Page 54 of Now That It's You
“Don’t be. It’s just—some things are okay to stay secret, don’t you think?”
“If you say so.”
Meg wandered away from the sculpture, ending up back in the corner where they’d started. “This is amazing, Kyle. You should be very proud of what you’ve built for yourself.”
“Thank you. I am.”
She folded her arms over her chest and regarded him with a look he knew signaled a shift in conversation. “So,” she said, leaning back against the wall with her eyes locked on his. “Ready to tell me why you wanted me to come here?”
Chapter 9
Kyle cleared his throat, not sure he was ready yet to transition to the lecture part of the evening, but knowing she was onto him. “You don’t think I brought you here just to see my gallery?”
She smiled and shook her head. “Nope. It’s very nice, but that’s not what this is about.”
“Thank you.” Kyle sighed and shoved his hands in his back pockets. “All right, Meg. I brought you here because I wanted you to see for yourself how much heart and soul and sweat and tears and dedication and love and personal experience goes into an artist’s work.”
“I can see that,” she said, her voice wary now.
“And I wanted you to consider my mother’s case from that point of view. From Matt’s point of view.”
She stared at him for a moment, then looked up at the ceiling. When she turned back to him, her expression was guarded.
“Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure.”
“Why are you taking her side? You and your mom have never gotten along that well. Or is it about taking Matt’s side?” She frowned at that notion, seeming to consider it. “But the two of you were always at each other’s throats. Literally, at least once that I remember.”
She didn’t need to say anything else. Kyle remembered the fight like it was yesterday, even though it had happened nearly six years ago. They’d been drinking beer and bullshitting about a gallery opening they’d attended the week before. When Kyle made the mistake of telling Matt his new metallic print of a race car looked a little over-processed, Matt had responded by shoving Kyle.
He’d tried to pretend it was playful, but Matt’s words had been anything else.
At least I’m earning a living off my art, baby brother. Just last week, I had a photo on the cover of Men’s Health, and here you are three months behind on your power bill.
Meg had been the one to pull them apart, ordering them to separate corners of the room like a pair of squabbling children. In hindsight, Matt’s bouts of temper were probably a sign of the depression lurking deep in his big brother’s psyche, but that hadn’t occurred to Kyle until years later.
Kyle cleared his throat. “I remember the fight, Meg.” He felt his chest growing tight and he folded his arms over it to keep his heart in. “Obviously, that wasn’t the proudest moment for either of us. Matt or me.”
“Obviously.”
“He was still my brother.”
They both let those words hang between them a moment, neither of them willing to concede. Clearly, this battle wasn’t going to be won tonight. The lawsuit or any of the rest of it. Maybe it was best to just drop the subject and let things shake out in the court system.
But didn’t he owe it to Matt to at least take a stab at defending his legacy? Didn’t Matt deserve his loyalty, after all?
Meg dropped her hands to her sides. “That cookbook was my baby, Kyle.”
“I know that. But it takes more than one person to make a baby.”
She looked at him, then shook her head slowly. “You know, that’s actually a good analogy. You seem to be looking at this whole cookbook thing like Matt and I rolled around naked together and produced it.”
Kyle winced, wondering if she knew that the idea of his brother rolling around naked with Meg was the last thing he wanted to imagine.
“But the thing is,” Meg continued, “it wasn’t like that. I know you weren’t privy to our conversations, so it’s my word against your brother’s. But the way it happened was more like a sperm donation.”
“You’re equating Matt’s photos to that?”
