Total pages in book: 108
Estimated words: 104869 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 524(@200wpm)___ 419(@250wpm)___ 350(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 104869 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 524(@200wpm)___ 419(@250wpm)___ 350(@300wpm)
He left his phone on charge on the kitchen counter and strode to his bedroom where—fuck—he still hadn’t changed the bedding. He’d simply dropped everything the other day and headed right back to the mountain.
After a long, invigorating shower, he finally stripped and remade the bed. Then checked his phone again.
Still unread. His brows slammed together and he tried calling her instead.
Immediately to voicemail.
Something was very, very wrong.
He stared blindly at his phone screen as he tried beat back the panic swelling in his chest.
He absently noted that there were currently five unread messages in his mailbox and he automatically tapped the icon, expecting a mix of spam and work correspondence. He didn’t like having unread messages and was about to mark it all as read when he noticed the second message down.
From his attorneys. Sent Friday at five-thirty p.m.
Completed Divorce Agreement?
Oh, fuck.
He tapped on the email and read the message from one of his law school buddies, Tom Marshall.
Smith,
Sorry this took so long. McKenna’s attorney had some health issues. He finally got back to us earlier. Everything’s in order. Final, signed document attached for your records. We’ll proceed first thing on Monday.
Have a good weekend.
Tom
He opened the attachment and groaned miserably when he saw that she’d signed and initialed every single page, the lines dated Friday.
He scraped a hand through his hair and tried to slow his breathing and heart rate down.
Oh, God!
Kenna had received this document Friday, after two days of zero communication from him. He’d signed these papers weeks ago. Shortly after arriving in Riversend, long before Kenna had shown up.
Needless to say he’d had a change of heart since then.
But Kenna wouldn’t know that. How could she when he hadn’t told her?
All she knew was that he’d gone quiet, that he’d stopped responding to her messages, and that he’d had his attorneys send this goddamned divorce agreement to her while he was gone.
Jesus.
He tried calling her again, frantic now.
Voicemail.
Kenna, we need to talk. Please. This document…it’s not what you think. Shit, it’s just better if we talk in person. I’m on my way to your place now.
He grabbed his keys, jacket, and phone and dashed out of the cottage.
When he arrived at her place, the car was still missing and he sank down on the porch step, settling down to wait for as long as it took.
It was fully dark two hours later when he finally abandoned his post and drove to Tina and Harris’s house, dread pinballing out of control in his gut.
Harris opened the door, Jamie perched on his hip. “You look like shit, man,” Harris said, stepping aside to let him in.
“Tina home?” Smith asked as he stepped through the door, warily checking every corner of the open-plan area, in case his sister was waiting to pounce.
“In the shower.”
Relieved to not have to deal with his sister immediately, Smith absently picked Flynn up, when the baby took a few halting steps toward him
“Christ, Harris, I think I fucked up,” Smith confessed hoarsely, dropping a quick kiss on his nephew’s soft head.
The babies were in cute matching onesies, dressed for bedtime.
“Only think?” Harris muttered. “Oh, my friend, I can confirm that you one hundred percent fucked up. How could you just leave like that?”
“I needed to clear my head. But while I was gone…” He sank down on the sofa with the happy baby in his arms and told Harris about the divorce agreement.
Harris placed Jamie on a play mat in the middle of the floor and took Flynn from Smith to put him down next to his twin.
“Well, that explains this then,” