Kylie's Kiss

by Delia Latham

  “Actually, yes. It does.” Shay sent Kylie an anxious glance. “Are you OK with me moving back to Castle Creek?”

  “Why wouldn’t I be?” Kylie could think of nothing else to say. “What about your job? Are you through acting?”

  “I really think I am. At least, I’m through with Hollywood.” Shay nodded, and Kylie was struck by the quiet peace in her sister’s eyes. “I might get involved in the local theatre—maybe even teach a drama class or something—but yes, I’d like to walk away from the whole celebrity thing.”

  “Wow! That’s pretty wild.” She met her sister’s gaze. “So what are your plans then?”

  Shay’s entire face lit up. “I can’t wait to tell you what I’m doing. Have you heard of Looking Glass Ranch?” She guided the little group out of the hall and into the kitchen. Their mother greeted them, looking elegantly domestic in a designer apron that Kylie happened to know had never suffered so much as a splatter of hot bacon grease.

  But Mother’s apron didn’t matter. Had Shay just said ‘Looking Glass Ranch’? That was Rick’s place! She attempted a smile and forced words past her rapidly closing throat. “Yes, I know about the ranch. Why do you ask?”

  “Oh, then you know Rick Dale?” Shay’s face lit up. “I’m going to be working for him at the ranch as a professional makeup artist. I might even teach the girls a little drama, as well.”

  So this is why Rick had inquired about Shay. It hadn’t been a casual question. Somehow that conversation had gotten off track before she found out why he mentioned her sister.

  “Kylie?” Dayna’s voice came from at least a light year away. “Hey, what’s wrong?”

  She felt her friend’s hand on her right arm. On her left, a tiny hand slid into hers. “Auntie Ky?”

  A sharp intake of breath, and a stiff upward curving of cold lips. “I’m fine.” Gently extricating her hand from Eva Kate’s, she sidled away from Dayna’s touch. “I’m OK.” She crossed the room to plant a kiss on her mother’s cheek. Perhaps she could steer the conversation in another direction.

  “Hello, darling.” Her mother accepted her kiss and set a heavy skillet on an unlit burner before turning to give her a hug. “I’m glad you could make it.” She held Kylie out at arm’s length, raking a cool gaze over her outfit. “Pink again?” She raised one arched eyebrow, the gesture speaking her opinion more eloquently than any words.

  Her mother’s criticism always hurt, but Kylie thought she’d been learning to deal with it. Now, however, coming on the heels of Shay’s announcement, it broke through her carefully constructed armor and sliced her emotions in all the weakest places. She flinched as if she’d been slapped, swallowed hard, and willed herself not to cry.

  “She looks lovely, Mother.” Shay’s defensive voice cut into her roiling thoughts.

  “She looks about twelve years old.”

  “Stop it!”

  Kylie’s head jerked up in response to the acid in her sister’s tone. So did her mother’s.

  “Stop what, darling?”

  “That thing you do—criticizing Kylie. She’s perfect the way she is. Why do you keep trying to make her another clone of yourself, like you did with me?”

  Dayna caught Kylie’s eye and grimaced. She took Eva Kate’s hand and led the child out the room, leaving the Matthews women alone to hash out their differences.

  Their mother’s turquoise gaze met Shay’s identical one. “Clone? Darling, I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She turned in a full circle in the middle of the kitchen, eyes darting from corner to corner as though seeking some pressing chore that would rescue her from the conversation.

  “Please.” Shay got up, crossed the room and wrapped an arm around the older woman’s shoulder. “Come sit with me. You too, sis.” She grabbed Kylie’s elbow in passing and led them both to the table.

  When they were all seated, Shay took both of her mother’s hands in her own. “This has got to stop. I love you, Mother. You know I do, and I’m so proud of you. We both are. You were always prettier than any of our friends’ mothers. But what we needed was a mother—not a beauty queen.”

  “Why, I—I—”

  “Shhh.” Shay shook her head. “This should have been said long ago. You and I together, Mother, we’ve hurt Kylie. We’ve destroyed her self-confidence. Ever since she was little, we’ve done it over and over again—tried to change her, to make her just like us.”

