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Chapter 2
Davis stared at thewoman on the step in front of him.
He had been expecting her. He’d found out, shamelessly using various contacts that he’d gotten through his years in business, that her mother owned this cottage. He also found out that Kim’s Aunt Tricia had basically stolen her mother’s house in Blueberry Beach out from underneath her, and Kim had let it go.
That made sense to him. That was the kind of person Kim was. She wasn’t a fighter, she didn’t strive, she was kind to a fault and generous even beyond that.
Davis had had to bite his tongue more than once as Todd, his soon-to-be ex-business partner, had neglected her, treated her terribly, and only paraded her around when he thought it would benefit him.
Davis had seen Todd cheat on Kim more than once, and it had made his throat just burn and his fingers clench every time.
The man didn’t know what a gem he had.
He certainly didn’t know how to treat people, least of all his wife.
Of course, that didn’t excuse what Davis had done six months ago.
He held Todd in derision, but he had ended up being no better.
“It’s good to see you again, Kim.” Davis kept his voice pitched low and couldn’t believe how normal it sounded. Considering that he was sure if he took his one hand out of his pocket or pulled his other off the doorknob, they’d be shaking like leaves in a storm.
“Davis. I wasn’t expecting you here,” Kim said, her hand at her throat, before she lifted her chin, as though determined to march forward, and grabbed her purse strap, like she needed something to hold onto.
He certainly did. He had a death grip on the doorknob, but she couldn’t see his white knuckles from her side, and he certainly wasn’t going to tell her that seeing her had affected him far more than he thought it would.
Especially since she really wouldn’t have been expecting him. Maybe she hoped to never see him again. It was an idea he couldn’t stand. Which was why, the evening of their one-night stand, which he hadn’t meant to have at all, he approached her, knowing that she had been divorced from Todd and hoping that enough time had elapsed that she might welcome someone new in her life, since he’d admired her from afar ever since he’d met her.
Regardless, the events of that night had caused him to back way off. It was the first and only time either one of them had done such a thing.
He regretted it, not just because it was wrong, but because it wasn’t the way he’d wanted to treat her when he’d approached her. He’d wanted to take things slow and give her the attention and affection and respect and friendship she deserved. She was worth a lifetime, not just a night.
After his big mess-up, he wasn’t sure how to start over. Could one ever really start over when he’d already done something so terrible?
Renting the house from her mother was the only thing he could think of that might possibly help them to meet again without him seeming like a stalker, although this was definitely skirting the edges of that.
After her divorce, she certainly didn’t run in circles that included Todd, other than her mother’s funeral. Davis had attended, even though he had never met her mother and probably shouldn’t have gone. It wasn’t like he could stay away.
“I take it you don’t know I signed a year lease for this cottage from your mother?”
Her eyes grew big, and she didn’t have to shake her head for him to know that this was a total surprise to her.
