Reunited(9)

“Fate, I guess.” He squeezed the hand he still held. “Luck.”

“Maybe. What brought you up here, anyway?”

“Work. I started my own construction company a few years ago and last year I partnered up with a guy I’d worked under a while back. He had some ideas, and coming up here seemed to work well. Once Michelle and I separated I didn’t need to stay in Edgewood, so here I am.”

“Does Zoe live with you full time?”

“Yeah, she does. It worked out better that way. Since I own my own business, my schedule is more flexible than Michelle’s. She goes with Michelle on the weekends.”

“And your older girls?”

“Candy’s nineteen and in her first year of college. Evie lives with Michelle. She wanted to stay at school with her friends.”

“Makes sense. Has it been hard on Zoe, being separated from her big sisters?”

“She’s acclimated. Kids are great like that.”

“Yeah, they are. But Maya really misses Danny. He lives in Cleveland and drives down to pick her up every weekend, but it’s hard.”

“Divorce is always hard.”

“He gave me a hard time about moving back here, but I needed to. Geez, it’s been so long since I’ve been here. I never came back after I left.”

“I know. I looked for you for a while. I eventually gave up.”

She shook her head, still fingering the note in her hands. “I can’t believe you looked for me.”

“Don’t get me wrong. I was married to Michelle and I was always faithful. Even if I’d found you, I still would have been faithful. I just needed to know you were okay. I always wondered.”

Kathryn swallowed a lump in her throat. All this time, she had been running, trying to make peace with her past. She hadn’t given a thought to what her leaving might have done to Brett. “God, Brett, I’m so sorry.”

“For what?”

“For leaving you hanging.” Her eyes misted.

“Hey.” He squeezed her hand. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”

“You didn’t. I’m more upset with myself for being so self-centered.”

“You were never self-centered, Kath. You always thought of others first.”

“Not when I left, I didn’t. I…there were reasons I had to leave. Reasons I couldn’t tell anyone. I—I should have thought what it might do to you. I mean…I knew you cared for me. I just had no idea—”

“That I loved you?”

“Yeah. I really didn’t. I’m sorry.”

“I should have told you.”

“Maybe. Maybe I should have told you, too.”

“You loved me?”

“In my way, yes I did.” She still did.

“Well, we were from two different worlds. You had a scholarship to Stanford, I was the son of a laborer. I guess it was never meant to be.”

She nodded, and her lips trembled. “Maybe not. But maybe, if things had been different…”

“Things couldn’t have been different, Kath, or we wouldn’t have been who we were.”

Damn. He was right. How did he get to be so intuitive? Then, he always had been. She had learned so much about him in the short time they’d shared. So much she hadn’t expected, so much she hadn’t imagined. Brett Falcone was more than a jock, more than the punk kid who liked to make fun of people in middle school. He was intelligent, driven in his own way, highly passionate.

Oh, to be eighteen again.

But she wasn’t eighteen. She was thirty-eight. And a mother. A single mother. A single mother who should get her daughter home to bed.

She checked her watch. “It’s almost eight. I need to get Maya home.”

“Yeah,” he agreed. “Zoe needs to get to bed, too. Kath, it was great seeing you. Talking to you. I wish…”

“Yeah, me too,” she said.

“Can we get together? Talk some more?”

“Maybe over the weekend. Danny picks Maya up at three on Friday.”

“Great. I’ll drop Zoe at Michelle’s around five, then pick you up for dinner. Sound good?”

She nodded. “Dinner would be wonderful. You need my address?”

“I’ve got it.” He winked. “It’s on the soccer paperwork for Maya.”

She nodded. “Of course.” She called to Maya. “It’s time to go, sweetie.”

Maya started to complain, but let out an ear-splitting yawn.

“I know a little girl who needs to get to bed.”

“I know another one,” Brett said.

“It was great seeing you,” Kathryn said.

“You too.” He bent closer and whispered in her ear. “I’ll be counting the minutes until Friday.”

“Really?” she couldn’t help asking.

“Oh yes,” he said. “I’m positive.”

Positive. God, he remembered. Lightning flashed between her legs.




Twenty years earlier

Kathryn had just put little Terry to bed. She checked her watch. Seven-thirty on a Friday evening and she was babysitting. The story of her life. She hadn’t dated, had never been kissed, had never even danced with a guy.