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“I don’t buy it. There has to be something else going on. What’s her side of the story?”
I shrug, still with my hands in the pocket of my coat.
That earns me another hit, this time a punch to the arm. “You don’t know? You mean, you haven’t talked to her?”
“Look… it’s complicated.”
“That’s more of a reason to talk to her. If it’s complicated, you could be missing something.”
“My lawyer advised me to keep my distance. I already screwed up, and my lawyer thinks the best thing to do right now, to avoid a huge mess down the line, is to cut off contact. That way, I can’t screw it up anymore.”
“What do you mean, you screwed up?” She narrows her eyes. “Wait… Oh, I get it. You had a thing with her?”
I nod.
Her arm-punch this time is harder. “You jerk!”
“What?”
“You fooled around with her and then fired her?”
“It’s not like that, Kate.”
“It so is.”
“No, it’s not. Would you hear me out?”
“This better be good.” She folds her arms across her chest and glares.
“Look… it’s not as bad as it sounds. I didn’t mean for it to get so out of control. We started spending time together, and we clicked. We could talk about anything.”
“She’s like that.”
“Plus, we had chemistry. I thought maybe there was really something to it. But?—”
I fight off the ache in my chest and look out across the yard. In the distance, I can see the round tower of Mini Windsor Castle poke up above the treetops. “See?” I bark, annoyed at the pain inside me. “This is why I don’t get involved with women. This exact scenario.”
“What, getting hurt?”
“Or me hurting them. It sucked, firing her. But I had to because of what she was up to.”
“I told you, that’s got to be wrong.”
Kate sounds so sure of herself. For the first time, I question Brian Campbell’s work. Then, some of the ache in my chest is replaced by hope.
It feels much better to doubt Brian than to doubt Gwen.
“Whoa. Okay, yeah. I see what you mean,” I mumble while still deep in thought.
Kate reaches out. For a second, I think she’s going to punch me again. Then I realize she’s reaching her arms around me to hug me.
We’re on a whole new level, Kate and me. That feels good, too.
She squeezes me. “C’mere, you big lug. I can see you’re wrecked about this. But you know what? I think you’ll figure it out. You do dumb things, but at the end of the day, you get it right. Also, thanks for being so nice to Sawyer in there.”
“No problem. I meant it, about the house. Stay for a while.”
She lets me go and raises her brows. “Really?”
