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“I’ll get it. You relax.”
In the kitchen, she poured him a glass of his favorite raspberry-flavored ginger ale and gazed around the expansive kitchen that her mother had left in its usual immaculate state.
Dominic had never been here. She’d wanted him to spend Christmas with her family, but he’d gone back to his own family in Toronto instead.
How had he known she was going for the town manager job?
Mark must have told him. Maybe her little dunking prank had backfired on her in yet another way. What had she been thinking?
She hadn’t been thinking, per se. She’d been remembering the carefree days of that summer with her friends. The rush of giddy fun, the high of being young, with your whole future ahead. That old fearlessness…she’d wanted that back.
Jason brought that feeling back. That was why she’d momentarily lost her mind on that pier.
She padded across the soft taupe carpet into the living room, only to discover that her father had fallen asleep. A light snore filled the room, and his head was tilted back, mouth slightly open. Asleep, he looked…older. His cheeks sagged without his usual smile. She could hardly bear it. Wake up, scold me for not using Mom’s coaster, then wink at me.
Gently. she set down the glass—on a coaster, of course—on the side table next to the recliner. She picked up the remote and turned down the music he’d been listening to—old-school Bootsy Collins.
Then she tiptoed from the living room and went to her own room to call Dominic. Her mother had left everything just as it was, so she’d have a place to stay during visits. But when she’d returned from Minneapolis, she’d boxed up most of her old high school stuff—achievement certificates, photos of her with her friends, flyers for various bands who’d played at the Blue Drake—so her surroundings wouldn’t seem so childish. But she hadn’t put up anything in their place, so the walls were mostly bare, other than an inspirational Maya Angelou poster on one wall—“Do the best you can until you know better, then when you know better, do better”—and an Eartha Kitt quote on the other. “My recipe for life is not being afraid of myself, afraid of what I think or of my opinions.” Those were worth keeping around.
She drew in a deep breath and pressed Dominic’s number, which she’d never deleted from her contacts. They were still business partners, after all, in a cursed kind of way.
“Do you know what time it is?” Dominic grumbled through a yawn. His familiar voice sent a shockwave through her—it felt almost surreal to hear him on the phone.
“You didn’t have to pick up. “
“I thought it was an emergency. You called twice.” That was the only way to get through the “do not disturb” setting on his phone.
“It is an emergency.” You sabotaged my job, you devious fuck. “Wait, are you speaking with a British accent now?”
“I’m a chameleon, Kendra. It’s part of what makes me so effective. I know how to adapt to my surroundings, and then, of course, dominate them.”
Was his vibrant baritone even sexier with a British accent? Why yes. Yes it was. Damnit.
She lay back on her bed and stared up at the ceiling, which she’d once covered with glow-in-the-dark stars. Most of them had fallen off over the years, and if that wasn’t a commentary on her hopes and dreams, she didn’t know what was.
“Why did you call the board of aldermen and lie about me?” Maybe he was so groggy that he’d answer a straight question.
“Lie? I bloody well didn’t lie, Kendra.”
Bloody? Jesus, he really was going all the way with this Brit thing.
“I said that our contract is still in force and it would be hard for you to give another job your full attention.”
The hypocrisy…
“You took another job!”
“And look how difficult it is to give any time to Explastica. I do try.”
“No, you don’t.”
“I try a little.” She could picture his smirk. “Every other Friday for about an hour.”
“So you can claim you’re still in it?”
His tone turned virtuous. “Just because I’m trying to bring in some income until Explastica gets off the ground doesn’t mean I’m giving up on it. I’m over here rooting for you to line up the funding for the next phase.”
The unfairness made her want to scream. “I need to earn a living too.”
