Page 47 of Now That It's You
“Which let me enjoy it twice as much.” She cleared her throat. “Then there’s the fact that you kissed me in a closet.”
“Technically, you kissed me. But I’m not here to talk about that, either.”
“So that leaves your mom.” Meg gripped the door a little tighter, not sure she wanted to be having this conversation right now. But there was no avoiding it, was there? She sighed. “Or I guess I should say, your mom’s decision to hit me with both a bouquet of daisies and a lawsuit in the middle of a funeral reception.”
“Her timing and presentation could have used some work,” he admitted, peering over the top of her head toward her living room. “Are those the smoked salmon appetizer things you used to make?”
“Yes. Would you like one?”
“Please.”
“Come on, then.”
She turned back toward the living room and headed for the sofa, conscious of Kyle right behind her. Having him close was giving her flashbacks to the kiss, which was a lot more pleasant than the flashbacks she’d been having all evening. Her ears still rang with the sound of Sylvia lecturing her on artists’ rights and the importance of honoring commitments, her voice so high and shrill that everyone had turned to stare.
Meg sat down on the couch and waited for Kyle to join her. He seemed to hesitate, then sat on the loveseat instead.
“Keeping your distance?”
“Look, Meg?—”
“No good conversation has ever started, ‘Look, Meg . . .’”
He sighed and picked up one of the crudités, but he didn’t bite into it. “I know my mom caught you off guard, but she has a valid point.”
“What point would that be?” she asked, feeling her temper flare. “You mean the one where she said I’d be nothing—I repeat, nothing—without Matt? Or the one where she called me an ungrateful bitch? Or the one where she said she always hated my cooking?”
He winced and looked down at the apps. “You have to admit, all that name-calling kept the funeral from being too dreary.”
Meg folded her arms over her chest, annoyed he didn’t seem more upset by his mother’s insults. “Forgive me if I’m not feeling honored by the opportunity to provide some levity.”
Kyle sighed and set the snack back on the platter. “I know my mom can be a jerk. God knows that’s her default setting most of the time. But as an artist, I think she has a valid point.”
“Come again?”
“Matt did take those photos. His artwork is a big part of what makes that book so amazing.”
Meg swallowed hard, ordering herself to breathe. “I’m not disputing that. I’m only saying the debt’s been paid already. Like I told your mom, I put the last check in the mail two days ago.”
“Right,” Kyle said, his voice equally strained. “And according to my mother, it hasn’t shown up yet.”
“Well, I sent it. It’s for eighteen hundred dollars.”
Kyle frowned. “According to the records, you still owed close to three thousand dollars.”
“That’s not true,” Meg said, hating the panicky note in her own voice. “I tried to get electronic records of the canceled checks from my bank, but apparently there was some sort of technical glitch when they got bought out by a bigger bank last month.”
“So you don’t have any proof.”
She glared at him. “It’s not like Matt was sending me a receipt every month. Look, I’m sure that’s what was left. I’ve been scrimping and saving and mailing those damn checks to Matt every month for two years.”
“I don’t want to quibble about dollar figures, but Matt’s accountant disagrees about what you still owed.”
Meg gritted her teeth and stared at him. “The bill was bullshit in the first place, Kyle. Ten thousand dollars for something he offered to do for free in the first place?”
“What did you do with your engagement ring?”
The question startled her so much it took her a moment to remember. Before she could answer, Kyle had picked up the appetizer again and shoved it in his mouth. “In a lot of cases of broken engagement, the bride-to-be keeps the ring with the idea that it was given as a gift, and legally, the gift can’t be revoked.”
