made Kaegan frown when he recalled just who’d worn that particular color tonight. He glanced back at Sasha. “Tell Farley that I hope he starts feeling better. Good night.” Without waiting for Sasha’s response, he quickly walked off, heading inside his home.
He heard a noise coming from the kitchen. Moving quickly, he walked in to find Bryce Witherspoon on a ladder putting something in one of the cabinets. Anger, to a degree he hadn’t felt in a long time, consumed him. Standing there in his kitchen on that ladder was the one and only woman he’d ever loved. The one woman he would risk his life for and recalled doing so once. She was the only woman who’d had his heart from the time they were in grade school. The only one he’d ever wanted to marry and have his babies. The only one who...
He realized he’d been standing recalling things he preferred not remembering. What he should be remembering was that she was the woman who’d broken his heart. “What the hell are you doing in here, Bryce?”
His loud, booming voice startled her. She jerked around, lost her balance and came tumbling off the ladder. He rushed over and caught her in his arms before she could hit the floor. His chest tightened, and his nerves, and another part of his anatomy, kicked in the moment his hands and arms touched the body he used to know as well as his own. A body he’d introduced to passion. A body he’d—
“Put me down, Kaegan Chambray!”
He started to drop her, just for the hell of it. She was such a damn ingrate. “Next time I’ll just let you fall on your ass,” he snapped, placing her on her feet and trying not to notice how beautiful she was. Her eyes were a mix of hazel and moss green, and were adorned by long eyelashes. She had high cheekbones and shoulder-length brown curly hair. Her skin was a gorgeous honey-brown and her lips, which were curved in a frown at the moment, had always been one of her most distinct traits.
“Let go of my hand, Kaegan!”
Her sharp tone made him realize he’d been standing there staring at her. He fought to regain his senses. “What are you doing, going through my cabinets?”
She rounded on him, tossing all that beautiful hair out of her face. “I was on that ladder putting your spices back in the cabinets.”
He crossed his arms over his chest. “Why?”
“Because I was helping you tidy up after the party by putting things away.”
She had to be kidding. “I don’t need your help.”
“Fine! I’ll leave, then. You can take Vashti home.”
Take Vashti home? What the hell is she talking about? He was about to ask when Vashti burst into the kitchen. “What in the world is going on? I heard the two of you yelling and screaming all the way in the bathroom.”
Kaegan turned to Vashti. “What is she talking about, me taking you home? Where’s Sawyer?”
“He got a call and had to leave. I asked Bryce to drop me off at home. I also asked her to assist me in helping you straighten up before we left.”
“I don’t need help.”
Bryce rounded on him. “Why don’t you tell her what you told me? Namely, that you don’t need my help.”
He had no problem doing that. Glancing back at Vashti, he said, “I don’t need Bryce’s help. Nor do I want it.”
Bryce looked at Vashti. “I’m leaving. You either come with me now or he can take you home.”
Vashti looked from one to the other and then threw up her hands in frustration. “I’m leaving with you, Bryce. I’ll be out to the car in a minute.”
When Bryce walked out of the kitchen, Kaegan turned to Vashti. “You had no right asking her to stay here after the party to do anything, Vashti. I don’t want her here. The only reason I even invite her is because of you.”
Kaegan had seen fire in Vashti’s eyes before, but it had never been directed at him. Now it was. She crossed the room, and he had a mind to take a step back, but he didn’t. “I’m sick and tired of you acting like an ass where Bryce is concerned, Kaegan. When will you wake up and realize what you accused her of all those years ago is not true?”
He glared at her. “Oh? Is that what she told you? News flash—you weren’t there, Vashti, and I know what I saw.”
“Do you?”
“Yes. So you can believe the lie she’s telling you all you want, but I know what I saw that night.”
Vashti drew in a deep breath. “Do you? Or do you only know what you think you saw?”
Then without saying anything else, she turned and walked out of the kitchen.
VASHTI SLID INTO the car and snapped the seat belt in place. Before starting the ignition, Bryce said, “I cherish our friendship, Vash, and I know why it’s important to you that me, you and Kaegan remain friends. After all, it was your idea that we do this,” she said, holding up her finger that bore the scar of the nick the three of them had made years and years ago. They had been in the first grade together.
“But not even this matters to me anymore. I heard what he told you after I walked out of the kitchen. He deliberately said it loud enough for me to hear. It really wasn’t anything I didn’t know already. He does not want me to come to his parties, so let me go on record as saying that tonight will be my last time attending one of Kaegan’s parties, Vash. So please don’t ask me to ever come to one again.”
Vashti didn’t say anything, and Bryce didn’t expect her to. Vashti knew her and knew when she’d reached her limit about anything. Tonight she had with Kaegan. There was no way she could stop him from coming into her parents’ café each morning as a customer, but she could continue to ignore him. And she would.
“Okay, Bryce,” Vashti finally said when Bryce started the engine. “I honestly thought that being around each other would make you and Kaegan realize how much the two of you mean to each other.”
“It did. It made us realize just how much we dislike each other.”
“But it doesn’t have to be this way. You can tell him the truth about that night.”
Bryce didn’t say anything for a minute as she put the car in gear. “I did. Or at least, I tried to.”
“What! When? You never told me that.”
No, she hadn’t, mainly because after telling Vashti what had caused her and Kaegan’s breakup, she’d been too emotionally drained that night to tell her the other part. “What I didn’t tell you was when I got that call from Kaegan letting me know why he was breaking up with me and that he intended to block my number, I used every penny I had in my savings account and caught the bus from college, all the way from Grambling. That meant crossing four states and enduring an eighteen-hour bus ride to reach North Carolina. And because he had blocked my number there was no way for me to let him know I was coming.”
“What happened when you got there?”
“Well, for starters, I couldn’t get on the military base. But the soldier at the gate checked his log and told me that Kaegan wasn’t on base anyway. That he was on a two-day pass and chances were he would be at the Mud Hole that night.”
“The Mud Hole?”
“Yes. It’s a hangout for the marines and located close to base. I checked into a hotel, freshened up, and that night I went to the Mud Hole.”
Bryce paused a moment and then said, “More than anything, now I wish I hadn’t.”
“Why? What happened?”
Bryce tightened her hands on the steering wheel as she remembered that night. “Kaegan was