Compass

by Deborah Bladon

  Chapter 23

  Gage

  The sight in front of me catches my breath in my throat.

  Katie is sitting on a bench in the showroom of her bridal store. Her long hair is tied up into a ponytail, revealing the soft contours of her jawline and cheekbones.

  She looks peaceful and happy.

  I’m guessing the baby swaddled in the pink blanket in her arms has everything to do with it.

  She’s humming softly as the baby sleeps.

  “Kate.” The woman who opened the door to the boutique calls out. “Someone is here to see you.”

  She knows exactly who I am. She called me by name when she opened the door to let me in.

  “You’re Gage Burke,” she drawled.

  I heard the surprised disappointment in her voice.

  “Who?” Katie’s head pops us, her eyes zeroing in on me immediately.

  “Him.” The woman with the dark hair jerks her thumb at me.

  “I hoped that you’d still be here.” I take a step closer to Katie. “I wanted to say something.”

  “I’m busy.” She glances at the baby in her arms. “I’m having dinner with my friend.”

  “Olivia Donato.” The woman next to me bumps her shoulder against my bicep. “I’m Kate’s friend. I’m one of her best friends.”

  I sense a subtle threat woven into her words.

  I glance at her. “It’s good to meet you, Olivia.”

  She tosses me a look that tells me that I need to watch my step around Katie. It’s obvious that Olivia knows about our past.

  “I don’t want to interrupt,” I say even though it’s a lie. “There’s something I’d like to discuss, Katie. If you let me know when you have time, I can come back.”

  “She’ll call you,” Olivia says.

  I look down at her. “She doesn’t have my number.”

  Her eyes lock on mine. She studies my face carefully. “Do you have her number?”

  “I’m swamped right now,” Katie interjects, rocking the baby in her arms. “We have new shipments coming in every day and we’re booked solid with appointments. I have to spend every second on work. I don’t have time right now to…”

  “Give me your phone.” Olivia’s hand darts out.

  I don’t ask what the hell is going on. I slide my phone out of the pocket of my jeans and drop it in her palm.

  “What are you doing?” Katie struggles to get to her feet without waking the sleeping infant. “Olivia, don’t.”

  Olivia’s fingers skim over the screen of my phone. They stop when she reaches the contact list.

  She looks up at me, her eyes widening. “Is this Kate’s old number? This was her number in California?”

  I glance down at my phone and the open tab on my contact list.

  Katie.

  The picture above her name is one I took the day after I asked her to marry me. We were at the beach. Katie’s blonde hair is wind kissed. Her cheeks are pink. The smile on her face exudes pure happiness.

  The L.A. based ten-digit phone number below her name was disconnected five years ago.

  I nod. “It was.”

  Something passes over Olivia’s face with my confirmation. The veil of anger drops. It’s replaced with something softer. I’d call it understanding, but it might be pity.

  “I’m going to give him your number.” Olivia turns her attention to Kate. “He already knows how to reach you here at the store.”

  Resignation loosens Katie’s shoulders. “Fine.”

  Olivia deletes the California number, replacing it with a number with a Manhattan area code.

  She hands the phone back to me. “Text her something so she has your number too.”

  “I will.”

  I have no intention of doing it while Olivia’s watching my every move.

  I’m glad Katie has such a fierce and loyal friend.

  “I’ll take off now.” I look over at Katie. “I’ll be in touch if that’s all right with you?”

  She looks to Olivia, before her gaze lands on my face. “It’s all right with me.”

  I may have walked in this store hoping to smooth over what happened between us last night at Tin Anchor, but I’m walking out with Katie’s phone number.

  A few weeks ago I wondered if I’d ever see her again, so I call this a win.

  ***

  Gage: Do you still like poetry, Katie?

  This has to be the thirtieth fucking message I’ve typed in the last two hours. I deleted the other twenty-nine before I hit the send button.

  I bite the bullet and let fate take the wheel.

  I exhale harshly once it’s sent.

  A response comes quickly.

  Kate: Who is this?

  I don’t know if I should be laughing or cursing.

  Gage: It’s me. Gage.

  I take a drink from the bottle of water in front of me and gaze around the interior of Tin Anchor. We’re at full capacity tonight. I brought Zeke in to handle the overflow. I was too focused on the fact that I have Katie’s number. It’s a gift that I don’t want to fuck up.

  Minutes pass before a response lights up my phone.

  Kate: Why did you come to my store tonight?

  I doubt like hell that I can explain that in a text message. It’s a face-to-face conversation I want so I push for that.

  Gage: Would you be willing to meet me for a coffee tomorrow?

  This time she types out an immediate reply.

  Kate: I can’t. I’m busy tomorrow.

  Gage: The day after?

  One of my regular customers approaches with a four-person drink order. He’s brought his out-of-town in-laws to the bar. I slide my phone into my pocket to prepare the order while I chat with him about the must-see sights in the city.

  My phone is back in my palm the second he drops a tip into the jar on the bar in front of me.

