Wrapped Up in You (Heartbreaker Bay, #8)(20)

A man who hadn’t been his dad.

Wanting to protect both his sister and his dad from what he’d seen, he’d kept his mom’s precious secret, but watching her live a lie had scarred him as a kid.

Even more so when his dad had died of a heart attack two years later without ever realizing his wife had betrayed and lied to him.

Worse, after they’d buried him, his mom had gone off the deep end, losing her mind with grief.

And actually, that was Kel’s biggest problem. It wasn’t her lies necessarily. Adult relationships were complicated and he understood that now. What he didn’t understand, what he would never be able to understand, was how his mom had abandoned him and his sister in Idaho, where they’d been raised by their grandparents on their small ranch in Sunshine, a town at the base of the Bitterroot Mountains.

Back then, he’d been told his mom would come for them when she could get it together.

That had never happened.

Instead, his mom had moved on, he’d found out years later, with that same guy she’d cheated on his dad with, Henry something or another.

At the time, Kel had felt lost in his grief, which he’d had to shove deep because Remy had needed him and so had his grandparents. Being so far from home in a new place with nothing familiar around him had been hard.

He and his mom had talked about it once, years ago now, when he’d point-blank asked her why. She’d said he wouldn’t understand. And she was right about that. The few times they’d seen each other since, he’d done his best to not talk to her at all. “You think you know everything,” he said to Remy. “But you don’t.”

“So tell me.”

He couldn’t do that. Remy and their mom had come to a sort of peace and had a real relationship. He wouldn’t jeopardize that.

“Want to know what I think?” Remy asked.

“No.”

She ignored this. “I think that you think you know everything, but you don’t.”

“Then please enlighten me,” he said.

“Oh hell, no. You’ll have to talk to the source for that intel,” she said. “It’s not my story to tell. But I can say this . . .” She paused and softened her voice. “Mom’s happy, Kel. Really, truly happy. Henry’s a great guy—” She broke off at the look on Kel’s face and sighed.

After an awkward, tense silence, Ethan spoke. “Why do you suppose Harper never cries when we need her to?”

Remy reached for the plate of tacos. Kel ducked.

Remy rolled her eyes. “I’m not going to throw them at your stubborn face.”

“Well it wouldn’t be the first time.”

“Whatever,” Remy muttered. “I’m mature now. I’ve got a kid.”

“Right, because you didn’t throw shit at my head when you were in labor,” Ethan said.

“Hey, you were eating French fries and I was starving,” she pointed out. “You’re lucky I didn’t gnaw your arm off.”

“The mother of my child,” Ethan said fondly, and kissed Remy’s cheek.

She shrugged. “Fine. I have my moments. But at least I know how to forgive.” She sent a meaningful look in Kel’s direction and then passed him the hot sauce before he asked for it because she remembered he loved hot sauce.

Apparently, he was forgiven for being a dumbass. And that was the thing with his sister. She always forgave him, no matter what. He wouldn’t mind having the ability to do that. It wasn’t like he wanted to be harboring resentment for their mom. Or for anyone who’d hurt him in the past. “Thanks for not throwing stuff at me,” he said softly.

“I must really love your dumb ass,” she replied back just as softly.





Chapter 8




“If you don’t squeeze your bum, no one else will!”



At midnight, Kel found himself on the moonlight hike up Lands End. He’d picked up Ivy and they went to O’Riley’s pub in the Pacific Pier Building to meet the others.

Caleb introduced him to everyone by ticking off the names of his friends. “Elle, Archer, Spence, Colbie, Lucas, and Molly . . . Sadie, who you already know . . .”

Sadie, her dark hair with its purple tips, which matched her nails and lipstick, bowed with a smartass smile.

Caleb blew her a kiss and went on. “And Haley, and her date, Dee; and then Ivy, who you appear to know better than I thought . . .”

He rolled his eyes, but Ivy ignored Caleb’s statement entirely. He figured it was her default setting, ignoring things that made her uncomfortable, and their attraction to each other definitely made her uncomfortable. He hoped to get her past that tonight.

They took three cars, and Kel landed in Caleb’s vehicle along with Sadie and Ivy. Caleb drove, smiling like he knew something no one else did.

“What?” Kel asked.

“Nothing.”

Bullshit it was nothing, but Kel also knew it most likely wasn’t anything he wanted to discuss in front of Sadie and Ivy.When they parked, Kel pulled Ivy aside. “Hey,” he said.

“Hey.”

“Everything okay?”

“Sure.”

Since she was avoiding eye contact, he tilted her face up to his. “Okay, different question. Do we have a problem?”