Chapter Twenty-Six

Parts of the event felt like an out-of-body experience, especially watching Brian, the man she had known, the explorer type who had a world map on the wall in his living room with colored pushpins jabbed into all the exotic locations he wanted to see. Where was that guy? Where was the man who wanted to hike mountains and camp on the land? She watched him oohing and ahhing over serving trays and ice buckets and thought for sure the body snatchers were running rampant in Sycamore River.

Co-Co was in her element today, however. All the attention, all the gifts, all the very air in the room belonged to her. She yelped over bedsheets and matching duvet covers. She pressed bath towels to her face and moaned in delight. “Here, Bri-Bri, feel how soft,” she said as she pressed the fern-green terry fabric to his cheek.

Shane leaned in close to Kit’s ear with a whisper that tickled her skin. “He’s Bri-Bri now?”

She turned to face him.

His eyes danced. “Is it a prerequisite that they all have double names?”

She covered her mouth to suppress the laugh that threatened to escape.

After all the gifts were opened and the cake was cut, she was thankful she and Shane could say their goodbyes and get out of there.

Sitting in the passenger seat of Shane’s truck, she turned to him. “Thanks for enduring the shower.”

He shook his head. “That was quite an event, huh? They’re not going to have to spend a dime on a thing.”

“Crazy, right?”

“Did it bother you to see Brian amidst all that hoopla?”

She paused before answering. She kept envisioning the world map on Brian’s wall. “Bother? No. Seeing him in that scene seemed so foreign from the guy I knew. It’s like he abandoned who he was and what he planned for his future.” She tilted her head. “He must love her that much, I guess.”

“That doesn’t sound like love to me. Not the way I see it, anyway.”

She studied him, the memory of Shane coming to her defense when Brian targeted her appearing in her mind. “About what you said to Brian.”

He nodded as he kept his eyes on the road ahead of him.

She continued. “How’d you know all those things about me? I mean, I know we crammed with details of ourselves, but we did not cover all that.”

“Is that okay?”

She uttered a soft, nervous laugh. “It’s just that I didn’t realize how transparent I can be.”

“You’re not transparent, Kit. I just pay attention.”

Her heart whirred in her chest. This man who had come out of nowhere, this good sport who had agreed to play along with a ruse to fool her family, was finding his way into her heart, and it scared the hell out of her. She turned to look out the passenger window. The trees and mailboxes whizzed by. They moved so fast it made her dizzy.

****

Back at the house, Kit kicked off her shoes and padded into the kitchen to grab a bottle of water. She went to the sink with her water and sipped as her eyes focused on the group of trees outside and the sight of the river beyond them. It was a dusky hour, and a purplish hue seeped into every cranny of the space in the woods, consuming every inch, all encompassing. The lyrics to a John Denver song wafted through her mind.

Another sip was a relief, the coolness sliding down through her. Still, she and every single cell of her body were acutely aware Shane Dugan was there in the room. All she had to do was turn to him.

The sound of his cell phone jarred her, yet she didn’t flinch or turn away from her view of the outside. Not that she was into eavesdropping, but even after he had stepped away, his footfalls sounding on the hardwood as he strode into the living room, she heard his responses to the conversation coming at him from the phone.

“No, that’s not how things are. No. Absolutely not. Where’s this coming from?” An agonizingly long pause came next, and then he continued. “Okay, you too, Dana. Yes. Of course. Bye.”

When the call ended, silence filled the space in the house like the purple presence of nightfall outside. The only sound she heard was the swallow of water traveling down her throat. Dana. The call had been from Dana. What had his responses meant? Absolutely not what? Of course what? Her mind was a zigzag.

Shane’s footsteps sounded as he approached, and at last she turned to him.

“Don’t ask me how, but Dana has heard that I’m dating.”

“What?”

“Yeah, someone from home must have seen you and me, is all I can think of.”

“She didn’t react well to that?” Kit already surmised the answer to her own question, but she didn’t want him to know she’d been not just listening but assessing the words that came out of his mouth in response to Dana.

“No, but it doesn’t change anything. She and I are on different wavelengths. There’s no debating that.”

Suddenly the space between them was too thick, and her lungs suffered for air. “I, uh, was going to head over to Rylee’s for a while.”

She put the water bottle on the counter and moved to grab her purse.

Shane just stood there with his eyes on her.

She searched the pouch for her key.

“Kit…”

She pulled the key out with a flourish. “I hate these small purses.” She slipped her feet back into her shoes. “You can lock up. I’m not sure how long I’ll be.” She made her way to the door.

“Hey.” He came up to her. “You okay?”

She laughed a tone that sounded foreign. “Sure. I just wanted to touch base with Rylee about this woman she’s meeting with that has a business deal to talk with her about. Rylee originally asked me to join them, but I told her we had the shower. Since we’re back early enough, I thought I’d pop by.”

“Okay.”

They held a long gaze. “Night.”

And she was gone.