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I frown.
“Sikes you said?”
I nod. “Koen Sikes.”
“Wait outside. I’ll see if I can find him.”
“Thank you. I really appreciate it.”
I wait by my truck for over ten minutes, and just when I start to give up on him coming out, he does.
Wearing navy coveralls and a scowl, Koen shakes his sweaty head, stopping at least ten feet from me. “I’m sorry he has cancer, but it changes nothing.”
“You’re not Plan B. He came back into my life before I met you. It was never a choice. I wanted—I want—to be with you.” My eyes burn with tears. “Koen,” I whisper, fighting the emotion clogging my throat.
He turns, heading back toward the building. “I can’t.”
I chase him, stepping in front of him so he’s forced to stop walking. He glances over my shoulder, jaw clenched.
“I’m sorry. And I know that’s not good enough. I messed up. I let my pain over Price’s diagnosis drive a wedge between us. If I had it to do over, I would tell you about his diagnosis. I would choose us. Price let me walk away twelve years ago.” I wipe my eyes. “It sucks when the person you love more than anyone else doesn’t fight for you. It’s something your heart never gets over. And you start to wonder if you’re worth fighting for.
“Yes, I stayed with him last night because he was having a terrible night and didn’t ask me to do anything. He didn’t ask me to come to his house. And he told me over and over to go home. But he’s my friend, and I do love him, so I did what he didn’t do. I stayed.”
I grab the collar of Koen’s coveralls, gently shaking him until he looks at me. “I’m not letting you go without a fight. The woman who answered the door at Price’s house is the woman who will give everything to the people she loves. To her husband. To her children. The only way I know how to love is with my whole heart. It’s how I love my family. It’s how I love my friends. It’s how I love you. Does it have to be a flaw that I care so deeply for my friend who’s battling cancer?”
He peels my hands from his collar, and I feel instant rejection. Then he sidesteps me and heads back toward the building.
“I've loved him,” I holler, “for so long that I knew I would die alone if he never came back for me.”
Koen stops.
“Before you came into the store the night we met, I planned on canceling our date. Twelve years. I’d wanted to be with Price fortwelve years,and you changed everything in one night.”
Again, Koen continues walking toward the building.
I swallow my nonexistent pride, drag myself back to my truck, and climb inside. Before I can dig my key from my purse,emotion wracks my body. Covering my face with my shaky hands, I cry.
Click.
My door opens.
I startle, quickly wiping my eyes and choking back my next sob.
Koen eyes me with deep lines trenched along his forehead. I can barely breathe past the strangled emotion clogging my throat.
“I needed a minute, baby.” His hand cups my tear-stained face. “But it only took a second to realize I need to hold on to the girl, not my fucking ego.”
The girl …
“I’m sorry.” His fingers tangle in my hair, and his lips press to mine.
I blink, releasing the last few tears with a shaky sigh of relief.
I’m not used to fighting this hard. My intuition has always been to let go, to let life unfold as it should. But I can’t let go of this man—the boy.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
ENEMIES ARE JUST MISUNDERSTOOD FRIENDS.
