He didn’t hesitate to grasp my hand and draw me near enough that we were sharing the same breaths. “Best friends,” he whispered.
He was the best friend I’d ever had. I missed him. So much. “Best friends,” I whispered back before I could stop myself.
A grin engulfed his face. “Now that that’s settled, we need to finish our list.”
“What list?”
“Our summer list.”
My hand flew to my chest. “You kept it?”
He reached into his pocket, took out his wallet, and opened it. Inside was a folded-up piece of paper. He carefully pulled it out. It looked worn, as if he had unfolded and refolded it many times over the years. And there it was: our list.
I rubbed my heart, overcome by feelings. So much hope lived in each word that had been written on that paper. Cherished, yet haunting, memories lived and breathed on the page.
Kane held it out to me, but I was afraid to take it for fear I would start crying. “How long have you been carrying that around?”
“Since the day I said goodbye.” His voice was on the cusp of breaking with emotion, but he held it together.
“I don’t understand why you kept it.” I was doing everything I could to hold back the onslaught of tears ready to be unleashed.
“For this moment, right here,” he said, as if he were fulfilling a lifelong quest or relieving a burden he had been carrying around for years. “Because I knew someday I would see you again and I could give this to you. And you would know that I thought about you every day we’d been apart.”
That did it. The tears burst through and ran down my cheeks. I loved him for it, and I wanted to shake him for eight lost years. This was why I was so torn. He had stolen from me, and I wasn’t sure it was something we could get back.
“Please take it,” he begged.
With trembling hands, I uneasily took the paper. I had a hard time focusing on the words, as my eyes had become so blurry from crying. Yet through the waterworks, I saw every date we had planned and the check marks by the ones we’d been on. There were six check marks missing, except there should have only been five. “You forgot to check one off.” I couldn’t say Edge of the World. It was such a beautiful place, but it was an ugly memory. Edge of the World could have been renamed The Day My World Came Crashing Down.
“No, I didn’t.” He tucked a tendril of hair behind my ear. “That one deserves a redo.”
“I can’t go there,” I stammered.
“Give me a chance to change your mind,” he pleaded.
I handed him back the list. “Don’t press your luck,” I half-heartedly teased.
He chuckled and took the list. “So, Starlight Drive-In first?” Of course, he would pick that one first.
Pamela, the chief medical officer, walked in. I wished she hadn’t. I already felt as if everyone who worked here and sat on the board was watching my every move. Scrutinizing me. Even Pamela, who I had interned for and who I believed thought highly of me. I could see in her eyes that she had serious questions about me leading Armstrong Labs. Even now, she looked between me and Kane with interest, taking note of my tears. CEOs didn’t cry at work or date their coworkers. I mean, it’s not like she didn’t know that Kane and I had dated a long time ago. Still, I didn’t want people to think we were in a relationship now. Especially anyone from the executive team who was on the board. People Kane already had a good relationship with. Yeah, that didn’t bode well for me either. Regardless, I was going to do everything in my power to knock their socks off. To make them forget I was Auggie’s daughter and that I cried in the break room.
Honestly, I was surprised Kane wasn’t on the board yet. Though I knew Auggie liked to have a good mix. Only the CFO and CMO from the executive team currently sat on the board alongside twenty other individuals with various professional backgrounds. And, in a way, keeping Kane off the board was a smart strategic move on Auggie’s part—hold number two at bay in case he ever wanted to raise a coup. Not that I ever saw Kane doing that.
I cleared my throat. “That all sounds good, except the one item. Just remember our previously agreed upon terms.” A.k.a, friends only. “See you later.” I hustled away from him and smiled at Pamela. “Hello.”
“Hello.” She seemed taken aback by my harried state and tear-stained cheeks, but she didn’t say anything.
I rushed out and back to the safety of my office, questioning my sanity. Leaning against the door, I closed my eyes. How in the world was I going to survive being friends with Kane? I so badly wanted to run, but I knew with all that I was, I had to see this through. There would be no regrets, one way or the other.
The Start of Something Good
I pulled into the garage, surprised to see Auggie there. I couldn’t believe he was already home with so much daylight left.
I got out of the car, still kind of nervous to be around him. I was always afraid I wouldn’t know what to say, or worse, we would run out of things to say. “I went to the grocery store,” I blurted.
Auggie walked my way. “You know we have a housekeeper who does all the shopping. Fran will get you whatever you want—just give her a list.”
“I know, but I’ve been researching heart-healthy and stress-reducing foods. I thought it would be best if we all started eating better.”
Auggie gave me a pressed-lip smile. “Is that so?” he said, seeing right through me.
“Besides, I miss cooking.”
“I didn’t realize you knew how to cook.” He sounded abashed. There was a lot he didn’t know about me.
I planned to change that. I popped the trunk with a push of a button and walked toward it to retrieve the groceries. “Ethan and I took cooking classes last year.” I reached for a few cloth bags.
Auggie grabbed the rest while clearing his throat. “Do you miss him?”
“Ethan?”
Auggie nodded while we walked toward the mudroom door.
