Unbroken by Love (The Basin Lake Series Book 4)

by Vercier, Stephanie

  “You play for the Vikings,” a guy I’m not sure I recognize says when Kate and I get to the edge of the crowd.

  “Played.” It’s Claire, Paige and Kate’s beautiful middle sister, whose sweet voice corrects the man. “Hi, Garrett,” she says, turning to me and offering a slight wave of her hand. “You remember me?”

  “Of course I do. It’s good to see you, Claire.”

  She looks great and so much more relaxed than the stern girl I’d remembered her to be. Smiling, she tilts her head to the man who’d asked about the Vikings. “This is my husband, Tyler. And I think he already knows who you are.”

  “Nice to meet you, man.” Tyler extends his hand. He’s a tall, muscled guy with dark hair, and he and Claire make a hell of a good looking couple.

  “You too.” I kind of hate to let go of Kate, but I do in order to shake his hand. “And nice to see you again, Claire. You look great, and I hear you’re going into med—”

  “Garrett Hevener!” It’s another guy, this one I actually think I recognize, especially when I see he’s attached to Evan’s little sister, McKenzie. She’s all grown up too with tattoos, bright red hair and dark makeup around her eyes.

  “James, right?” I ask, unable to finish up my question for Claire.

  “Yeah, you remember me?” With a wide grin, he grips my hand and gives it a good shake.

  “Sure. You were a few years behind me.” He’d played ball and had been pretty decent, one of those kids you feel good about leaving your football team to when you head off to college. “How you doing?”

  “Not bad. Hey, I’ve followed your entire career. I was bummed you decided to give it up.”

  “You probably made the right choice,” McKenzie, says, offering me a sweet smile, which is nice considering the strained friendship between her brother and me.

  James wraps an arm around McKenzie, and the two are like polar opposites, James conservative in khaki trousers and a light blue button-down with McKenzie in a dark purple dress and two arms with sleeves of tattoos. Seeing a couple like that together, making it, is kind of awesome.

  With Kate staying close to me, I spend the next ten minutes talking to mostly Tyler and James who have all kinds of questions about playing pro ball, and I’m happy to oblige when they start going into stats and asking what my real opinions are about the guys I’d played with over my three years.

  It isn’t until Kate nudges me and says, “I think now’s our chance,” that I’m pulled back to the task at hand, the one in which I actually cross my fingers in hopes my conversation with Paige and Evan will go well.

  “I’ll catch up with you guys later,” I tell them.

  “Sure, man,” Tyler says.

  “Great talking to you!” James adds.

  And then Kate is leading me to an opening in the crowd, leading me closer to my old friends.

  They’re standing together outside the tent full of presents, and there is no part of me that can’t admit how great they look together. Evan always had it easy with the girls with his height and dark features and a build that I’d been jealous of a time or two when we were younger and before I passed him up in bulk. And Paige is the sort of pretty nobody can argue with, even more so in a white dress and maybe the tiniest of baby bumps that you wouldn’t notice unless you knew she was pregnant.

  “Look who I found,” Kate says after a very long-winded guy finally finishes a congratulatory speech to the new couple.

  I’m thinking of just the right thing to say and expecting that whatever Evan and Paige have to offer me, in words or a shake of my hand, will be at arm’s length. So, I’m more than a little floored when Evan takes a step forward, wraps his arms around me and pulls me into a hug.

  “I’ve missed you, man.” It’s louder than a whisper, but not by much, his voice strained and filled with emotion.

  “Me too,” I say, unable to stop from getting choked up. And maybe that’s okay because, for the first time since high school, I feel like I’ve got my best friend back.

  * * *

  We all end up talking long past the opening of the presents—the set of unisex blankets, stuffed animals, baby clothes and shoes a sales women in Spokane had helped me pick out well received—past the toasts and the backyard dancing, all the way into the evening when Paige and Evan finally take their leave, heading to some spa and resort in Montana for a week.

