Page 34 of Now That It's You
Meg stopped laughing, and he watched her fingers tighten around the beer bottle. “How was it?”
“Pretty amazing.”
She licked her lips. “I’m happy our imaginary kiss was everything you hoped it would be.”
“All the more reason it can never happen,” he said. “It’s been built up too much.”
“Probably true. Kind of a shame we’ll never get to find out.”
“Agreed,” Kyle said, wishing that weren’t true. “But if kissing your brother’s fiancée—ex or otherwise—is off-limits, kissing your dead brother’s fiancée ranks somewhere between pedophilia and eating the last donut on the list of moral crimes.”
“Sounds like a pretty broad range.” Meg sighed. “You’re right, though. Obviously, it can never happen.”
“Right,” Kyle said, working like hell to project indifference instead of the grim disappointment that threatened to grab him by the throat. “So what was your thing? What were you thinking when you tugged your ear?”
She looked down at her lap and he watched her pick at the edge of the label on her beer bottle. “I was thinking I wish Matt had gotten to see the cookbook take off.”
Kyle nodded, wishing he’d never brought up the kissing thing in the first place. For crying out loud, the primary link between him and Meg was his own brother. The least he could do was refrain from ogling her.
“That’s nothing to be ashamed of,” Kyle said. “Why wouldn’t you want to say it out loud that you wish he’d gotten to see it?”
Meg shrugged, still looking at the bottle. “Because I didn’t think it for the right reasons. I wanted him to see it so he’d know I could be a success and that I was right and he was wrong. And it’s pretty shitty to want to one-up a dead guy.”
Kyle shook his head. “He would have been happy for you.”
“I doubt that.”
“It’s true. We didn’t talk about you much. Not after—” he cleared his throat. “Not after the wedding. And yeah, he had a rough go of it at first.”
“He was pretty pissed?”
“Yes,” Kyle said cautiously, not willing to break his brother’s trust and admit Matt’s emotional state had gone well beyond pissed. “He got over it, though,” Kyle added. “I think he’d moved on.”
“You think he’d forgiven me?”
“I like to think so.”
“Me, too.” She looked up, and he felt relieved to see there were no tears in her eyes. Unfortunately, what he was about to say might change that.
Kyle cleared his throat. “Speaking of Matt, that’s part of the reason I stopped by tonight.”
Meg blinked. “Oh. I never thought to ask. I just started blathering about my cookbook and never gave you the chance to get a word in edgewise. I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. I wanted to tell you about Matt’s memorial service.”
He watched the color drain from her face, and he hurried to fill the silence that followed. “You don’t have to go. No one’s expecting you to, and under the circumstances?—”
“Do your parents know you’re inviting me?”
“Yes.”
“Are they okay with it?”
He nodded, and watched a flicker of relief in her eyes. “We were going through old photos last weekend and my mom pointed out how many of the shots had you in them. ‘She was part of his life for a long time.’ That’s what she said.”
“That’s sweet.”
“When I told her yesterday I’d like to invite you to the service, she said, ‘I think that’s a nice gesture. I have some things for her.’ Probably some of the pictures. Anyway, she’d like to see you there. We all would.”
