Page 44 of Lies and Lullabies
That’s when Jonas finally dropped his smile. “How about you take your own advice. Are you the one who called Kira a slut? Or do I have that wrong?”
Luke flushed with anger. “You have a lot of nerve.”
“Really? Just answer the question. Did you say that to her face?”
“That’s none of your business.”
“I think it is.”
And now my heart was in my throat for all new reasons. Was I about to witness afightbetween my ex-boyfriend and my daughter’s father?
The Nest Lake crime blotter might get a heck of a lot more interesting in a hurry.
Luke’s eyes darted from me to Jonas and back to me again. Then he let out a disgusted sigh and said to me, “Look, honey, I can see that you have a lot on your plate this weekend. So I’ll call you later, okay?”
“Okay,” I said quickly.
He pushed back his chair, which made an awful squeak on the floorboards. Then, without a glance at Jonas, Luke turned and ducked out the door.
This time I was ready for the door slam. I didn’t even flinch.
Without hesitation, Jonas slid into the empty chair across from me. He chucked Luke’s empty bottle into the ice bucket, and then leaned down to take a beer for himself. “Wow,” he said. “What a tool.”
“Jonas!” Now I felt my own flash of anger. “I’ve known him my whole life. It was rude to go all rock-star power trip and chase him away.”
His eyebrows went up. “Damn, Kira. It’s going to take me an hour just to unpack that sentence. First of all, what just went down there hasnothingto do with my day job. So that’s just not fair. And more importantly, I didn’t chase him away at all. He just up and walked. Andthat’swhy he’s a tool. If a guy means to stake his claim, he doesn’t walk. No matter what.”
Good God. I lifted my cold beer bottle to the side of my face and tried to calm down. “I just… You…” I made a little noise of frustration.
“You’re not with him,” Jonas said suddenly. “And he doesn’t have a prayer.”
“Stop!” I spat. “That is the most caveman thing I’ve ever heard. Why would you assume that? And what business is it of yours?”
Jonas shrugged. “I turned up the heat on him, and he just got up and left. If he’s really your man, he wouldn’t do that.”
“He’s honoring my privacy.”
“He’s a coward.”
“Really? His army specialty was disarming explosives.” Although Adam had used exactly the same word for Luke. More than once.
“Look,” Jonas continued, “I get that my weird choice of careers freaks you out, and that’s because you’re smart. But you know what freaks me out? The thought that you put up with a bunch of judgment from people when you were pregnant and alone. I’m going to be sitting with that a long time.”
I didn’t know what to do with this bit of kindness. “Jonas. Why would you use up part of your precious fourteen hours discussing my high school boyfriend? Don’t we have bigger things to worry about?”
He set his beer down on the table. “I’m just trying to figure out how we got here, Kira. Maybe if I can understand why you didn’t tell me about Vivi, then I’ll be able to fix it. I need to be involved, but I don’t want to scare you. Today you looked fucking terrified.”
Iwasterrified. Seeing him after all these years made me want to jump out of my skin. But I couldn’t admit that, because it was much too revealing. “Sharing Vivi is scary for me.”
Jonas nodded. “I’m sure that’s true. And I would never—never—try to take her from you, okay? But that still doesn’t answer the question. When you were twenty and pregnant, that wasn’t the reason you didn’t call.”
He had me there. God, I didn’t want to say it, though. And couldn’t he guess the reason? I’d written to him. I’d told him my deepest feelings, and he’d said… nothing. “I don’t see how rehashing the past is going to make this easier,” I croaked.
“All right,” he whispered, letting me off the hook, at least for now. He leaned back in his chair and sniffed the night air.
Sitting here with him felt like a time warp. I remembered how easily we used to talk. The familiar shine of his eyes in the candlelight made my heart ache. That summer I’d lived for the hours when I could sit across from him, discussing everything and nothing. For a long time after my attack, not much had felt easy. But talking to Jonas had.
But now talking to him was hard.