  I curse under my breath when I see there’s nothing from Katie.

  My thumbs linger over my phone’s screen. I want to type out another message telling her that I can’t stop thinking about her. I want to confess everything to her, including her part in my life these past five years, but I stop myself.

  She didn’t sign up for this.

  I turn up the volume on my phone to the highest setting and pocket it again.

  She didn’t tell me to go straight to hell so I know there’s something left in her heart for me too. This isn’t over.

  It might just be a new beginning.

  Chapter 24

  Kate

  I waited five days before I replied to Gage’s text message.

  Part of the delay was because of work. A lot was going on at the boutique including an appointment with the mayor’s daughter. She’s a celebrity in her own right since she landed a prime position as the lead anchor on one of the national morning shows.

  We worked out an agreement a few weeks ago that would allow a camera crew access to the boutique to capture the moment she found her dream dress.

  It didn’t go as planned.

  It took three days and over a hundred dresses to find one that she loved.

  Once the segment airs next week, I know business will pick up even more.

  I admit that I did look at Gage’s text messages at least a few times a day.

  When I finally did text him back this morning, he was the one who suggested we meet at Palla on Fifth after I was done work. It’s a café on Fifth Avenue that makes the best cup of coffee in the city.

  I look down at the faded jeans, white blouse and heeled sandals I’m wearing. I stopped at home after work so I could change out of the plum sheath dress I had on. I needed the time to decompress.

  Olivia called to check in on me just as I was leaving my apartment. We haven’t talked about Gage since the night he showed up at the boutique.

  After he left, she told me that she had given him my number because she could tell that things aren’t completely settled between us.

  Today, she followed that up with a
stern warning about watching myself when I’m around him.

  “Sort your past, Kate, and keep your wits about you whenever you see him. He’s too handsome for his own good.”

  I didn’t bother arguing with her.

  I swing open the glass door of the café and spot my ex-fiancé immediately. He’s sitting alone at a small circular table, his fingers tugging on the beads of the bracelet on his left wrist.

  I take a moment to watch him.

  Olivia was right when she said he’s too handsome for his own good. I’ve always thought he was the best-looking man I’d ever seen. The past five years haven’t changed my opinion on that.

  The first time he kissed me, I felt something inside of me crack open as if a match had been taken to it.

  I lit up. Every cell in my body came alive.

  My experiences with intimacy up to that point were confined to kissing and some touching. I’d felt a man’s hands on my skin, but never to the point of an orgasm.

  My first kiss with Gage changed everything. I almost came from the taste of his lips and his hands squeezing my ass.

  We made love for the first time a month later. It was tender and everything I needed. Gage was compassionate and loving.

  After that, some days we’d go at each other like we were starved. Our fucking would be frantic and quick, driven by our desperate need to feel each other.

  Other times, we’d take it slow. Hours would pass while we savored each touch and taste.

  I craved all of it.

  He stands when he sees me, revealing a pair of dark gray pants, a black belt, and a white button-down shirt. The sleeves are rolled up to his elbows.

  He raises his hand in the air in a greeting, drawing glances from the women sitting at nearby tables.

  I feel the same magnetic pull toward him that’s always been there, so I go to him, sensing that the conversation we’re about to have will change everything.

  ***

  I sip from the white ceramic coffee mug as I watch Gage watch me.

  “What’s the deal with you and Preston?”

  His question catches me off-guard. I take a deep breath, trying to mask the surprise in my tone. “Preston?”

  “The guy you’re seeing.” Disdain colors his words. “How serious is that?”

  I could resort back to my standard that’s none of your damn business response, but I opt for honesty. “That’s over.”

  “Over?” He doesn’t bother hiding the wicked grin on his mouth. “Who ended that?”

  “You didn’t just ask me that,” I quip.

  He doesn’t say a thing as a barista approaches us with a carafe of coffee in one hand and a wicker basket filled with cream cups and sugar packets in the other. “Would either of you like a refill?”

  I wave a hand over the top of my cup. “I’m good.”

  She turns her attention to Gage. “Sir?”

  “Please,” he says to her even though his gaze is pinned to me.

  She makes small talk about the weather as she fills his cup. Her eyes linger on his face for a beat too long before she finally walks away, leaving us alone again.

  “What’s running through your mind right now, Katie?”

  That’s a loaded question. I blurt out the first thing that I can think of. “When did you move to New York?”

  “Six months ago.” He taps his fingertips on the table.

  I stick with the current line of questioning even though he’s the one who invited me here. “Why did you move to New York?”

  “Something inside of me told me that this is the place I needed to be.”

  I smile at that answer. It’s something twenty-four-year-old Gage would have said. Back then, he had a vision that included a medical degree, summer weekends spent on his parents’ sailboat, and trips to Paris for our wedding anniversaries.

  Neither of us had been to France when he proposed the idea, but he said that something inside of him had sparked an urge to visit the City of Lights with his bride.

