What in the world was going on with Kenzie’s life? It seemed that no matter what, something or someone from her past always came back to haunt her on a present case. Sometimes not even a case, but a vacation.
She’d run into Isaiah in Starlight Shores, who turned out to be Jillian’s new boyfriend. She’d met up with Austin again in Appaloosa Plains, though she’d at least known he was there (but she hadn’t intended on one foolish night transpiring). And in Lucky Palms, she was reunited with Savannah, Jillian’s younger sister, who’d developed a dark side.
But compared to this, she’d take those scenarios ten times over. Because Mariah Cooper’s husband, the writer who recognized her as she recognized him, was Bryce Cooper, the man Kenzie had not only dated in college…
…but had been engaged to.
Bryce had only been Kenzie’s second serious relationship, her first being Austin in high school. Bryce had been an aspiring writer even back in college, and was attending Twinbrook University as a journalism major. They’d been in love, and Bryce had even visited Kenzie’s parents in Riverview over Snowflake Day break, during which he’d proposed to her and she’d eagerly accepted.
It seemed like the perfect fairy tale, until Kenzie discovered Bryce’s infidelity. She’d caught him red-handed, pants on the ground, with his lips sucking the face of another girl in his dorm room when she’d gone by to see him. His attempt at an apology had been, “It meant nothing.” That response had landed him an engagement ring in the eye.
Kenzie glanced at Mariah’s finger to confirm that Bryce, the dog that he was, hadn’t recycled the ring he’d given her. But it didn’t appear that he had.
But the awkwardness in the room was stifling. Kenzie actually felt like she was going to vomit.
“You two know each other?” Mariah asked, breaking the silence.
“Oh, erm, yeah…” Bryce stammered. “Kenzie and I knew each other in college.”
Kenzie looked down and restrained a snort. That was the understatement of the century. She was still trying to wrap her mind around the fact that Bryce Cooper, major ladies’ man who didn’t even graduate with Kenzie because he’d been too busy studying the female anatomy instead of his classes, was married and had a child.
And now that child was missing. And she’d been hired to find him.
But did he even know? Mariah was the one who’d called her, not Bryce.
“So, were you the one that wanted to call me?” Kenzie asked Bryce.
“No, I saw the ad,” Mariah replied. “I showed it to him, and he said that if anyone could find Tristan, it would be you. I guess he would know, if he knew you in college. No wonder he said it was a good idea to try to get in touch with you.”
Kenzie wondered how much Bryce had told his wife about her, and if she knew just how well her husband and this PI she’d hired to find her son knew each other. For instance, intimately to the point of seeing each other naked. Talk about awkward.
Sage hadn’t known Bryce, but she sensed her master’s discomfort and stood in front of her bravely, her eyes filled with determination and intimidation, willing the strange man causing Kenzie distress to try anything.
The uncomfortable silence was becoming oppressive. Kenzie jumped back to business.
“Do you have a recent picture of Tristan?” she asked both Bryce and Mariah. The latter nodded and retrieved a photo from her smart phone’s album. She texted it to Kenzie’s phone, which beeped in confirmation a moment later. Kenzie asked Bryce the same questions she’d just asked his wife, all the while trying to maintain her composure. Why was she so nervous? The past was in the past. She was much happier now and she had absolutely no feelings toward Bryce whatsoever.
Then it hit her. Yes, she was happy, but she was with someone else who also happened to be in Aurora Skies. She hadn’t told Hayden much about her past relationships, save for the facts that they were all dicks (except Austin). And she certainly hadn’t mentioned that one relationship had been so serious that she was willing to marry the man she’d been in it with.
Her biggest fear was Hayden discovering this secret that she’d been convinced had long been buried. If he found out that her heart was once (wrongly) promised to another, and that she’d kept that from him, it could ruin everything. All the hours she’d spent fantasizing about Hayden being hers, all the effort she’d put into making him realize her true feelings (which hadn’t been that much, but at least he’d been aware), would have been for nothing if Bryce blew her cover.
Funny, she’d just convinced herself earlier that she’d never have to hide anything from Hayden. So much so that she felt no qualms of him inadvertently hearing her phone calls with his keen auditory sense.
So she quickly got the rest of the information she needed, plus an article of Tristan’s clothing so Sage could pick up on his scent, promised to do her best to find Tristan, and got the hell out of there. When she returned to the cabin, Sage at her heels, she saw Hayden typing up a storm on his laptop at the kitchen table, since there wasn’t a desk in the cabin.
