“I’ll stick with some sweet tea.”
“Okay,” Savannah said, but she never moved to the fridge. “And maybe it happened this way for a reason. All that stress about thewhenit would happen had almost paralyzed you, but now it’s gone.”
Only to be replaced by thehow. And as far as Mackenzie was concerned, how this was going to play out moving forward was a heck of a lot more terrifying.
“Don’t misunderstand, I will forever be grateful for your patience and support, and I understand that Hunter has every right to be here. Caroline is his niece, and I would never expect y’all to leave him out.”
After all, he was family, and Mackenzie was somewhere on the periphery.
“And of course I imagined, if I ran into him again, what I’d say.” After she’d pulled her life back together. “But not like this. This was so ...”Shocking? Confusing? Fucked-up?“Unexpected.”
Meeting Hunter again without any warning had rocked the carefully laid foundation she’d constructed in the aftermath of her illness. Her ability to know what was coming had been the key to her rehabilitation and continued independence. In the beginning, she’d let go of everything and everyone she loved so she could build a new life, create a new existence, and grow into the person she needed to become in order to thrive.
But after that hug, she wanted to go back and be the person she’d been before. The person she’d been with Hunter.
“Expectedly unexpected,” Savannah said, apology thick. “If I had known Hunter and Brody were going to ambush you, I would have stopped it. Or at least warned you.”
“So you didn’t know?”
“Of course not,” Savannah said firmly, and Mackenzie felt some of the tension dissipate. “Have you ever known me to betray a friend’s trust?”
“Never,” Mackenzie acquiesced.
Although Mackenzie had known Savannah for years, it was only after Mackenzie lost her sight that the two women had really become close. Savannah was such a loyal and generous friend that Mackenzie was relieved to know she hadn’t been a part of the con—and embarrassed that she’d wrongly accused Savannah.
“I’m sorry I even considered it.”
“Don’t apologize,” Savannah said gently, resting her hand on Mackenzie’s. “I know from experience just how unsettling a Kane’s surprise appearance can be on a girl. Just like I know from experience thatbeing surprised by a Kane doesn’t always have to be a bad thing. In fact, if you let it, it can be pretty amazing.”
Savannah and Brody had been high school sweethearts who’d gone separate ways after graduation. Savannah had big dreams, and Brody was content to work at his dad’s bar. Two degrees later, Savannah had come home to Nashville with a degree in law and six carats on her finger. Brody had taken one look at that ring and known he had to grow up, and fast, or risk losing the love of his life.
It had taken him a year to convince Savannah he’d changed, and another to make her his wife. There wasn’t a day that went by when Brody didn’t show Savannah just how much she was loved.
Their love was the kind that went soul deep and grew with each passing moment. The kind of love Mackenzie dreamed about but feared she’d never experience.
Mackenzie rubbed the familiar ache in her chest. It had been a long time since a surprise had been in her favor. “I knew that running into him had to happen sometime. I couldn’t expect you and Brody to keep my secret forever. I just wish I had been more prepared.”
“That’s the thing about secrets,” Savannah said gently. “They wait until the worst possible moment to unravel. It’s like some sick joke the universe plays. He waits until you think you’re in the clear, and then,boom, he goes all Ghost of Christmas Past on you.”
“He?”
Savannah laughed. “Honey, no woman would wait two years to tell you what your problem is, then drop it on you at a kid’s tea party. Oh no, women are more sensitive than that. We come to your house with a tub of ice cream, a jug of moonshine, then let you cry it out in private.”
A warm hand tightened around Mackenzie’s, then slid a cold mason jar into her palm.
“This doesn’t feel like sweet tea,” Mackenzie said.
“Bless your heart,” Savannah said as if Mackenzie were dim-witted. “At this point you need something a lot stronger than tea.”
Wasn’t that the truth.
Mackenzie rarely drank. She didn’t need to add the world spinning to her already complicated situation to realize it was a bad decision. But one glass couldn’t hurt.
“Does it come with ice cream?”
Savannah sat next to her at the counter. “I’m more of a cake girl, but after your day, I wouldn’t judge if you wanted to go straight for a gallon of double chocolate chunk.”
“Double chocolate chunk is reserved for pity parties of one. This situation calls for something a little more hopeful.”
