I'm All Yours (17 page)

“Do what?”

“My mother, why did
you hire a PI to find where she was?”

There was silence.

“I’m sorry. I know I shouldn’t have
,
but…”

“But what
,
Evi
e?
Was this all a set up for me?
Was Ms. Sutton even in on it? Pairing us up
, you sleeping with me, telling me you loved me when
all you
wanted to do was find
my mother?”

“Kyle, no, and how dare you accuse me of doing such a despicable thing
?
”

“You were right
,
Evie
.
W
e
don’t have a thing in common because you’re a
career
-
minded, selfish bitch.”

He stabbed at the phone, ending the call
,
but then he shook so hard it dropped to the floor.

He loved Evie
.
H
e’d
trusted her
,
and now his world was falling apart.

*
***

Sadie paced up and down her office. She only had herself to blame for this
.
She should have
intervened
and forced Kyle to tell Evie about his mother before he’d purchased that engagement ring. Wh
at a horrible misunderstanding between two perfectly matched people.

“Sadie, I see that trouble is brewing.”

Sadie turned around to see Nadine standing in the doorway. She’d forgotten to turn off her witch
’
s globe when she’d
decided to check
on Kyle and Evie. Here in plain view
were
the two of them, bot
h sitting on beds
,
heads in their
hands
,
and Evie sobbing.

“It’s just temporary,” said Sadie.

“Perhaps these two aren’t meant to be together after all. And I did warn you about intervening. That’s why we don’t use potion
s
and spells in the Department of Love.”

Sadie slumped down on t
he chair. Maybe Nadine was spot on
. N
o
, no, in her bones she felt right about this pair.

“I’m not wrong,” sai
d Sadie. “And please just let me
put a thought into her head so these two can talk things out.”

Nadine didn’t respond.

“Please,” said Sadie. “If I’m wrong then you can take away Perfect Pairing from me and report me to the Counsel.”

“Just this once
,
and if it doesn’t work, that’s it.”

Sadie nodded, hoping she was right. She pulled out her mixing dish, a bottle of potion 46
and poured in three drops before circling
her hands over the silver bowl.

Chapter Twelve

Evie
knew that
wasn’t the
real
Kyle she’d come to know and love. She’d tried calling him back
to explain the whole horrible misunderstanding
,
but
for
the next two hours all she
got
was
his voicemail.

At first she thought it was hopeless, that Kyle would never believe her intentions
weren’t
to hurt him or his mother. But then a strange feeling had washed over her. She needed to straighten things out in person. S
he
’d
booked herself on the next flight to
Missoula
, telling her producer that she was needed there on urgent family business.

Luckily the plane was able to land before the snow began moving into the area
,
but it was a slow taxi ride to the condos were Kyle was living while he was filming.

*
***

Evie was the last person Kyle expected
,
or for that matter, wanted
,
to see when he arrived back from the set the following evening.
However, s
he look
ed gorgeous in her coat, its fake fur
-
edged hood rimming that lovely face of hers.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “Please let me explain the real reason I wanted to find your mother.”

“The real reason…”
If she thought she would lie or sweet talk her way out of this situation, she was wrong. She’d picked the wrong guy to mess with.

She’d kissed him before he had chance to say another word
or get his defenses in full swing
.

And i
f she thought them getting physical was going to put things right
,
she was
…
almost
dead right.
She’d be hard to resist
,
but he’d do it.

He opened the door and put his hand in the middle of her back to encourage inside.
After all, she’d traveled all this way
.
A
nd there was also a sudden chill to the air
,
so he could hardly make her stand outside all night.

She rubbed her hands together before taking off her coat. Shit, she was wearing tight
-
fitting jeans and a
n
even tighter ribbed sweater
. K
eeping her at arm’s length was going to be tougher than he’d thought. But maybe she’d worn them just to try
to
win him over.

“Look
,
Evie, I think I’ve already said all I want to on the matter of you prying into my mother’s affairs.” He put both hands in his pockets and made a fist. That would help him focus and remain angry with her.

“Please, let me explain everything to you.”

“There’s nothing more to say or explain. You are a career
-
minded woman who’d do anything to get ahead in the business even if it means ruining people’s lives. I was a fool to think we had a chance to make a go of this relationship.”

Fuck, tears were sliding down her face
,
and he felt compelled to rush over to her to wipe them away and hug her. This time it was his feet he focused on, pushing his toes down into his shoes, making sure they were anchoring to the floor
,
so he didn’t get any silly ideas about doing just that.

She was sobbing now
,
and it was tearing him apart. He tried to look away but caught sight of the little red velvet box sitting on the countertop. He looked at her again. If she was all the terrible things he’d just said to her face then she should be the actor not him because right now she was looking pretty convincing about being sorry.

And everyone deserved to be heard
,
didn’t they? Deserved a second chance? Hadn’t he pleaded with the judge on his mother’s behalf that taking his father’s life wasn’t all her fault?

He took a deep breath. Maybe he’d regret this
,
but what the hell.

“Okay
,
Evie, you have five minutes to explain things to me.” He looked at his watch.

She wiped her tears with the back of her hand.

“I
realize now that I
should have asked you if it was okay to contact your mother before I went ahead and did it
.
However,
my plan was to invite her to travel with me here for your big birthday.”

Kyle
closed his eyes and opened them a few seconds later.
If this was true, she was not only innocent but a hell of nice person. And he, well he was as she’d originally called him
,
an asshole for not listening to her and accusing her of being all those awful things.  He loved this woman, period.

“And I should have be
en
hone
s
t
with you and
told you about her before now, but I got so nervous. I thought I’d lose you.
Oh Evie, can you forgive me f
or saying those vile things on the phone to you?”

Evie raised her hand. “Hey, I think I would have thought the same thing. I only got the PI involved because I was busy, I knew him
,
and I thought he’d do the job I couldn’t.”

He couldn’t resist her any longer. He marched over to where she stood and
grabbed her hand. “I never wanted anyone to find out about this, not because of me, but
because of
my mom. She deserves her privacy. God knows she’s been through enough in her life.”

“I know she’s serving time for murder and that it was self defense.”

Kyle took
another
deep breath.
They had to be honest from now on, so she might as well know everything. No secrets, no lies, nothing
.
“It’s the reason I stood you up that morning.”

“What?”

“I got the call about he
r shooting my dad ten minutes into my ride to your studio
. My manager said to make it look like I was a
temperamental actor who
had stood you up. Shit, that was the dumbest piece of advice
someone’s given me
,
but it did protect
my mom.”

“And all that time you made me believe, everyone believe
,
that
you were just an asshole.”

“This was all k
ind of shallow of me
,
don’t you think?”

“Oh
,
Kyle,
I was mean to you, the drink in your face, the photographers.”

He shook his head. Evie couldn’t really be mean. He knew that now.
“I deserved it.”