Smoke in Mirrors

here, you’re twisting this.”
    “Tell me something,” Thomas said. “Did Meredith ever make another play for you after you and Leonora broke up?”
    Kyle’s mouth compressed. “The situation was complicated. I doubt if you’d understand.”
    “Sure, I understand. You tried to call Meredith afterward and she didn’t give you the time of day, did she?”
    Kyle reddened. “She had some issues. She and Leo were half sisters, after all.”
    “Meredith didn’t have issues. Meredith had agendas. Once she had finished with you, she moved on.”
    Kyle looked as if he wanted to argue the point. But he must have reconsidered.
    “Leo told you all this?” he asked.
    “Yeah.”
    “She knew that her bitch of a sister set me up?”
    “Sure.”

    “I don’t get it.” Kyle spread his hands. “If Leo knows that it wasn’t my fault, why didn’t she give me a second chance? It’s not like her to just walk away from a relationship after putting so much into it.”
    “She may be willing to work hard at a relationship, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have certain standards. You failed to meet those standards, Delling.”
    Kyle’s face worked. “ Failed? That’s hardly the appropriate word.”
    “It’s the perfect word, when you get right down to it.”
    “I’ve never failed at anything in my life. I’ve aced everything, from my SATs to my comps. I’ve got a dozen peer-review papers in print. Who are you to tell me I failed ?”
    Thomas put the hammer aside and selected a gleaming screwdriver. “Think of yourself as one of these. You’re bright and shiny, but you’re made out of some weak alloy instead of good-quality steel. You won’t stand up to extended use. Nothing for it but to chuck you into the discard pile.”
    Kyle turned livid. His hands clenched at his sides. “Leonora didn’t discard me, you son of a bitch.”
    “You’re the English Lit man here. I’d think you’d want to use the correct word. But suit yourself. The point is, she did what any smart person does with a poorly made tool that isn’t up to the job. She junked it.”
    “Shut up,” Kyle said through his teeth. “Just shut the fuck up. You know nothing about Leonora. From what I can see you’ve got zip-all in common with her.”
    “Because I don’t have a couple of advanced degrees?”
    “Get real, Walker.” Kyle snorted softly. “You’re hardly her type. She might enjoy the macho tool man routine for a while, but it won’t last long.”
    “If you knew Leonora as well as you think you do,”Thomas said softly, “you’d have realized that the fastest way to lose her was to prove to her that she couldn’t trust you.”
    “Hell, that romp with Meredith wasn’t about trust, it was about sex. It was just a simple fuck.”
    “Leonora didn’t see it that way, did she, Delling?”
    “If there was anyone she couldn’t trust, it was her bitch of a half sister, not me.”
    “Unfortunately, Meredith had an advantage over you. One she knew going in and one she exploited all the way.”
    “What?” Kyle demanded. “What advantage did she have?”
    “She was family.”
    Kyle stared, speechless.
    “Leonora could ditch a guy who cheated on her,” Thomas explained patiently, “but she couldn’t ditch a sister. You know what they say, you can choose your friends, but you’re stuck with family.”
    Kyle managed to get his sagging jaw back in place. “What makes you think you know how Leo’s mind works?”
    Thomas thought about Leonora setting out to find the answers surrounding the death of a half sister who had caused her nothing but trouble. He thought about how he and Deke had stood side-by-side all these years.
    “When it comes to the important stuff,” he said softly, “Leonora and I understand each other just fine.”
    Kyle’s features clenched into an outraged mask. For a moment Thomas thought he might take a swing. The possibility raised his spirits.
    But to his disappointment, Kyle subsided with a resigned sigh.
    “Look,” Kyle said, “believe it or not, I didn’t come in here to get into an argument. I just wanted to tell you totreat Leo with respect, okay? She’s not like Meredith. She’s one of the good people in this world.”
    “I know.”
    Kyle hesitated. Then he nodded. “Maybe you do, at that. Looking back, I wish I had handled things differently. I think Leonora and I could have had something special together.”
    “But you’ll get over her, right?”
    “Oh, sure. Life goes