  “Now Shay, that’s not true. Your sister is—”

  “No!”

  Kylie wouldn’t have been able to speak if they’d asked her to. Every muscle in her body felt frozen. Shay, going to battle for her against their mother? Was she dreaming? They both seemed to be ignoring her, for the moment. That was good. Maybe she could pick her chin up off the ground before they remembered she was there.

  “No,” Shay repeated, shaking her head. “Mother, look at me.”

  Obviously shocked and confused, the older woman obeyed. Shay released one of her mother’s hands to take one of Kylie’s. “I’m tired of allowing my life to revolve around my appearance. It’s shallow and—” She shook her head, biting on her lip. “It’s unfulfilling. And I’m not going to sit by and let you harass my sister for not buying into such a self-centered lifestyle. Please, Mother…can’t Kylie and I just be who we are? Are we not good enough the way God made us?” Her impassioned plea ended in a harsh, tearing sob.

  Kylie caught her breath. She’d never seen Shay cry—not like this, with her heart bared for the world to see. How had she missed seeing that her sister felt pressured by their mother’s demands as much as she did?

  Their mother sat up straighter and lifted a perfect little chin. “Of course you are, darling. Both of you are lovely girls.”

  “Then why, Mom? Why all the years of trying to make us something else?” Shay dashed away a tear. “I’ve pushed myself all my life to be a little better, a little prettier, a little more perfect than any girl I knew…just so I’d know you were proud of me. And poor Kylie!”

  Shay turned a tormented gaze on her sister before turning back to face their mother. “Kylie feels less than acceptable, simply because she’s not like us. She has no idea how truly beautiful she is—inside and out.” She looked from their mother to Kylie and back again. “In truth, she has more personality, and more inner beauty in her little finger than you and I put together!”

  A strangled sound escaped their mother’s perfect lips. She leaped from her chair and rounded the table to gather her youngest daughter in her arms. “Kylie, I’m so sorry.” Tears streamed down her face, and her voice came in strangled, raspy sobs. For the first time in Kylie’s memory, her mother seemed unfocused on her own appearance. “You are my precious baby! You’ve always been beautiful, Ky. You just—you never wanted to be like me, and I—I needed you to need me. I’m the one who’s not strong. It’s me who lacks confidence, my darling.”

  She released Kylie and stood in the middle of the room, arms hanging at her sides. Tears streaked in a constant trail down her face, and she seemed to not care that they destroyed her perfectly applied makeup. “All I have is my face, and yes, beauty is nothing more than a mask. But I don’t know anything else. Don’t you see?” Her eyes begged her daughters to hear the words she couldn’t find to say. “You’re amazing, Ky. You’re funny and warm and everything I would love to be but don’t know how. I’m so sorry I’ve hurt you. I’m…so…sorry!”

  Her face crumpled, and with it, her body. She slid to the floor in a sobbing heap. Shay and Kylie stared at each other in shocked consternation, but only for a moment before they both sprang from their chairs and rushed to their mother.

  Kylie slid an arm under the sobbing woman’s shoulders and lifted the perfectly coifed head onto her lap. She stroked her face and whispered soothing words into her ear, while on the other side of their mother, Shay held her hand. Tears rained down both their faces and dropped onto their mother’s spotless apron.

  Shay’s earlier announcement faded into a
shadow, one of minute importance at the moment. Right now, nothing mattered more to Kylie than easing her mother’s pain.

  Kylie's Kiss

  16

  Driving home a couple of hours later, Kylie drooped behind the wheel. Her first immersion exercise the night before, coupled with tonight’s distressing confrontation, had left her more than a little overwhelmed. She felt mentally exhausted, emotionally drained, and physically spent. Her body screamed in agony with every move, and she longed for a hot shower and the welcoming oblivion of sleep.

  Mother’s shocking breakdown before dinner had been brief. She surprised both Shay and Kylie when she struggled to her feet, dried her eyes with her apron, and pasted on a smile. “We have guests to feed, you two. No time to fall apart right now.”

  “Mom, you don’t have to do this.” Kylie stood up and touched her mother’s arm. “Everyone will understand if we just call in a pizza or something.”

