shrug, which he figured was permission to speak freely. “Definitely not,” he said.
“And can you think of any situation in which it’s acceptable for a man to have another girlfriend on the side while his wife waits at home keeping his dinner warm?”
Kyle gripped his wineglass a little tighter, thinking of that night. How had Matt justified his call to Annabelle, making arrangements to meet her in secret while Meg waited for him back home? What on earth had he been thinking that night?
You know exactly what he was thinking , his conscience told him. And it’s all your fault.
Kyle took a slug of wine, barely tasting it as it burned down his throat.
“No,” Kyle answered again. “I can’t think of any acceptable reason.”
He didn’t meet Meg’s eyes, afraid of what he might see there.
Patti huffed and took a sip of her own wine. “That’s what I thought. But Greg thinks he can just stick his pecker wherever he likes, and all he has to do to get back in my good graces is buy me another charm for my bracelet and all will be right with the world.”
She held up her arm, the charms jangling as she moved. Kyle stared at it, not sure what he was supposed to say. “That’s a lot of charms.”
“Exactly.” Patti shook her head. “So why do I put up with it?”
Meg shook her head sadly. “I have no idea. You should put an end to it, though. Once and for all, just get out.”
Kyle looked at Meg, a little surprised by the bluntness. “Well, it’s true,” she said. “You’ve been putting up with it for years and I don’t understand why. Don’t get me wrong, I love Daddy, but why on earth do you keep letting him come back?”
“Oh, Meggy,” she sniffed. “You just don’t understand.”
Kyle watched the heat flare in Meg’s eyes. “I don’t understand being cheated on by the man who’s supposed to love me forever?”
Patti’s eyes widened a little, and she seemed to consider her words. “You don’t understand the sort of commitment it takes to say, ‘I take you for better or worse, and right now we happen to be smack-dab in the middle of worse.’”
“You’re right, I don’t understand that,” Meg said. “I don’t understand sacrificing myself to a man who doesn’t love and respect me enough to avoid screwing someone else.”
Kyle felt himself stiffen. Meg’s gaze shifted to him, and he realized she’d probably caught the gesture. “Sorry, Kyle. I don’t mean to disparage your brother?—”
“His late brother,” Patti reminded her.
“Thanks, Mom,” Meg muttered through gritted teeth. “You think I’d forgotten?”
“Of course not, dear. All I’m saying is that sometimes a little forgiveness goes a long way.”