Chapter Twenty-Six
Iwandered for most of the day, unsure of where to go. I finally texted Shae when I knew she had finished work and asked if I could stay with her for the night. She immediately said yes, and when I showed up at her door and she saw my tear-stained face, she pulled me in for a big hug.
“What did he do? Tell me, and I’ll squeeze his balls. Hard.”
I couldn’t help but laugh as I tightened my arms around my incredible friend. “I don’t even know. It’s a mess.”
“Tell me everything. Oh, and I’m making cookies.
Nothing heals a broken heart like cookies.
And ice cream. Hold on…I think I may even have chocolate sauce somewhere here.
” She started rummaging through her cupboards.
“Girlfriend, you are going to be so high on sugar tonight that Owen will be the last thing on your mind. And if that doesn’t work, I’ve got vodka and whisky.
I don’t even care that it’s a weeknight. ”
I groaned as I collapsed on her couch. “I’ll take it all. The worst thing is he left me. What kind of bodyguard abandons their client?”
“Pretty sure you’re more than a client.” Shae’s voice was muffled. It sounded like her head was half inside another cupboard. “Owen’s emotionally compromised, I would say. And when emotions are involved, nothing makes sense.”
“God, truer words were never spoken. I don’t want to talk about Owen. Tell me about you and Jace.”
“That man is fine!” Shae called out. “Hard to pin down, though.”
I snorted. “I heard he doesn’t do long-term relationships.”
Shae came around the corner with a plate of warm cookies and winked. “Until now.”
I laughed and threw my arm over my eyes. “I’m so sick of men. Let’s not talk about them at all tonight.”
“Done. We’ll eat sugar until we’re sick, watch tv all night, and wake up hungover. Sounds amazing.”
I bit into the best cookie I’d ever tasted as she took the seat beside me. “Shae, these are delicious!” I polished it off and immediately reached for another. “Is that lavender I taste?”
“Thanks. Yep. Lavender earl grey. My grandmother’s recipe. The secret is the sprinkle of blue cornflower petals on top. Adds a little something extra, I think.”
“They’re perfect. I might eat the whole batch.”
“Go ahead. I wasn’t hungry when I made them. I just like the smell of them baking.” She shrugged, the brightness in her eyes dimming. “I miss her so much, and making her recipe reminds me of her.”
I squeezed her hand. “You mentioned she raised you?”
She nodded. “I never knew my father, and my mother got pregnant with me when she was just a teen. She was a mess—there was no way she could raise me—so my grandmother stepped in. My mom and I have an okay relationship now, but I never really knew her growing up. It was my grandmother who was there for me through everything. But she passed last winter…”
I offered Shae the plate of cookies and a sympathetic smile. I’d known she moved from Calgary to Toronto to take the library position because she needed “a change of scenery,” but I saw now there was more to it than that.
She selected a cookie and took a bite. She chewed it slowly, then swallowed it. “Sometimes the grief…”
“Comes when you least expect it?”
She nodded. Her brow furrowed as she held up the rest of the cookie and studied it before smiling in satisfaction. “Grandma Joan would approve of this batch.”
“She sounds wonderful. I would have loved to have met her.”
“Oh, she was the best. Taught me everything I know about flowers and herbs and how they can be used as natural remedies.” She gestured around her apartment. “You’re already familiar with my plant problem.”
Every windowsill was lined with small terracotta pots, each one labelled with careful handwriting, and house plants sat in every corner. Jars with clippings crowded the kitchen shelves and bundles of dried herbs hung from hooks.
I laughed. “I like it. Feels like a greenhouse but cozier.”
“Grandma didn’t have any magical powers,” Shae continued, “but she was a Druid through and through. She would have loved to have met you, too, Kira, especially with everything going on. She would have joined us on our adventures, no doubt.”
“Even with Aed and the wraiths and an otherworldly demon intent on world domination?”
“Especially with all that. She probably would have taken Aed by the ear and given her a piece of her mind.”
We both laughed at the image.
“Thanks for having me over on such short notice.” I laid my head on her shoulder. “I’m sorry for barging in.”
“All good.” She gave my hand a squeeze and reached for another cookie. “Besides, all I had planned for tonight was a pity party. Today is my grandmother’s birthday, and I was missing her. So now we can mope together.”
I snorted. “Well, they do say misery loves company.”
“And there’s no one I’d rather be miserable with than you.”
“Shae, you’re the best, do you know that? Jace better get his shit together or I’m going to give him hell.”
