About That Kiss:A Heartbreaker Bay Novel(47)

"He kept promising me he'd get me the money," Kevin said. "Only it never happened."

"Why didn't you just tell me?" her mom asked.

"Because he begged me not to. He didn't want anyone to know." Kevin sent  Kylie an apologetic glance. "But I needed money too. So I helped myself  to one of his pieces now and then and sold them."

"That's stealing," her mom said.

"I called it getting paid. He owed me."

Kylie's gaze fell on something right past the Polaroid camera. A  high-grade food processor. Her penguin was perched on it, inches from  certain destruction by rotating whipping blades if the processor got  flipped on. Her stomach fell and in shock, she shook her head. "How is  it that he never caught you taking stuff from his shop?"

She saw the flash of guilt and her gut tightened. "He did catch you," she said.

"Once," he admitted. "He walked in on me late at night loading up a few  things into my truck. He said something like, ‘I knew someone was  stealing from me. I just didn't think it would be you.'"

That was exactly like her grandpa, seeing only the good in people. "He cared about you. I'm sure he was devastated."         

     



 

"Devastated? Not exactly," Kevin said. "He pulled a gun on me and I dove to the ground when he actually squeezed off a round."

"Wait-he shot at you?" Kylie gasped in shock.

"No, he shot at the ceiling. A warning, I guess. The bullet ricocheted  off something and hit the electrical socket where the soldering iron was  plugged in. The place went up in flames in seconds. It was a fluke. He  just meant to scare me off. Like this." Reaching behind him, Kevin  produced a gun.

With twin gasps, Kylie's mom and Kylie both dove to the floor.

"I'm not going to shoot you," he said, sounding horrified at the  thought. "I'm trying to show you what happened that night and how it  couldn't happen again in a million years. It was truly a one in a  million shot." He squeezed the trigger and bam, a bullet hit the  ceiling. And ricocheted off somewhere else.

And then . . . nothing.

"See?" he said, shrugging. "Accident."

Kylie shot to her feet, such fury flowing through her that her entire  body was shaking with it. "You can't just fire a gun into a closed area.  You'll hurt someone!"

"I wasn't aiming at either of you."

"Oh my God!" Kylie managed. "There's a reason they don't like dumbasses to have guns, you know!"

"You're overreacting."

"I'm overreacting?" she asked. "Are you kidding me? All these years I blamed myself for that fire!"

"Well, that was stupid," Kevin said. "You weren't even there."

"I was earlier in the day! And you knew I blamed myself!" she cried. "You could have told me all this right after it happened!"

"Oh, right. And I'm sure the police would've understood about me just  taking what I was owed." He let out a mirthless laugh. "I might've gone  to jail. And I'd have hurt your grandpa's reputation while I was at it.  Did you think of that? He was good to me-I mean, other than the whole  not paying me thing. I didn't want to jeopardize his career."

"You lying, two-faced, thieving bastard," Kylie's mom said, getting back to her feet.

"Seriously?" Kevin asked, taking a step back from her. "You want to go there? How many times did you borrow money from him?"

"I'm his blood! If you don't admit to occasionally stealing money from your parents then you're not being honest."

"I never stole money from my parents," Kevin said.

Nor had Kylie, but she couldn't think. She was shaking with anger and  her head was spinning. "Why didn't anyone find the gun or the bullet  that night?"

"Your grandpa freaked that he'd lost his temper. He said the gun wasn't  registered. He made me take it and I don't know why they didn't find the  bullet or casing. I took the gun and left, not knowing the fire was  already smoldering, gaining steam. I'd never have left him there if I'd  known what would happen."

"I can't believe this," she said. "I thought for sure you'd have a good  explanation and be just another dead end. I didn't want it to be you.  You were nice to me. I thought you liked me. But then you bailed on us,  and now . . . now you're a deserter and a thief."

Kevin's eyes softened. "I liked you too, Kylie, and I never bailed on you guys."

