Mosaic (32 page)

My eyes were made up in smoky browns, so I smoothed beige lipstick over my lips and did a little turn in front of the mirror. The red knit dress I wore was narrow at the waist and then flared out to my knees. The top scooped in from my shoulders, showing them off and making them look slightly broader. It was a very flattering silhouette. My hair was smoothed, and with a strand of costume pearls around my neck, I felt very sophisticated. Picking up my phone, I headed down to meet my date.

His back was to the stairs as I descended, but I noticed he was in tan slacks and a navy short-sleeved polo. It was casual, but still went with what I was wearing. My mom, did a small gasp.

“Oh, look at you two!” Her voice caused Julian to turn, and the change in his eyes when he saw me made my stomach tingle.

He might not make comments anymore, but I could see he still thought them. With a grin, I leaned forward and kissed his cheek. “You look very handsome.”

His gaze made my legs feel weak.

“I can’t get over how grown up you both are,” Mom continued, her hands clasped. “It seems like just the other day you were going to one of those fall dances. How many of those did y’all go to together?”

I managed to break away and hug her. “Two. We went to two fall dances together and prom.”

“Well, you were very formal for prom, that’s true.”

“We won’t be too late, will we?” I glanced back at Julian, and he seemed to come back from wherever his mind had gone.

“I don’t know. We can do whatever you want.”

Mom jumped right in. “Stay out as long as you need. You guys are adults now.”

My eyebrows rose, but Julian caught my hand, and we left the house. The silver BMW was sitting in my driveway, and I thought about Will and his nastiness. I wondered how Julian had made it through the hostility. Now it seemed they were actual business partners, and the whole “bastard half-brother” outburst was forgotten.

“You look really beautiful.” Julian’s voice cut through my thoughts. “Your mom’s right. A lot has changed since high school.”

I put my hand over his, and my thoughts drifted to sleeping in his arms last night. “A lot has stayed the same, too.”

“I hope you like this place. It’s the first time I’ve been able to afford to take you to a fancy restaurant.”

Looking up at his profile, I couldn’t help being impressed by the man he was becoming. He eased into the Kyser lifestyle so seamlessly. “I never cared about those things with you.”

“I did.” His voice was quiet, and in that moment, it seemed his mood shifted. “For you.”

Cosmo’s Restaurant was on the canal, and it was closer to the Kyser mansion than to my house. While it was more high-end, it still had a relaxed feel. The hostess showed us to our table, and Julian ordered a bottle of wine. I studied the menu, trying to decide if I wanted Asian or American cuisine.

“If you miss New Orleans, they have a Muffaletta pasta. They also have a sushi menu.” He held the menu in such a way that I couldn’t see his face. It felt strange that he mentioned New Orleans and sushi, since it was the source of our first big disagreement, but I let it go. I hadn’t eaten much sushi when I lived here, after all.

“I’m really curious about the banana-leaf wrapped fish.”

He closed the menu and placed it on the table with a grin. “Get it, then, Banana-Face.”

I couldn’t stop a snortle. “What are you getting?”

“Tournadoes.”

That caught my eye, and I read the description of grilled tenderloin stuffed with feta and served with polenta and asparagus. “That sounds delicious.”

“I’ll let you try it.”

The waiter came and took our order and menus leaving us facing each other, and for a moment, I wasn’t sure what to say. We were out of context here, and my visit to his office, the encounter with Will had stirred up all my former insecurities.

“Your office is really nice.” I took a sip of wine, feeling like that was a dumb thing to say.

He didn’t respond at first, touching the base of his wine glass as if he were thinking. “It took a month for me to feel comfortable in it. My creativity was seriously stumped.”

“So you left SCAD then?”

“Yeah.” His blue eyes flickered up to mine. “It was the right time, and I was ready to get started.”

Nodding, I fiddled with the cloth napkin in my lap. “I think that’s okay. If it was what you really wanted, why wait? And you said you really like it.”

He nodded, but I could tell he had withdrawn. I couldn’t be certain of his normal demeanor now, but something had changed from before. It was as if something were on his mind, and he almost seemed a little sad.

“So everybody knows now?” I asked, and he frowned up at me. “That you’re Mr. Kyser’s son?”

“Oh, yeah.”

“I really missed a lot last year.”

“It wasn’t that big of a deal. I mean, he didn’t do an announcement party or anything. It just sort of trickled out.” His eyes were back on his flatware. I watched him straighten his knife. “Most people already knew or at least suspected anyway.”

I didn’t really want to bring up a bad subject, but I was very curious. “How did you manage to get Will to be so nice to you? He acted like you were a regular business partner today in your office.”

“I guess it’s like I said, he’s not such a bad guy. And he has a lot of contacts in the business world.” He took a sip of his wine, but I couldn’t let that pass.

“I can’t agree with that first part. Has he really changed so much since last Thanksgiving?”

Julian shrugged. “I don’t know. He’s never said anything more to me about that, and Brad’s right. He’s been at it longer than us. He’s a good member of the team.”

It troubled me to hear him defending his evil older brother, but I decided not to press it.

“I’d rather talk about you.” His eyes flickered up, and he smiled.

He was still holding something back, and I chewed the inside of my lip before conceding. “Okay. What do you want to know?”

I didn’t like the question. It was so reminiscent of our old argument, and after last night, I didn’t want us to go backwards.

Julian didn’t seem to notice. “You said today they offered you a job? In London?”

“They did.” I exhaled and took a sip of my wine.

He waited a few moments, but I didn’t say more.

“Do you want to take it?”

We were at dinner together, we’d slept together. It had felt like we were making progress back to how we used to be, and now here we were, right back to the things that were trying to pull as apart.

