Last Beautiful Girl Page 5

  It had been years since they talked to each other. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew this day would come, but he didn’t expect it to be…like this.

  Not even close.

  “You know what,” he snapped. “Maybe I don’t always say the right thing, but at least I’m not walking around passing judgment like someone who does.” He aimed a hard glare at her. “Now I’m sorry that the whole nickname thing is a sore spot for you, but how the hell would I even know that, huh? There was a time when it didn’t. It slipped out, and believe me, it won’t happen again!”

  “Kyle…”

  “And I’ll tell you something else, Ms. Albright,” Because clearly he was on a roll now, “you’re not doing such a great job on how you talk or caring about anyone else’s feelings, and that makes you a hypocrite! I would have thought after all this time we’d be able to handle working together like adults but obviously I was wrong about you. Again.”

  He was feeling pretty damn smug, like he officially put an end to this ridiculous conversation when…

  Sydney’s entire expression fell and her big blue eyes welled up with tears.

  Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit…

  He went to reach for her when she just sort of gracefully lowered herself to the floor and began to cry.

  “Uh…hey,” he said softly, carefully. “I…I’m sorry. I didn’t mean…”

  “Oh, I think we both know you meant exactly what you said,” she said between sobs. “And you know what? I meant what I said. How dare you try to turn this around like I’m the one at fault here! And to say I don’t care about anyone else’s feelings? Do you realize how ludicrous that is? I’m here…I’m back in Magnolia Sound to raise my niece, for crying out loud! I’m doing it because it’s what my sister wanted! So screw you if you think that I don’t care because let me tell you something, Kyle Jones, I care a whole damn lot! Not that I’d expect you to understand. You’re the one who walks through life not giving a damn about anyone but yourself! It’s all about you and what makes you feel good and you don’t even care about the people you walk away from!”

  “Hey!” he cried, now completely ticked off. “You and I both know it wasn’t like that!”

  Sydney was back on her feet. “It was exactly like that! You didn’t get your way—I didn’t fall in line with what you wanted, and you didn’t give a damn about what I wanted or needed!” She took a step back and pulled on her hair and let out a growl of frustration. “This is getting us nowhere. It doesn’t matter anymore. It’s ancient history and clearly for the best—you know, the way things all worked out.”

  He wanted to argue, but…he was going to control himself.

  “After all, I’ve heard you pretty much date anything with boobs and act like some sort of frat boy who refuses to grow up, so I guess I made the right decision.”

  Or not.

  Kyle leaned in until they were practically nose-to-nose. “I don’t owe you an explanation for the way I live my life, just like you don’t owe me one about yours. You don’t have to like me, but dammit, I’m here to do a job, and I’m going to do it. And you want to know why?” He didn’t wait for her answer. “Because I’m the best damn person to do it. I know it and Jake knows it. So let’s agree right now to forget about the past and that we are never going to be friends, but at least agree to call a truce while I’m here working!” He was a little breathless and almost a little ashamed and how he was letting this slip of a woman get to him. He was the first to admit that he usually enjoyed a good fight, but never with a woman.

  Never.

  Even his sister—who could be a major pain in the ass—never got him this riled up.

  And that was saying something.

  Wiping away at the remnants of her tears, Sydney nodded. “Fine. Truce. Just…”

  “Yeah, I know. No nicknames,” he said before she could. “Got it, Ms. Albright.”

  And without another word, Sydney walked back into the house.

  In a move that was becoming all too familiar, Sydney rested her back against the door and let out a shaky breath.

  Like it wasn’t bad enough that the man pushed all her buttons by just being who he was and reminding her of a time she’d rather forget, he had to call her that stupid nickname and then see her cry.

  Awesome.

  Yeah, she was definitely not living her best life right now.

  Although she was due for a good cry.

  For the last two weeks, she had been doing better—crying less. She seriously felt like she had turned a corner and was finally moving on from her grief. But now that she let those first tears fall, she knew it wasn’t going to be easy to stop.