“Um . . . well . . . sometimes.” I was an awful person. I should be pining for the man I had been planning to marry. But the truth was, I wasn’t. Yes, there were things I missed about Ethan. He could make history come alive, and, like Kane, he liked to try new things. Although, unlike Kane, Ethan did it more for appearance’s sake. Kane did it because he had a zest for life.
“It’s all for the best.” Auggie opened the door for me.
“How do you know that?” I wasn’t being snarky; I truly wanted to know why he thought so.
Auggie looked taken aback by my question, but he easily answered, “There was something missing in your eyes.”
I didn’t even realize my father cared to look in my eyes or understand how he would know something was missing. “What was missing?”
“Light,” he quickly said, as if he were embarrassed. “Besides, he wasn’t your equal. You would have come to resent his lack of ambition and brains.”
I snickered. “He’s a professor at one of the most prestigious universities in the country.”
“I’ve known a lot of smart idiots in my day. He talked a big talk, but believe me, he’s not going places.”
I didn’t argue with him—not because I necessarily agreed with him, but because it seemed pointless since Ethan and I were a thing of the past.
We set the bags on the counter.
“Does a crunchy chicken mango salad sound good for dinner?” I started taking out the produce.
“Sure.” Auggie helped me. “But you don’t have to take care of me.”
I stopped what I was doing and caught his eye. “I know, but I want to do this. And I don’t mean cook for you.” I wanted to get to know him. Having dinner with him seemed like a good place to start. We hadn’t had a lot of meals together while I was growing up.
He set down the pineapple he was holding. He nodded, indicating he got what I was really trying to say. “I would like that.”
We both carried on as if we hadn’t just had a life-changing conversation.
“So, why are you home so e
arly?” I started unloading my next bag.
He opened the refrigerator to put away the almond milk. “I thought I should probably start trying to see what life outside the office looks like. And since you’re here now . . .,” he trailed off.
I smiled. “I’m glad you’re here,” I admitted.
“Me too.”
We put away the rest of the groceries in silence, but once I started cooking, we braved more conversations. While I chopped veggies, Auggie sat at the breakfast bar looking as unsure as I felt.
“Do you want to help?” I wasn’t sure what else to say.
“I’m a disaster in the kitchen. Your mother banned me from it.”
“She did? What did you do?”
“You name it, but I think the last straw was when I used the blender without a lid and sprayed tomatoes all over the kitchen.”
I laughed imagining what a mess that must have been to clean up, and because I could never imagine my father doing something so like me. I pushed some washed romaine lettuce toward him. “Could you handle tearing lettuce into bite-size pieces?”
“What would you consider bite size?” he asked quite seriously.
“You’re a smart man. I think you can figure it out.”
He raised his brows at me. “Now you sound like Naomi.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
He grabbed the lettuce. “I’m glad for her influence in your life.”
“She’s the best.” I tossed some cucumbers in a bowl.
“She is,” Auggie agreed.
“Do you ever miss her?” I eeked out.
Auggie stopped tearing lettuce and swallowed hard. “She and your mother were the loves of my life,” he offered.
“Maybe you’ll find love again.” I only prayed it was with a sane woman his own age. And that I didn’t have to go to another one of his weddings. I would appreciate an elopement.
He waved away my insinuations. “I think I’ve exceeded my limit.”
Internally, I breathed a sigh of relief.
“What about you?” he casually asked.
“I don’t know.” I grabbed a mango.
“What about Kane?” He gave me a pointed look.
It suddenly felt very warm. I set my knife down on the cutting board. “We’re going to be friends.”
Auggie laughed a deep, throaty laugh, so unlike him. “Does Kane know that?”
“Of course.”
“All right.” He went back to tearing lettuce, not believing a word I just said.
“Why are you all of a sudden team Kane?” I had to ask. In fact, I was a bit annoyed. Why couldn’t he have been more supportive about my relationship with Kane eight years ago? Not that it would have changed anything. Kane still would have left me for my “own good.”
He let out a heavy breath. “Whether you believe it or not, I’m not on Kane’s team. I’m on yours.”
His words touched my heart. I wanted to believe him. I was trying to.
“You were different with him. There was light in your eyes.” He lowered his voice. “They reminded me of your mother’s.”
“How did you know Momma was the one?” I dared to ask.
Auggie sighed and looked past me as if he were seeing the ghosts of yesterday. “We were children, Scarlett.” He sounded so remorseful. Why was it he always did when he spoke of Momma? That he constantly drifted to how young she was?
“You didn’t answer my question.”
He turned his head toward me, his turbulent eyes peered into my own. “She . . .” He paused before restarting. “One day during gym, some friends and I made fun of one of our classmates for tripping on his shoelaces. She quietly said to me that I was better than that, and then she walked away. It was the first thing she had ever said to me, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it or her. She was like that, though—quiet, but deafening in her own way. From that day on, I found ways to be around her. I noticed how kind and unassuming she was. She was beautiful,” he said wistfully, “though she never believed it, no matter how many times I told her. I don’t know how I knew, but I knew I didn’t want to ever be without her.” He choked his emotion down.
I reached over and put my hand on top of his, tears filling my eyes. “I’m sorry she left you.”