Still, I had to answer truthfully. I’d always done my best to be honest with him. “I don’t know. It’s a neat opportunity…”

“
Neat
?” He glanced up at me, and my sadness intensified.

“Okay, it’s an
amazing
opportunity.” I sighed, looking down at my plate. “It’s just not here.”

The waiter appeared at that point and placed two small salads in front of each of us. He held the pepper grinder, but I shook my head. Julian asked for a few cranks. We were alone again, but I’d lost my appetite.

I picked up my small fork and turned the dark green and purple leaves over, stirring the tomato in the light vinaigrette. Julian took a bite of his, but he didn’t look up at me. We were both sitting here, in front of the enormous mountain of a problem I’d always known was coming.

“You don’t like your salad?” His eyes found mine.

“I’m sorry.” Shaking my head, I put the fork down. “I’m just not hungry. I don’t want to spoil our fancy dinner, but—”

“No, no—we can get it to go. Hang on.” He motioned to the waiter, who appeared immediately at our table. “Yes, Mr. Kyser?”

“We’d like to get our entrees to go, would that be possible?”

“Certainly, sir. They’re still being prepared.”

Julian glanced at me, then he took out his wallet and handed the man a card. “I’ll come back and pick them up.”

The waiter left, and Julian stood. “Let’s take a walk.”

I thought he meant we’d cross the road and walk along the canal, but he escorted me to his car and we drove back the short distance to the Gulf. He parked at the Hidden Pass lot and we left our shoes by the pier, heading down to the ocean.

It was a perfect night, warm but not too humid. The breeze whipped my hair around my head, but I had a band from my purse to tie it back in a ponytail.

All of the events that had led us to this moment were crashing in my head like the waves on the shore. I thought about him being here, working with his dad, and how I didn’t even know about it. I thought about JYA, and how he’d practically ordered me to go to London, knowing it could lead to this.

Up until now, I’d had hope. For nine months, I’d held on so desperately to something I’d thought we both wanted until I got back here and found everything had changed.

I stopped walking and turned to face him. “Why did you send me away?” My voice was sharper than I’d intended, but I needed to know.

“What?” His brow creased, and he actually seemed not to know what I meant.

But I was tired of waiting for answers. “Last year. You pulled away from me. You cut me off and shut down without an explanation, and then you sent me away. I want to know why.”

He put his hands in his pockets and continued walking. “Don’t spoil it, Anna. Just let it go.”

“No!” I jerked his arm, making him stop and face me. “I want to know what happened.”

“Why?” Now his voice was raised. “So you can lie to me again? So you can make promises you won’t keep and then tell me how it was nothing?”

“How what was nothing? What are you talking about?”

“All those times you were with Jack. Having dinner with him, going to the park with him, kissing him on his boat. I don’t want to hear any more lies about how it didn’t mean anything to you.”

My breath had disappeared. I felt like someone had jumped out from behind a rock and thrown a bucket of cold water directly in my face. I needed a moment to recover.

“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about. I told you everything—”

“Dammit, Anna, that’s exactly what I’m talking about.” He looked off and shook his head. “Don’t tell me what I saw with my own eyes.”

I was so confused. “What you saw—but how? I don’t know what you mean!”

My mind was ripping through memories like one would tear through clothes in a drawer, searching for anything that would make sense out of what he was saying.

We’d discussed the sushi night and that stupid kiss. I’d explained to him about the run-in at Fat Harry’s. I’d texted him about going to the yacht for Rachel. When did I lie to him?

“Julian, please.” My voice broke, and I felt the tears threatening. “I told you everything, I promise. There was nothing going on with him.”

“I can’t listen to this.” He started to walk, but I held his arm.

“What about last night? Why did you come to me if you felt this way?”

He stood facing the water, not looking at me for several moments. Then he pressed his lips firmly together. “I don’t know why I came over last night.”

My stomach sank, and I wasn’t sure I could hear this. The waves crashed on the shore, and he looked at them as if he were making a decision.

“I’ve been seeing Renee again.” His words froze my heart. My eyes snapped to his, but only cold blue greeted them. “We’ve been together pretty regularly now, and I guess I had a weak moment. It was wrong of me.”

I thought I might collapse. I didn’t even realize I was crying until I blinked and the tears hit my cheeks.

“You should take the job in London,” he continued, his voice sounding far away. “It’s an amazing opportunity, and you can’t turn that down. Good luck to you, Anna.”

He patted my arm.

He actually reached out and patted my arm.

Something in me snapped. I raised my fists and hit his chest as hard as I could.

“You LIAR!” I screamed, pounding my clenched hands against him. “Stupid, lying, LIAR!” My insides were broken, but I continued hitting him through my sobs. “I believed in you. I believed in US! I spent a whole year believing if I could just get back here, we could fix it. We could have what we had before. The greatest thing in BOTH our lives.”

He didn’t look at me, but he didn’t back away from me either. He only stood there and let me hit him as if he didn’t feel a thing.

I couldn’t take his cold indifference any more. I reached back and slapped him hard. His lips tightened, but still he didn’t look at me.

“I’m taking you home now,” is all he said.

“I’m not going
anywhere
with you! Not anywhere in that stupid car… that car…” For a moment I thought my head would explode. “You have no idea all the things I’ve done for you!”

That brought him around, but his voice was harsh. “You mean all the secrets you’ve kept? All the lies you’ve told? I’m sure I don’t.”

My voice was hoarse from crying and yelling, my cheeks were wet with tears. I couldn’t think of another thing to say. Only one thing was on my mind at this point—getting home and calling Liam. I was going to London. Damn right I was going to London, and I was never coming back here.