Page 82 of Now That It's You
“Open it.”
She set her wine down on the coffee table and held out her hand, and Kyle placed the box in her palm. She pulled off the top, more nervous than she expected to be. For a few beats, she stared down at it, trying to figure out what she was seeing. It was gorgeous and shiny and very, very sharp.
“You got me a knife?”
“I didn’t get it for you. I made it. Out of your engagement ring. Well, your engagement ring and a few other hunks of metal.”
Meg’s breath caught in her throat. Her eyes filled with tears, and she picked up the small paring knife and turned it over in her palm. It was the most beautiful kitchen tool she’d ever seen, with swirls of metal on the blade and a sleek, polished wooden handle. A small, clear stone winked at her from the hilt of it, and it took her a few beats to recognize the stone from her ring. Holy crap, he’d really made this for her?
Kyle leaned back against the sofa and watched her. “I probably wouldn’t have messed with it if it had been a real diamond or if the metal was gold or platinum, but once you told me that story about having the band redone in steel, I knew I could forge it into something different.”
“It’s beautiful, Kyle,” she said, tears slipping down her cheeks for real now. “How did you do this swirly thing with the metal on the blade?”
“It’s called Damascus steel,” he said. “I’ve only done it a few times before, but this seemed like a good project to try it on.”
“Damascus steel,” she repeated, touching the swirls of metal along the blade.
“Yeah. You use two types of steel with different carbon levels—that darker one there is ten eighty-five. Most people choose something blended with nickel for the second one, since that adds brightness, but I didn’t do that with yours.”
“You remembered my allergy.”
“Yep. So that’s why yours has a subtler pattern. The blade should be nice and sharp.”
Meg turned the knife over in her hand again, amazed that he’d managed to create something so beautiful from something she’d dreaded seeing in the back of her jewelry box for the last two years.
“Most of the materials came from steel bars I already had in the shop,” he said. “It’s a little tougher to forge with steel that’s already been turned into a ring, but you can see this vein of it running right through here,” he said, trailing a finger along the edge.
“My God, Kyle . . . I can’t believe you made this. It’s incredible. Thank you.”
She sat there staring at it, completely undone by the thoughtfulness of the gift and the talent that had gone into creating it. He’d taken an object of hers and turned it into something new and special and entirely different.
That’s what Matt did with your cookbook. But you knew that already.
Meg pushed aside the twinge of guilt and looked up at Kyle. “It’s amazing,” she said. “Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it.”
She put the knife back in the box and set it on the coffee table, then turned back to face him. She hesitated, then put her arms around him. It was supposed to be a platonic hug, a thank you for the gift he’d made her.
But something happened when her body touched his. Something sparked inside her, flaring her whole body to light. The warmth spread through her like a rush of mercury, and Meg felt herself getting dizzy as she molded her body against his.
It could have stopped there with a hug that felt a little too tight, her breasts pressed to his chest in the heat of her living room. But she drew back then, and looked up at him.
Kyle’s eyes were wild and a little unfocused, and she could tell from the flush in his cheeks that he felt it, too.
“We can’t,” she murmured, her mouth already too close to his.
Then she did it anyway, craving the sparks that arced between them the instant her lips touched his. He kissed her hard, his hands already tunneling under the back of her T-shirt to stroke her bare skin.
Her heart thudded so hard in her head that she thought it might explode—her heart, her brain, whatever.
The pounding was so fierce that it took her a moment to realize it wasn’t coming from inside her body.
“Honey?” The knocking echoed from Meg’s front door. “It’s your mom. Open up right now, it’s an emergency!”
Chapter 14
“For the love of all things holy,” Kyle growled as he sat back, pulling his hands off Meg’s bare back like he’d been burned. “What the fuck are the odds? Seriously, are all the mothers in the world conspiring?”