“Hey,” he said by way of greeting. “How’d it go?”
“Uh…okay, I guess. I mean, as good as can be expected for a devastated, desperate mother trying to find her kid.”
“I’ll bet. Any leads?”
“None.”
Kenzie sat down on the sofa and opened the text message from Mariah that had Tristan’s picture in it. He looked startlingly like his father.
It was like she couldn’t pull herself away from the picture. The resemblance was striking. Tristan had his father’s looks apart from his mother’s eyes. Somewhere in the dark represses of her mind, she halfway wondered what her life would have been like had Bryce not cheated on her, or had she not caught him. If the former, would they still have tied the knot and would this be her son? And if the latter, would his infidelity have been a one-time thing?
Her heart didn’t long for what could have been. Her heart longed that this part of her past would die and stay buried, safely hidden away with repressed memories that were never uncovered.
She was so absorbed in thinking this that she didn’t realize that Hayden had ceased typing and was hovering above her, a look of bemusement on his face.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“Nothing.”
“I can tell when you’re hiding something from me, Kenzie. You know you can tell me anything. What happened?”
Kenzie bit her lip, unsure of what to say. Hayden sat down behind her on the couch and held her comfortingly.
“Whatever it is, you can tell me,” he said softly in her ear, sending goose bumps shooting up her arms.
“I’m not so sure I can.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Because I’m afraid of what you’ll think of me. And what might happen.”
Hayden held her tighter. “You forget, wolves are monogamous. Whatever may happen, they’re mates for life. The same applies to us.”
“You think I’m you’re mate for life?”
“I told you I thought so at your graduation.”
“But…you aren’t sure?”
“I didn’t say that. Kenzie, what the hell happened that makes you so afraid to trust me?”
Kenzie turned to face him with a somewhat accusatory glare. “I do trust you. This has nothing to do with trust.”
“Then what’s the problem?”
Kenzie sighed. What was the use in hiding it? If nothing else, she could at least give him a half-truth. He didn’t need to know every single detail.
“Okay,” she said at last, “the missing boy’s father? It turns out that I knew him.”
“Oh? How so?”
“I knew him in college. He was…well, we dated.”
“He’s your old boyfriend?”
Kenzie nodded mutely, unable to meet Hayden’s gaze. But he surprised her by scooping her up into his arms and enveloping her in an earth-shattering hug.
“That’s what you’re worried about?” he asked with a slight chuckle. “Kenzie, I know you’ve had boyfriends before me. If I judged you on that, I’d be a dog. Oh, wait…”
Kenzie let out a guffaw. She should have known that Hayden would take this well. That was just the kind of person he was. And her feelings for him continued to grow, just when she thought her heart couldn’t get any bigger with the love she had for this man that swelled inside.
“And I think,” he continued, “that I should show you just how much you really mean to me.”
She knew she should be working and helping locate Tristan. But when Hayden kissed her, the entire world always faded away. Nothing else mattered except his touch, his lips, his caresses, and how he made her feel.
He leaned her back against the couch as his kisses tickled their way to her collarbone, making her shudder in ecstasy.
All her troubles, doubts, anything that might hinder this mind-numbing moment dissipated at Hayden Howland’s touch. It was like he was a witch as well as a werewolf. Like he had a supernatural hold on her that she was unable to escape.
Well, in a way, he did, but she didn’t mind.
Her muscles gave way and she found herself lying supine against the couch as Hayden climbed on top of her and continued to adulate her mercilessly. She reached down and began to tug his shirt over his head, but then stopped.
“What?” he asked her, breathlessly.
“I have another surprise for you.”
“More? I’m still plenty surprised after last night.”
“Just wait. Stay right here.”
Kenzie galloped into the bedroom, and when she came back out, she struck a pose with a come-hither stare, much to Hayden’s delight.
“Seriously?” he asked. “How many of those do you have?”
“I guess you’ll just have to wait to find out.”
“Get that ass over here,” Hayden ordered seductively. Kenzie laughed but complied. Hayden tossed her back down onto the couch and resumed the same position they’d had before she’d gone to change clothes.
And then nothing else mattered but Kenzie and Hayden. Not Bryce Cooper, nor his missing son, and not even the case. All that mattered at this very moment was being made love to by Hayden Howland, who Kenzie finally realized, at long last, was her soul mate.
No comments:
Post a Comment