He rested his other hand on top of mine. “We can’t live in the past.” He said it in a way that made it clear he was done talking about her.
We both went back to our tasks. Despite the quiet, I felt like we had made some more progress. Little by little, I was determined to know Auggie, for him to become my dad, not just my father.
While we ate, we didn’t talk about anything deep other than work and the conference coming up on Friday. Apparently, all the board members would be there. Joy. He also asked how my business plan was coming. He tried to give pointers without really giving any, like keeping the plan to the point and as clean as possible. Use bullet points, graphs, and charts, and avoid long information dumps. I’d read that in my How to Write a Business Plan for Dummies book, but it was good to have the validation. And it was good to talk to my father.
While I finished washing the dishes, Kane walked in looking way too good in khaki shorts and a tight white T-shirt with a big grin on his face. “Sorry I’m late; I was prepping for tonight.”
I swallowed hard. I still couldn’t believe I’d agreed to go to the movies with him. The drive-in, no less. I blamed it on the list. Seeing it and holding it in my hands today had overwhelmed me, although it was more that he’d kept it and carried it around all these years. How do you not love a man like that? And how do you resist him? Or should I? That was the question I was trying to answer for myself.
“You two have plans?” The corner of Auggie’s mouth twitched.
“The drive-in.” Kane wagged his brows at me.
“We’re going out as friends.” I grabbed a dishcloth and began furiously wiping the counter off.
“Scarlett, you can leave all this for Fran to clean up tomorrow,” Auggie reminded me.
“I don’t mind,” I said, way too high pitched. I was used to cleaning up after myself. In fact, it was kind of therapeutic. And I needed all the therapy right now.
Auggie grabbed the dishcloth from me. “Go get ready for your date.” He smiled.
“It’s not a date,” I whispered.
“Of course not.” Auggie tossed the dishcloth into the sink and strode out of the kitchen. “Have fun tonight, you two,” he called.
“I plan to.” Kane hit me with his dazzling smile. “We should probably leave in half an hour if we want to get a good spot.”
“Okay,” I squeaked.
Kane chuckled and sauntered over to me. I backed up against the sink.
“Still so nervous around me.”
“I’m not nervous,” I breathed out, nervously.
“I’m glad to hear that, because that’s the last thing I would want you to be.” He gently tugged on a tendril of my hair.
I pointed toward the door leading to the staircase. “I’m going to go change.”
“I’ll be waiting.”
“Great.” I started to bolt like a frightened colt, but Kane grabbed my hand.
“Scarlett, I think this is going to be the start of a beautiful friendship,” he teased me.
I rolled my eyes and pulled away from him. “Just don’t be you tonight,” I begged. “I know all your moves.”
“Darlin’, you didn’t get to see all my moves. But don’t worry, you will.”
That’s exactly what I was worried about. “Are you trying to talk me out of going?” I asked, breathlessly thinking about all his moves. From his kisses to the way he could look at me and right my world.
“Definitely not,” he said in all sincerity.
Heaven help me, he was going to be the death of me. Though it wouldn’t be a bad way to go. “Give me a minute.” I needed to go hyperventilate and overthink this.
“I’ll give you all the time you need.” I knew he wasn’t only tal
king about tonight.
The question was, what did I need?
Bueller? Bueller?
I fanned myself in the steamy night air, sitting as far away as I could from Kane in the back of his truck. Yes, he had a truck. I mean, why not? It’s not like they were super romantic or the subject of half the country love songs. I wasn’t a country music fan, but I knew what happened in the bed of trucks. And, of course, he’d made sure to deck the bed out with pillows and blankets to make it more “comfortable.” I was sure he didn’t mean it to be romantic in any way. And he didn’t stop there. He’d brought homemade cookies and a bottle of wine. Not to mention chocolate-drizzled popcorn, my favorite. He was pretty much the devil, but oh, so godlike.
The scenery didn’t help either. Why did Atlanta have such beautiful sunsets? The sky was afire in pinks and oranges. The cracked pavement and movie screen that had seen better days added to the ambience. There was something nostalgic about it all. And the sun’s fading rays seemed to shadow all the flaws, allowing the beauty of the place to shine through.
“When did you get the truck?” I asked, not daring to look at him. I’d already caught a glance of him cozied up against the pillows, looking like an invitation. Everything about him called out to me. Not surprising, as we shared hearts. I swore it was as if I could hear them beating together in unison among the swirls of people headed to the concession stand. I longed to snuggle up to him, even though it was warm out. I had never minded having our sticky skin together. Honestly, I’d loved it. There was something sensual about it. Though sensual was the last thing we needed right now. I needed to get to know him again, to see if I could trust him. I needed to see if I could forgive him heart and soul. And I knew if we allowed ourselves to be physical in any way, it would only cloud my judgment.
“It was my dad’s.” There was still such pride in his voice whenever he mentioned his father.
So much for not looking at him. I turned toward him. “Really?”
“My mom gave it to me when I bought my house and decided to renovate it. It’s been sitting in storage forever. She thought it would come in handy for hauling supplies.”
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