  “Shay, please set the table with the good china, darling. Kylie, will you get the glasses down and fill them with ice, please?”

  Kylie’s frantic gaze flew to Shay’s, but her sister shrugged. When Mom set her mind to something, it pretty much went down exactly that way.

  During the meal, Shay filled them in on her new position at Looking Glass Ranch. Her sister’s new persona puzzled Kylie. What could possibly have brought about this unexpected change? Rick wouldn’t be able to pay Shay in a year’s time what she would net from one starring role in Hollywood. And yet Shay seemed genuinely excited about her new job as an aesthetic technician—teaching the girls the ins and outs of makeup application, how best to use it to camouflage their imperfections if they chose to do so, and basic skin care. Rick had asked her if she might teach a bit of drama, giving the young women an opportunity to discover talents they might be unaware of, and Shay seemed eager to explore the possibility.

  Despite the budding relationship between herself and her sister, jealousy teased at Kylie’s heart and mind. Once again, without effort or intention, Shay had upstaged her. Only this time, it involved a man Kylie cared about more than she would have dreamed possible a few weeks ago.

  She squirmed behind the wheel of her car, remembering Rick’s late-night request for her help, and her woefully unenthusiastic response. Granted, she had agreed to give it a try, but she’d done so hesitantly and with serious reservations. How could Rick not be drawn to someone like Shay? She sparkled when something excited her, and Rick’s therapy camp venture put stars in her eyes and a beautiful glow on her face.

  Kylie’s eyes had no room for stars—hot, stinging tears filled them, and then overflowed to spill down her cheeks. She blinked them away, and squinted out her windshield through the blurry vision they left behind. Why had she fallen for Dayna’s childish dare, or Destiny’s ridiculous dream? Oh, how she wished she’d never heard of Solomon’s Gate! If she’d never met Rick, she wouldn’t have to face losing him before their relationship had a chance to develop.

  Approaching the exit ramp that would take her at last to her apartment and her beckoning bed, she flicked her signal light on and swerved into the right lane. The blaring of a horn snapped her head up in time to see the blinding, too-close headlights of a vehicle that had been in her right-side blind spot. She heard the terrifying screech of brakes and the sickening crunch of metal against metal. Somebody screamed, and she had a split second to realize it was her.

  And then nothing but darkness.

  ****

  Voices.

  Kylie heard the low murmur of conversation, but the buzzing in her pounding head drowned out the words. Where was she? She struggled to open her eyes, but her eyelids weighed at least two tons.

  Cool fingers wrapped around her hand, and someone stroked her hair.

  “Kylie, darling, please wake up!”

  She could make out the words, though they sounded muffled and distant. Even so, she recognized the cultured tones. Mom? What are you doing in my bedroom? She wanted to say the words aloud, but her lips refused to move and her vocal chords seemed paralyzed.

  “I want to say I love you again, baby. I want to tell you how pretty you are!”

  Her mother’s voice caught, and it sounded as if she were choking. A drop of warm moisture fell on Kylie’s face and trailed down her cheek. Mom? Mom, are you crying?

  “There, there, love.”

  Daddy. His voice was close. Somehow Kylie knew he had moved up beside her mother and slipped an arm around her waist. The gesture was so familiar she could almost see it happening. Its very familiarity soothed her, even as her father’s presence awakened a fluttering panic in her mind. He always considered his daughters’ bedrooms their private sanctums, which he never violated unless one of them was sick or needed help moving furniture.

  “Don’t cry. We must believe she’s going to be all right, you know. Our faith will pull her through.”

  Fear tickled her brain and wrapped icy fingers around her heart. She wanted to squeeze her mother’s cold hand, but her fingers co-operated no better than her voice had. When she tried again to open her eyes, a searing pain scorched its way from her eyes to the back of her head.

  The pain intensified until Kylie thought her head would implode before merciful darkness claimed her.

  ****

  Soft fingers stroked her arm, pulling her out of the black void again.

