About That Kiss:A Heartbreaker Bay Novel(30)

Joe stuck his head out of the kitchen. "Hey, PLL was supposed to be our dirty little secret."

Kylie was smiling. "You watch Pretty Little Liars?"

Joe scowled and vanished back into the kitchen.

"Told you," his dad said, grinning at her. "He's sensitive as a little . . . boy."

"Food," Joe yelled. "Come and get it or I'm eating it all myself."

They entered the kitchen. Joe's dad went straight to the sink and jabbed  a finger at the stack of dirty pots and pans. "What's that?"

"Dinner first," Joe said. "I'll do dishes after."

"Around here, we always do dishes first."

"Not tonight, Dad."

"Since when?"

"Since it's midnight and I'm tired and you're being an asshole. On  purpose." He jabbed a finger in the direction of the table. "Sit."

"I'm already sitting," his dad said, sounding irritated, but when Joe  turned his back, the guy winked at Kylie, in that moment looking very  much like his son.

Joe served pasta and sauce and a salad. Kylie smiled when she saw that  the pasta was little noodles in the shape of the alphabet.

"Hey," his dad said, poking at it. "This isn't Chef Boyardee."

"Nope," Joe said.

His dad pushed away his bowl. "You know that I only eat my SpaghettiOs from a can. That's how I like 'em."

Joe pushed the bowl back at him. "We've been over this. The stuff in a  can that you ate all through the eighties like it was going out of style  has way too much sodium. Your doctor said you have to cut back. And  it'd be a lot easier to feed you if you'd agree to eat something other  than pasta."         

     



 

His dad picked up a fork. "You know what you are? You're a pants-wearing, sodium-hating commie."

Joe nodded. "Impressive. You managed to fling insults without using the F-bomb."

"My PT and nurse both threatened to quit if I didn't stop saying it," he  confessed. "They gave me a book on how to swear without swearing. I  don't give a shit what Nurse Ratched thinks, but my PT's alright."

"Well look at you, learning to be social," Joe said.

His dad snorted, but still only poked at the food.

"Dad, just try it."

"Fine." He took a bite with exaggerated caution.

"Well?" Joe asked.

"Eh." He chewed. Swallowed. Took another big bite. And then another. "It's nothing you'd see on Iron Chef but it's okay."

Joe rolled his eyes. "Gee, thanks. Do you remember that time the power  went out and in order to eat we had to heat cans over a fire pit we made  in the backyard?"

His dad took another bite. "The power didn't go out. It was turned off  because those fuckers-er, I mean those effers didn't tell me that my  check had bounced. And since you couldn't find a can opener, you used a  battery-powered screw gun from the garage and poked holes in the can.  And also in your own damn finger. Bled like a fire hose. It was so bad  we couldn't tell the difference between the sauce and the blood."

"Needed stitches," Joe said fondly, as if proud of this moment. "We used superglue, remember?"

"Hell yeah, I remember. We saved hundreds of dollars in ER bills."

Kylie stared at the two of them laughing together over this rather  horrifying memory. She was starting to realize just how much  responsibility Joe had on a daily basis. How much responsibility he'd  always had, starting from way too young an age, taking care of both his  little sister and his dad.

She might not have had her parents, but she'd had her grandpa. He'd  taken care of her, always. She'd never felt the weight of the world on  her shoulders as surely as Joe had felt it. Still felt it.

When his dad's bowl was empty, Joe nodded in approval and rose,  collecting all the dishes, ruffling his dad's short hair as he moved to  the sink. It was a small thing, a quick little gesture, but it portrayed  such love and acceptance that Kylie felt her throat go tight.

Joe's cell buzzed an incoming text. He glanced at it and his expression went grim.

"What's up?" his dad asked. "Work?"

"Yeah. I've got to go back in. We've got something going down tonight."

"Kick ass," his dad said.

Joe opened a drawer filled with prescriptions and pulled out a notepad to check the entries.

"I've been taking everything," his dad said. "Jesus. I'm not a baby."

"Taking them as in actually swallowing them," Joe asked, "or taking them to flush them?"