  But there is still Ben and Beth, Tyler and Claire, James and McKenzie, Emma and her husband, John, and of course Kate, all of us sitting around a bonfire that Paige’s stepdad set up. Her mom and grandma headed inside a while ago, Evan’s somewhat large and complicated family unit—including a set of twins from Evan’s bio-dad and stepmom—also taking their leave. With just the eight of us out here now, it’s less intimidating, and the small group makes me nostalgic for all the times I spent with friends growing up right here in Basin Lake.

  But along with that sense of inclusion comes that same feeling I’d had at the dinner table at my parents’, that everyone except for me has someone. Beth is in Ben’s lap, Claire pulled close to Tyler, McKenzie wrapped up into James, and John and Emma connecting on their own private level. I really want to reach out to Kate who is sitting next to me, both of us relegated to the folding white chairs used for the wedding so that the couples could have the more comfortable outdoor furniture. I’d like to just take her hand, something as simple as that, but her arms are folded across her chest, her eyes somewhat hypnotized by the fire.

  “We should be getting home.” Beth stretches out, nearly falling off of Ben’s lap to check her phone. “Our babysitter is going to need to get going.”

  “Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Ben says, his eyes looking a little glassy. “You can drive, right?”

  “I was planning on it.” She climbs off of his lap and reaches into her purse for keys.

  “I suppose that’s our cue as well.” Tyler extends his arms before wrapping them right back up around Claire.

  “You guys aren’t driving back to Seattle tonight, are you?” Kate asks, lifting her eyes from the fire.

  “Nope, we’ve all got rooms at Evan’s Mom’s hotel.” Claire laughs softly when Tyler squeezes her. “Let’s meet up for brunch before we have to head back, okay?”

  Kate nods, and I’m half hopping she’ll turn to me and ask me to join, but that’s left to Tyler and James who, once they’ve extricated themselves from the beautiful women in their lives, both trade numbers with me. They inform me they’ll have more questions in the morning, and I let them know I’m looking forward to it.

  “You shouldn’t have to walk me to my truck,” I tell Kate after everyone else has left and it’s just she and I heading down her road.

  “Oh, I don’t mind. I wasn’t ready to go in quite yet anyway.”

  The night remains fairly warm but with enough of a breeze that a chill comes through every minute or so. That’s late September in Basin Lake for you.

  “You’re going to get cold out here.” I’m wishing I had a sport coat to wrap around her.

  “I think I’ll survive.”

  “Well, this is me.” I let out a small laugh when we reach my truck and hesitate to dig my keys out of my pocket. Getting into my truck will mean an end to the night, and I’m not looking forward to leaving alone.

  “I’m glad you came and that everything worked out.” Her eyes are soft and filled with an inner glow.

  “It’s all thanks to you.” She’s so close to me, and my fingers ache with this need to touch her… to kiss her.

  “You still had to have the courage to come.” She offers a plaintive smile and starts to turn away from me.

  “Kate, I—”

  “I’ll see you tomorrow at brunch,” she calls out, tilting her head slightly over her shoulder so only a partial silhouette of her face is visible to me. Her pace quickens, and she’s down the road so fast that it’s obvious she’s had enough of me for the night.

  I still watch her form pass under the one street lig
ht on her road, then across the front lawn and onto the porch. She doesn’t turn around the way I was hoping she would, and once she’s safely inside, I climb back into my truck and take a few moments.

  While the day would have been made better by some small token from Kate, something to let me know she might want to spend more time together, I can’t exactly sit here and be bummed. After nearly seven years, I feel like my relationship with Paige and Evan has been repaired, that enough time had elapsed for all of us to realize that it would be a mistake to go through our lives carrying grudges. So, I take that as a win, and on that note, I start my truck and head on home.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  KATE

  It’s dark when I wake up, but I’m hoping it’s close enough to morning in case I can’t go back to sleep. Turning to my nightstand, I check my phone, and… no such luck. It’s 2:43 a.m., and I’m pretty sure I didn’t actually get to sleep until one. I toss and turn for a while before I throw the covers off in defeat, walk to the bathroom and take a long drink of water. I hadn’t touched even a drop of alcohol at the wedding, but I still feel dehydrated.

