About That Kiss:A Heartbreaker Bay Novel(29)

She was looking at him now, studying him with a slight furrow to her brow.

"What?" he asked.

"You're like this really big puzzle. One of those with a thousand-plus  pieces, and I'm not only missing a bunch of those pieces, I don't even  have all four of the corners."

He had to laugh. "Yeah. And I don't fit into a box very well either."

At his smartass comment, the corners of her mouth curved in a very small  smile that said not only did she have his number, but she also got him,  as in all the way to the heart and soul got him, and it made his breath  catch. He pulled her in for a hug, needing the contact in a way he  couldn't have articulated if he'd tried. But luckily he didn't need to.  She willingly snuggled into him as well, as if maybe she had the same  need. Brushing a kiss to her temple, he closed his eyes and held on. He  had no idea what he was doing, which was a hard thing to swallow since  he made sure to always know what he was doing. But one thing he did  know-he wasn't sorry. And something else-he wasn't ready to let her go  yet.

She dropped her head to his chest. "I'm worried," she murmured and his  heart stopped. Because this was probably where she told him what he  could give her wasn't enough for her and then she was going to dump him-

"We're getting nowhere," she said, "and I have less than a week left  before I've got to authenticate those pieces or lose the penguin  forever."

He let out a breath of relief. She was giving him a stay, a reprieve. She wasn't dumping him.

Yet.

"You're not going to have to do that," he promised. "We'll find the penguin."

"I want that to be true," she said.

"It is true."

Kylie nodded and held on to him for another minute. She was fierce, she  was strong, she wasn't easy, and she always had something to say. She  had flaws and he loved that. But he thought maybe his favorite thing  about her was that when she got knocked down, she got right back up  again. Something he could relate to, not that he'd planned on relating  to her at all.





Chapter 19





ShakenNotStirred



Kylie waited as Joe pulled some things from his fridge. Then he took her  by the hand and walked her outside and around to the other side of the  duplex. Not ten minutes ago, she'd been naked on his floor with him, a  big deal for her. Normally right about now she'd be running for the  hills, needing some time alone to process and assimilate. And to  distance herself.         

     



 

So the fact that she was actually still here and preparing to meet Joe's  dad staggered her. "Won't he think it's odd that I'm with you at this  time of night?" she asked.

"My dad doesn't keep track of time unless I'm late or he needs  something," he said. And then he paused. "But there's something you need  to know about him. He's . . . different."

Kylie smiled. "And you're not?"

"Smartass," he said with an answering smile, but then he hesitated  again. "Listen, if he says any weird stuff, just ignore it, okay? He  doesn't mean anything by it."

"What kind of weird stuff?"

"He's not always 100 percent present," he said. "He came home from the Gulf War with some injuries, not all of them physical."

Her heart softened and she met his gaze. "And you and Molly take care of him."

"Yeah. And he doesn't like anyone else, ever, so don't be insulted if he  ignores you." Joe knocked on the front door, four hard raps, then a  pause, and then one more. "Dad?" he called out. "It's me." He unlocked  three dead bolts and then knocked again in the same pattern as before as  he opened the door. "Dad? You hear me?"

"Of course I do," came an irritated male voice. "I'm not deaf."

Joe didn't step over the threshold. "And you're also not armed, right?"

Kylie shot Joe a worried look. Armed?

Joe smiled reassuringly at her. "Don't worry. He doesn't have any bullets right now."

Oh good. That made her feel all better.

"But he likes to hold his gun," Joe warned her softly. "Just ignore that too."

Kylie nodded, thinking she was doing a most excellent job of hiding her  nerves until Joe squeezed her hand and smiled reassuringly.

"What's taking you so damned long?" his dad yelled.

Joe stepped inside first, making sure Kylie was behind him. He took a  quick look into the dark room and apparently saw something she couldn't,  because he sighed. "Dad, where are your pants?" He shifted, and then  there was a click and a light came on.

