KENNICK: A Bad Boy Romance Novel (15 page)

Chapter
Twenty-Two

“What the hell are you doing with that gypsy? What
kind of woman have you become?” Cordelia began her diatribe before the door
even shut behind Kim. She swallowed her regret about following her mother and
crossed her arms. She had always let her mother say whatever crazy, judgmental,
controlling thing she wanted about Kim. She tried to defend Ricky when she
could. But now, she felt more and more enraged as she thought of Kennick. He
was a good man, and her mother had no right to say different.

“The kind of woman who knows what she’s worth,” Kim
spit out, not really knowing if the words were true but wanting to believe them
all the same. “And that man out there isn’t just ‘some gypsy’. He’s a good man.
A strong man. A kind man. And he cares for me, and for his family.”

“Cares for you! Men like that don’t care about anyone!
They just want to…to…use you and lose you! And what will people
think,
Kimberly? You running around with
that kind of person, letting him
touch
you
right in a restaurant? Disgusting!”

“You’re the one who’s disgusting,” Kim spat back, ire
rising in her chest. “Judging people you don’t even know and…and…being so damn
mean
all the time! That’s all you are,
mother! Mean and rude!”

Her voice was getting loud, and only the knowledge
that she might be heard by the diner’s other patrons kept her from full-on
screaming. Cordelia looked shocked, stunned into silence.

“You are not my daughter,” she said, shaking her head
slowly. “A daughter of mine would
never
speak
to me like that. After all I’ve done for you, making sure you’d have a good
life…”

“A good life? You think I lead a good life, Mom? You
think having an eating disorder all through high school, being afraid of
screwing up all the time, always anxious ‘cause I’m not perfect, you think
that’s a good life?”

“Well, it sure as hell keeps you from having a worse
life! Would you rather be fat and stupid and have everyone laugh at you all the
time? Be the butt of every joke? Anxiety keeps you from making mistakes,
Kimberly. It keeps you from being a complete and utter embarrassment.”

Cordelia’s tone was haughty. Kimberly merely shook her
head, awed by her mother’s gall. Swallowing hard and closing her eyes, she
breathed deeply, calming herself. There was no point in arguing with this
woman. She would never admit that her way wasn’t the right way – the only way.

“Just, please, Mom, come out and have lunch with us,”
Kim said, releasing her hands from the fists she’d unconsciously formed. “Just
sit down and have your tilapia. It’ll be nice, okay? You’ll see that Kennick is
very nice. You’ll like him, really.”

Cordelia’s nose scrunched.

“I highly doubt that,” the older woman muttered. After
a pause, she gave an exaggerated sigh. “Alright, just this once. Only because I
don’t care what anyone in this awful town thinks of me. And because I don’t
doubt it will be long before you see behind that handsome face of his and see
that he’s no good, that no one like him will ever be good.”

Kim bit back the urge to scream once more, to stride
from the bathroom and leave her mother in the diner, to grab Kennick and make
out with him right in front of Cordelia’s beady, angry eyes. Instead, she
followed her mother, who was still walking with a stick lodged firmly up her
rear, back to the booth, where their food waited. So did Kennick, scrolling
through his phone before smiling amiably at their return.

“It’s rude to look at your phone when you’re at the table,”
Cordelia murmured, spreading her napkin over her lap before looking at the
bland dish in front of her. As Kim squeezed past Kennick once more, she was
relieved he didn’t try to get handsy again. The waitress had brought extra
parmesan; a whole lot of it. Kim shook some out onto her salad while her mother
stared in obvious disgust. When her hand stilled, shame nipping at her cheeks
from her mother’s dire look, she felt Kennick elbow in her side.

“C’mon,” he said out of the side of his mouth, as
though Cordelia were in another state rather than right across the booth. “You
could always use an extra couple pounds, anyway. You know, for winter.”

Cordelia’s knuckles whitened around her fork, which
held barely a bite of fish.

“It’s summer,” she said through gritted teeth. Kennick
shrugged and grinned.

“Ever heard the story of the industrious ant and the
lazy beetle?”

“Can’t say I have,” Cordelia said, popping the morsel
into her mouth and chewing. If there was a way to chew indignantly, Cordelia
was a master of it.

“It’s a good one,” Kennick said, digging into his own
fragrant, messy-looking meal. Through huge mouthfuls, he told the story. Kim
barely ate any of her salad, enraptured by Kennick’s hands as they moved with
the story, the voices he used for each character. He was a good storyteller,
even for a story as trite and old as the fable.

“It’s summer on the farm. Bright, big sun up there in
the sky, not a chill in sight, all sorts of reasons to party. So that’s what
the beetle’s doing, just partying his little brown butt off. Stays up all night
singing to the moon, sleeps all day, or dances in the field, takes a nap when
it gets too hot out…”

“Beetles don’t sing,” Cordelia interrupted, barely
making a dent in her fish. “That’s grasshoppers. You’ve got the story wrong.
It’s about a grasshopper and an ant.”

“Everything sings, Cordy. Just gotta know how to
listen. Anyway,” Kennick continued, either immune to or unaware of the looks
Cordelia and Kim were giving him over calling the woman “Cordy.”

“So the beetle couldn’t be happier. And one day, he
sees a buddy of his. An ant. Now, every day he sees this ant and they say
howdy-doo and all that. And every day that beetle sees the ant, the ant is
pulling some big old morsel somewhere. Something that’s twice the size of him,
you know? Corn kernels or sunflower seeds.

