She’d be happier, wouldn’t she? That dark emptiness would always be there, but if she could grasp more ways to keep it from swallowing her whole, that was a good thing, wasn’t it?
Do whatever you gotta do quickly, Livs.
Livvy grabbed her phone from the ledge of the tub. She opened a new message and typed out,I’ll see John.
A bubble popped up at the bottom of the screen and she held her breath. Part of her didn’t believe he would actually reply. He never had, after that first time laying out their arrangement.
And then her phone vibrated as the three little dots became three little words.
Is tomorrow okay?
She ran her finger over those words before she caught herself. Nope, no. She was going to be cool about this. This was not a big deal, even if it was the first message she’d gotten from him in a decade.
You can try to work out your issues with him, but that’s it.
She typed with purpose.Yes. I have to work during the day. Say, 5:30?
Perfect. I can pick you up?
No. Then he’d drive her home again and that seemed far too date-like.I’ll drive. I can meet you...She hesitated, then finished the thought quickly.I can meet you behind Kane’s.If she could stand to see John, she could stand to see her grandparents’ café as well as the flagship C&O—Chandler’s—across the street, damn it.
She nibbled on her nail, watching the dots pop up on the bottom of the screen. They hovered there for a solid minute, and then came his reply.Okay.
Like a mature, healthy individual, she placed the phone on the ledge of the tub instead of fondling those messages. Livvy tipped her head back, trying to clear her mind.
Some things are unresolvable.
Maybe they were. At this point, though, she wasn’t sure what other option she had but to try.
Chapter 11
NICHOLAS STUMBLEDdownstairs, exhaustion weighing at his eyelids, his phone glued to his ear. Between his staff, father, and his grandfather calling him about this prison-labor scandal, the damn thing had been ringing since the crack of dawn. He’d missed his usual workout, which, combined with his preoccupation over meeting Livvy later today, meant his already stretched-thin patience was in perilous danger of snapping.
He waited until the P.R. guy finished speaking. “Call a press conference for today at noon. In the meantime, we’re at no comment. We’ll talk more once I’m in the office.”
He hung up with a terse goodbye and stalked into the kitchen. He tossed his phone on the counter and reached up to grab a mug from the cupboard. He was so preoccupied, it took him a solid minute to process the loud, out-of-place crunching noise coming from behind him. Instinctively, he grabbed a knife from the rarely used set on the counter and pivoted.
Holy shit.
Past and present overlapped as he stared at the big man sitting at his kitchen table. His heart stuttered, his lips forming a soundless word.Paul.
Except Paul was dead, and Nicholas didn’t believe in ghosts, especially ones who hung around their ex-best friend’s homes to eat cereal.
The Kane siblings had all occupied specific roles. Paul had been the dutiful and charming heir apparent, Livvy the dramatic rebel, and Jackson...
Well, whatever role Jackson had occupied, he’d lost it when he’d been arrested on suspicion of arson.
A witness had identified him fleeing from the burning C&O. He’d had motive and opportunity, and a gas can with his fingerprints had been found behind some bushes in the Kanes’ backyard. Though the evidence had been flimsy, it had been enough to arrest Jackson and have him held without bail.
Before he could go to trial, though, the witness recanted his account. Despite the dropped charges, no one had been terribly convinced as to Jackson’s innocence.
Especially Nicholas.
He and Jackson had never been particularly close, but whatever relationship had existed between them had vanished when the man had thrown a Molotov cocktail through the window of the store their grandfathers had built.
Nicholas didn’t care about the physical damage. Someone could have been seriously hurt, and that he couldn’t forgive.
Jackson’s dark, oddly flat gaze moved between Nicholas’s face and knife with the easy skill of someone who had been in more than one brawl. “You gonna stab me?”