The place was small and extremely neat, not a thing out of place. Well,  except the man in the wheelchair in the doorway wearing only a  wifebeater and boxer shorts.

Oh, and a rifle, which was lying across his knees.

In spite of his dark hair liberally streaked with gray and his equally  dark eyes surrounded by a web of weathered wrinkles, Joe's dad looked  very much like Joe, and far younger than Kylie expected. The Gulf War  had been nearly thirty years ago. She tried to do the math in her head,  guessing that he had to be fiftyish.

"Pants are stupid," he said.

"Yes," Joe said. "And so is greeting visitors with a shotgun and no clothes and yet you do it. Put your gun away."

Joe's dad looked beyond Joe to Kylie. "Who's that?"

Joe turned to Kylie. "This is-"

"Not you," his dad said. "Her. I asked her."

Kylie smiled at him. "My name's Kylie Masters."

"Huh," he said. "I had a Masters in my platoon. Jeremy Masters. He was a class-A asshole. Is he your father?"

Joe shook his head. "Jesus, Dad-"

"No, it's okay," Kylie said to Joe, but kept looking at his dad. "My dad  is a class-A asshole, Mr. Malone, but he wasn't in the military. At  least, I don't think so."

"You don't know for sure? How come?"

"Because he walked away when I was young and hasn't always kept in touch."

Joe's dad stared at her and then nodded. "You can stay." He turned to Joe. "What's for dinner?"

"Nothing unless you're going to be nice."

"I'm always nice."

Joe snorted and passed him and went into the kitchen.

"Thinks he knows how to cook," his dad said to Kylie.

"I do know how to cook!" Joe yelled from the kitchen.

Joe's dad lifted his forefinger and thumb about an inch apart.

Joe stuck his head out of the kitchen. "How about you call for takeout if my food sucks so bad?"         

     



 

"And he's as sensitive as a girl," his dad said.

"Boys are just as sensitive as girls," Kylie said. "Maybe more so. So probably you meant to say he's as sensitive as a boy."

Joe's dad paused and then tipped his head back and laughed out loud.  "Son, you went and did it now," he yelled. "This one's going to give you  a run for your money."

Joe didn't respond to this, but Kylie could hear him banging stuff  around in the kitchen. She told herself it didn't matter that he didn't  agree with his dad about her giving him a run for his money. Because  what they did agree on was that this was merely a friendship and a  working relationship with a bit of holy-cow sex on the side. Which was  fine. Because maybe there were some feelings developing for him deep  down, but since she had no idea what those feelings were exactly, or  what to do with them, it didn't matter.

But she couldn't deny that a small part of her would've filled with warm  fuzzies if Joe had agreed with his dad about her at all instead of  radio silence.

His dad rolled himself past Kylie and checked all the front door locks.  He checked each of them exactly four times, paused, and then checked  them a fifth time.

The same pattern Joe had used to come inside.

Kylie watched this with a sudden lump in her throat, understanding now  exactly how much Joe cared about his family. And-whether he realized it  or not-just how big a capacity he had to love.

Joe's dad finished at the front door and grunted in satisfaction before  wheeling to the windows, checking each of those four times as well. And  then a fifth. There was one window that was too high for him in his  chair so Kylie crossed to it herself and checked the lock. She did it  four times. Then paused and checked it a fifth time.

When she turned around, Joe's dad nodded in satisfaction. "Yeah," he said. "You'll do."

She looked up and found Joe watching them both, his expression unreadable. "Kitchen," he said, and vanished.

She and his dad exchanged a look.

"He's probably getting his period," his dad said.

Something slammed in the kitchen and his dad grinned. "Yeah, definitely  he's getting his period. Maybe we should buy him some of that shit,  what's it called? Midol."

There was another bang in the kitchen.

Joe's dad laughed. "For such a tough guy, he's an easy target."

Kylie bit her inner cheek. "You're messing with him."

"Well, of course I am."

"Why?" Kylie asked.

His dad shrugged. "I cheated on Joe and just finished a season of Pretty Little Liars without him. I'm bored."