Splitting Heirs by Diane Michaels

Author:Diane Michaels [Michaels, Diane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781735102207
Publisher: ArrowHeart Press
Published: 2020-06-22T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

MAKE WAY FOR THE REAL ESTATE LADY

MY HEART SWOOPS and plunges in a ride more terrifying than any at Luna Park. It’s not like I want to pay attention to the cacophony in my head that drives my emotions. But sitting alone at the far end of the subway car on the journey home, it’s impossible to ignore a certain recent event.

Hands down, kissing Johnny is now one of my absolute favorite activities. The memory of every tingle, every halted breath, every moment he gripped me as if I alone suspended him in midair above New York City cuts through the searing pain he inflicted on my heart with his parting glance.

The kiss tells only part of the story. His moral compass is true. I may have hated him in high school, but he also fascinated me. He doesn’t lose himself by trying to please people. Nor does he force his personal agenda on the world. In his company, my mind doesn’t race toward a hypothetical future or a mythologized past. The world slows enough for me to see the present. And with him, the present is good.

I didn’t say what he thinks I said. How obtuse is he? Surely our kiss made his toes curl and electricity course along his spine. You can’t fake chemistry. My words shouldn’t matter to him. His body knows I meant everything I did to him while we were on the Wonder Wheel.

But right now, I can’t explain to him why I said what I said. Not with my entire family coalesced into a mob around him on the other end of the car. Even Emma and Troi deigned to rejoin the Piccolo clan on the ride home.

This is all Daniel’s fault. It’s not enough for him to crash and burn; he has to take me down with him, too. He’s a grown-ass man, yet he can’t be honest with his mother. Johnny may not have marched straight to our teacher when he held the answer key in his hands, but he didn’t deny that he had been in possession of it, either. A fifteen-year-old had a better sense of right and wrong than my thirty-four-year-old brother. The only thing keeping Daniel from spilling the beans about Johnny and me is his fear of admitting to our mother that his life isn’t the model of perfection she imagines it to be. Real mature.

I don’t want Johnny to be mad at me. And, oh, my goodness, I want to turn kissing him into a career.

Dang it. Even if he forgives me, we can’t start a relationship now. Uncovering Aunt Donna’s mission without destroying my family in the process should be my priority. What I need is a plan. Making plans is my jam. I feel better just thinking about plans.

Best I start with the least scary part of the plan, which would be patching things up with Emma. After she and I make up, I have to persuade Johnny that what I intended to accomplish with my comment was to defuse the bomb Daniel was about to lob.

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