I feel a nudge up against me, and I turn to see Mila next to me.
“Hey,” she says, “while they’re dealing with that, can I get you something else to eat?” I turn slowly to her and smile.
“Oh, um, sure,” I say, reluctantly turning back to the table.
“Don’t mind them,” she says, using tongs to put a few more pieces of cheese on my plate. “Family matters.”
I turn back to them then back to her.
“Is that his sister?” I ask just as everyone around me is quiet. I swallow the piece of cheese I’m chewing and turn back to Derrick, Alma, and the mystery woman who would have one hundred percent won any modeling show on television. The woman scoffs and crosses her arms over her chest, jutting a hip out. She glares at Derrick as she pushes past him, then her eyes find me.
“Actually,” she says, “I’m yours.”
5
It’s so quiet all I can hear is the engine of a distant boat and the shriek of the kids playing in the grass below. I look at the woman, my eyes narrowed on hers. I study every inch of her face; I study her bone structure, her lips. She can’t be much older than high school age, but there’s something about her that makes her seem older, more worldly, like she’s seen a lot.
I’m looking for answers in her eyes, but similar to everything else that’s happened in the last few hours, all I’m getting is more questions.
I look to Alma, who has dropped her head and closed her eyes. I look to Mila, whose eyes are big and filled with worry. And then I find Derrick, who is staring at me.
“What is she...what is she talking about?” I ask him just above a whisper.
“Kaylee––” he says, but I shake my hand.
“It’s a two-for-one deal on dead relatives that aren’t really dead,” the girl says. “Nice to meet ya, sis.”
Then she disappears back into the house.
I look around again, frantic now, waiting for someone—anyone—on this deck to tell me it’s not true. That this girl is crazy. But no one will look at me. I slowly back away, one step at a time. I set my cup down and look at each of them then take a step off the deck.
“Kaylee, please,” Derrick starts to say, taking a step closer, but I hold my hand up, warning him to stay back.
What the fuck did I get myself into?
I back away slowly, and once I gain my footing on the gravel driveway, I turn, and I run. I run past my own car in his driveway. I turn down the street like I know where the fuck I’m going. I follow the curve and inclines of the road, up and down, jagged and unpredictable, until I come to the crest of a hill. I hear brakes squeak next to me, and the dull roar of a stalling engine.
“Runnin’ all the way back to Georgia?” Mila asks me. I’m huffing and puffing, beads of sweat starting to form on my brow. I’m panting like a dog, but she’s just rolling along next to me, her perfect, angelic face turned toward me as she creeps along the road. Finally, I give up and come to a stop, and she does the same, pulling the truck over just in front of me. She hops out and walks toward me. I catch my breath and look at her.
“What the fuck is up with this place?” I ask her. She stares at me for a moment then chuckles.
“I’ve had similar thoughts,” she says. “But the truth is, this place gave me my life. This place…and the people in it.”
I hear her, but I’m not really soaking it in. I’m a little distracted by the fact that my sister—who I also thought was dead—is, in fact, alive. And that the sister I always pictured—my doppelganger, with blonde hair and fair skin—never seemed to exist in the first place.
“None of this makes any damn sense,” I say, crossing my arms over my chest. “I don’t even know these people.” Mila gives me a look and leans back on her hip.
“It sounds to me like maybe you don’t know the people who raised you,” she says matter-of-factly. There’s a long pause for a moment, and then she speaks. “Look, from one outsider to another, can I give you some advice?”
I give her a reluctant nod.
“Don’t write them off. The people here in Meade Lake are some of the best people I’ve ever known, your grandmother included. Maybe take some time and get a little space. I can take you to this little bed and breakfast on the other side of the lake that I stayed at when I first got here. Take the night to decide if you want to find out who you really are, or if you want to leave. But take the night. Deal?”
I think for a moment then nod. We get in her truck, and I see she already has my bag.
“I grabbed it from Derrick before I followed you. In case you did opt not to go back,” she says with a shrug as she pulls back onto the road.
“What did...what did Derrick say?” I ask.
“He wanted to come after you himself,” she says. “But being that he’s the one that brought you into this, I thought maybe someone else could give you a ride.” She smiles, and I smile back. There’s something soothing about Mila.
The thought of Derrick coming after me makes my stomach dance. I can’t believe how much like a lusting teenager he makes me feel.
“He’s, uh, not hard to look at, huh?” Mila asks, and for a second, I think I’ve said it out loud.
“Huh?”
“Derrick,” she says. “Easy on the eyes.”
I nod slowly, not wanting to give too much away. She smiles.
“Don’t tell Ryder I said this––actually, he would agree––Derrick is the best man I’ve ever met. We would have been lost without him this last year.”
I want to ask her for more, but I realize that I haven’t known her longer than a few hours. We drive in silence for a few more minutes before she turns left onto another long, wooded road. I can see the lake behind some trees, and a beautiful Victorian house sits nestled on the shore a few yards ahead of us. She pulls the truck into the driveway and puts it in park. I turn to her.
“How much do you know about me? About that...woman?” I ask her. She swallows and keeps her eyes trained on the road.
