Page 75 of Now That It's You
Part of him wanted her to turn around and look him right in the eye and insist it was something more. That what happened between them had been brewing for a long time, years, maybe. Since long before that Thanksgiving with the doves.
“Grief,” she repeated slowly. “I guess. Everything happened so fast.”
He laughed. “We’ve known each other more than a decade, Meg. I don’t think that’s fast.”
“You know what I mean.”
He nodded. “I’ll admit our timing was a little—odd.”
“To say the least.”
“But stranger things have happened.”
She nodded and began dumping cinnamon and sugar into a bowl. She used a fork to blend the two together, then she turned and looked at him. “So, your mother called me.”
“Holy subject change, Batman.”
“You’re the one who said it was important to have the awkward conversation.”
“Yes, but the sex one was more fun.”
Meg picked up one of the dickerdoodle balls and began rolling it in the cinnamon sugar. He suspected it was less about making the cookies and more about avoiding eye contact, but he couldn’t really blame her.
“So, my mom called?” he prompted.
“It was actually her lawyer who called. He insists they still haven’t received the check I sent last week. The one for eighteen hundred dollars?”
“Right,” he said. “The final payment toward the ten-thousand-dollar bill Matt gave you after the wedding.”
“Yes. That’s one of the arguments they’re making to prove I hadn’t made sufficient progress on paying off the debt. And if the debt wasn’t settled?—”
“Then they’re entitled to a portion of your royalties.”
“So they say.”
Kyle frowned and sliced into the zucchini. “So the check hasn’t shown up.”
“That’s what they claim.”
He ignored the implication of the word claim, resisting the urge to defend his mother. “Did you send the check through certified mail?”
Meg shook her head and frowned. “It was a Saturday when I got paid, and the post office wasn’t open. I just wanted to get the check in the mail fast and I didn’t realize it would be an issue and—anyway, no. Chalk up one more financial mistake for Meg Delaney.”
The bitterness in her voice left him struggling to remember whose side he was supposed to be on here. “What about a copy of the check?” he offered.
She shrugged. “I scanned the carbon copy of it and emailed that to the lawyer, which he insists doesn’t prove anything. ‘You could have written this today and backdated it.’ That’s what he told me.”
“I suppose that’s true,” he said cautiously. “If not, I’m sure it’ll turn up.”
Meg sighed. “It’s almost beside the point. They’re still gunning for my royalties. They don’t care about a measly check for less than two thousand dollars. They want a bigger piece of the pie.”
Kyle felt his jaw clenching as he sliced the zucchini in half with more force than necessary, barely missing the tip of his finger. “Dammit.” He set the two halves on the cutting board and turned to face Meg. “So, back to the sex.”
Meg stopped rolling balls and looked at him. “Wait, what?”
He turned back to his zucchini. “You’re clearly uncomfortable talking about us sleeping together.”
“Right.”