  After I finish a full glass, I rest my hands on the sink, lean in and look through tired eyes into the mirror. “Stupid girl,” I tell myself, knowing damn well Garrett Hevener is the reason I can’t sleep.

  Everyone had been coupled up at the wedding it seemed, and there were only a handful of us that were actually qualified to vie for Paige’s bouquet. I might have actually been able to catch it if I’d given more than a half-ass effort, but I’m not really superstitious with that kind of thing. And honestly?—I kind of find the bouquet toss pathetic. You’re either going to find someone to marry you or you aren’t. And when even the smallest of ideas begins to form in my head that Garrett could be that guy for me, I grab onto that same patch of skin I’d already bruised and twist it up until I’m literally clenching my teeth.

  “There… that’s what you get you stupid girl.” It’s what I tell my reflection, angrily so, after I release the skin pinched between my fingers. My heart still gallops, my nerves still raw and tortured from what I’d just inflicted upon myself. Satisfied, I turn off the bathroom light, quietly creep back into my room and climb into bed.

  While I’d succeeded in quieting my idiotic thoughts about Garrett, I still won’t be able to sleep. So, knowing I’ll just lie awake, I grab my phone to continue the audio of my vampire romance. But before I can even push play, I notice a text message that must have come during the brief time I’d been asleep or while I was in the bathroom.

  I really wish you’d stop ignoring me. It’s getting old. Can we talk?

  Even if the text had come in attached to an unknown number, I’d have known exactly who it came from.

  Me: I really wish you’d stop texting me. That is what’s getting old. I don’t want to talk.

  It’s the response I type and send to Shawn, the guy I’d met my first year working for Houses for Us, a man I thought I was in love with, a man I’d been convinced loved me too. Imagine my surprise when he up and married someone else six months ago. He didn’t even have the decency to tell me himself, and I only found out after the fact.

  Small, moving bubbles appear right below my text, alerting me to the fact that Shawn is very much awake right along with me and is typing a response.

  Shawn: Don’t be like that. I made a mistake. I need to see you. I can’t even sleep. Please.

  I’m tempted to tell him that I’m glad he can’t sleep and that I hope he has insomnia for the rest of his miserable life. But I figure it’s better to just ignore him and not give him the satisfaction of my attention. So, even though I really want to listen to my book, I shut my phone off, stare up at the ceiling and hope for sleep.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  GARRETT

  Brunch was great on Sunday, especially getting to know the guys a little better. Tyler has some amazing stories about his firefighting career, but he’s not boastful, and I can tell he still keeps a lot of things to himself. James is great too, and I’m glad to see that he and McKenzie are making a go of it. Back when we were all kids, I was never sure what to think of McKenzie, just that Evan loved her a good deal and was probably sad to be so far away from her and his half-brother, Henry, for those years he was in North Carolina.

  I had liked Emma’s husband, John, too, but he was definitely a city guy, a prosecutor who was knowledgeable about everything to do with law and someone who I’m pretty sure came from money. He said he’d be happy to give me any advice I might need about the farm I was trying to buy, though, at the time, I still hadn’t heard anything back. The farm should have been foremost on my mind, but it wasn’t—I still couldn’t seem to quiet my thoughts about Kate.

  She’d sat as far from me as it was possible to be at the hotel restaurant, and we hadn’t said more than a few words to one another by the time everyone gathered their stuff up and left. With a sense that she was maybe mad or annoyed with me for something, I gave her a wide berth and left without saying more than a quick goodbye.

  I thought a good deal about her, but when I heard back on Monday that my offer for the farm was accepted, I at least had something else to focus on. Mom and Dad had insisted on a big dinner to celebrate, and Skyler was already talking about one of her friends who was recently single, someone that was a little older than me but that she knew I’d love to meet. I didn’t want to meet her, not because she was older, but because my eyes were set on one girl, even if that one girl had cooled considerably since I’d first seen her at Pamela’s.

