“At least I came back for the funeral! Would you have come if Teagan had died?”
They were shouting now, but neither seemed to care. “What the fuck kind of question is that? Jesus, Gavin, do you hate me that much?”
They continued yelling, until Jaime burst into the office, swearing at them both. “The fuck are you two doing?” he demanded. “Everyone in the entire town can hear you screaming at each other.” When he saw that they were close to blows, he pushed them apart with a curse. “Get it together, you two.”
Gavin wrenched away from Jaime’s grasp. “I’m leaving,” he muttered.
“Good, go home and cool off.” Jaime turned to Adam. “And you should probably do the same.”
Gavin didn’t hear what Adam said in reply. He stalked out of the vineyard and climbed into his truck, driving off without caring that he still had work to do. Anger roiled through him and his vision was a haze of red. He couldn’t throttle his own brother. Adam didn’t get it; he didn’t understand how Gavin had had to shoulder everything by himself. Adam had had their parents, Grace, the entire town of Heron’s Landing when Carolyn had died. But Gavin had had no one.
When he arrived back at his apartment, he pressed his forehead to the steering wheel. As his anger drained away and became exhaustion, a small voice inside of his head told him that his family had reached out to him, but he’d pushed them away. He’d told them he’d take care of everything. He hadn’t wanted their help. But that immature part of his soul had wished they’d fought for him anyway. That they’d tried one more time, as opposed to giving up so easily.
Entering the apartment, he saw a bright scrap of silk underneath his pillow in his bedroom, and pulling it out, he realized it was Kat’s headscarf. He inhaled it, and her scent enveloped him. He remembered how they’d made love in this very bed, and how she’d looked at him when he’d touched her.
You can’t keep it all locked inside. I tried it with Carolyn, and I almost lost Joy because of it.
Gavin sat down on the bed, clutching the headscarf. He knew with a painful kind of clarity that despite his anger at his brother, Adam had spoken a truth that resonated in Gavin’s soul. He had been keeping it all locked inside, and in his fear of being vulnerable a second time, he’d pushed Kat away. He’d pushed her away because loving her was terrifying.
He groaned. God, he was a fool, a coward, the type of man who didn’t deserve a woman as amazing as Kat. He’d told her she deserved better than his broken self, but that was only because he hadn’t tried to mend his own heart. He’d kept his heart broken and battered, its own kind of shield from the terrors of the world. And Teagan had been the perfect excuse, hadn’t she?
Gavin dragged his fingers through his hair. He didn’t know if he could get Kat back, but he had to at least tell her he loved her. He didn’t expect her to forgive him, but he could fight for her. He would fight for her to the ends of the earth.
He stuffed the headscarf into his pocket for good luck, resolving to find Kat that very afternoon and tell her how sorry he was. Then he grimaced, knowing he’d need to apologize to Adam as well. He’d really fucked things up, hadn’t he?
But Kat was at work right now, and he had no idea when she’d be home. He was halfway tempted to sit on her doorstep and wait for her, but given everything that had happened at her grandmother’s place, that probably wasn’t the best plan. Besides, he needed to be home when Emma got off the bus.
As he was debating, his phone rang. To his shock, Kat’s number flashed on the screen.
“Kat? Are you okay?” His heart pounded wildly, imagining all sorts of things that could’ve happened now.
“I’m fine. Gavin, Emma’s missing.”
Chapter Fifteen
Kat tried her best to throw herself into her work. She couldn’t let her heartbreak over Gavin keep her from being a good teacher. But her students were certainly old enough to have heard about her house being vandalized, and being just kids, she had to volley tons of questions every single class.
Finally, it go to the point that Kat made a blanket rule that if anyone talked about the subject, they’d get a demerit. That had nipped the discussion in the bud—at least when Kat was present. She obviously had no power to keep the kids from talking about it when she wasn’t around.
Two weeks after Gavin had broken her heart, Kat was grateful that there hadn’t been any more threats against her. The police hadn’t found any leads despite their best efforts, though. Kat had a feeling, being such a tiny police force, that they didn’t exactly have the capability to track down somebody like this. And now that the threats seemed to be stopping, there wasn’t as much focus on it as before.
On Wednesday, Kat had a longer lunch break and decided to go out to eat. It was chilly but the sky was clear, and she enjoyed looking at the autumn leaves. It was only a short drive to the town’s Main Street and to Trudy’s Diner. There were a few regulars at their booths, but since it was the middle of the week, it wasn’t busy. Kat found her favorite booth. She didn’t even look at a menu: she always got the same thing from Trudy’s.
“The usual?” said the waitress, Leslie, with a warm smile.
“Yeah, but let’s do a chocolate shake instead of strawberry.”
“You got it.” Leslie winked.
Normally, Kat would’ve asked Leslie about her kids, how her knee was doing after her recent surgery, and other small talk. Today,
