Reunited(8)

“Okay then.” He shrugged. “Monday it is.” He sauntered out of the room and down the hallway.

Kathryn gathered her books—and her nerves—and walked down the hallway to Mr. Phillips’s office. She peeked her head in, told him the first session had gone well, left the building and walked the three blocks to her home.

Her skin was hot, and then cold. Sweat covered her brow, and her heart thundered.

Damn. Now was not a good time to be coming down with a virus. She inhaled, then threw her backpack on the counter and reached into the refrigerator for a soda. She downed half of it before she realized she was still remembering Brett’s touch on her lower lip.





Chapter Four


Carefully Kathryn unfolded the weathered note.

“I’ve been carrying that around for twenty years,” Brett said.

Kathryn’s skin chilled. Sparks settled low in her gut and rushed between her legs as she began to read.

Dear Kath,

I wish I knew where you were, how you’re doing. I wish I knew why you left. I thought we had something special. I know it was special to me, at least.

I got the grade I needed in Math thanks to you. I’m going to college in the fall. Michelle and I are getting married tomorrow. She wants to live in an apartment off campus. We’re not having a big wedding. Just family at the courthouse. Then we’ll find an apartment and college will start in month.

There’s only one problem. I don’t want to marry Michelle, Kath. I only want to marry one girl.

But she’s gone. I have no way to find her. I’ve tried everything. I went to your house tonight. I begged your mom to tell me where you are. She wouldn’t.

Not a day goes by that I don’t think of you, of our time together. I don’t regret a second of it and I hope you don’t either. I wish I had told you I love you. I do, you know.

Maybe one day I won’t miss you so much. I hope so, because it’s too hard.

I wish you the best of everything.

Brett

Tears clouded Kathryn’s vision. “You never said you were in love with me.”

“I didn’t realize it until you left me.”

“I didn’t leave you, Brett. We were never officially together.”

“I was in love with you, Kath. Desperately in love with you.”

“You were eighteen. What did you know about love?”

“I knew what I felt for you was different than what I felt for Michelle.”

“Then why did you marry her?”

He shook his head. “Everyone expected it. I wish I had a better explanation. I thought you were lost to me forever. It’s always been you, Kath.”

Wow. What could she say to that? That she still dreamed of his kisses twenty years later? That being held in his arms had been better than being held in any other man’s? That making love for the first time, which should have been the awkward coupling of two virgins, had evoked images and emotion she hadn’t seen or felt since?

God knew, that was all true. But she couldn’t tell him. There was too much baggage. Too much he didn’t know. She folded the note and handed it back to him.

He pushed her hand away. “Keep it. It’s yours.” He sighed. “You can’t tell me you didn’t feel anything. You can’t tell me our time together meant nothing to you. You’re not like that. You were never like that. You wouldn’t have done what we did if you didn’t feel something.”

True enough. She’d loved him. Loved him like she’d never loved anyone before or since, not even Danny. Hell, especially not Danny. She’d settled. She’d given up trying to recapture what she’d felt with Brett. She’d wanted a child. Desperately wanted a child. Marriage was necessary, and Danny had been a great candidate—intelligent, a doctor, nice-looking. Who could have asked for more?

She had cared for him. It had hurt to break up.

But she hadn’t felt the soul-wrenching connection, the oneness, that she’d felt with only one person.

The man sitting across from her now.

“Aren’t you going to talk to me?”

She nibbled on her lower lip.

He spoke again. “This is a dream come true, seeing you again. You dropped off the planet and I thought I’d finally resigned myself to it being over. But you’ve always been in my mind, Kath. Never far from my heart.”

“I don’t know what to say to you, Brett.”

He reached across the table and took her right hand in his left, rubbed her palm with his thumb.

“Just say you’re happy to see me.” He smiled.

“Of course I’m happy to see you.” She fidgeted, hoping her hand wasn’t too sweaty in his. “I just never expected to hear you say those words.”

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said it like that. It’s the God’s honest truth, but I should have gone slower. I’m sorry.”

She smiled through trembling lips. “You have nothing to apologize for. You’re very sweet, and I loved hearing all of it.”

“Good. Glad I didn’t scare you away.”

“You didn’t.” He couldn’t. “I just never thought I’d see you again.”

“You came back.”

“Yeah, but I came back to a different suburb from where we grew up. I had no idea you’d be here.”