Thank you, Kyle amazes us with his humor even when he's weighed down dealing with Michael's questions about something he'd rather deal with alone.
But he is dealing with a ghost......So what's in store for these two??? Hmmmm, we'll have to see...It's New Years Eve...
Eva: You so get Kyle.
He's in a tough place. "It shows his desperation and love at the same time." I can only hope that that last one will win. Preferably within 90 minutes." Lol, right? Looks like our characters aren't the only ones watching the clock.sarammlover: We're glad to see Kyle talking about it as well. Michael can be so challenging even when he means well, but then he comes up with the good stuff out of nowhere. We love Michael.
Part 6
“Did something… happen between you and Kyle?”
“Mom,” Isabel protested as she moved back under the guise of reaching for a tissue to dry her eyes. The hesitation between the words, the emphasis on ‘happen’, it was clear what her mom was asking.
Diane nodded when her daughter confirmed her suspicions without really answering. “So why are you here?”
“Because it shouldn’t have happened.” What was the point in talking around it or denying it?
“Did he pressure you?”
“What?” Her startled gaze shot to her mom. “No, Kyle would never do that. I mean, I’m sure he could be very persuasive if he wanted to, but…” Ungh, she was not having this conversation with her mom.
“There’s a very fine line between persuasion and pressure and considering how long the two of you have been dancing around this… Do not roll your eyes at me.”
Isabel rubbed her forehead tiredly. She didn’t even have to be looking at Mom for her to know she was rolling her eyes and she’d never figured out how she could tell. “Mom, Kyle didn’t pressure or persuade.” There hadn’t been time or a need for that. “We were just having this argument that was so stupid and… and I’m not even sure what happened. We were arguing and then we weren’t.”
They had gone from combative to primal in the blink of an eye.
“What were you arguing about?”
“The empty-headed girl he brought home the night before,” she bit out before she could stop the words.
Diane nodded. “Aren’t you the one who was encouraging him to date?”
“Date, yes, not bring them home where I could walk in on her parading around his room. In one of his shirts.”
“Um-hmm,” she murmured as she shifted to rest her arm on the back of the couch. “So it bothered you that he slept with this girl?”
“He didn’t sleep with her.”
“She was in his room wearing his shirt after an overnight stay and he didn’t sleep with her?”
“No, he slept on the couch.” She sighed tiredly. “He made sure he went over that several times before he left. He was very emphatic on that point. Apparently she had too much to drink and managed to lose her keys so he brought her home so she could sleep it off.”
“You don’t believe him?”
“No, I do. That’s the kinda guy he is.” She leaned forward and picked at a loose thread on her sweatpants. “And he doesn’t really do the whole casual hook-up thing anyway.”
“But even knowing that you assumed he had slept with that girl.”
Of course she’d thought that.
She walked down the hall and tapped on the door to his room before opening it, the Christmas song she was humming stopping abruptly when she saw Holly Barrister moving around his room as if she had any right to be there. Her eyes traveled over the petite redhead dismissively but it was apparently lost on her because she just gave her a wave and a stupid grin before picking up a pair of socks.
Her blood boiled in her veins when Kyle stepped out of the bathroom in a towel and nothing else. He didn’t even have the good grace to look like he was embarrassed when he looked at her.
“What’s up?” He was nonchalant as he tossed the towel he’d been using to dry his hair over his desk chair and she inwardly cringed. He was completely un-trainable when it came to certain things.
She forced her voice to stay level. “I just wanted to let you know breakfast is ready if you’re hungry.”
“Okay, well – “
“Oh, I’d love something to eat!”
Her back teeth started to grind at the dense girl’s enthusiastic shriek. Then she announced how grateful she was for the good time he’d shown her and she ran over and threw herself at Kyle. It took a serious amount of control to keep from flicking her across the room like the pest she was.
But, instead of hitting the pest with a blast of alien Raid she rolled her eyes and turned on her heel, stalking out of the room and grabbing her things so she could get out of the house before she had to endure anymore of the nauseating display.
“You were jealous,” Diane said.
“What? No, Mom, it's not…” she trailed off and sighed as she got to her feet, needing to move. “Yes,” she admitted.
“So the two of you fought after she left?”
“No, I left before she did.” Just ran like a scared rabbit and spent the rest of the day avoiding him and the situation. “He was waiting for me when I got home.”
Diane nodded and controlled the urge to smile. “Well, I'd imagine if you were avoiding him all day he was not in a good mood.”
She made a face. “That has to be the understatement of the year.” He had been furious and he hadn't tried to keep his temper in check.
She wasn’t expecting to see him when she got home but she covered her expression just before he turned around to look at her. “What, no mindless entertainment tonight?”
He nearly snapped the knob off the stove when he turned the burner off and jerked the pot off to throw it in the sink. She didn’t get the chance to comment on his behavior or the mess he had made because he whirled around to pin her with a look on his face that she had never seen before.
“You got somethin’ you wanna say let’s hear it,” he snapped. “For the past year you’ve paraded more guys through here than I’ve been able to keep count of and the one time I bring someone home you’re all over me about it. You’re the one that said I needed to get out and date more or have you forgotten that?!”
What right did he have to be pissed about this situation? “I said date them, not bring them home for an overnight stay.”
“Why the hell does it matter to you?”
Her gaze dropped to his hands when they wrapped around the counter separating them. “I just think you can do better.”
“Uh-huh, and what the hell’s wrong with Holly?”
“Her name’s stupid to start with.” Even as the words came out of her mouth she knew she had just pushed the argument into ridiculous territory.
He stared at her in disbelief. “That’s your argument? Her name’s stupid?” He threw his hands up in the air. “This from the girl who set me up with a girl named Bitsy?” He rounded the counter and stood toe to toe with her as he got in her space to make his point. “You have no right to say anything about who I choose to bring home.”
No right? He had to be kidding. “I don’t bring any of my dates home and I sure as hell haven’t let any of them run around the house half naked.”
“And you haven't seen Alex since that night.”
She shook her head, shaking the memory off and keeping her eyes locked on the photos lining the mantle above the fireplace. Pictures that chronicled her and Max’s lives from the time Mom and Dad had brought them home.
“You didn't go through this when you married Jesse.” She watched her daughter as the words sank in. “Why do you think that is?”
Her breath caught in her throat. Jesse hadn't threatened the dream, she realized. In so many ways Jesse had been safe. She had been able to control things with him. Or at least she’d been able to do that until he’d learned the truth. Once he’d discovered she wasn’t the person he thought she was things had changed.
