If Looks Could Kill (25 page)

Carrie Anne turned studiously back to the phone. “Aunt Kaila, what do you want us to bring?”

She listened and turned back to Madison. “She said to bring ourselves.”

Madison laughed. “Tell her we'll be along in a while.”

Carrie Anne did so, then hung up. She was so excited that she didn't want to sit down and eat, but Madison warned her that they weren't going anywhere until they'd all had breakfast.

Kyle was an extremely polite guest, complimenting Madison and Carrie Anne on every dish. When they were finished eating, he offered to help pick up.

Madison thanked him, then said, “You two go get ready. I can manage quicker by myself. Maybe you could get your bathing-suit bag together, Carrie Anne, then run with Kyle to pick up some sodas or beer and cookies or something.”

“Aunt Kaila said just to bring ourselves,” Carrie Anne reminded her.

“Carrie Anne—” Madison began.

“We don't want to be empty-handed, now, do we?” Kyle inquired. “I don't know your uncle Dan that well yet. I've got to make a good impression, huh?”

“Sure. I'll show you the right kind of cookies.”

“For Uncle Dan?” Kyle asked.

“For Justin, Shelley and baby Anthony,” Carrie Anne said gravely.

“If we're going to impress Uncle Dan, get him some Guinness,” Madison advised.

“Gotcha,” Kyle said.

While they were gone, Madison quickly cleaned up and dressed in her bathing suit, throwing shorts and a T-shirt over it. She was slipping into her sandals when the phone rang, and she hurried to pick it up, thinking it might be Kaila, asking them to get ice or something else on the way.

“Hello?” she said, hopping into one shoe.

“Madison.” It was Darryl.

“Hey! I've got a bone to pick with you,” she warned him good-naturedly.

“Ouch. Don't talk about bones. I ran into your father and Jassy having dinner last night in the Grove. Naturally she gave me the lowdown on these corpses that keep turning up.”

“Hmm. I guess she can't help it.”

“So? What's the bone?”

“First, why did you call? What's on your mind?”

“A friend. Named Lindy. It's getting kind of serious, and I wanted to bring her tomorrow night, but it's Roger's show—your family's affair, in a way—and I wanted to make sure it would be okay.”

She smiled, looking at the receiver, feeling a welling-up of affection for Darryl. She never should have married him, but still, she was glad she had. They both had Carrie Anne, and she had a good friend.

“Darryl, we've been divorced for nearly three years! Of course you can bring Lindy. I've heard all about her.”

“You have?” He sounded surprised.

She sighed softly. “Darryl, that's my bone. You two weren't very discreet. Carrie Anne repeated all kinds of things you two were saying.”

He was silent for a minute. “Oh?”

“Kyle likes you, too,” she teased.

Darryl groaned softly. “So what's the story with him?” he asked. “I mean, you're right, we have been divorced a long time, but, well, we've both been so careful around Carrie Anne….”

“Darryl, don't worry. And actually…I don't know the story with Kyle. He's obsessed with the idea that I might be in danger, so he's staying here.”

“That's all?”

“He's sleeping in the guest room,” Madison assured him.

“Umm.”

“What does that mean? Darryl, I wouldn't—”

“I'm not accusing you of lying, Madison. I'll just never forget the night you had that dream…or his wife's funeral, or the way you were after. You've always had some kind of a tie to him, Madison. I don't know exactly what. But it's not going to go away.”

“
He'll
go away again,” she said dryly. “He works in D.C.”

“So do I—supposedly. Though it looks like I'm being transferred down here. Permanently.”

“Oh, Darryl! I'm so glad.”

“Really?”

“Of course!”

“Anyway, you'll get to meet Lindy, and I hope you'll like her. She's cute as a button. A redhead.”

“So I heard.”

“Oh, yeah?”

Madison laughed softly. “I take it you've been seeing her longer than Carrie Anne knows?”

“Yeah. I met her almost a year ago, when I was down here for Carrie Anne's birthday party. I've been seeing her when I'm down…and she's come up to see me a few times, too.”

“Good. I want your next marriage to be a success.”

“Thanks. I'm grateful my first marriage left me with such a good friend.”

“So am I. We'll see you at Roger's shindig, then. Can't wait to meet your girl.”

“Good. Hey, Madison?”

“Hmm?”

“Are divorces supposed to be this good?”

“I try not to question my blessings in life,” she told him.

“I'm a blessing?”

“You bet.”

“Love you, kid. And, hey…”

“Yeah?”

“Don't let your pride get in the way of being happy, Madison. You married me because he hurt you. He didn't mean to. Take care.”

He hung up. Madison slowly replaced the receiver. She was still staring at it when Kyle and Carrie Anne came back in.

“Anything important?” Kyle asked.

“Darryl is bringing Lindy to your dad's opening tomorrow. We'll get to meet her.”

“She's nice, Mommy. Honest,” Carrie Anne said.

“I'm sure she is,” Madison agreed. “Go get your stuff, honey.”

“I left the beer, Cokes and cookies in the car,” Kyle said as Carrie Anne raced off.

“I'm all set,” she told him, picking up her coffee cup, the last dish, to set it in the sink.

“You all right with that?”

“With what?” she asked, turning to him.

He was wearing his shades again. And he smelled like aftershave. A nice, subtle scent.

“With Darryl bringing Lindy.”

“Why wouldn't I be?”

He shook his head. “I don't know. I mean, you were married. And it's hard to see what could have gone wrong between you.”