So this day, the beetle is feeling especially
sociable, and he says, ‘what are you doing all day, breaking your back carrying
that food to god-knows-where? C’mon and party with me, I know a place with lots
of nice lil lady ants who’re just dying to meet a big strong ant like you.”

At that, Kennick flashed Kim the sort of smile that
made her blush – a deep down blush.

“And the ant goes, ‘no can do, bud. Gotta work with
the whole fam, stockpiling for winter.’ And the beetle says, ‘winter is forever
away. Take a chill pill and come party!’ But the ant just shakes his head and
off he goes. The beetle, he’s like, that kid is crazy. I’m gonna go get me
three
lady beetles. That’s how
I
stockpile for winter.”

Kennick shoveled the last of his tamale into his mouth
and leaned back with a contented sigh. Cordelia was waiting, fork half raised
to her mouth. To Kim’s amusement, her mother was actually interested in the
story.

“And?” Cordelia asked, annoyance in her voice. Kim
wondered if she was annoyed that Kennick had stopped mid-story, or that she was
actually enjoying it.

“And what?” Kennick asked, wiping his mouth with a
napkin.

“And what happened? When winter came?” Cordelia asked,
exasperated now.

“Oh,” Kennick said with a chuckle, taking the last sip
of his coke. “The beetle starved and the ant lived. That’s not a very fun part
of the story. I just like the beetle’s outlook. Poor guy just didn’t realize he
could just leave, go someplace where winter wasn’t so tough. Florida or
something. But he wasn’t a Rom beetle, so he didn’t know. Little guy went out
laughing, though, I bet.”

Cordelia was looking at Kennick like he had four eyes
and Kim was hiding her laughter, poorly, with her hand.

“What on earth,” Cordelia hissed, “does that have to
do with gaining weight for winter?”

“Nothing,” Kennick shrugged. “It’s just a good story.”

Cordelia looked at Kim wide-eyed, as though to say
is this supposed to impress me?

“Well,” Cordelia said, pushing her plate away even
though she’d barely eaten half her food. She eyed Kim’s nearly-empty bowl of
salad, and the much-depleted shaker of parmesan cheese. “I don’t think
encouraging people to gorge themselves on cream and cheese is very smart.
Especially not someone like Kim.”

All Kim’s mirth fell out of her in a rush.
Leave it to Mom,
she thought, knowing
that anytime she thought she might have a bit of reprieve from her mother’s
disappointment, she would surely be proved wrong soon enough.

“Beauty cannot be eaten with a spoon, Mrs. James,”
Kennick said with a wink. Cordelia’s eyes nearly rolled backward into her head.

“
What
does
that mean?” she asked.

“If you have to ask, you’ll never know,” Kennick said.
“You’re finished already?”

He pointed to her plate.

“Lost my appetite watching the two of you,” she said,
and though Kim hated her in that moment, there was pain in Cordelia’s voice.
The old woman suddenly looked very, very old as she put her hand on her
forehead and bent her neck, looking down and shaking her head.

“Mom….” Kim said, though even as she spoke the word
she knew she had nothing to truly say.

“I better get going,” Cordelia said, rising from her
seat. “Traffic is just awful.”

“Well,” Kennick said, rising to meet her and sticking
his hand out once more, “it’s been an absolute pleasure, Cordelia James.”

She sneered at his hand.

“No, it hasn’t, and you know it hasn’t, Kennick
Volanis,” she spat and turned on her heel, clicking her way out of the diner, a
trail of bad feelings stretching out behind her. Kennick shrugged when he
turned back to Kim, but seeing her distress he felt a sudden, irrational rage
towards the woman. He’d taken all her snide comments and upsetting criticisms
in stride, but seeing Kim crumpling now was too much. His hands balled into
fists, so hard his knuckles cracked.

“Come on,” he said, keeping the growl from his voice.
“I’m taking you somewhere.”

When she looked up at him, her eyes were watery. She
sniffled and forced a smile.

“I really ought to get back…”

“Take the day off. Say you got female issues,” he
said, digging into his wallet and throwing a few twenties on the table. Kim
offered him a watery chuckle but shook her head. She pulled out her phone and
made a strange sound.

“Oh,” she said, reading the text on the screen.
“Well…that’s funny…”

“What is?” Kennick pried, eager to release the pent-up
frustrations their horrible lunch date had instilled in him.

“Mayor says he’s not coming back in. Says to take the
rest of the day off.”

“It’s kismet,” Kennick said with a growing smile.
“Best not to test fate, baby.”

That, at last, forced a genuine smile from Kim.

“Well, what were you thinking?” she asked as she
swiped the back of her hand across her eyes. They came back wet, but her eyes
were dry.

“It’s a surprise. You’ll like it. I promise.”

Kim studied him. This man operated solely on
surprises. And so far, she’d liked all of them. After dealing with her mother –
the worst lunch she could ever remember – she could use one of Kennick Volanis’
surprises. She nodded.

“I have to stop by the office first, though,” she
noted, easing herself out of the booth. “Close up and all that.”

“I’ll follow you, then we can take my car.”

Kim caught sight of Jessica, who was biting her lip so
hard it could have split in two, behind the diner’s long counter. She
knew
something was up. She and Jessica
were no great friends, but Kim liked to think of herself as
everyone’s
friend. The least she could
do was offer a hug.

“I’ll meet you there,” she said, leaning up to kiss
Kennick on the cheek. “I just want to do something real quick.”

He nodded and turned towards the door.