"Thanks for lunch. I'll see myself in."
"Not so fast, I have time to walk you in. I need to take advantage of every second with you."
Chapter Twenty-four
"Okay," Kylie said, in a bit of a panic. "Well, it's gonna be a quick walk because I ... I have to go pee."
"You went to the bathroom at the restaurant," her dad said as if her peeing habits concerned him.
"Tiny bladder." She popped out of the car. She cut her eyes briefly at the other car and saw the passenger side door opening and then she saw ...
"Oh, crap!" It was not the Brightens. And right now she really, really wished it were.
Her mom and ... She watched in sheer horror as John's head appeared on the other side of the car.
"Kylie?" her mom called out in a stern voice.
She turned to her dad. "You should leave before ... before things go crazy."
"It's okay." Her dad looked embarrassed. "Just because of what happened last time doesn't mean we can't be civil to each other."
Her mom's posture and expression as she came stomping over to the car didn't seem to agree with her dad's "civil" declaration. Oh, lord, Kylie was so not in the mood to deal with her parents' drama right now.
But as she got closer, Kylie noticed her mom, her hair mussed, her clothes wrinkled, and her eyes bloodshot, didn't have her frown zeroed in on her dad, but on Kylie.
Okay ... whose drama was this? Her parents'? Or ...
"Is it true?" her mom snapped.
Kylie instantly remembered her mom had just flown back from England, which explained her appearance, but it didn't explain what was wrong.
Kylie looked to her dad to see if his expression would tell her if he had a clue to what her mom was talking about. But he looked equally puzzled.
"Is what true?" Kylie asked, and noticed John walking up to stop beside her mom. He didn't appear wrinkled or jet-lagged. But just seeing the man sent a bad feeling wiggling its way inside her.
"You called your dad about this, but not me?" her mom asked.
Kylie saw Holiday and Burnett high stepping it out of the office, probably thinking another free-for-all fistfight was about to occur.
Glancing back to her mom, Kylie sent up a prayer that this-whatever this was-wouldn't escalate into chaos.
"I didn't call him about anything. What are you talking about?"
"Did you use the credit card I gave you?"
Kylie nodded, her mind running circles and then landing on a possible answer to what this was all about. But Kylie really really hoped she was wrong.
"Are you pregnant?" her mom blurted out.
Okay, so Kylie wasn't wrong. Her mouth opened but nothing came out."She's pregnant?" Her dad looked at Kylie with a stern parental glare. "We won't be able to go on that hiking trip now!"
"Unfreakingbelievable," her mom seethed. "You hear your daughter's pregnant and you're worried about a hiking trip."
"No, I was ... I'm just in shock."
He wasn't the only one shocked. "Stop!" Kylie said.
"Just answer me, young lady," her mom demanded.
"No, I'm not ... pregnant." Kylie shook her head back and forth, imitating Burnett's hell-no head shake.
"I haven't even ... I'm..." I'm still a virgin! The words sat on the tip of her tongue, but she couldn't spit them out.
"Then why would you buy three pregnancy tests?"
"You bought three pregnancy tests?" her father echoed.
Kylie suddenly noticed another car parked beside John's Cadillac. It didn't have tinted windows, but it didn't matter if it did, because the windows were rolled down and the elderly couple in the front seat both had their faces turned, listening to the fiasco that was going on.
It suddenly hit Kylie who these people were.
The Brightens.
It had to be, didn't it? With Kylie's luck, yup, it had to be them.
Lovely.
Just lovely.
Kylie's knees started to tingle, signaling her desire to vanish.
Not now. Not now!
Take a deep breath and just relax. The voice came with a certain familiar chill.
Kylie looked around and didn't see him, but could hear him. Daddy?
I'm here. It's gonna be okay. I promise.
Your parents are going to think I'm a slut.
Nah. They are going to love you. You'll see. You will impress them. And soon, soon we will be together.
Kylie gasped. Am I going to die?
Daddy? Daniel? He, and his familiar cold, were gone.
Kylie took a big gulp of air. Now on top of worrying about her possible upcoming death and convincing everyone that she wasn't pregnant, she had to worry about the Brightens liking her. Because if they didn't, it would no doubt hurt her dad.
Oh, hell! Maybe she should just vanish.
* * *
Daniel, her dad, was right, at least about everything being okay. Well, she still had to face the Brightens.
But within two minutes, Holiday had the Brightens by the arms and was escorting them into the office.
Much to Kylie's relief, her parents were clueless as to who they even were.
And within five minutes, she had her stepdad on his way to his meeting, and her mom had calmed down. Not completely chilled, but calmer.Holiday had explained the whole confusion with the pregnancy tests in a much more rational way than it actually went down. Claiming the test had been for her and that she'd forgotten her purse and Kylie had been so kind to offer the credit card, and she'd already mailed a check to her mom. And so on and so on.
Yeah, Holiday pretty much lied, but it sounded really good.
Her mom explained that after the flight she'd found the credit card company had called and thought the charges might be fraud because the card had never been used and charges were made in Fallen, not in Houston. Her mom wanted to make sure the card hadn't been stolen so she called the drugstore to check on the purchase. That's when she was informed it was for three pregnancy tests and the buyer had been a Kylie Galen.
Now that her mom had calmed down, Holiday walked back to the office. Kylie spent about five minutes visiting with her mom, pretending to be interested in her off-the-wall ramblings about England.
Finally, her mom confessed she was too tired to think, much less talk. She kissed Kylie's forehead, told her she was so proud she wasn't pregnant, and asked John to take her home.
John had barely said two words the whole time he was here, but Kylie had caught him watching her in a way that made her antsy. However, when the man put his arm around her mom and gently kissed her brow and told her she could sleep while he drove, Kylie felt a flicker of guilt for not liking him.
Maybe Kylie needed an attitude adjustment where John was concerned. Because face it, if he made her mom happy, that made Kylie happy.