“Enough,” she says. “But I can’t be the one to tell you, Kaylee. I’m sorry.” I nod.
More fucking secrets.
“Can you just tell me...is that girl really my sister?” I whisper. Mila takes in a deep breath and looks up at me, her long lashes curling out.
“Yes,” she says.
“But she’s…” I say.
“Black,” Mila says, nodding. “Yeah, she is.” She reaches over and squeezes my hand, gently letting me know that this conversation is over. She grabs my bag and hops out of the truck. I take another deep breath and follow her into the house. She introduces me to the older woman behind the desk.
“Sue, this is Kaylee; she’s a friend from out of town,” Mila tells her. “Can she have a room for the night?”
“Absolutely,” Sue says, clapping her hands together.
Sue has us sign in an old book on the desk then hands me a room key.
“Last door on your right up the steps, darlin’,” she says. I thank her and pick up my bag. I look around and see one other person out on the deck, but other than that, the place seems empty.
“Ever since the Willington Ski Resort opened a few years back, the rest of the inns around here have had some trouble filling up,” she says. “I always try to bring people here when they’re in from out of town.”
I nod and smile.
“This will be perfect,” I tell her. “Thanks, Mila.”
She smiles.
“I recognized that lost look in you,” she says. “I had it myself not so long ago. But I found what I needed here. Maybe you will, too.”
She leaves, and I go up to my room and lay my things out. I change into some comfy yoga pants, grab a sweat jacket, and walk back down the stairs. I go onto the back deck and look out over the water. It’s orange, streaked with what’s left of the sun in the sky as it slips down behind the black and green mountains in front of me.
It’s beautiful here.
I lean back against the chaise lounge and b
reathe in…and out. In…and out. My phone buzzing at my side jolts me out of this nature-induced meditation I’ve slipped into.
When I see my dad’s name pop up, I freeze.
In just twenty-four hours, I’ve learned so much—and yet, so little—about my parents. And though I don’t know all the details, I know that, for the last twenty years, they’ve lied to me. I hit decline and wait for his text to come in.
He’s used to me answering every call, every text.
I’m Daddy’s sweetheart and the heiress to his big ol’ technology throne.
Never much more than a stone’s throw away.
Even in college, he’d set me up on lunches with well-connected professors and, at one point, even the dean.
His pull seemed to have no end, and I had no choice but to oblige. After all, that tuition bill would not be a fun one to pay back one day.
Like clockwork, the text pops up.
Where ya at, kiddo?
I type, and stop, type, and stop. I can’t answer him right now.
After a few more minutes of breathing in the mountain air, my hands slowly stop trembling. I feel an overwhelming sense of peace.
I don’t know what I’m going to find while I’m here, but I know I need to find it.
6
I wake up the next morning feeling refreshed. I haven’t slept that well in, well, ever. I roll out of the bed and walk to the mirror, running my fingers through my long blonde locks, and tug on a pair of jean shorts.
As I walk down the creaky staircase into the main foyer, I can smell cinnamon from the kitchen. I walk across, but I stop when I hear his voice.
“You stayed,” Derrick says, standing up from the couch in the living room. I swallow as he makes his way toward me. “I was worried you might have…”
There’s a long, awkward pause. He’s got on a t-shirt that fits snug around his muscles and jeans. The sight of him makes my insides sink and my heart rate quicken. I shouldn’t be this hot and bothered this early in the morning.
“Well, I kind of don’t have a car,” I say. He smiles and shrugs.
“True,” he says. “Do you want that back, by the way?”
“That might be helpful,” I say with a flirty smile. I don’t quite know what to make of Derrick. I can’t deny that my body reacts to him. But my mind does, too. I want to know more of him. I want to listen to him, make him laugh.
But he’s also the one who brought me here when no one else seemed to have thought that was a good idea.
“Mama wanted me to come see if you wouldn’t mind having a talk with her today,” he says. I look at him, skeptical. “Just the two of you. No one else will be there.”
I wait a beat then nod.
“I’d like that,” I say.
“Good. I also came by because I wanted to make sure you were alright.”
I swallow.
“You tell me,” I say. He gives me a look of confusion. “Everyone else seems to know everything there is to know about Kaylee Jennings, except for Kaylee Jennings herself.”
He blows out a long breath and rubs the back of his head.
“Yeah, I bet it does feel like that. It’ll make more sense when you talk to Mama today. She’s got the answers. Most of ‘em, anyway,” he says. “Wanna get some breakfast and I’ll take you over to her place?”
I think for a minute, chewing on my lip as I narrow my eyes at him.
There are a lot of reasons why a sane person wouldn’t trust him. Wouldn’t keep putting herself in a position to be made a fool of, and lied to, and hidden from.
But he flashes me that panty-dropping half-smile, and I know I can no longer consider myself sane—if I ever did in the first place.
I nod and follow him out the door. He opens the passenger door for me, and the little acts of chivalry don’t cease to amaze me.
“How’d you sleep?” he asks as we start down the road.
“Well, actually.”
“Good,” he says. “That mountain air will do that to ya.”
“Yeah, either that or being in the land of undead relatives.”
He throws his head back and laughs, and the sound makes my stomach flip.