“And Owen better apologize for whatever he did. I don’t know the whole story—and you don’t need to tell me until you’re ready—but I’m going to assume he was in the wrong.”
“And that right there is why you’re my best friend. Those two don’t deserve us.”
“Right? I wonder what they’re doing right now.”
“Who knows. But I know one thing for sure. They aren’t munching on the best cookies in the world.”
Shae handed me another cookie and took one for herself, and we clinked them together in cheers.
“To Grandma Joan,” I said.
“To Grandma Joan,” Shae echoed. “A woman who would have given both those men what-for.”
And with that visual both of us dissolved into gales of laughter.
Despite our wild plans for the night, Shae and I were asleep by midnight. As I woke up, I groaned and shifted around on the couch, my heart heavy with pain and regret.
I couldn’t forget the flashes of hurt and disappointment in Owen’s eyes.
Every word we’d said to each other, and everything we didn’t, ran through my mind.
Could I learn to trust again? Should I risk it?
Owen had been the perfect gentleman these past two weeks.
Too good to be true, really. But he was romancing me.
Like Todd had. Maybe not with fancy dinners and gifts, but he was still pursuing me.
Of course he would put his best foot forward.
But which one was the real Owen? The sweet and romantic man, or the dark and angry one who confronted me at the rom?
The memory of his fury made my stomach twist.
Shae left for work while I was in the shower, and it was past ten when I finally left her apartment. As I opened her door, I stopped short at the sight before me.
“Jace?! What are you doing here? Were you here all night?”
Jace rolled his neck and winced as he rose from the apartment hallway’s floor. “Unfortunately, yes.”
“You followed me?”
“Of course. You and Owen needed space, which means I immediately took over as your bodyguard. It’s just understood.”
“Oh.”
Jace’s eyes narrowed. “You didn’t think Owen would leave you unprotected, did you? If you did, you don’t know him.”
My point exactly.
“I’ve known Owen a long time, Kira, and I’ve never seen him this way.”
“That furious? Never?”
“You mean that rattled? Never.” Jace scrubbed a hand through his hair. “Owen’s reaction to you disappearing was extreme, but given his past and what happened to Charles, it wasn’t unreasonable. Not for him.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I know. It’s because of how his sister, Ava, died.”
“What happened?” I asked quietly, closing the door behind me.
Jace gestured for me to follow him, and we exited the apartment building and made our way to a nearby park. We took a seat on a bench and for a moment quietly watched people walking along the paths and birds flitting between the trees.
“Ava was beautiful,” Jace said. “Not just on the outside. She had a way about her, even at such a young age. She was the life of the party and could light up a room. You know what I mean?”
I nodded.
“She and Owen were inseparable. She was a year younger, and she adored her big brother. Wanted to do everything he did. He loved teaching her whatever he could. They were a very active family. I don’t think there was a sport they weren’t involved in somehow.”
“When Ava was sixteen, she and Owen went rock climbing. Now, I don’t know all the details. Like I said, Owen doesn’t talk about it. But from what I understand, Ava convinced Owen that they should free-solo the cliff face. And she fell.”
My heart lurched, and a sick, heavy ache spread through my chest.
“Owen blamed himself, of course. Still does. And his relationship with his father became strained. The family never recovered. A few years later, his parents divorced. Soon after, his mother, Sophie, died from cancer. Owen went through years of therapy and eventually lost himself in his military career and now his business.”
“I had no idea.” My words were inadequate, but they were all I could manage. My throat burned as I gripped the edge of the bench.
“No one does. He hides it well. I only know because I spent a lot of time with the family, and I saw Owen at his worst. Believe me, he knows all about loss.”
But he was still willing to risk his heart despite everything. He still wanted to take a risk with me.
I want to see you happy. The memory of Charles’s voice came to me, and I could picture him sitting with me in his living room. Find someone who knows how to stay when it’s hard to love. I hope you trust again someday, Ms. Kira.
“Owen didn’t leave you, Kira.”
“What?”
“We followed you all day yesterday until you got to Shae’s. Then he sat with me most of the night in that hallway. He left just before you found me. Wasn’t ready to see you, but he’s nearby.”
“He didn’t leave…”
I couldn’t get my phone fast enough. I started texting frantically:
Me: We need to talk will you meet me? Please
I tapped my foot while I waited for a reply. Several times, dots appeared, but it was few minutes before Owen replied:
Owen: At rom. Doing recon.
I heaved a sigh of relief.
Me: Coming