Page 75 of Lies and Lullabies
“Last night… I shouldn’t have said that I didn’t trust him.”
“But you don’t,” she said, meeting my eyes in the mirror.
“I don’tknow, Kira. It’s not my place to judge.” I rubbed my aching head. I should have known better than to have this conversation right now. Anything I said was going to come out all wrong.
“Are you going to be okay?” Kira asked. “You smell like a distillery.”
“Switching to scotch was probably a bad call.” I cleared my throat. “Look, I did a few things last night that are out of character, too. The difference is… I’m never expecting to see him again.”
She capped her lip gloss and turned around. “I thought you were going to say that the difference was Vivi. That’s my only real hesitation—it’s not just me who could get hurt.”
“Just be careful.”
She sighed. “What does that even mean? You and I are the most careful people we know. We also spend a lot of time watching movies on our couch. Coincidence?”
“I’m sorry,” I said again, hoping to bail out of this conversation before I put any more feet in my mouth. “It’s really none of my business.”
Kira’s eyes got wide. “Adam, that’s just code for, ‘I would like to disagree in a humble-sounding way.’”
“No,” I argued, “I’m just doing everything in ahungoverway. God, don’t even listen to me today, okay? I retract everything I said. Can you just do me one small favor?”
Kira crossed her arms. “Does it involve keeping a closer grip on my panties?”
“No. Don’t tell anyone about my surgery.”
“Okay,” she whispered, her expression softening.
“It’s embarrassing to me.”
“Fine.”
I took a step forward and hugged her carefully, mindful of that pink stuff on her lips. “Kiki? Let’s not fight. I’m sorry.”
“Okay. Me too. It will be all right.”
I sure hoped that was true. And I hoped that “all right” did not mean that Jonas Smith would steal my family away to some mansion on the West Coast. I could only imagine how he lived. Would Vivi go to preschool in a limo? How repulsive.
My head gave a stab of pain.
* * *
In the elevator, I noticed that Jonas had donned sunglasses and a baseball cap. And when we reached the hotel restaurant in the lobby, he asked the hostess for a table in the corner, and then sat himself on the side of the booth that faced away from the other tables. Only then did he remove his shades, tucking them into his shirt pocket.
It almost worked. But when the young waitress came over to our table, her jaw dropped comically. “Oh my God!” she squealed, putting her hands up to her cheeks. “Will you sign my order pad?”
Jonas gave her a tight smile. “Only if you can do me a little favor,” he said. He put a finger to his lips.
The waitress looked to her left and then to her right, like a badly trained secret agent. “Sure.” She thrust her pad and pen into his hands, and he signed. Then she ran off to get the coffee pot.
“Does that always happen?” Kira asked, her voice wary.
“Nope,” Jonas said, opening the menu. “But there’s a forty-five-foot purple bus with my face on it right outside. That raises the odds considerably.”
Good save, I thought, and my estimation of Jonas notched one millimeter higher. At least the guy knew my sister well enough to understand that his fame was a strike against him.
Vivi opened her menu. She didn’t read yet, but this menu was the kind with pictures in it. “Can I have pancakes?” she asked, hope in her voice. “And strawberries. And bacon.”
“Let’s see,” Kira said, scanning the offerings. “Those things don’t come all together. It saysno substitutions.”
