I smile sadly. “I was.”
“No. You aren’t. He’s always gotten ladies based on his looks, but he lied and fooled you into feeling something for him before he showed who he really is, and you hung in there because you’re loyal. Like Susanna says. She told me you’re the most loyal person she knows. That’s not on you, it’s on him. I just wish I could go back.”
“He fooled us both.”
“You, yeah, he did. But he didn’t fool me, I just fucked up. I got caught off guard.”
I shake my head with dismay. “I’m sorry to break it to you, but… he fooled you with that trick, Kill.”
He straightens up. “Explain.”
I roll my eyes. “I found them the first time I did his laundry. And it wouldn’t be the last time. He kept one in each pocket. One coin with two heads and one with two tails. I had thrown them into a change jar, actually, but he got me to empty it and we dug until we found them. He said he used them for pranks. He’d ask someone to call it, or he’d call it and grab the one he needed. Two-headed coin in his left pocket, two-tailed coin in his right. Or the other way around. Can’t remember. Sorry, but I gave him shit for the trick and he said he barely used them, that they were just for gags. Guess Ray treated us both like chumps.” I reach into the fridge for two waters.
When I turn back around and see Killian’s face, he’s still. Statue-still.
“Nothing we can do about that lost time. At least we finally did connect.”
I can see by his face that he’s processing what I just told him. And he’s furious.
I set the bottled water down and wrap my arms around his waist, propping my chin on his chest and looking into his eyes.
He’s perfectly still except for one muscle jumping in his cheek. As I eyeball it, his chin twitches like he’s fighting off a scowl. Or a roar.
I hear my phone ringing from Killian’s room.
“Shit. That’s my mother’s ringtone. I better get it.” I let go of him and jog down the hall.
***
Mom wants to talk about how much she loves Killian. She’s going on and on and on about him. She starts asking Ray-questions, but I dodge them. She tries to bring it around again and I finally say, “Mom, he’s gone. I don’t think he’ll bother me again.”
Susanna is power texting me now too, sending each sentence as an individual text with all sorts of exclamation marks, so I let my mom go and quickly scan Suse’s tale of a guy she saw at a dog park that she thinks is her future husband.
Me: But you don’t have a dog
Susanna: I saw him go there with a dog so I kind of followed him.
I forward a laughing face and she phones me.
Killian comes in and heads around the corner to the nook with his desk.
I decline the call and text, “One minute.”
I want to check on Killian after running out in the middle of that conversation.
“Are you okay?” I ask, phone still in my hand as I round the corner.
He’s seated at his desk, doing something on his phone.
“No,” he answers immediately and flexes his jaw.
I’m rounding the desk, but then I’m pulled into his lap before I’m all the way around.
His right hand tangles into my hair and he pulls me to his chest. His body is trembling.
“Hey?” I ask. “You’re not okay?”
“No,” he growls.
I blow out a breath. And it’s insane, because he’s furious about the thing I just told him, but I don’t fear him. I feel safe, too, which is a switch for me when I’m around an angry male.
My phone rings again and this time it’s my grandfather.
“He never calls me,” I say, looking at the screen.
“Get it,” Killian says.
“Hello?” I answer.
“Can you take over the shoppin’ and bring me some real food?” Grampa greets.
“Uh…hi Grampa. How are you doing? You okay?”
“No. I’m not. Sara’s buyin’ me garbage. I need real food, kiddo. Can you help?”
Because I’m on Killian’s lap, he can hear the conversation, I’m sure, so surmising everything is okay with my grandfather, he squeezes me and I know he wants me to let him off the chair.
I stand up and he leaves the room with his phone, so I sit at his desk and talk to my grandfather for a few minutes where he moans and bitches about my mother and aunt who are bringing him healthy food and steaming and boiling things instead of frying them.
I tell him I’ll come over and make some healthy meals with flavor for him that’s in between on the scale of what he was eating and what his doctor, daughter and daughter-in-law want him to eat.
He warns he’ll try it and see but that he’ll happily drive himself to his favorite diner for all his meals if we don’t make sure he has flavor. And then he asks me about my new fella and wants to know when he’s going to meet him.
I can’t remember the last time my grandfather called me to shoot the breeze. So I revel in it, happy that I’ve got an opportunity to talk to him. We’re on the phone for the longest I’ve ever talked to him on the phone – at least a good ten minutes before I promise to pop by and make him some meals.
When I hang up, Killian is leaning in the doorway, looking at me. He has his coat on.
“I have to run out. Emergency at Exodus.”
“Oh. Okay. Is everything okay?” I get up and approach him.
“Some bullshit, the night manager needs me, so I gotta run down there and close. See you in the morning. I’ll drive you to work.” He leans over and kisses me.
“Hey? You gonna be okay?” I ask.
I feel an extremely negative vibe coming off him.
He’s pissed about the double-sided coins.
“No clue.”
“Good thing my ex is in jail or you might put him in the hospital?” I ask, wincing.
“Something like that,” he says in what’s very nearly a growl.
“You told me you wouldn’t hurt him,” I say.
I give him a serious look.
He says nothing.
“It’s better to just put it behind us, Killian.”
“You get some sleep. They need me at Exodus. I’ll be back as soon as possible.”
He kisses me again. He kisses me deep, with passion that has my belly swooping, and then looks into my eyes for a long moment before he backs away and leaves.
I blow out a long breath. He’s really angry. I can’t blame him.
I am, too. If he had asked me out that night instead of Ray… we might have gotten together, might still be together. I wander back to the bed and my eyes stop at the dandelion wish-art over the fireplace.
By now, we could be married, maybe even be talking about having children. Or maybe we wouldn’t be anything, but I wouldn’t have wound up with Ray. Wouldn’t have become the slow-boiled frog.
I shake it off.
No point thinking long about it. It’s done. Ray Iadanza is a liar. And a scammer. A liar and scammer who robbed poor Mrs. Shear, but this time, he got caught.
At least he’s out of my life.
“Violet?” Killian’s head pops back in.
I look at him expectantly.
“Sleep naked. I’ll be waking you up when I get back.”