Page 34 of Now That It’s You (The Can’t Have Hearts Club #5)

K yle woke early with the distinct feeling he was being watched.

He opened his eyes to see Meg sitting cross-legged on the bed beside him, a mug of tea in her hand and a silky blue robe hiding her breasts and everything else from his view.

“Morning,” he mumbled, reaching for her.

“Good morning,” she answered, smiling a little. “I already let Bindi out and fed her some leftover poached chicken breast. I hope that’s okay.”

He grinned and rolled to his side. “She’s going to want to stay here forever.”

Something about the word forever sounded too big for this bedroom, this situation, but Meg didn’t seem to notice. “Do you want coffee?” she asked.

“Actually, I’ll take some of that tea if you don’t mind.” He reached up and flipped the tag dangling over the rim of her mug. “Earl Grey sounds great.”

“Since when are you a tea drinker?”

“Cara got me hooked on it. Started sending me all these articles about how it’s healthier for me than coffee. I gave it a try, and it turns out I like it better.”

“Here, you can have this one,” she said, handing him the mug. “I haven’t even taken a sip yet. I’ll go make another.”

Kyle laughed and sat up, letting her press the mug into his hands. “You really think I’d be worried about sharing a mug with you at this point considering all the places my mouth has been?”

Meg flushed pink and she scrambled off the bed and headed out the door. “I’ll be right back.”

She bustled out to the kitchen, while Kyle set the mug on the nightstand and moved into the bathroom to clean up a little.

Splashing water on his face, he spotted her toothpaste in the little clay mug she’d used when she lived with Matt.

He turned the cup around, admiring the star pattern on the front and wondering where she’d gotten it and how she and Matt had decided Meg got to keep it when they split.

He smeared some Aquafresh on his finger and used it to scrub away some of the morning breath. He heard Meg shuffling back into the bedroom, so he rinsed his mouth, pushed open the door, and watched her slip back between the covers.

“I brought some milk and sugar, too,” she said as she set the tray on the nightstand.

She looked so beautiful sitting there with her hair loose around her shoulders that for a moment he forgot she’d said anything.

“Milk. Sugar. Yes, thanks.” He walked back into the bedroom and slipped between the covers with her, scooping up the mug. “So, this is new.”

“I got it last week at Townshend’s Teahouse down on?—”

“I didn’t mean the tea,” he said, blowing on his mug. “I meant waking up in bed together.”

Meg nodded and blew on her own mug. “Are we back to feeling awkward again?”

“A little bit.”

She smiled and took a sip of tea. “So Cara left you with a tea habit. Is she also responsible for your switch to boxer briefs?”

He snorted into his tea, spilling some onto his bare leg. “Ow! How the hell did you know what kind of underwear I used to wear?”

“I remember you and Matt arguing about it once. He was making fun of you for wearing regular boxers, and said you were going to end up with your junk hanging down to your knees. You told him his tighty-whiteys were going to give him a low sperm count, and he told you that would save a bundle on birth control pills.”

“I can’t believe you remember that,” he said.

Meg shrugged. “For the record, Matt didn’t actually pay for those. The birth control pills, I mean. I always bought them myself.”

“I’ll make sure my mother omits that from the amount owed in the lawsuit then.”

He’d meant for it to come off as a joke, but the tiny lines that formed between her eyebrows told him he’d missed the mark. “Sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to bring that up.”

“It’s okay. There’s already enough awkwardness here. A little more won’t make a huge difference.” She looked at him over the rim of her mug. “My mom called about an hour ago.”

“How is she?”

“Good. She said she thought about what I said, and she’s decided she’s ready to move on.”

Kyle blinked. “You’re kidding.”

“Nope.”

“She’s really leaving your dad?”

“That’s what she says.” Meg shrugged and blew on her tea again. “I don’t know, she could still change her mind, but this is the first time in thirty-five years she’s even entertained the idea. I think that’s progress.”

“That’s huge,” he said. He put a hand on her knee under the covers as it occurred to him he shouldn’t sound so jubilant. This was her father, after all.

“Are you okay with all that?” Kyle asked. “He might be a philandering jerk, but he’s also your dad.”

Meg nodded. “It’s about time. My mom needs to reclaim her life and her pride and herself while there’s still anything left.”

“Good for her.”

Kyle touched his lips to his mug, his mind already circling back to the previous conversation. “So what else is awkward for you right now?”

She shrugged. “You mean besides the lawsuit and the fact that I was engaged to your brother?”

“Besides that.”