  Right now, Haley was out with her friend Janie and there wasn’t anything that she had to be doing. Pushing away from the door, she walked down the hall to the guest room she was using—she still hadn’t been able to sleep in Tracy’s room—and closed the door. In the distance, she could hear Kyle working, but she tuned him out. Instead, she curled up on the bed and let out a long breath, and before she knew it, tears were flowing.

  And they kept on flowing until she heard Haley calling her name.

  When she glanced at the clock on her nightstand, she saw over an hour had passed and she felt both mentally and physically drained. It was four in the afternoon and she had no idea how she was going to make it through the rest of the day.

  Maybe she should have gone with her parents to Florida. Perhaps she needed to take some time to truly come to grips with all the ways her life was changing.

  Maybe if she did, she wouldn’t have emotional breakdowns in front of strangers.

  Okay, technically Kyle Jones wasn’t really a stranger. She knew him as a boy, a young man. This version of him—all grown up and sexy as hell—was a stranger to her.

  “Aunt Syd! I’m home! Can Janie stay for dinner?”

  That was her cue to get up and stop feeling sorry for herself. Wiping at her face, she left her room. “I’ll be out in a minute!” she called out before going into the bathroom and quickly washing her face. Her reflection still showed that she looked like a mess, but it couldn’t be helped. Hopefully Haley wouldn’t comment on it either.

  Pasting a smile on her face, she walked down the hall and out into the kitchen. “Hey! How was the pier?”

  “It was great! We’re going to go out in the yard and practice for gymnastics tomorrow. I think I totally mastered my back handspring today!” And before Sydney could question her more on it, they grabbed a couple of bottles of water and were walking out the back door.

  The sound of laughter was music to her ears, and after a minute, she grabbed a bottle of water for herself and followed the girls out to the yard. It finally made sense why her brother-in-law had made it such a priority to do the property before tackling the house. As Sydney looked down from the deck, she saw Haley doing cartwheel after cartwheel across the yard—and laughing as she did it.

  Slowly, she made her way down the steps and did her best not to be too obtrusive and simply observe. She sat on one of the lower steps and smiled as both girls just tumbled and flipped and seemed to bounce all over the yard.

  Somewhere out front, she heard the sound of a car door slamming and wondered who was here. She was about to stand up when Kyle came wandering around the back. Haley instantly spotted him and ran over to tell him about her newest achievement.

  Great.

  Before she knew it, her niece was putting on a total performance and Kyle was gushing over it. There was no way she could possibly tell them to stop without coming off like a total bitch.

  Not that she minded coming off that way to Kyle, but Haley didn’t deserve that, and she certainly wouldn’t understand why she was carrying on.

  So she moved from the stairs to sit on one of the large Adirondack chairs on the patio. For several minutes, Sydney watched as Haley did one move and then another while talking excitedly to Kyle the entire time. When he dove to the ground dramatically while pretending to do a cartwheel, both girls went wild with laughter. It had been so long since she’d heard her niece laugh like that—a genuine belly laugh—and it made her heart ache for her.

  And apparently her earlier crying jag unleashed something in her because she felt the sting of tears again.

  “Dammit,” she muttered, carefully wiping at her eyes. There was no way she needed Kyle to see her cry twice in one day.

  “Aunt Syd! Aunt Syd!” Haley cried as she ran toward her. “Can we get a balance beam for the yard?”

  “Um…what?”

  “Sorry,” Kyle said as he gave Sydney a lopsided grin. “I just thought we could build a make-shift one from some of the lumber we have out front and Haley could use it to practice on.”

  With a smile in place, she focused on her niece. “Uh…sure, I guess. If it’s not too much trouble.”

  “I can work on it over the weekend,” he explained. “It shouldn’t take too long.”

  “Why can’t we do it now?” Haley whined. “If you have the wood right out front, why wait?”

  She wanted to tell Kyle to think before he spoke, but they’d already established that he didn’t. “Because Kyle’s got other things to finish first. Things his boss wants him to do and that we need him to do.”