“It didn't work.”

“Was it me?” he asked.

“Kyle Montgomery, you do have an ego!” she protested. She wished he wasn't standing quite so close. “Let's get going, shall we?”

He nodded.

“Another man?”

“Let's go.”

“Another woman?”

She slammed a palm against his chest, pushing him. “Let's go!”

Carrie Anne chatted all the way to Kaila's, making sure that Kyle had a good picture of all three of her cousins.

Madison just smiled.

An hour later she was really glad she had gone to her sister's. It seemed the farthest they had gotten from the dark shadow hovering over their lives for a long time. Dan was in a good mood, showing off for the kids, twirling his barbecue fork in the air and making wild slicing motions in the air as he turned the burgers. Later Madison helped Kaila wrap the leftover food and put it away, and she was glad to see that her sister seemed happy—and in love with her husband again.

“It's been a better week, huh?” Madison asked her.

Kaila smiled, shrugging, looking down at the dish she was rinsing. “A great week. Dan had a day off. He took over the chores…. We talked.”

“Good. I know he loves you. He gets just as frustrated, you know. Being a lawyer is tough, time-consuming. It's hard for anyone to balance work and family these days.”

“I just feel so guilty, and so scared….”

“Guilty, why?” Madison asked, frowning. “Kaila, you didn't—”

“No, no! I didn't go off and have an affair or anything.”

“Then…?”

“I…I nothing!” she said quickly. “The thought, you know. You don't want to sin in thought, word or deed, right? My thoughts were pretty wicked, for a while.”

“Kaila! Did you actually have someone in mind?”

Her sister looked at her for what seemed like a long time.

“Kaila?”

“I—”

“Hey, sweetheart!” Dan called, coming into the kitchen. He flashed Madison a smile as he slipped his arms around his wife. “Chicken fights!”

“Chicken fights?” Kaila asked him.

Dan nodded. “You and me against Madison and Kyle. The kids are asking—no, demanding!—to be entertained!”

“They're like the old Romans, demanding Christian sacrifices in the arena. Send in the gladiators, bring on the lions!” Kyle said, walking in behind Dan. They looked like best buddies, in similar boxer-style bathing suits and sunglasses, Guinnesses in hand. Dan was light, Kyle dark, but they were both fit and bronzed. Between them, Madison thought, they could make one great ad for men's swimwear.

“Madison?” Kaila said.

“Uh…sure.”

“Come on, Kaila,” Dan said. “We've got to be the lions. We must prevail. We can't humiliate ourselves in front of our children.”

“Well, now, I'm pretty good at chicken fights,” Kyle advised Dan and Kaila solemnly.

“And I could always beat the shit out of Kaila,” Madison warned Dan.

“Whoa, that's a challenge if I ever heard one!” Kaila cried.

Ten minutes later, she and Kaila were laughing hysterically, because no matter how hard they tried, they couldn't drag one another off the men's shoulders and into the pool. The kids were shrieking with laughter.

“Kaila, don't squirm so much!” Dan protested. “You're pulling out all the hair on my head. And I may be losing it already, you know?”

“Madison, let her go. You've got your sister's knee in my nose!” Kyle groaned.

“I'm going to beat her! I'm going to beat her!” Kaila cried, pulling with all her might on Madison's hands.

“Ha!” Madison declared, but then she and Kaila both went down.

They made tremendous splashes, and the kids demanded a rematch. Instead, Kyle set them up in the shallow end of the pool, Carrie Anne with baby Anthony on her shoulders, while Justin went into battle with Shelley on his own. Kyle helped both contestants balance and managed to let Shelley win, since she cared, and Anthony fall, since all he really wanted to do was create a big splash.

Before they left, Madison tried to take her sister aside again, but it was tough—Kaila didn't want to get taken aside. Madison finally managed to get a moment out by the car, as they were getting ready to leave. “Kaila, if something is going on, if you were almost involved with someone, please, tell me. Maybe I could help.”

“Don't be silly,” Kaila protested. “There…there wasn't anyone.”

“Okay, I'm not going to call you a liar,” Madison said quickly, seeing that Dan and Kyle were walking toward them. “But if you ever need to talk, if you ever need help, call me. Or Jassy. Or Dad!”

“Oh, yeah, Dad! He still treats Jassy as if she were sixteen.”

“And she ignores him. So don't call Dad. Call me or Jassy.”

“Of course, Madison.”

“Honest?”

“Yeah. Sure.”

Kyle was there then, along with Dan. Carrie Anne was already in the back seat, sound asleep. Madison and Kyle said good-night, Madison taking the driver's seat, since she wasn't sure just how many Guinnesses Kyle had consumed.

But when they waved goodbye and started backing out, she caught a glimpse of Kyle's eyes, and she realized he was stone-cold sober.

“What's the matter?” she asked him, smiling. “You were looking like a good old boy there for a while.”

“Nothing's the matter.”

“Something is.”

He shrugged. “Your brother-in-law asked me to look into something for him.”

“What?”

He glanced at her. “You don't know?”

She shook her head.

“She didn't say anything to you about…seeing someone?”

Madison felt as if a cold sweat were breaking out on her forehead. “Kaila's not having an affair.”

“You're certain?”

“I—Yes,” she lied. “Why?”

He glanced into the back seat to make sure that Carrie Anne was still sleeping, then turned back to Madison. “Because someone sent her edible panties.”

“What?”
Madison asked incredulously.

He nodded.