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“Nate.” Grace stepped between us, her hand on his chest. “Kennedy is a guest in my house and I won’t let you yell at her.”
“Y-you,” he sputtered, turning red in the face. He didn’t move a muscle though. For all his temper, Nate wasn’t the type to be physically violent. Especially not around Grace. “How could you—”
Grace’s spine was infused with steel. “I’m afraid if you can’t be polite, I’ll have to ask you to leave.”
Nate gave her a look of disbelief and stomped out of the kitchen, the sound of his footfalls echoing through the house as he made his way to the exit.
“I’m sorry,” Grace said. “You shouldn’t have had to deal with that.” Her face creased with concern. “Are you okay?”
My lower lip wobbled, but I managed to nod. “I’m fine. Don’t worry about it. I deserve to hear whatever he has to say.”
After that, I made an excuse and retreated to the cottage. When my phone pinged with a notification, I began to dismiss it, but then froze. Heart in my throat, I clicked on the tab. A photo popped up of me standing outside the firehouse with a box in my hands. The image had been taken from a sideview angle and showed Liam opposite me, scowling. My hands trembled. The photograph had been uploaded to social media by a popular tabloid and was accompanied by a headline speculating on what I might be doing in a ski-resort township with a hunky local man.
I stared at it in horror. How did they know I was here? And how had they gotten that photograph? I hadn’t noticed anybody taking it, and I was usually pretty good at spotting paparazzi. Clearly, someone had slipped beneath my radar. But had a local or a tourist taken it and simply sold it to the tabloid, or had one of their photographers actually followed me to Destiny Falls?
I shivered, feeling suddenly cold. In L.A., something like this would barely cause a raised eyebrow, but here it sent off all kinds of warning sirens. Or was I just overreacting because I was feeling raw after my run-ins with Liam and Nate? I gritted my teeth. At least they didn’t have Liam’s name.
I crawled into bed and curled into a ball, trying to get myself under control. After all, I hadn’t cried when Nate confronted me or when Grace showed me kindness. But unfortunately, the dam had broken, and the tears began to flow.
ChapterEight
LIAM
A Lorde songcame on the radio today and I started singing, expecting you to chime in, but you didn’t. That’s when I remembered you were gone. - Unsent text message from Liam to Kennedy
On Thursday,I arrived at work to discover my traitorous coworkers had eaten Kennedy’s brownies. That put me in a foul mood, but it was nothing compared to leaving the station at the end of the shift to find her waiting, once again, with a box of baked goods. Donuts, this time.
On Friday, she brought a packet of the expensive coffee beans I liked.
On Saturday, she was standing in line at Taste of Destiny when I went in with Asher for breakfast. We ducked out as soon as we spotted her, but the damage was done, and she was all I could think of for the rest of the day.
Sunday brought blessed peace. I went up the trails with Connor, well and truly out of range of anywhere Kennedy might pin me down. My brother worked as a park ranger and needed to empty some traps and clear fallen logs from the trail, so I loaned an extra set of hands. I fell into bed that night exhausted but satisfied.
On Monday, I was almost disappointed when I completed my shift and there was no sign of her. But then, as soon as I returned home, I found her standing beside my letterbox.
“Get lost,” I said, brushing past her.
“Just take this.” She thrust an envelope at me.
Dread curdled in my stomach. “What is it?”
She gnawed her lip. “It explains everything. If you don’t want to talk, maybe you’ll at least read the highlights, then you can decide if you still want nothing to do with me.”
I snatched the envelope from her hand and took it inside, leaving her on the path without so much as a backward glance. As soon as the door shut, I tore the letter in two and shoved it into the garbage bin. I didn’t know what she hoped to accomplish with this strange crusade of hers, but I didn’t trust her. Not even a bit.
On Tuesday, there were no unexpected gifts, but I received a voicemail from Grace, suggesting I hear Kennedy out. Teeth gritted, I deleted the recording.
On Wednesday, Summer sent me a similar suggestion. Except my sister was a lot more direct than Grace. That was what came from being raised in a household of predominantly men. She also messaged and called several times, and I dodged them all, knowing it would only be a matter of time until she cornered me.
On Thursday, I was well and truly fed up. When Kennedy appeared outside the fire station with a basket of goodies, I didn’t think twice. I marched out, took it from her, and emptied every delicious morsel onto the ground. I felt like a complete asshole as soon as I did it, but she didn’t look frightened or upset. More like resigned. She turned and walked away. For some reason, that made me sad.
I didn’t want to run the risk of seeing her on Friday, so as soon as I clocked out, I took the rear exit and went to my Ute, which I’d parked a couple of blocks over. Then I bought a carton of beers from the pub and carried them to Destiny Falls’s iconic waterfall. I hadn’t been there often since Kennedy broke up with me. The memory of asking her to move in was too strong, and being there killed me on the inside. But right now, I needed that. I needed to remember why I couldn’t give in and listen to whatever she had to say. That door was shut and needed to stay that way.
I perched on a rock near the edge of the falls, cracked open a beer, and let myself remember every moment of the conversation we’d had here and then the raw devastation that had followed our breakup. Tourists came and went, although fewer than there would have been earlier in the day. By the time I packed the empty cans back into the carton and sauntered home, I was beyond tipsy and way too maudlin.
Shit, I needed to get myself together.
ChapterNine
