Page 91 of Now That It's You
Meg shrugged and shifted on the bed, tucking her legs up under her while Kyle thought about that keychain. Why did he still have it? Force of habit, or was it something else?
“She found that keychain in an antique store in Paris,” he said. “It’s the original key to an old chapel where she said she wanted to get married someday.”
Meg laughed and nudged his knee with hers under the covers. “And did it occur to you that was a hint she might’ve wanted to marry you?”
“Yeah, it crossed my mind.” Kyle put his hand on her bare thigh, a casual caress that felt like the most natural thing in the world. He scanned the room, looking for relics from Meg’s past romances. He wasn’t jealous, but he was curious.
His gaze landed on a small shelf in the corner, piled with paperback novels and magazines. “Isn’t that Matt’s bookshelf?”
“He built it, if that’s what you mean. For our five-year dating anniversary.” She drew her fingertips over his bare thigh, making him shiver. “Where’d your wallet come from?”
“My wallet?”
“I noticed it last night when you pulled it out to get a condom. Tooled leather, that intricate pattern around the edges?—”
He grinned. “You don’t think I picked it out for myself?”
“Did you?”
“No,” he admitted a little sheepishly. “It was a gift from Kate.”
“Kate?”
“We only dated for a couple months after Cara and I split, but I had a birthday right in the middle of that.”
“Ah, so that’s why I don’t remember her.” Meg smiled. “So you’ve got Melody’s keychain, Olivia’s tie, Kate’s wallet, and Cara’s ladybits, underwear, and tea.”
Kyle laughed and looked around the room, trying to identify something else he recognized as a relic from another relationship. It was true he’d only known her when she’d dated his brother, and that relationship had lasted nearly a decade.
The duration in and of itself was enough to give him twinges of discomfort. He may have collected souvenirs and yeah, a number of notches on his bedpost. But he hadn’t collected the same sort of memories Meg had gathered with Matt. Christmas mornings and sick days and career changes and plans to build a life together. He pushed the thought from his mind, determined not to feel jealous of his brother.
Kyle was here now, and that counted for something.
He caught a movement out of the corner of his eye, and looked over to see Meg tugging her ear. He reached out and touched her wrist. “Busted!”
“What?” She dropped her hand. “No. I’d gotten so much better lately, I swear!”
“I noticed,” he said, grinning. “So this must be a good one. Confession number one: I’ll admit it would have bugged me a little to know you’d been with Matt in this bed. Confession number two,” he continued, hurrying so she wouldn’t call a halt to the whole game. “Cara not only bought me this underwear, she told me she liked the way the blue piping outlined my junk.”
“I did notice that,” Meg said, tucking a curl behind her ear and blushing ever so slightly. “For what it’s worth, I like the boxer briefs.”
“Thank you. Confession number three, I’ve had to pinch myself at least a dozen times since I woke up because I can’t believe I’m really, truly here in this bed with the girl I’ve fantasized about for the better part of a decade.”
“Oh.” Meg’s eyes went wide, and she looked at him in stunned silence for a moment. Her hair was tousled and her cheeks looked beard-burned and she was more beautiful than she’d ever been in all the years he’d known her.
“That last one kinda slipped out,” he admitted.
Meg smiled, but the dumbfounded look didn’t leave her eyes. “So you haven’t really fantasized about me for years?”
Guilt churned in his gut, but he owed it to her to be honest. “Would it make me the worst brother on the planet to say I have?”
She seemed to hesitate a moment, then shook her head. “No. But I can’t say the same about you.”
“Okay,” Kyle said, wishing that didn’t sting.
“I don’t think you’d want me to. Not really. As the brother of my ex-fiancé, wouldn’t you feel kinda awful if I sat here and told you I used to fantasize about another man during the ten years I was with your brother?”
Not if the other man was me, Kyle thought, but he didn’t say that. “I guess so.”