"Yes, you did," her mom said. "You told me that we were good together,  that you saw a future. Then one day you said you had to go to New York  for a job but you'd call when you got back."

"And I meant all of that, and I did call," Kevin said. "Your latest conquest answered."

Her mom rolled her eyes. "Well, if you're going to let that stop you."

Smoke was beginning to curl down from the ceiling, seeping in through  the cracks and the vent. Kylie stared at it in growing horror. "Uh,  guys?" she said, but neither was paying her any attention.

"I think you're full of shit," her mom said to Kevin.

"No, I really did see a life with the three of us." He turned to Kylie.  "Your mom said she'd wait for me. I was only gone three weeks, but I bet  she didn't even wait a day."         

     



 

"Hey," her mom said defensively, but when Kevin raised a brow, she  tossed up her hands. "Okay, fine. So I was a shithead back then."

"Hello!" Kylie said, jabbing a finger at the smoking ceiling. "Forget the past! We've got a problem-"

"And to be fair to me," her mom went on, "I was young and stupid. I  didn't know a good guy from a bad one. I always picked them based on  what they could do for me. And worse, I always picked them over my own  offspring." She sent Kylie a watery smile. "But I was lucky enough to  have a daughter willing to be patient with me. And I'm going to learn to  put her first, starting now. Come over here, baby." She held out a hand  to Kylie and wriggled her fingers.

"Mom," Kylie said through a tight throat and, reaching out, took hold of her hand. "We all need to get off the boat. Now."

"Holy shit," Kevin said, finally noticing the crazy amount of smoke  tunneling through the cracks. "We're actually on fire. Did I do that?"

"Yes, Urkel, you really did that!" Kylie's mom tugged Kylie toward the  door, but before they could get there, the ceiling suddenly collapsed,  crashing down on top of them. Some of it was on fire, but thankfully not  the pieces that hit Kylie. It took her a minute to dig out but she  finally sat up, coughing, looking around for her mom. "Mom!"

"Here." Her mom appeared as she sat up, covered in dust. In front of them, flames were flickering now, gaining strength.

Kylie dragged herself to her feet and then pulled her mom up too. "Where's Kevin?"

"I don't know!"

"Kevin!" Kylie yelled as her mom yanked her toward their exit. Together  they stumbled and staggered up the stairs and off the boat, onto the  dock, whipping back around to look for any sign of him. "Kevin!" Kylie  yelled again and again, chest tight, panic gripping her. "Did he get  above deck?" she asked her mom.

"I don't know, baby."

Suddenly the night lit up with a symphony of sounds and lights. First  responders arriving en mass, appearing through the hazy smoke like  avengers. Kylie felt herself sway a little bit and she sank to the dock  as she stared at the craziness in fascination.

An outline of a man broke from the pack, running down the docks. "Found  her," Joe said into his comms, heading right for her, his team  materializing behind him. "Kylie," he said, voice rough, dropping to his  knees in front of her.

Aw, look at that. He was worried about her, his eyes reflecting that and  a lot more. In spite of himself, he cared about her. She knew that  much. It wasn't entirely his fault that he was so emotionally  challenged, she thought, putting a hand on his jaw. "You're so pretty,  Joe. It's really a shame that you're such a dumbass."

Lucas choked out a laugh, but at Joe's glare, quickly turned to Kylie's mom. "You okay, ma'am?"

"I will be if you never ‘ma'am' me again," her mom said, looking singed around the edges but thankfully unhurt.

Joe turned Kylie's face to his, running his finger over a bump on her  forehead that made her wince and slap his hand away. "Kevin's still on  the boat," she said and gripped the front of his shirt in her fist.  "We've got to save him."

Joe pointed to a figure of a man sitting on the other end of the dock with an oxygen mask over his face.

Kevin.

She sagged in relief, sort of falling into Joe. He still knelt in front  of her, looking her over, face grim, jaw tight-whether in reaction to  her "dumbass" comment, or just the fact that she was here where she  shouldn't have been, she didn't know.

"I didn't mean to be here," she said. "I-"