“Sorry, I know it’s not funny, but…”
“It’s kind of funny,” I say with a giggle. He pulls off Lake Shore Highway a few minutes later and into the parking lot of a small diner. We go inside, and he leans over the counter, batting his eyes at the ladies behind it.
“Mornin’, Bette,” he says, and he’s got the charm turned all the way up.
“Hey, cutie,” an older woman says as she makes her way to him. He smiles at her, and they make small talk while the woman asks about Alma and says how sorry she is that May is gone. Without realizing it, I clear my throat at the back of the restaurant.
Just as he’s turning to me, another woman comes from behind the counter. She’s younger, probably close to our age. And when she reaches her hands up to tie her hair into a bun, her shirt lifts a little, exposing her tanned and toned midriff. I feel that heat raging through me again in the form of jealousy.
But Derrick’s eyes never falter from hers.
“Hey, D,” she says, walking toward him and reaching her arms around his neck to pull him down into a hug. Her breasts push up against him, but he doesn’t seem to notice.
“Hey, Kat,” he says, “good to see you.” She looks up at him with twinkling fuck-me eyes, batting her eyelashes, seemingly unaware of anyone else in the diner. He clears his throat after a moment and holds his arm out to me. I take a few steps forward, and her face drops.
“This is my friend Kaylee,” he says. “She’s from out of town. I wanted to get her Meade Lake’s best breakfast.” He turns back to Bette and winks. She winks back.
“Well, you know you came to the right place, honey,” she says. “Be right up.” Derrick leads me to two chairs in the middle of the diner where we sit to wait for our food.
“What did we order?” I ask. He smiles.
“She makes homemade apple doughnuts,” he says. “They’re out of this world.” My mouth waters.
“Yum,” I say. I look back toward the counter and see Kat eyeing us down. “Maybe I should scoot over some so your friend doesn’t try to kill me with her eyes.”
He looks up at her then back down to his hands, smiling and shaking his head.
“Kat, she’s a friend. Moved here a few years ago. But she’s just––”
“Order’s ready, honey,” Bette calls, and Derrick walks to the front to pay the bill and pick it up. I reach for my wallet, but he holds up his hand to decline it.
“You’re our guest,” he says before pushing the door open and leading me back out to the truck. The apple doughnut melts in my mouth, and I hum with satisfaction at the first bite. He laughs.
“Good, huh?” he asks.
“Mmm,” I respond before taking another bite. Before I realize it, I’ve eaten the whole thing. He looks at me from the driver’s seat, crumpling up the paper the doughnut was wrapped in and dropping it in his cup holder. He does a double-take and looks back to me again just as we pull up to a stop light.
He leans over the center console, and I feel my breath catch as I realize he’s getting closer. I swallow as he reaches a hand out toward my face. Then he sticks his thumb out and swipes my bottom lip gently.
“Got a little icing,” he says then puts his hands back on the steering wheel. I swallow and tuck a piece of hair behind my ear.
“Thanks. So, um, do you live with your mom?” I ask him as we drive farther down Lake Shore Highway.
“Nah,” he says, shaking his head. “I have a place up on the top of that mountain.” He points to the giant mountain to our right, carved with ski slopes and dotted by thousands of trees.
I nod.
“I’ll give you the official Meade Lake tour after you talk to Mama,” he says. “Assuming you want to stick around, that is.”
He gives me that devilish half-smile again, and I feel that tingle tha
t starts in my belly and goes down.
After a few more minutes, we pull into Alma’s driveway. I draw in a long breath and reach for my door handle. But before I open it, he does from the outside. As I turn to get out, he takes a step closer to me, putting his hands on the seat on either side of me. He leans in close.
“Hey,” he says just above a whisper. I look up at him, my eyes catching his. “It’s gonna be okay.”
I narrow my eyes and nod. I don’t know if I believe him, but I do know that I feel better when he’s around.
He leads me inside.
“Mama,” he calls as we walk through the door. “We’re here!”
Alma makes her way down the hall from the bedrooms toward the foyer to greet us.
“Hi, baby,” she says to me. “I’m so glad we didn’t scare you off. I know yesterday was a bit much. I have some coffee made. I thought we could sit outside on the deck and talk.”
I smile and nod.
“That would be great.” Alma grabs two mugs off the counter and walks out the back door onto the deck.
Derrick nods in my direction and tips an imaginary hat.
“I’ll leave you to it,” he says. “We’ll catch up later.”
“You’re not staying?” I ask before I realize how needy it makes me sound. But the truth is, I do feel like I need him right now. He’s my only clarity here, despite the fact that he tracked me down and brought me here in the first place. He smiles.
“Mama doesn’t bite,” he says. “I gotta get into the shop for a few. But I’ll be back to check in on you.”
My stomach flips again.
“What shop?” I ask. He clears his throat.
“Uh, there’s a little shop on the highway. Boat rentals and things like that. Nothing special,” he says with a modest shrug. “I’ll see you later. Don’t leave.” He winks at me as he walks out the door, and I feel my palms get instantly clammy.
Stones Unturned (Meade Lake Series Book 2) Page 4
