Page 76 of Now That It's You
“I’m not so wild about discussing the lawsuit.”
“So what does that leave us with?”
“Politics? Euthanasia? Our parents? Stop me when I get to a less awkward subject here.”
Meg bit her lip and looked down. He saw her left hand start to lift, and he knew she was going for her ear. She seemed to realize it too, and she stopped herself before he could say a word. He was about to start rattling off confessions when she beat him to it.
“Do you remember the last time we worked together in this kitchen?”
He nodded. “Yes. The wedding cupcakes.”
“The wedding cupcakes.” Her voice was almost a whisper. “You thought I was an idiot for spending the morning before my wedding frosting a gazillion cupcakes.”
“I didn’t say idiot,” he pointed out. “I may have called you crazy, but not idiotic.”
“You know why I did it?”
“You told me baking helped relax you. That you’d feel less stressed about the wedding if you were doing something productive.”
“That was part of it, yes.”
“There was another reason?”
She nodded, turning her back to the cookies and leaning against the counter. She looked up at the ceiling, another excuse to avoid looking him in the eye. “I always knew Matt was a little unsure about the whole idea of getting married. Since dessert was one of his favorite things, I thought maybe if I made the world’s most amazing, most decadent cupcakes, it would start things off on the right foot with the marriage.”
“You thought you’d seal the eternal bond with buttercream?”
She smiled a little at that, but the smile didn’t quite reach her eyes. “I didn’t want him to have any doubts. I wanted him to start the marriage out thinking, ‘Damn, I’m getting a pretty sweet deal here.’”
“Obviously he thought that,” Kyle said, pretty sure it was true.
Meg dropped her eyes from the ceiling and looked at him. “That night before the wedding when he sat me down and said he had something important to tell me, I knew it was going to be bad. My brain didn’t go straight to an affair, but I knew he was going to drop a bomb on me. I sat there thinking, ‘Just wait, please just wait until tomorrow. When you try the cupcakes and everything will be okay.’”
“Meg—”
“But it wasn’t okay.” She shook her head. “It wasn’t enough. I wasn’t enough.”
“You have to know that’s not what Matt’s cheating was about.”
“So what was it about?” She turned and blinked a few times, and he couldn’t tell if she was fighting back tears or just reacting to the hint of onions drifting from the Greek restaurant next door. “If it wasn’t about me, then what?”
Kyle shook his head. “Not you. You were perfect.”
She gave a snort of disbelief. “I was far from perfect.”
“Meg, you have to believe no amount of frosting could have made a difference. Matt was going to do what Matt was going to do, and even the best cupcakes in the galaxy couldn’t have changed that.”
She looked down at her hands and gave a rueful little laugh. “You must think I’m ridiculous.”
“Not at all.”
She sighed and wiped her hands on her apron. “Tell me something honestly, Kyle.”
“Okay.” His heart was pounding hard, and his palms were starting to feel sweaty. Did she know something about what happened? About Kyle’s role in the affair, or Matt’s depression spiral afterward?
Meg cleared her throat. “Do you think I should have gone through with it?”
Kyle let out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding. “Marrying Matt?”
