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I hear footsteps beyond the door and quickly zip up the suitcase. We can’t draw out the inevitable anymore. The only thing left to do is move on and try to salvage our friendship when this is all over.
Maybe he’ll get lucky and the news of the broken engagement will eclipse Alexandra’s story about his past. I honestly don’t know what to hope for anymore. If she disappears, he can continue living his life. But I can’t imagine the threat of exposure will ever full dissipate. It will hang over him, and possibly, one day, consume him.
And I can’t be the friend that joins him under that cloud, waiting for the end.
“Kayla,” he calls through the door.
“I need to leave. If you want to help, go find the cats and corral them into their carriers.”
“I’ll still pay for the barn renovation. You can have the meetings tomorrow with the contractors.”
“No, Gavin. I can’t. You don’t owe me anything. This was just …” I sit down on the bed and close my eyes. “Two friends trying to help each other. And in the end it didn’t work out.”
“Kayla—”
“I have enough dogs in my life already.” Luna’s cone nudges my calf. I open my eyes and look down at her. Then I glance at Ava, sitting at attention by the door. These are the only dogs I need to support right now. And when I’m ready to open my home and heart to more, I’ll do it on my terms.
“Please, Gavin, go find the cats. They’re probably destroyed the living room furniture. I’ll call Samuel for a ride, and then you can go back to the city.”
Back to your life.
I hear his footsteps in the hall, retreating to the stairs. I reach for a pillow resting untouched above where we had sex. Grabbing it with both hands, I toss it at the wall. I should have known our friendship would never survive this engagement.
CHAPTER 24
GAVIN
“We can spin the story.”
Margaret’s high-pitch voice fills my ear. I can see Samuel unloading Kayla’s suitcase from the living room window. The dogs are racing around in front of the house. Cleveland pauses to roll in the grass as if he missed that particular patch of earth. His little terrier legs dance in the air. But I can’t see the cats’ carriers. And Kayla is missing from the picture-perfect K-9 homecoming too. She’s probably already carried them inside.
“Spin it how?” I ask, glancing down at my left hand where a slim stream of blood beads on the skin. Ginger scratched me when I tried to put her into the carrier. The damn cat didn’t want to leave. Judging from the dogs’ celebration, she might be the only one in her family.
Holding my cell to my ear with my right hand, I numbly walk to the kitchen sink and run my hand under the water.
“Your fiancée didn’t feel comfortable being drawn into the spotlight,” Margaret suggests. “Your ex-girlfriend’s crazy accusations were too much for her.”
“No.” The water stings the scratch, but I hold it under the steady, warm rush as if I can wash the last trace of Kayla and her pets away.
Still fucking hurts.
“I want to issue a brief statement that Kayla and I remain friends but realized marriage wouldn’t work for us.” I almost choke on the words, but mask it with a cough. “Wait a few days before putting the statement out.”
In case I find a way to win her back.
“Gavin, I’m so sorry,” Margaret says softly. It might be the most personal statement she’s ever made to me. “I thought you and Kayla were a lovely couple.”
“It wasn’t real.” I don’t know why I feel compelled to share the secret. “We set up the engagement to discredit Alexandra.”
“Smart,” Margaret says.
“Kayla came up with the idea.”
“She’s loved you for a very long time,” Margaret says in a matter-of-fact tone.
As friends, I think. Forget about reclaiming my fiancée, I’ll be damn lucky if we can repair the mess I’ve made of the most important relationship in my life.
“I want to focus on Alexandra Galanos,” I snap. “How the hell did you miss her connection to the woman who ran the agency? Kayla put two and two together in a single Google search.”
