13. Aiden | Two Minutes Earlier
Ifeel like shit. My heart is pounding, and my palms are sweaty, but I’m here, in Miami, at Kate’s work. And I hope to hell she’s willing to listen to what I have to say, what I should have said last night when I had the chance.
“I’m sorry,” the receptionist says, placing the handset of her phone back in its cradle. “There was no answer at her extension. Was she expecting you?”
“No,” I admit, my fingers clenching the plastic handles of a grocery bag, “but I’ll wait.” However long it takes.
“Of course, have a seat.”
I’m turning toward the cluster of armchairs the receptionist motions toward when she glances up. “Oh, there she is now.”
I spin and search out Kate in an instant, her long blonde hair cascading down her back rather than pulled up in a ponytail.
She’s facing away from us but stops when the receptionist calls her name. She doesn’t turn right away, almost as if she wishes she didn’t have to. But it’s not because of me. She doesn’t know I’m here—not yet. Donna swore she wouldn’t tell her I was coming, and I trust that woman with my life.
Finally, a beat later, almost in slow motion, Kate spins, her expression strained until it goes slack when she spots me and our eyes connect. I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding.
I wasn’t expecting a warm welcome and certainly not for her to greet me with open arms after what happened in Love Beach, but when Kate turns and beelines for the exit in her heels, my jaw drops.
I scramble after her, so focused on her back as she bolts through the door I don’t notice the heavyset police officer until he intercepts me, blocking my path and nearly knocking me to the ground.
“I need to talk to that woman,” I insist, desperately trying to regain my footing and push past him. “Kate!” I shout before she’s out of earshot.
“Doesn’t appear as if she’s interested in talking to you,” he replies, forcibly restraining me as another officer, in a matching gray uniform, approaches.
“If you’ll just give me a minute,” I say, still struggling, “I swear I just need to tell her something.”
The second officer places a hand on the gun in his holster and sizes me up. “I’m afraid that’s not possible.”
I stop fighting and hold up my hands, the grocery bag swinging against my arm. “Look, I know her. Her name is Kate Sullivan, and she’s from Love Beach, South Carolina. Hell, she was just there yesterday, tracking the hurricane. Ask her if you don’t believe me.”
The two exchange a look, and the second officer, in a tone that confirms he finds me a threat, warns, “Accosting a federal employee on federal property is a felony.”
What?
“No, you’re mistaken.” I shake my head as adrenaline shoots through my system and the situation spirals out of control. “I’m not accosting her. I just… I need to tell her that I love her.”
“What?”
But the single word doesn’t emerge from either of the officers. It echoes behind them in a familiar, if disbelieving voice. The men part, and there’s Kate, staring at me as if I’ve suddenly grown two heads.
“Do you know this man?” the first officer asks, still in position to take me out, depending on the answer.
“Yes.”
“Do you want to talk to him?”
But rather than answer, Kate holds my gaze, her grass-green eyes narrowing. “Did you say you love me?”
The way she asks, softly, as if wary of my response, slices my heart in two. How could she not know? Because I’m an asshole; that’s why.
“I did,” I confirm, swallowing hard as I realize I’ll have an audience for the conversation I thought would be private. But it doesn’t matter. All that matters is the beautiful, intelligent, doubting woman who turned back just now, even though she initially fled. And that single decision gives me hope.
Until her hands curl into fists at her sides, and she tosses out, “How dare you?”
But I deserve it. I deserve every ounce of her anger. Every last bit of her rage. I’ve done a million things wrong when it comes to Kate Sullivan, and now, it’s on me to make it right.
“I wanted to tell you yesterday,” I start, begging her with every fiber of my being to believe me. “And hell knows I had the chance last night. But I thought we’d have more time. Not that I blame you for a second for slipping away. I deserved that.” My voice grows louder, thick with conviction, as I gain steam. “But I love you, Kate Sullivan. You’ve owned my heart since the day we met, when you were sixteen standing on the boardwalk that scorching July day, and you flashed that gorgeous smile at me and then opened your mouth and blew me away.”