She took a deep breath. “Do you ever think about how weird it is in modern relationships how you find yourself looking around and thinking, ‘that belonged to another guy.’”

Kyle frowned. “You mean thinking of you like a possession?”

“No, I mean actual possessions. Or habits. Like the tea or the boxer briefs. Those are things you got from another woman.”

Kyle looked down at his underwear, dismayed to realize he was wearing a pair Cara had given him when they’d decided to celebrate Groundhog Day. “These will make your junk look hot,” she’d teased, reaching around to grab his ass the way she used to.

He didn’t miss her. Not really. But sometimes he missed the ritual of being part of a couple.

“I hadn’t thought about it,” he admitted as he took a sip of tea.

“Sure you had. You can’t tell me it didn’t cross your mind last night when we walked back here to the bedroom. I saw you pause. You were wondering if I’d ever been with Matt in this bed, weren’t you?”

Guilty as charged. “You’ve added mind reading to your roster of skills?”

“So it’s true?”

He hesitated, then shrugged. “Yeah, mostly.” Kyle turned his mug around, dunking the teabag in and out to give him something to do with his hands. “That wasn’t the only thing on my mind at that moment, but I did consider it.”

“I understand. I mean, that’s why I said what I did. I was just thinking about Cara’s vagina and?—”

“Wait, what?”

“The sculpture in your gallery.” Meg sipped her tea. “The one you told me was modeled after her hoo-ha?”

“Right, I get it. What about it?”

“That’s part of what I’m talking about. Those little souvenirs of past lovers are pretty much always going to be there.

Like I noticed the tie you wore to the funeral was the one you got for Christmas six or seven years ago from the girl you were dating back then.

Aurelia or Olivia or something like that? ”

“Olivia.” Kyle laughed, taken aback by the memory. “I’d be impressed by your powers of recall, except that it’s the only tie I’ve ever owned and you probably know that.”

“I might’ve guessed. I remember that gift didn’t go over too well.”

Kyle shook his head, surprised to feel a niggle of annoyance after all this time.

His mother had been thrilled by Olivia’s not-so-subtle attempt to nudge Kyle toward a desk job, maybe something with a steady paycheck and an office that didn’t have steel shavings on the floor.

Kyle remembered holding that tie, torn between the need to thank his then-girlfriend for the present and his urge to wonder if she knew him at all.

The relationship had imploded within three months.

“There’s a lot of history there,” he said. “Relics from past romances. I guess unless you lose everything in a house fire, you’re bound to have tangible souvenirs sitting around.”

She nodded and took another sip of tea. “My history’s a little more limited considering I started dating Matt so young and we were together almost ten years.”

“Oh, I don’t know. I noticed you’re still using that trivet you got in Morocco when you went there with that old boyfriend?”

“See?” She laughed and nudged his elbow. “You do notice stuff like that.”

“Only because Matt always hated that trivet.”

“Do you think that’s why? The reminder that I’d gotten it with another guy?”

“Maybe.”

Meg drained her mug, then set it aside on the nightstand. “So you won’t blame me when I confess I noticed you’ve still got your keys on Melody’s keychain.”

“Melody!” Kyle laughed. “God, I’d almost forgotten her.”

“You dated for almost a year.”

“Yeah, but it was almost nine years ago. How do you remember that?”

“Women remember things like that. I could probably name all the girlfriends you’ve had over the years in chronological order. Let’s see, there was Jodi, Shonna, Melody, Karen, Olivia, Hailey, Cara... ”

“Damn, I’m impressed.”

Meg shrugged and shifted on the bed, tucking her legs up under her while Kyle thought about that keychain. Why did he still have it? Force of habit, or was it something else?

“She found that keychain in an antique store in Paris,” he said. “It’s the original key to an old chapel where she said she wanted to get married someday.”

Meg laughed and nudged his knee with hers under the covers. “And did it occur to you that was a hint she might’ve wanted to marry you ?”

“Yeah, it crossed my mind.” Kyle put his hand on her bare thigh, a casual caress that felt like the most natural thing in the world. He scanned the room, looking for relics from Meg’s past romances. He wasn’t jealous, but he was curious.

His gaze landed on a small shelf in the corner, piled with paperback novels and magazines. “Isn’t that Matt’s bookshelf?”

“He built it, if that’s what you mean. For our five-year dating anniversary.” She drew her fingertips over his bare thigh, making him shiver. “Where’d your wallet come from?”

“My wallet?”

“I noticed it last night when you pulled it out to get a condom. Tooled leather, that intricate pattern around the edges?—”

He grinned. “You don’t think I picked it out for myself?”

“Did you?”