Awake at Dawn (Shadow Falls #2)(66)

"What? Are you kidding me? Are you seriously going to stand here and blame this on Mom?"

He blinked. "I just ... I don't think she should have said any-"

"Stop." Kylie gripped her hands to keep them from trembling ... or from punching him in the nose. Right then, she wasn't sure which was more likely to happen. "Mom didn't tell me anything." Tears spilled down her face. "Mom didn't have to tell me anything. You told me. No, wait.

I misspoke. You didn't tell me anything. You showed me."

"What are talking about, Kylie?" He leaned in and lowered his voice as if hinting she should do the same.

But she was too mad, too hurt to care who heard their argument. He'd left her. He'd left her and her mom for some bimbo. The vision of him and his slutty little intern making out in front of the downtown B&B filled her head.

"Well, first you hit on Holiday when you came to visit me," she said. "That was embarrassing enough, but then I saw you in town later that day. You hadn't come alone. And I saw you and your intern standing in the middle of downtown Fallen. You want to know why I remember it so well, Dad?"

He opened his mouth as if to say something, but nothing came out. So she continued, "Because you had your tongue shoved down her throat while she had her hand jammed down your pants." Kylie blinked and felt more tears spilling over onto her cheeks. "Lovely," she seethed.

"It was such a lovely sight, seeing your dad practically get a hand job in public."

Instantly, she realized that the entire room had gone deadly silent. Damn! Had she really screamed that out in the middle of the entire camp and their parents?

She glanced out at the crowd. Staring at her and her father. And from the look on everyone's face, yeah, she had.

Okay, now she really, really wished she'd taken her dad's hint about lowering her voice. Turning around, not looking at her dad, not looking at the crowd, she walked out of the dining room, hoping she could get outside before she started crying in earnest.

She would have run, but exhibiting her superfast supernatural running skills would have caused even more of a scene.

So she walked slowly toward the exit and pretended she didn't feel the tears gliding down her cheeks.

She pretended her heart wasn't breaking.

She pretended that she didn't know that about one hundred pairs of eyes were watching her go.

But pretending could only take her so far.

This ... this was too damn real, and it hurt her too much.

Chapter Twenty-one

The knock sounded on her bedroom door not three minutes after she crawled into her bed and pulled the covers over her face and continued to cry. "Go away," Kylie called out.

The door opened. She yanked the cover from her face, expecting to see Holiday. But nope, Derek stood there with a heck of a lot concern for her shimmering in his eyes.

Seeing it only made her start crying harder. She cried because of her dad, and she cried because she felt bad about the dreams she'd had about Lucas. Derek rushed over to the bed and pulled her against him. If he read any of her emotions about guilt, he didn't say it. He just held her. And she loved him for doing that, too.

She buried her head on his shoulder and continued to sob in his arms. She didn't care that she was getting tears and snot all over his shirt. His arms felt so good wrapped around her and while he didn't say it, the way he held her said he didn't care about his shirt, either. Good thing, because when she got through crying, it was really going to be a mess.

"Hey?" Another voice came from the open door.

Kylie pulled away and saw Della and Miranda standing there.

"I could turn him into a toad if you want," Miranda said, waving her pinky. "Or maybe a skunk. I could use the practice."

Socks, who'd been sleeping at the foot of the bed, raised his head, meowed loudly as if in agreement, and then shot off to hide under the bed.

Della snarled. "I could pick him up and drag him up a tree and then drop him on his head a few times until he comes to his senses."

Kylie cried harder and then for some reason she started laughing. She wiped her eyes and looked at three of the most beautiful people in her world right now. "Did I really say that in front of all your parents?"

"Yup. I think my dad had a stroke," Della said, grinning from ear to ear. "It came just at the right time, too. He'd been grilling me about drugs again."

"My mom passed out cold," Derek teased.

Then they all started laughing. Kylie collapsed against Derek again. When she pulled back, she wiped her face and looked up.

And that's when it happened. That's when Kylie's whole world opened up in a way it never had opened up before.

She blinked. At first, she thought there was just something wrong with her eyes. But nope. There was no mistaking it. She could see inside their foreheads. She could see into them the way she'd seen into Daniel's head in the vision. She, Kylie Galen, could finally see supernatural patterns. "I'm doing it, guys! I'm finally doing it!" She started bouncing up and down on the bed. "Holy crap, I'm really doing it."

"Doing what?" a familiar voice asked from the doorway.

He didn't call her pumpkin this time, but she recognized her dad's voice. He stood beside Holiday, who glanced at Kylie with a huge apology in her eyes. Obviously, her father had demanded she bring him here. "Can I have a word with my daughter alone?" He stepped inside her bedroom.