“There’s a twist,” she confirmed.
“Riley’s secretly a kangaroo too?”
“No.” Her lips twitched. “Although, it must be said, kidnapping a sentient kangaroo before boning her would still constitute dubcon.”
Karl thought for a minute. “Brazen pulled a Bobby Ewing switcheroo? Everything’s a dream?”
Bobby Ewing, Matthew repeated silently, then extracted a small notepad from the side table’s drawer and jotted down a note to himself.
“I’m not going to tell you, Special K.” Athena resettled herself on her ridiculous settee. “You’ll just have to find out for yourself.”
He scowled at her. “Dammit, Greydon.”
“I have a suggestion.” Matthew’s voice was drier than the strawberries currently shriveling in the bakery’s dehydrator. “One that doesn’t involve kangaroos, but rather the actual reason Karl came to our house tonight.”
“Please excuse me, Dr. Matthew Vine the Third. I got off topic again.” Athena blinked up at him through smudged lenses, all remorseful innocence. “You’ll have to teach me some discipline.”
Karl groaned and scrubbed both hands over his own face. Jesus H. Christ, that woman was a hellion. And now he needed to soak his brain in fucking bleach.
“To return to my suggestion...” Matthew’s voice and expression remained calm, despite his bright-pink ears. “Let me sum up the situation, and please correct me if I’ve gotten something incorrect. Karl, you’re confused as to why demonstrating your honesty and protectiveness toward Molly hasn’t convinced her to trust you as much as you’d prefer. You haven’t told her how you feel about her, however, and you don’t know key parts of her history.”
A decent summation, but not congratulatory enough when it came to Karl’s exemplary patience and research efforts.
Nevertheless, he waved Matthew on.
“Your next activity needs to involve open communication,” his best friend concluded.
No goddamn way. “Today’s food-tasting exercise covered that, Vine. We’vealreadycommunicated. Thought we’d do putt-putt next.”
“Communication’s not really a one-time event, Special K.” Athena’s tone was overly patient, like a parent explaining to her toddler why shitting his pants was problematic, and Karl did his best to murder her with his eyes. “Which I know comes as a disappointment, but it’s true. Especially since your communicationtoday involved food, not feelings. Not personal histories. Not your hopes for the future or concerns you might have.”
“Did too learn some personal history,” Karl muttered.
That fucking terrible cake-smushing wedding story. All the divorce shit. None of which he was being given sufficient credit for, dammit!
“Good.” Athena’s approval sounded genuine. “You can build on that. We can help.”
Woman wasn’t going to relent. He could already tell.
“Motherfucker.” This groan came from deep in his tortured fucking soul. “Fuck. My. Fucking. Life.”
“Sure, Special K.” Athena beamed at him. “If you insist.”
Grumpily, Karl listened to their ideas. Took notes on his phone, because those assholes werethorough.
By the time he stomped downstairs and reached their front door, he knew what he needed to do—tomorrowandnext weekend—and was way past ready for bed. Right before he left, though, Matthew drew him aside in the entryway.
“Karl, I understand why you want to prove yourself to Molly. You’re hoping for a real future with her, and that can’t happen if she doesn’t trust you.” Lines creased his forehead as he spoke quietly. “The part I still don’t get is why all this needs to happen now, before she leaves Harlot’s Bay. She can visit here again. You can visit her in California. There are video calls, texts, and emails, or even—and I know this is an upsetting concept for you—old-fashioned phone calls to tide you over between reunions. You canbuild trust over time, instead of trying to compress the entire process into four short weeks.”
Karl sighed heavily. “I want her to stay, Matthew.”
“I know. Eventually, you’d like her to move here, but—”
“Not eventually,” Karl corrected. “Now.”
“But...” Those lines across Matthew’s brow deepened. “Karl, that’s not—”
“Molly’s squirrelly as hell. Give her enough distance, and she’ll retreat further. If things don’t happen now, got a bad feeling they won’t happen at all.” That feeling had been hounding him since the first moment of their reunion. Drumming in his temples. Roiling his stomach. Keeping him awake no matter how exhausted he was. “Why I asked for your help tonight. I don’t have time to keep fumbling this shit. I need to know what to do.”