  We were supposed to celebrate our honeymoon there. The trip was a wedding gift from his mom and dad.

  “I like it here.” A beat passes as he takes a sip of coffee. “It’s starting to feel more and more like home to me.”

  That says a lot. Gage loved Los Angeles. When we met, he was the quintessential California guy with a surfboard under one arm and glowing bronzed skin.

  He studied like mad but always made time to be on the water.

  The ocean lured him to its shores. That’s why he loved taking me sailing on Sunday afternoons.

  It was a place where we could be alone without the pressures of parents who had plotted out our lives for us.

  “Do you like it here, Katie?”

  I don’t hesitate before I answer, “I love it here.”

  We never spoke about New York City when we were together. The plan was to settle down in California and build a life for two. It’s ironic that we’re sitting across from each other in a coffee shop in the east coast city we both now live in.

  “We were both destined to come here.” He sits up straighter.

  “This isn’t fate, Gage. It’s a coincidence.”

  A cocky smile curls his lips. “Call it what you will, but we’re in the same place now and I believe there’s a reason for that.”

  Chapter 25

  Gage

  She doesn’t give me an inch. That’s the Katie that I’ve always known. She’s the woman I’ve always loved.

  She eyes me up, taking in every word I just said.

  Blind belief in the concept of fate isn’t a foundation to build your dreams on, but I’ve held to it to get me through some of the darkest days of my life.

  I knew that eventually I’d see her beautiful face again.

  “Are you going to tell me that you know what that reason is?” she asks the question with a smirk.

  What I’d give to kiss that off her lips.

  “There’s a lot left unsaid between us.” I start there because it’s safe and it opens the door for her to give me the hell I deserve.

  “What’s left to say?” She holds my gaze.

  I’m tempted to jump in with both feet and tell her that I’m still in love with her, but those words are better kept to myself at the moment.

  “I was an asshole to you.”

  “Agreed,” she snaps back with a slight smile.

  “You deserved better,” I continue my list of confessions.

  “So much better,” she chimes in, tapping her manicured fingernail on the rim of the coffee cup in front of her.

  “I should have told you about Kristin.”

  “Why didn’t you?”

  I won’t push the blame for that decision back on her. She made it clear months before I proposed to her that she didn’t want to be a mom. That made it easy to walk away with my secret intact the day I ended our engagement.

  “Shock,” I admit. “I needed time to process it.”

  “That’s why you went out on your parents’ boat.”

  There’s no question in her statement. She knew me better than I knew myself when we were together. Whenever life got too heavy, I’d hit the open water.

  It’s a place where I find peace. I can sort my thoughts as I stare at the waves. I tried to do that after Madison told me I was Kristin’s dad. It’s the only time in my life I got back to shore with more questions than answers.

  “I thought it would help me, but it just fucked me up more.” I push my coffee cup to the side and rest my hands on the table. “Once I docked the boat I came looking for you.”

  The cup in her hand stops in mid-air. She lowers it, keeping her eyes pinned on me. “You came looking for me?”

  I didn’t have to be a mind reader to know that her family didn’t relay any of the messages I left with them. I tried both her parents first, but that took me nowhere fast.

  Her mother hung up as soon as I said my name. Her dad took the time to tell me to fuck the hell off. That came with a threat about b
reaking most of the bones in my body.

  Mr. Wesley isn’t a violent man. He wouldn’t have brought an angry hand to me.

  His words were grounded in his daughter’s grief.

  I got that, so I turned my attention to Eldred, Katie’s brother.

  “I stopped at our apartment, but you’d moved out,” I say, shoving a hand through my hair. “I took everything you left behind.”

  “That’s why you have those things,” she mutters.

  “I talked to your parents and Eldred.”

  “You did?” The surprise in her tone confirms that they never mentioned my calls to her.

  “Your parents wanted nothing to do with me, “ I stop for a beat before I go on, “understandably so. I hurt you.”

  She nods. “What about Eldred?”

  “I finally caught up with him four months after we broke up.” I don’t correct myself. I’m the ass who broke up with her. Ending our relationship wasn’t her decision. That was all on me. “I tracked him down at the gym when I took Kristin to California to visit my parents.”

  Her index finger traces the rim of the coffee cup in front of her. It’s a motion meant to calm her. The repeated movement of her hand is familiar to me. I’d catch her hand in mine when I’d notice her doing it when we lived together.

  I’d quiet her unease with assurances whispered in her ear about how brave she was or how smart she was. There wasn’t an obstacle that stood a chance against her inner strength once it was ignited.

  “What did he say to you?”

  “He told me you moved to Denver.” I huff out a laugh. “I left Kristin with my parents and I headed straight to the airport.”

  “You thought I went to work at the office there?”

  Her father branched out just months after I left town. It made sense that Katie had moved to Colorado to oversee the new operations.

  “I hoped,” I admit. “I kept pushing but Eldred told me you were happy and I needed to drop it.”

  “You believed him?” she quizzes with a hand on her chin. “You believed him when he told you that?”