All around us, almost in unison, heads swivel to watch her reaction, but Kate only has eyes for me. Rather than love, anger still flashes in those emerald depths.
“I thought what we had was special. Thought it was forever but…” she trails off, her head shaking from side to side, “but you told me to go all those years ago. You were the one who said you didn’t see a future between us. And now, you don’t get to change your mind just because a hurricane with your name forced me to return to Love Beach.”
A murmur runs through the crowd. I take a step forward, and the two officers do, as well, making it clear I shouldn’t move another inch.
“Can we maybe talk somewhere private?” I ask, my eyes pleading with her to give me a chance to explain.
“You had your chance,” she retorts, pressing her lips together and wrapping her arms around her waist. I don’t know if she’s talking about that day eight years ago or yesterday, or maybe both, but in her eyes, I can see why she’s trying to erect a wall between us. To protect herself. Because she loves me but doesn’t trust that I won’t break her heart again.
“Tell me you don’t love me,” I murmur. “Tell me you don’t feel whatever it is between us that’s still there, unmistakable, after all this time.”
A tear slips down her cheek, but she doesn’t respond. Instead, she swipes at her face with the back of her hand and takes a step backward, then another. Panic rises in my chest like a tidal wave, threatening to wash away everything. I need to do something to stop her, something to prove I’m all in on her. On us.
“You told me to go,” she says, continuing her retreat, “and I did. I left.”
“And I’m glad you did. I don’t regret what I said back then for a minute, even though that day was the hardest day of my life. Matched only by every day since. The only reason I was able to put one foot in front of the other after that was because of the lie I told you that afternoon.”
Her feet come to a stop. “What lie?”
My throat is closed up like a clogged pipe, but this is it. My chance to explain. “When I said I didn’t see a future together, Kate, I wasn’t being honest. The truth is, you were the only future I saw, the only bright light in my life. But I needed to tell you otherwise because, if I hadn’t, you never would have left. You never would have put that scholarship to use and never would have followed your dream. You would have stayed. For me.”
“You don’t know that.”
She’s right; I don’t. But it doesn’t matter.
“It wasn’t a risk I was willing to take. And by closing the door on us, it meant you took off to go to school. Hell, Kate, you lived your life, lived your dream…made something of yourself.” I wave a hand around the glass and steel lobby. “So I don’t regret what I said for a minute. Even though it hurt like hell, it was the right thing to do.”
She stares at me, and the silence stretches between us, broken only by a ringing phone and the ding of the elevator. Finally, with a sob, she scoffs, “You think it hurt you, but that day broke me, Aiden. You were my dream. You would have been enough.”
Anguish tears through me, her pain so raw it’s suffocating, but she’s wrong.
“I wish that were true, but back then, it wasn’t. Not in my book. I wasn’t close to being a man who deserved you.” Hell, I’m still not good enough for her, but what’s different is I’m willing to try. And ready to have my heart broken. But at least, it’ll be on her terms. It’s what she deserves.
I inch forward, and this time, the officers move back, making space. I take another step and reach for her, my thumb brushing away another tear rolling down her cheek. “But now, I’m willing to follow you anywhere, willing to do anything for us to have another chance. And I promise never to lie to you again, Kate Sullivan, no matter what.”
She blows out a long breath, and I’m ready for a slap across my face, but instead, she lifts a shoulder as she’s willing to give me, to give us, another chance. As if she’s fought the magnetic pull tethering us together long enough.
Her gorgeous green eyes lift to mine. “Promise you’ll let me make my own informed choices from now on? That you’ll tell me the truth and not what you think I want or need to hear?”
“I swear on my life.”
Her lips curve into a half smile. She reaches up and cups my cheek, her gentle touch stealing my breath.
“You are enough, Aiden Landry. From the moment I saw you on the boardwalk, that day, it’s always been you.”