Page 36 of A Night to Remember

“What about the murderers, then?!”

“I have pepper spray.”

“Can’t you just wait for it to get light? Come back to bed.” I attempt a charming smile. For a second she looks exasperated, like she’s going to keep arguing, but then her expression softens and she sits next to me, her shoulder brushing companionably against mine. Surely if she had any regrets, she would keep her distance.

“Ordinarily I would, on a Sunday. But if Mom sees you, or hears you leave, then she’s going to make a lot of assumptions that I’m not ready to deal with yet. If we walk out the door together, she’ll think it’s just me going out like I do every morning,without getting murdered,” she adds as I open my mouth to scold her again, “and we’ll both be out of here before she wakes up. She’s an early riser. C’mon.” She looks into my eyes and gives me a genuine smile. I can see that I’m not going to change her mind.

I start putting my clothes on, still scowling slightly. She seems to find my concern endearing. As I follow her out the door to my car, she takes my hand lightly, her fingers slim and delicate in my big paw. Kayla Johnson. Even if she just gives me that one night, I will remember it for the rest of my life.

She pauses next to me at my car door, fitting her ear buds into her ears. I wonder if I should kiss her goodbye, ask her on a real date, convey, somehow, that last night was the single most erotic experience of my life, when she pops up on her toes and kisses me sweetly.

“I’ll text you when I get home, okay?”

I can’t help myself. I wrap my arms around her waist and kiss her deeply, hoping that it isn’t for the last time.

“I guess that’ll have to do,” I reply, and let her go.

“She’s a gold digger.”Adam confronts me the second he comes into the dining room, where I’m showing his daughter Maddie how to make a battery out of a lemon. He’s here to pick his kids up after their weekend at our parents’ and, presumably, take them to church.

I had hoped that I had left Kayla’s early enough that I could slip in undetected, but little kids get up early too, and three-year-old Hadyn had spotted me as I went into my room. He mentioned it offhand to my mom, my mom mentioned it offhand to Adam, so here we are. There are no secrets in Kentwood.

“Who’s a gold digger?” Maddie pipes up. I glare at Adam. He should know better than to say something like that in front of the kids, especially this one. “Is that really a job?” Maddie presses on. “Could I?—”

“You’ll earn yourowngold, honey,” Adam says, staring at me and ignoring Maddie’s confused expression.

“Sweetie, why don’t you go see if Raul is done with the pancakes yet?” I smile at my niece, praying that she won’t repeat Adam’s comment in the kitchen. She leaves the room, bopping her head from side to side.

Once she’s gone, I sigh and lean back from the table. “First of all, no, she’s not. Second of all?—”

“That girl doesn’t giveanyonein this town the time of day, then suddenly the son of the bank president comes home?—”

“It’s not like that! She hasn’t asked me for anything, and I don’t have anything to give her if she did!”

“Bullshit, you’re trying to help her refinance?—”

“Shedeservesto refinance!”

“She doesn’t!”

“You’re just jealous,” I spit out unthinkingly, before it occurs to me that maybe he is. Adam is plenty smart, and went to college, of course, but his education largely seems to have bounced off him. It certainly didn’t broaden his horizons, or teach him to approach the world with curiosity and empathy. Adam lives the life that was handed to him and sees no reason to do things differently. Kayla isn’t like that, and I’m beginning to think that neither am I. I wonder if there’s something about both of us that eludes him. And maybe he has to tear Kayla down so he doesn’t have to face the fact that some people might prefer his little brother to him.

Adam’s jaw is clenched and his hands are balled into fists, but I know he doesn’t dare start a fight in my parents’ house. “Mark my words, little bro. Once she gets what she wants from you, she’ll skip town and leave you hanging.”

18

Kayla

“Well, how was it?”Meg asks, coming into the office at the café where I’m ostensibly hanging up my purse.

“Hmm?” I reply. I barely pay attention to her because I’m too busy grinning stupidly at my phone. I texted Gabe when I got home from my run, like I said I would, and we’ve been in nonstop contact ever since. We have already shared our opinions on many important topics: cats are fine for other people, but we both prefer dogs; it’s okay to sleep in the same pajamas several nights in a row;Prisoner of Azkabanis our favorite Harry Potter book and least favorite movie. We disagree strongly about whether you can wash all your clothes together at any temperature and still get good results, but he’s never touching my laundry anyway, so what does it matter? Talking to Gabe is easy and fun, and now that I’ve opened this particular floodgate, I’m not sure that I can shut it.

“Thesex.” Meg spells it out for me. “How was thesex? Don’t you dare try to deny it.”

Now I finally do look up from my phone. I feel my face turn beet red.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Kayla Johnson. I am a human being. I have met human beings before. I know what that smile means. Was he nice to you?”

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