  “Precious Father, please bring Kylie back to us. We’re not ready to lose her yet, and…well, I know I don’t deserve it, but I want a chance to be a real sister to her. I want to help her realize her own value, to see the beauty You gave her, inside and out.”

  This time Shay was in her room, and to Kylie’s utter amazement, her sister was praying—out loud, where everyone could hear her!

  What trek of the imagination was Shay on now? Whatever it was, Kylie wished her sister would pray in silence. That scary prayer made Kylie’s heart pound hard and fast. Where did Shay want her brought back from, anyway? I’m right here, you silly goose! Why couldn’t she make her mouth work?

  “I want her to know You, Lord. Please don’t take her until I’ve had a chance to show her what You’ve done in my life, and what You can do in hers.” Shay’s voice broke, and Kylie felt the soft touch of warm breath and soft lips on her forehead. “Let me tell her I love her again. Touch her, Father. Bring her back to us. I ask it in the precious name of Jesus.” A little sniffle, and a tiny whoosh that probably indicated a tissue being whipped out of a box. “Amen.”

  Shay continued to hold her hand while Kylie struggled to remember what had happened. She was beginning to think this wasn’t her room, after all. This bed didn’t mold to her shape like her own pillow-top mattress, and a faint antiseptic odor tickled her nostrils—not at all like the orange orchard potpourri in her bedroom.

  A hospital. She was in a hospital. But why? The last thing she remembered, she’d been at her parents’ house, hugging everyone good-bye. Her mother actually pulled her into a genuine hug, instead of her usual cool little peck on the cheek. Dane and Dayna had taken Eva Kate and left just ahead of her.

  Daddy…Shay—oh! Shay had forced some kind of confrontation with Mother, but it was OK by the time everyone left.

  Kylie struggled to remember, and finally saw herself getting in her car and backing out of her parents’ driveway. Then she’d awakened hours ago, or maybe it had been days, she had no way of knowing. Her parents had been speaking in those eerie whispers at her bedside.

  Maybe she was still asleep, and all of this was a dream. Yes, that had to be what was going on. And she wasn’t ready to wake up just yet, her eyelids wouldn’t cooperate. Just a few more minutes…

  Someone pulled a brush through her hair. Must be Shay, since she hadn’t heard anyone else in the room. Oh, wow. That feels heavenly, Shayster! She wanted to smile, but her uncooperative lips refused to accommodate her brain’s request.

  Her sister’s gentle strokes massaged her scalp, causing a soothing tingle that eased her back into the darkness of s
leep once again.

  ****

  Her eyelids still felt heavier than such thin layers of skin ought to feel, but Kylie found she could force them open to take in her blurry surroundings. A hospital. Vaguely, she recalled having guessed her whereabouts at an earlier time. She’d been right. An IV tower beside her bed dripped fluids into a tube, which her groggy gaze followed to a needle in her arm.

  Across the room, an open door led into what was probably a hallway, but she heard no voices and saw no activity. Where was everyone?

  Slowly, details came into focus. She found she could move her head, so she turned it the other way.

  Rick.

  He slumped in a chair at her side, chin on his chest, mouth slightly agape. His hand lay under hers, atop the sheet that covered her. Had he fallen asleep holding her hand?

  Her lips curved into a little smile. Yes! I can move my lips. She flexed her fingers, pleased to find they worked, though it required tremendous effort to curl her hand around Rick’s—just barely, hoping not to waken him. She wanted to watch him sleep.

  She lay still, drinking in the rise and fall of his chest…the recalcitrant strand of wavy black hair that fell over his forehead…the perfect curve of his lips…the strong line of his jaw. Kylie’s gaze traveled down to his broad chest and up again, lingering on the cleft of his chin, caressing the straight line of his nose, and meeting the emerald green of his eyes.

  She jumped a little. He had awakened while she ogled him, but he didn’t seem to mind her brazen scrutiny. A slow smile warmed his face and crinkled the little lines around his eyes.

  “Hey, Twinks.” His voice sent a shockwave of sensation through her body. Had she not been lying down, she might have swooned at his feet. She’d never heard anything sweeter, or sexier. Huskiness roughened his speech, and Kylie tried to smile, but it hurt. “Welcome back.”