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Her breathing deepened, and she looked at me, lips parted, responding to my touch. Our eyes locked but only for a second; she shook her head as if to shake off the heat between us.
"No," she said, her tone final, "he won't. And I can't let you lose this opportunity. Not for me."
"It's not your choice. It's mine."
She drew herself up to her full height and pulled away from me stiffly. "You should always make the right choice. Staying with me is the wrong one, and I can't accept that."
"What are you saying?" I felt stupidly, ridiculously close to tears.
She must have sensed my impending breakdown, because she seemed to calm down. She smiled weakly and patted my arm. "Let's not talk about it anymore right now. We're both upset. We'll figure it out."
"Together," I said stubbornly. For some reason, even though my arms were still around her, I felt as though I was losing her.
"Together."
I wrapped my arms tighter around her as we headed to the car, but I felt as if she was already gone.
Lowell
We were quiet on the drive back to the hotel. At least on the outside. On the inside, my mind was racing a thousand miles a minute.
How am I going to do this? How am I going to do any of this?
I was forming a plan that I hated. But I felt as though I had to see it through, because it was the best thing for Kyle, and that was the most important thing to me. I had to at least be honest with myself about that. I looked at his profile. His handsome face was turned toward the window, dark circles under his eyes. I squeezed his hand.
"What?" he asked flatly.
I love you. "Nothing," I said.
Even though I was lost in my thoughts, as we walked hand-in-hand through the hotel lobby, I felt eyes on me. I turned around, the hair on my neck standing up.
And I locked eyes with the one and only Caroline Barton.
I saw the concierge, Britta,
waving wildly at me. She pointed at my mother then shrugged helplessly. "I told you there was a message," she said.
I turned back to my mother, steeling myself for what would surely be another fucked-up family reunion.
"Darling!" My mom sprang up out of her chair when she spotted us.
A nanosecond too late, I dropped Kyle's hand and jumped away from him. My mother eyed me curiously then turned her gaze to Kyle, her carefully-mascaraed eyes taking in every sexy, hulking inch of him.
"How did you know I was here?" I stammered.
She looked at me as if I had three heads. "I called your agent, darling." She gave me a perfunctory hug and practically pushed me out of the way, extending her hand to Kyle. "Hello there, I'm Caroline Barton, Lowell's mother. And you are…?"
I watched as she studied his face, a look of suspicion and stupefied recognition dawning.
"It's me. Kyle." He offered his hand to her, clearly steeling himself for her impending reaction.
She dropped his hand like a dead fish. "Kyle as in Kyle Richards?" Her face was a pale mask.
I almost felt sorry for her, but I was too busy feeling annoyed by her presence and sorry for myself.
"The one and only." He smiled at her, putting his dimples on full display.
But the dimples had never done much for my mother. She turned to me. "You've got to be fucking kidding me, young lady."