  “Whatever,” Haley huffed before turning and running to the other side of the yard. Sydney started to stand to go after her, but Kyle held a hand out to stop her.

  “Yeah, so…sorry. That was all my fault.”

  “No kidding.”

  He frowned. “Can you just please cut me some slack here? How was I supposed to know she wouldn’t want to wait?”

  “Maybe you could have asked me first?” she said sweetly, her smile tight. She could tell there were things he wanted to say, but she had to give him credit for holding his tongue while he thought about it.

  “Look, can we just agree that I was trying to do something nice?” he asked with just a hint of sarcasm. “I didn’t think encouraging her was going to turn into all this, but I’m not sorry for it either.”

  And that’s when she knew she was being overly sensitive. It wasn’t the first time Haley had thrown a bit of a tantrum when she didn’t get her way, and she had a feeling it wasn’t going to be the last. Right now, it was simply easier to blame Kyle. It gave her more of an excuse not to like him.

  “You’re right,” she finally said. “It…it’s actually very sweet of you to come back here and praise her. I’m sure after all the work you did today, you’d prefer to be home resting.” She paused and gave him a tentative smile. “Or at least doing something with other adults.” When she looked up at him, the strangest thing happened. He smiled and she felt like a dozen butterflies had taken flight in her belly.

  It was both familiar and…new.

  Not that she was overly surprised. Kyle Jones was incredibly handsome and he had the kind of smile that undoubtedly melted hundreds of panties over the years.

  Hers included.

  “Well, tonight I’m going over to my brother Hunter’s for dinner. He’s the one with the four-year-old so…I’ll go from talking gymnastics here to…possibly talking gymnastics there. Although, luckily, Eli’s version of gymnastics is more like rolling around on the ground.” He let out a low laugh. “It’s kind of fun getting to be the goofy uncle.”

  She nodded and laughed with him. “Yeah, it used to be fun to be the goofy aunt. Now it’s just…”

  Before she could finish, Kyle crouched down in front of her, bracing his hands on the arms of the chair. She didn’t realize tears were flowing until she could barely see him.

  “Hey,” he said softly before muttering a quiet curse. “I didn’t mean to upset you. I…I wasn’t thinking and…”

  Sniffling, she shook her head. “I appreciate the apology, but this one’s totally on me. For whatever reason, I’m especially emotional today.”

  “So…maybe earlier it wasn’t about me…”

  “Please,” she huffed, sitting up straighter. “You wish.”

  “Come on,” he teased lightly. “Admit it. I’m not all bad.”

  He was being ridiculous—and incredibly sweet—but she couldn’t let him know that. With a small shrug, she said, “I wouldn’t say that…”

  “But you’re thinking it,” he egged her on. “Deep down, you know that I’m basically harmless. I may say a lot of stupid shit, but it just makes me more loveable.”

  “Oh, good Lord…”

  “Kind of makes you want to hug me and tell me how I’m not the worst,” he said with a wink as he stood back up.

  Sydney couldn’t help but laugh. As she came to her feet, she said, “I’ll admit that you’re not terrible, but…it’s a hard pass on the hug.”

  He winked even as he leaned in a little closer. “Are you sure? I’m an excellent hugger.”

  She remembered and it was seriously tempting but…

  “Nope. Still gonna pass.”

  “Well damn,” he said with a pout. “Can’t blame a guy for trying.”

  Actually, she could, but she wouldn’t.

  “Is this the way you are with all your female clients? A consummate flirt?”

  And she could have kicked herself the minute the words were out of her mouth. It made it seem like she was fishing for information—or worse—that she was jealous.

  His smile faded as he shook his head. “Uh…no.”

  Before she could continue with this silly banter, his phone rang. It was the perfect distraction because she took advantage of the moment to go check on Haley. She and Janie were sitting under one of the big trees with their heads together and talking a million miles a minute.

