Page 24 of Tragic (Lark Cove 3)

I took in the view. “It’s beautiful.”

“Yes, it is,” she said. “I saw you up here, in this spot. You were kneeling here.”

The muscles in my shoulders went rigid as a flurry of feelings swirled in my head. I was ashamed that she’d seen me at my most vulnerable moment. I was angry that she’d intruded on something not meant for anyone to see. I was relieved that it was her who had seen me and not someone else.

In the end, relief drowned out the other two. Huh. I would have put money on anger.

“Were you praying?” she asked.

“No.”

I didn’t pray. Not anymore.

I waited for the inevitable question. Then what were you doing? But it never came. Piper stood quietly, staring off into the distance, satisfied with my one-word answer.

Another strange sensation rolled over me. The short answer might have appeased her, but it didn’t sit well in my gut.

“I was talking to a ghost.”

Her face tilted up to study my profile. “A ghost?”

I nodded but kept my eyes on a bird circling a tree in the distance. Eye contact would reveal too much. “A ghost.”

I came up here and talked to the precious spirit somewhere in the heavens. I told her the things I hadn’t been able to during her short life.

All because of him.

Three years later and I still went into a rage when I pictured his face. When I thought about all he’d taken from me with his betrayal. The anger burned my throat as fire spread through my veins. My hands ached for something to throw or squeeze or punch.

Piper was standing too close and I took a step away, not trusting myself with this much fury building inside. But just as I was about to take another step back and head down the trail, to disappear into the forest with punishing footsteps, her voice rang through the blood rushing in my ears.

“I’m Piper Campbell.”

The red cleared from my vision. “What?”

“Piper Campbell.” She shot her hand between us. “It’s my name.”

I studied her long fingers for a moment before taking them in my own. “Kaine Reynolds.”

“Nice to meet you, Kaine Reynolds.”

“I, uh . . .” What the fuck? She was like a fire extinguisher. My hand enveloped hers and the burn just died. “Nice to meet you too.”

“That was kind of random.” She laughed, slipping her soft hand free. “But I felt like we needed to start over. I know we’ve already had sex and you’ve seen me bawl my eyes out. But I’m kind of a stickler for knowing someone’s last name before they see me naked and since we already broke that rule, I figured it was long overdue that I properly introduce myself.”

My jaw slackened. Piper was either the craziest person I’d ever met or she saw right to my core, distracting me before I could give in to the rage.

“Sorry for that crying jag,” she continued. “Sometimes you just need to cry, you know?”

Not really. Even after everything that had happened in my past, I hadn’t cried. Not once.

But there was no way we’d be psychoanalyzing my past today. Or any day. “Don’t mention it.”

She took a long, deep breath and blinked, letting her eyes stay closed a few seconds. When she opened them, she smiled. “You were probably up here for some peace and quiet. I’ll leave you to it. And, um, thanks. Sometimes you just need a hug.”

As she stepped around me and headed for the trail, I eyed the path going in the opposite direction. It went on for about fifty feet through the meadow, then curved back into the trees. From there, it wound along a thick forest trail for about a quarter mile before opening up into a meadow twice as large as this one.

It was another favorite spot and one I always visited this time of year.