Finding Home Again - Brenda Jackson

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was yesterday. “But I didn’t let that stop me, Kaegan. I was determined that you knew the truth. I used every penny I had to buy a bus ticket, and I rode that bus for eighteen hours all the way from college to see you. And what did you do? Instead of listening to what I had to say, you treated me like shit in front of some brazen hussy.”

      “Bryce, I—I’m sorry—”

      Without saying anything else, she crossed the room and headed straight for the kitchen, ignoring Kaegan calling out to her. Duke and Ry looked up when she walked into the kitchen and snatched off her apron.

      “Kaegan’s still here but that’s it for me tonight,” she said, refusing to let her tears fall. “I’m done here and going home.” She grabbed her purse out of one of the cabinets, walked out the back door, got in her car and drove off.

      KAEGAN SAT STUNNED at Bryce’s words. And then, like he’d been stung by something, he bolted out of the booth and charged into the kitchen. He looked at Bryce’s brothers, who both stared at him. “Where’s Bryce?” he asked them.

      Ry answered in an angry voice, “She just got in her car and left, obviously upset, Kaegan. What’s going on? What the hell did you do to her?”

      Kaegan wanted to go after her but knew that wouldn’t be a good idea. Not tonight, anyway. He had a lot to think about. A lot to take in. What she’d just told him had shocked the hell out of him. It had been like an enormous kick in his gut. How could he have been so stupid? So fucking stupid? How could he have been so wrong about her? For ten fucking years he had believed the worst about her and he’d been wrong. So damn wrong, and she was right. He only had himself to blame. He’d been more than stupid, more than a moron, worse than an ass...

      “Kaegan? Dammit, what did you do to Bryce?” Duke asked, raising an angry voice.

      Bryce’s brothers had every right to be angry, but this was between him and their sister. “Bryce and I had an argument.” And that was all he intended to tell them about it.

      “I left the money for my dinner and beer on the table.” Then he turned and walked out of the kitchen and left the café, feeling at the lowest point he’d ever felt in his entire life. He felt sick. His guts felt twisted with remorse. He had a feeling Bryce would never forgive him for what he did, and at that moment he doubted if he would ever forgive himself.

       CHAPTER SIX

      “HEY, BRYCE. WHAT’S UP?”

      Bryce adjusted her cell phone in her hand as she sat down at her kitchen table. She was still trembling, inside and out. “It’s about Kaegan, Vash.”

      “Kaegan? What about Kaegan?”

      Bryce sighed deeply. “He knows the truth about Samuel.”

      “How did he find out?”

      Bryce closed her eyes and fought back more tears. Why was she still crying? Why was she crying at all? Hadn’t she sworn years ago she wouldn’t shed any more tears for Kaegan Chambray? That he didn’t deserve them? “Kaegan came into the café for dinner and I waited on his table. When he asked why Samuel and I had broken up, in anger I blurted about Samuel and Matthew and their wedding this weekend before I could stop myself.”

      She heard Vashti’s sharp intake of breath. “So now the entire town knows about Samuel, as well as knowing why you and Kaegan broke up?”

      “No, Kaegan and I were the only ones in the restaurant. It was late, near closing time. My brothers were in the kitchen, but they didn’t hear anything, either.”

      “I bet he feels bad about how he’s been treating you all these years. Did he apologize?”

      “Good, let him feel bad. All he had to do was listen to me ten years ago. I tried telling him about Samuel then, but he refused to listen. Instead he wanted to lash out at me. Break my heart with another woman to my face. He succeeded, Vash. And as far as apologizing, I didn’t want to hear his apology.”

      Bryce paused a moment and then added, “As my friend, I’m going to ask that you don’t try to change my mind about how I feel about him. I respected your wishes years ago about your baby’s father, and I’m asking you to respect mine now about Kaegan.”

      Vashti didn’t respond for a long moment, and then she said, “Okay, Bryce, I will respect your wishes. Do you want me to come over? I could bring some ice cream.”

      “Thanks, but I just want to be alone right now. I’ll talk to you later. Love you. ’Bye.” She clicked off the phone. Before she could put down the phone and go into the bathroom for her shower, both Ry and Duke called. She assured them she was fine but told them she wouldn’t be coming into the café tomorrow morning as usual. Although Kaegan hadn’t come into the café any mornings last week, she couldn’t risk seeing him.

      She needed time to pull herself together before she saw him again. That was the only way she could move on with her life and one day find a man whom she could love and who would love her in return just as much.

      “I WONDER IF Bryce didn’t get back yesterday as planned,” Ray commented when another waitress filled their order.

      “She got back,” Kaegan said, staring into his coffee. He had arrived at the café early that morning after a sleepless night, only to find out from Mr. Witherspoon that Bryce had decided not to come in that day because she had a lot of things to do. A part of him knew that was just an excuse. She was avoiding him, and he’d been hoping to do just the opposite with her. He had wanted to see her. Apologize again.

      More than once last night, he’d been tempted to get out of bed and drive over to her place to see her. But each time he would talk himself out of it when he remembered the look on her face when she’d said, “Don’t you dare blame me for our breakup. You can only blame yourself for not believing in me...”

      Again, he could only ask himself how he could have been so fucking stupid. He had spent all those years wanting to hate her. Despise her. Believing she had betrayed him, and as a result, he’d thought all sorts of mean things about her when she’d been innocent of all of it. Totally innocent. Instead she’d been being Bryce. The person who was always a champion for the underdog, the girl who would give you the shirt off her back, a person who was that friend when you needed one.

      “And you know this how?”

      He glanced over at Sawyer. For him to ask meant he hadn’t heard anything. That didn’t necessarily mean Bryce hadn’t told Vashti, because he had every reason to believe that she had. It only meant Vashti hadn’t told Sawyer. “I know because I saw her yesterday evening when I came in here for dinner.”

      “Oh.”

      That “oh” had come from Ray. Kaegan moved his gaze from Sawyer to Ray. He might as well level with the two men who were the closest things to brothers he would ever have. “I fucked up.” There. He’d said it. He’d spelled out his torment in three words. Words he felt all the way to his gut.

      “Would you care to tell us how?” Sawyer asked quietly.

      So he did. He told them everything. About his father’s lies. About what he thought he’d seen that night he’d planned to ask her to marry him. About how he’d treated her when she showed up at that club near the marine base. “For ten years I believed Bryce had an affair with another man and last night I found out it had all been a lie. A fucking lie. I’ve been trying to hate her when I could have been loving her.”

      For the longest time the table was quiet. Neither Ray nor Sawyer said anything. Then Sawyer spoke up. “The first step is admitting you were wrong.”

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