  “So I was thinking we could maybe have some Chinese takeout for dinner and have a Cheer Squad marathon,” she said casually, and as she hoped, it did the trick. Both girls looked up at her and smiled.

  “Can we binge all the episodes?”

  “Sure! And I think we have the makings for some epic ice cream sundaes and—if Janie wants to sleep over—we’ll do waffles in the morning.”

  “Waffles?” Janie asked with a big grin. “You’re the best aunt ever! Can I move in?”

  “Ugh…with all the work going on here, we may need to move in with you,” Haley said, but she was laughing, so…that was a good thing. “C’mon, let’s go call your mom and set up the living room for our binge-a-thon!” Then they took off toward the house without giving Sydney a second thought.

  She hung her head and shook it, even as relief washed over her as another crisis was averted.

  “It’s going to get better,” Kyle said from close beside her. She turned her head and looked up at him. His gray eyes were solemn and sincere.

  “I keep trying to tell myself that, but…”

  He cleared his throat. “Um…I don’t know if you remember, but…my mom died when I was six.”

  “I do.”

  She saw him swallow hard before he gave her a curt nod. “My sister was barely four, I was six, Hunter was eight, and Dean was ten. It was awful,” he said, his voice gruff. “There are times when we all talk about her and it’s casual and we’ll laugh at the memories, and other times…it’s still raw.” He reached out and took one of her hands in his. “What I’m saying is…Haley’s going to have good days—like right now—and bad ones, like the day at the Y.”

  “It’s all so overwhelming,” she admitted. “Like…there’s no manual on how to handle something like this. One minute I had a life and a job up in Boston and my family was here, happy and healthy. The next…” She shook her head. “I’m afraid I’m going to let her down.”

  Sydney had no idea why she was suddenly sharing all of this with him when just a few hours ago she had been more than ready to throat punch him.

  “You could never let her down,” Kyle said softly, and when she looked up at him, she almost believed him. “You’re here and you’re taking care of her, and you’re loving her.”

  “I wish it were that easy.”

  Nodding, he said, “My dad was…well…he was a wreck for a long time. My oldest brother, Dean, he really stepped in and helped us all. I still don’t know how he did it. He was grieving like the rest of us, and yet…he just always seemed to know what had to be done.” He paused and chuckled. “Of course, that doesn’t mean there weren’t times when we didn’t have clean clothes or when we ended up eating toast and popcorn for dinner. Sometimes it’s okay when things don’t go exactly as planned. At the end of the day, you’ve got each other, right?”

  She nodded and…felt better.

  “Thanks, Kyle. I…”

  “Aunt Syd! Can we bake cookies to have with the ice cream?”

  Both she and Kyle shook their heads at Haley’s request. Gently pulling her hand from his, she looked up at where her niece was standing on the deck. “Um…why don’t you see if we have all the ingredients first?”

  “Okay!” There was a pause. “Oh, we looked at the Chinese menu and marked all the stuff we want. I’ll leave it on the table for you!”

  “Sounds good!” Sydney called back. And then all they heard were footsteps running back into the house. “I should definitely get in there and make sure they’re not ordering half the menu,” she said, taking a small step back.

  “Yeah. I can imagine them totally doing that.”

  “So, um…I guess I’ll see you tomorrow. What…” She paused and cleared her throat. “What will you be working on tomorrow?”

  “Tomorrow’s Saturday so I hadn’t planned on coming by…”

  She shook her head and wanted to kick herself. “Right. Saturday. It’s like I can’t even keep track of the days of the week anymore. Sorry.”

  “If you’re really okay with the balance beam thing, I was going to take some wood home to work on it and I could bring it by Sunday.”

  “You really don’t have to do that. She’ll be fine without one.”

  “Nah,” he said with a grin. “It won’t be anything fancy, but she’ll be able to goof around and practice on it. It won’t take me that long to do.”

  “Well…if you’re sure.”

  He nodded.

  “And don’t rush,” she rambled on. “You know, with the beam. You can just bring it on Monday. We have plans to go out on a friend’s boat on Sunday.”