"I don't flush them anymore. They cost too fucking-er, effing much."

Joe nodded, put the pad away, and looked at Kylie.

"Don't worry about me. I told you, I'm a delight," she said. "I can Uber home from here."

"I'll drop you off."

She didn't bother to argue with him as they left. She waited until they  were in his truck and on the road. "Your dad's pretty great," she said.

Joe snorted.

"He is."

Joe reached over and grabbed her hand, bringing it up to his mouth. "Thanks. You handled him well, so thanks for that too."

"There was no handling anything. It was nice to meet him."

He slid her a glance that she couldn't read.

"What?" she asked.

"I told you, he doesn't usually talk to anyone except people he knows  and is comfortable with. But he talked to you. He liked you."

"A lot of people like me," Kylie said and made him laugh, which in turn  warmed her because she felt like he needed the laugh, and also . . . it  felt good that she'd given it to him.



The next day after work, Kylie walked into the pub and found some of the  gang at the far right side of the bar, where they always hung out. Pru,  Elle, Willa, and Molly. Kylie took the only empty barstool and paused  when they all stared at her.         

     



 

"What's up?" she asked, looking down at herself. "Am I trailing tissue paper on my shoe or something?"

"Yeah, you're right, Willa. She's most definitely sleeping with him,"  Pru said and slapped a ten down on the bar. "She's got the postcoitus  glow."

Molly grimaced. "Come on, guys. I can't take that bet."

"I can," Elle said and dropped her ten. "Kylie's smiling with way too  many teeth. Plus we all know Joe's hot as hell. And those abs-"

"Hey," Molly said. "My brother, remember? And anyway, it's what's on the inside that matters, not the outside."

"Not in the beginning," Elle said. "Be honest. It's all about first visual impression and chemistry."

Molly shook her head. "Not always."

"Give me an example," Elle said. "Even one example where in the first  two seconds what's on the inside is more important than the outside."

"Uh . . ." Molly sighed and shook her head. "Dammit."

"Refrigerator," Sadie said as she came and sat down to join them.

Elle laughed. "Okay, I stand corrected."

"You don't get to talk," Molly told her. "You're with Archer, who looks  at you like I look at fully loaded pizza. If a man looked at me like  that, I wouldn't worry about first impressions at all."

While they went on to debate this, Willa turned to Kylie. "So are you?" she asked quietly. "Sleeping with him?"

"Technically? No."

Willa grinned. "And untechnically?"

Kylie bit her lower lip and Willa laughed. "I knew it. How was it?"

Magic . . . "We're not together like that," she said. "We're just friends." Sort of. "It's complicated."

"Honey, why would you want to be just friends with a perfect male specimen like Joe?"

"He's . . . not my type," Kylie said. Lame.

"How is hot and sexy not your type?" Sadie wanted to know.

She turned around to find everyone listening. Great. "Well," she said,  brain whirling. "He's pushy. And arrogant. And . . ." And smart. And  sexy. And he liked to kiss everything, and she did mean everything.  Which wasn't exactly a fault . . .

Molly was watching her carefully and raised a brow.

Kylie swallowed hard and shook her head. "He's bossy." She tossed up her  hands. "And okay, maybe just a little bit really hot and sexy." She  strained to think of more insults to cancel out the hot and sexy but  realized that suddenly every one of her friends had gotten an identical  funny look on their face. Crap. "He's right behind me, isn't he."

"Yep," Willa said cheerfully.

Kylie closed her eyes briefly before swiveling in her barstool.

Joe was indeed standing right there. "I wouldn't say we're just friends," he told her.

"What would you say?" Willa wanted to know. "For the record."

"For the record . . ." He wrapped his fingers around Kylie's hand. "I'd say none of your business."

Willa sighed as Joe tugged Kylie outside.





Chapter 20





IllHaveWhatShesHaving



Joe pulled Kylie along with him through the courtyard, past the water fountain and right into the alley.

Old Man Eddie was sitting on a crate, feet up, head tilted back,  watching the stars. At the sight of them, he sat up straight and waved.