so much. Because he had loved her so deeply. He could honestly say that other than his mother, Bryce was the only woman he’d ever loved. He had loved her and had never stopped loving her. Even when he’d thought bad of her there was something that still pulled at him. And that something had kept him going to the Witherspoon Café every morning because he knew she would be there.
Kaegan also knew that no matter how long he lived in Catalina Cove, it would never be home to him without Bryce. When he’d lived here before he had considered it home because she’d made it so for him. He’d been back awhile now, but a part of him hadn’t truly thought of it as home. It would take Bryce to help him find home again.
She was the only one who could do it.
“KAEGAN, THERE’S SOMEONE to see you.”
Kaegan looked at Willa, who’d stuck her head in the door. “Who is it, Wil?”
“Bryce Witherspoon.”
He looked at his watch. She would have gotten her flowers by now. The third arrangement he’d sent her. “Okay, send her in. And go ahead and take your lunch now.”
“I just came from lunch.”
“Take another one.” The last thing he wanted was his employees being privy to anything Bryce might say. Although he had his own office, he knew voices carried. Faith Harris, his other office worker, had taken the day off, and Toby Franklin was on vacation.
Willa smiled. “You won’t get an argument out of me. I think I’ll go back to that dress shop and buy me something to wear to a party I’m going to this weekend.”
“Do whatever rocks your boat,” he said, standing. “Please send Bryce in.”
He came around to sit on the edge of his desk and had to swallow twice when Bryce walked in. He reached behind him to grab his coffee cup and take a sip since his throat had gotten dry.
She’d walked into his office with her head held high, lips tight and a mass of hair around her shoulders. She didn’t look happy, he thought, as his gaze roamed over her. She was wearing a printed dress, with a stylish navy blue jacket and navy blue pumps. She looked so damn good.
He stood. “Bryce, this is a surprise. I missed seeing you at your parents’ café during lunch the last few Wednesdays. Your mom reminded me about those real-estate classes you started taking in New Orleans.” There—he’d let her know he noticed her absence, as well as the fact he’d asked about her.
She squared her shoulders. “We need to talk, Kaegan.”
“Go ahead, Bryce. I’m all yours.”
He doubted she knew just how much he meant that. In his heart he was hers and always would be. He’d had a few weeks to dwell on what he wanted out of his life and he’d decided he wanted Bryce. He was well aware accomplishing such a thing wouldn’t be easy. First, he had to earn back her trust, and he was working daily thinking of ways to do that. He wouldn’t rush her. As far as he knew, although she dated, she wasn’t involved in a serious relationship. He intended to make sure nothing changed with the latter. He would do whatever was needed to make things up to her. He knew now what he should have known all along. She was his past as well as his future.
“I want to talk to you about the flowers.”
“What about them?”
“They are beautiful and all, and I want to thank you for them. However, you don’t need to keep sending them. You’ve told me that you’re sorry.”
He nodded. “Yes, but you’ve yet to say you’ve forgiven me.”
She frowned at him. “Fine, Kaegan. I forgive you. Please stop sending the flowers.”
“So we’re friends again?”
“No. We could never be friends.”
He’d figured they could start with friendship while he proved that he was worthy of more. That he wanted more between them. “Why not?”
“I don’t want you as my friend. Friends trust each other. They believe in each other and they are there for one another. Samuel was my friend and you tried making it into something dirty.”
He sighed deeply. “I regret that and my only excuse is that I didn’t know the nature of your relationship with him.”
“I tried telling you, but even if I hadn’t tried, it should not have mattered. You should have trusted in the nature and depth of my relationship with you. My love. My commitment. Remember doing this?” she said, holding up the nick on the third finger of her right hand. “That should have told you how much I valued not only what you and I shared, but what you, me and Vashti meant to each other. But especially with what you and I shared. I would never have betrayed you. You should have known that.”
He rubbed his hands down his face as he leaned against the desk. “I know, but when I saw you wrap your arms around Samuel’s neck, I thought the worst.”
“I placed a kiss on his cheek and that was all.”
He shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “I didn’t stay around to see where you would kiss him. I just knew that you would. When I saw you lean up toward him on tippy toes, I turned and walked away. I thought I had seen enough. Surely you can see how I could have misunderstood the situation.”
She shook her head. “No, I don’t see. You should have trusted me.”
“I didn’t know he was gay. He was a star athlete and adored by all the girls at school.”
“It was a front he put on for others. No one knew but me. When he found out you had broken off with me because of him, he felt guilty and told me to tell you the truth. That’s why I caught the bus to see you. But that’s all water under the bridge now because you didn’t want to hear anything I had to say. And then there was that woman...”
“I didn’t sleep with her that night, Bryce. I only left with her to make you think I would. I wanted to hurt you the way I thought you had hurt me.”
“You succeeded in hurting me, Kaegan. It took me years to get over you and move on with my life. And then you returned to Catalina Cove, still believing the worst about me.” She drew in a deep breath. “None of it matters anymore. I only came here today to say that I forgive you, so you can stop sending the flowers.”
She turned and walked out of his office.
“ARE YOU OKAY, BRYCE?”
Bryce looked over at her mother. “I’m fine, Mom. Why do you ask?”
“You’ve been quiet.”
Yes, she had been. After leaving Kaegan’s office, she had gone home and changed clothes and come to the café to help out. She’d known Ry had taken the day off to attend one of Lil Ry’s football games and her parents would be shorthanded with the afternoon and dinner crowd. Her father had worked with Duke in the kitchen, and Bryce and her mother had waited on tables.
It had gotten busy very quickly. This was the first chance they’d gotten to talk, but she wouldn’t tell her mother anything. The last thing she needed was her parents worrying about her...and they would. Regardless that she was thirty-two, she was still the baby in the family. Her family liked Kaegan, and because they didn’t know all the details of why she and Kaegan had broken up, they merely saw it as a communication problem.
She knew the way her parents’ minds worked. In Kaegan they saw the young man who’d looked out for their daughter while growing up. He’d appeared on their doorstep every morning to walk her to school and back, from the time she’d been in first grade to