  But Skyler had invited her friend, Melody, to the celebration dinner anyway, and it was only with Dad and Matt’s help veering the conversations away from anything romantic that I was able to get through it. At the end of the evening, I’d thanked Melody, who was both accomplished and beautiful, for coming, but I made no attempt to offer anything but a handshake.

  “You could meet her for coffee,” Skyler tells me today, cutting me off in front of the house before I can get up and into my truck. She’s mentioned her friend multiple times since the dinner two nights ago with no sign of letting up. “I think she really liked you.”

  I cross my arms, just wanting to get into town to sign some paperwork at the bank. “Why the hell are you so anxious to pair me off with someone?”

  “Because you aren’t happy on your own, Garrett.” She moves closer to me, nearly invading my personal space. “It’s so obvious. I don’t know how the hell you got through seven years without a serious girlfriend.”

  I just shake my head at her. “Because I didn’t meet the right one. Kind of hard to have someone serious in your life if you don’t care about them the way you’re supposed to.”

  “Well, that’s why I think Melody is so perfect for you. She’s such a nice—”

  “Skyler… enough. I’m sure she’s as great as you say, but I’m not interested, okay?”

  She matches my posture by crossing her arms and narrowing her eyes at me the way an older sister eyes her younger brother, like she knows a lot more about you than you’d ever imagine she should. “You’re interested in someone else, aren’t you?”

  I sigh, uncrossing my arms and running a hand through my hair. “So what if I am?” I might as well admit it. Evading Skyler isn’t going to work.

  “Please tell me it’s not Paige,” she says, practically deflating. “Please tell me going to her wedding wasn’t a huge mistake!”

  “It’s not Paige.” I’m at least glad I can tell her that.

  “Then who?”

  I open the door of my truck, just wanting to escape, not sure I want to discuss my interest in Kate when I’m not sure those feelings are returned.

  “Garrett,” she presses.

  With surrender, I say the name. “It’s Kate.”

  She takes a step back, loosens her arms and brings her fingers up to her parted lips. “Paige’s little sister?”

  “Yeah… is that so awful?”

  She drops her fingers and pushes
her lips into a thin line. “You do realize she looks an awful lot like Paige.”

  I climb into the cab of my truck, keeping the door wide open. “She’s her sister, so that shouldn’t come as a shock.”

  “If you’re trying to replace one for the other, that’s not going to work, little brother.”

  It’s likely that I’m going to be hearing this a lot, and it’s why I didn’t even want to bring it up. “All I can say is that I’m over Paige, completely, and if I’m attracted to Kate, it has nothing to do with that.”

  Skyler taps her sneakered foot on the gravel driveway. “She’s awfully young too. I don’t think she’s even twenty-one yet.”

  “Jesus, Skyler, all I said was that I’m interested in her. When I tell you I’m going to marry her, then you can give me the third degree, okay? I’ll see you later.” I pull my door closed, start up the truck and get the hell out of there as fast as I can, leaving my big sister in the rear-view mirror.

  But what Skyler said isn’t left behind—it gnaws at me—Kate’s youth, her looking so much like Paige and people probably thinking that last part is why I’m so interested. But at least I’ve got a nice open road ahead of me to let those things settle, nothing like the heavy traffic I’d learned to live with in Minneapolis. That’s one of the things I love about Basin Lake, the lack of traffic where the only way you get delayed going somewhere is if you get stuck behind a school bus or a tractor. But otherwise, it’s smooth sailing.

  So, it’s an easy drive into town, and I’m in and out of the bank, signing some paperwork for the partial loan I decided to take for the farm with a guy my dad has known for years. After shaking his hand, I head back outside. It’s a nice day, the leaves on the trees just starting to go from green to the oranges, reds and yellows they’ll morph into. The sky is blue, and the air is crisp, like fall is creeping in but summer is still hanging on by a thread. With a day like this, there’s a long list of things I could get done on the family farm. But heading back will mean facing off with my sister again, who likely won’t shut up now that she knows I’m interested in Kate. That, mixed with my excitement at the probability of my loan going through without a hitch and owning my own farm in less than a month, has me keyed up, and I don’t want to head home.