Finding Kyle(67)

With a sigh, I hang the towel back up and walk out of the bathroom. The hallway that leads into the living room is short, with a small efficiency kitchen just beyond. I see Miranda standing there, looking at me with an odd look on her face, but I pause only briefly on her. For right beside her is someone I’m not prepared to see.

A ghost.

A figment.

A man who should not be standing here right now.

God, he looks good. Different, but really good. His hair is growing in, and it’s blonder than I had realized. He’s also started a beard, which he has neatly trimmed, and he seems to have filled out a bit or it could be that he’s just wearing tighter shirts.

He looks at me warily from across the room, and I can see him swallow hard before he says, “Hello, Jane.”

I just stand there… completely unable to do a damn thing. I can’t speak. I can’t move. I can’t decide what it is I want.

I never thought I’d see Kyle again in my life, and I went through a mourning process for him. And now I’m inundated with all these different emotions ranging from anger to relief to bitterness to joy to love to hate to…

“What are you doing here?” I manage to whisper as I cross my arms over my chest protectively, not because I’m braless, but to protect my heart from this man who is provoking my world into chaos again.

Kyle’s eyes cut to Miranda, who just stands there looking back at him as if he’s a strange phenomenon, but they slide right back to me, seemingly uncaring that he has an audience. His voice is low and rumbling when he says, “I came to see if I could make things right with you.”

My limbs go weak with confusion and my heart pounds erratically. Miranda’s head snaps my way to see what I’ll do, and I know if I look at her, I’ll buckle. She’s been a rock and an immense support to me over the last several weeks, but she’s also been clearly on Team Kyle, because as she kept reminding me, “There were extenuating circumstances that you have to consider, Janey.”

An irrational fear takes root in the middle of my chest as I remember the pain of him lying and leaving, and I know I can’t go through that again, despite the fact that Miranda seems to see this in a much clearer light.

So I tell the brutal truth in a soft whisper. “There’s nothing to make right. I understand why you couldn’t share things with me, and I’ve accepted that. So honestly, this was probably a wasted trip to come here to see me.”

Kyle winces. I wait a terrifyingly long moment to see if he’ll leave, but he doesn’t. Instead, he says, “There’s still a lot you need to know. That I want you to know if you’ll give me just a little bit of your time.”





CHAPTER 28




Kyle


There was a time months ago… just before we took Mayhem’s Mission down… that I thought the president, Zeke Powell, was on to me. He looked at me a little different and, with that sneaking suspicion I had, I braced myself for imminent death. If Zeke thought in any way that I could have possibly betrayed him and his club, he would have put a bullet right between my eyes.

So there was a period of weeks where I waited for it, trying to act like nothing was wrong and yet completely resolved that I was going to die. It was a wretched feeling mainly because at that point, I wasn’t in control of my own destiny.

It’s how I feel right now.

All I can do is tell Jane the things I’d been keeping from her, and then it’s out of my hands. She’ll either tell me to go to hell, which would be the ultimate death for me and a far worse fate than Zeke could ever bestow, or she’ll forgive me, which will at least keep that spark of hope alive that Andrea planted in me three days ago.

Luckily, that spark hasn’t diminished in the three days it’s taken me to get to her. With promises to Andrea that I would come back soon, I left the day after our talk and headed to Misty Harbor via plane. I had two layovers. The last leg was on a small prop plane, but it was the quickest way there.

I was completely stunned to find her little house empty and abandoned with a “For Rent” sign placed at the end of the driveway. My immediate fear was that something bad had happened to Jane. Without another thought, I jumped into the rental car and drove the three hundred yards to her parents’ house on Front Street because it was faster than running. I know I scared the shit out of Meredith and Allen when I banged furiously on their door, but I was immediately settled and relieved when Meredith smiled big at me the minute she saw me.

“I knew you’d come back for her,” she said, beaming at me proudly as she opened the door wide and invited me in. She clearly had known something I had not.

I went in gladly and was prepared to do whatever sucking up I had to do with her parents so that I could find out where she was. Turns out, I didn’t have to do much. I only had to tell them the truth of who I was, what I’d done, and what I wanted with their daughter. They accepted my intentions at face value, and, for reasons I cannot even begin to fathom, they put their trust in me that I could make Jane happy.

I received their blessing along with Jane’s new home and work address in Boston. It was too late by this time to make the trip, and they kindly invited me to stay in their guest room. While I very much like her parents and felt comfortable enough with them, that was just a little too awkward for my liking. I declined, instead choosing to get a room at the one and only motel in the area, The Misty Slumber Inn.