“We were together for four years,” I told him. “From her freshman year of college to her graduation day.”
“I didn't even know youknewa woman for four years,” laughed Hansen. “She must have been something special.”
“Yeah, she was. I was going to marry that girl.”
“I never could have imagined it,” said Hansen. “Not you, not the notorious Korbin Butler.”
“She deserves better than me anyway. She was always too good for me.” I laughed, but there wasn't much humor in it.
Hansen shrugged as if making a point. “You dumped her,” he said. “You didn’t give her much of an option, did you?”
“No.”
“But maybe this is your redemption,” he said. “Maybe she is suddenly here after all these years for a reason. Maybe she wants you back.”
“She basically treated me like I wasn’t even an acquaintance, let alone a friend,” I said, anger simmering beneath the surface. “Why would she do that? How can she seriously act like we weren’t in love for four years?”
“You’re the one who ended it,” Hansen said again, pursing his lips like a disappointed parent. “And it’s been five years, Butler. What did you expect?”
“Not this.” I leaned my head back against the seat and closed my eyes, feeling a migraine tug at the base of my skull. Only thinking about Peyton’s beautiful face was any relief, and I hated that more than the migraine itself. “I don’t want to talk about it. Just get me home, please.”
Chapter10
Peyton
After Korbin left, I stayed in the empty patient room for a few minutes longer than necessary, staring at the computer screen before me but not really seeing the words. It had been five years since I’d last seen Korbin Butler, let alone been in the same tiny room with him. Once I’d graduated college, mere days before he’d dumped me, I’d left Eagle River and never looked back. I’d moved on with my life, made friends, found a job, a social life, and now? Well, now the past was returning to haunt me, and I wasn’t sure I liked that. All I could hope for was my mother’s good health sooner rather than later so I could resume my life in Denver and never have to see Korbin’s face again.
With a sigh, I turned in the chair, eyes landing on the knee brace Korbin had taken off and obviously forgotten to grab on his way out the door. I groaned inwardly, wondering if it was too late to call him to come and get it. But since he’d apparently been hitching a ride with his friend, it didn’t make sense to have them turn around now.
I sanitized the room for the next patient and took the knee brace into the staff lounge, making a mental note to drop it off for him on my way home to my mother’s after work. I had no idea where Korbin lived now, but I did know where his mother lived or hoped she still lived, and I could drop it off to her without having to see him, too. Hopefully.
“Hey,” Maggie said as I went to the computer to check in my next patient. “How did it go with Korbin Butler?”
“It was fine,” I said with a shrug. It hadn’t been, not really, but she had made it clear that I couldn’t swap clients, so what else could I say? If it was drama and gossip she was looking for, I had nothing to offer her.
“I’m glad there were no issues,” Maggie said with a smile. I returned a half-assed grin and waved over my shoulder to go and find my next patient, an eighty-seven-year-old grandfather with severe arthritis in his knees and old injuries from the war. He was much better company than Korbin and talked my ear off with stories of his past. It was a nice change of pace and briefly took my mind off my notorious ex-fiancé.
“I’ll see you next week, Mr. Morgan,” I said, helping the man to the front desk to check out. “Remember to stretch those muscles and utilize them the best you can. It will help in the long run.”
As I returned to the staff room to gather my jacket, purse, and Korbin’s knee brace, I dialed my mother’s phone and walked to my car as the phone rang, balancing the cell between my ear and shoulder.
“Hello, sweetheart,” Mom said on the third ring. She sounded much better than she’d sounded yesterday and the days before that. Even that was a huge relief. “How was work? Are you still liking your new job?”
“It was fine,” I said, sliding into the driver’s seat. I wasn’t in the mood to tell her about Korbin. I didn’t want to hear her opinion on the matter, and I knew she would want to give it. She always did. “Are you hungry, Mom? I can stop and pick something up for us for dinner on the way home.”
“Oh, it’s alright, sweetheart,” she said. “My old friend Jeannie is stopping by to visit, and she’s bringing her famous dish, liver and onions. Will you join us?”
I almost gagged aloud but managed to shove the disgust back down before my mother heard me. “That’s okay, Mom. Enjoy a visit with your friend. I’m going to grab something before I head home.”
“Okay, sweetheart. Drive careful.”
I tossed my cell phone into the empty passenger’s seat and pulled out of the clinic parking lot and onto the main road, peering at Korbin’s knee brace in the rear-view mirror. I was tempted not to stop, as I almost didn’t want to face Korbin’s mother, Nina, either, but since I’d already taken the brace from the clinic, I had to drop it off somewhere.
I drove in the direction I last remembered Korbin’s childhood home being: a cute little family home on the edge of town. I’d been there many times before, as Korbin was close to his tight-knit family. Once upon a time, I’d been a part of this family, too, especially his parents. At least until his dad died.
I pulled into the driveway and shut off the engine, staring at the old, familiar house. For a moment, I yearned for this, I missed the way things had been once upon a time, and my heart ached. I felt briefly like I’d been sent back in time, back to when Korbin and I were still together, and his family was my family.
“Get it together, Peyton,” I scolded myself quietly, grabbing the knee brace from the back seat to take it to the door. I partially hoped that nobody would be home and I wouldn’t have to face Korbin’s mother after so many years of avoidance. I could leave the brace on the porch, and someone could get it to him when they saw him next, right?
