Jocelyn sighed. “You’re as bad as Shannon. She always knew when something was bothering me.”
The moment she said it, Cynthia’s eyes filled with tears.
“I’m sorry. What did I say?”
Cynthia picked up a napkin and dabbed her eyes as she sniffed. “You compared me to your sister.”
“I told you I thought of you as my sister.”
Another gush of tears filled Cynthia’s eyes and Jocelyn started to panic. Cynthia must have seen it on her face because she laughed. “No. Don’t worry. It still amazes me the way the Duprees all accept me.”
Jocelyn knew of Cynthia’s life before Chris, her hard father and the totally buttoned-down woman she had been before meeting her brother. It was hard to see that woman in the one who sat before her. She didn’t wear a stitch of make-up, her T-shirt had seen better days, and the jeans she wore, well, they had too. On top of it, the black nail polish on her toes was another bit that didn’t fit the old Cynthia image.
“Oh, sweetie. You know all the Duprees love you to pieces. If anything, you keep Chris in line.”
“I try,” she said with a watery chuckle. Jocelyn watched Cynthia pull herself together. “Don’t think I’m done with you. What happened with you and Kai?”
She shrugged, not really sure. “We had a great day out. He showed me around the windward side. We stopped at an L and L to eat.”
“Then what?”
“He kissed me.”
Cynthia digested that for a second. “That’s it?”
She nodded. “Then he said he didn’t want to push, and left.”
“Bastard,” Cynthia said, amusement threading her voice. “Trying to be decent.”
“Yeah. It gets worse. When I went to dinner at his house, I attacked him.”
Cynthia’s eyebrows rose to her hairline. “In front of his father and grandfather?”
She laughed. “No. When he walked me out to my car.”
“What happened? Did you make out in the car?”
“I would have never guessed you for a voyeur.”
Cynthia shrugged. “My hormones are going whackadoodle. I either want sex all the time, or not at all.”
“Poor Chris.”
“Since it’s his kid, he has to deal with it. So what happened after the attack?”
“I kissed him, then he said he wanted to make sure I wasn’t using him to prove something. And he didn’t want to push.”
“I hate when they go all hero on you.” Cynthia sipped her tea. “But then it makes me all gooey.”
Jocelyn sighed, thinking about the incident and the tone of his voice. “I know.”
“Have you talked to him since then?”
She shook her head. “I thought about it, but then…” She let her words trail off.
“You didn’t want to chase after him and look pathetic?”
Jocelyn nodded. “I kissed him right there that night and he rejected me.”
“Was he good? I always thought Kai would make the world melt.”
Jocelyn laughed. “Yeah, well, I think I melted right there, on the sidewalk. I could feel it all the way to my toes.”
Cynthia sighed. “I had a feeling. He’s always sort of been this good guy, but you could sense the naughtiness beneath. Sort of like Chris.”
“Oh, ew, don’t compare them. That’s icky.”
Cynthia laughed. “No, I just mean both of them are pretty responsible, and I think not because they have to be. Well, Kai had to a bit. His father and grandfather aren’t the best people to be in charge of three kids.”
“How old was Kai when their mother died?”
“Hmm, May was twelve, so I guess Kai was thirteen, fourteen. At the most, he was fifteen. I know he dropped out of school a year or so later to work the docks.”
“Really? I would have thought with his mind for business he would have at least had some college.”
“I have a feeling there wasn’t enough money. Plus, May has always said that Kai was a guy who didn’t go for college. He didn’t always do that well in school, never applied himself. But they needed the money more than likely. May’s mother didn’t have much of an insurance policy. They were probably in a bind financially. And as I said, being responsible, Kai understood. Of course, he did pretty good for himself.”
Jocelyn felt for him. Not pity, but a sense of admiration. As a boy, he had made choices that some men wouldn’t be able to deal with. And dammit, it made her like him even more. She had never had to make the choice of what she wanted to do in life. Her family had made sure that she could make it to culinary school without question.
“He seems to like his job now.”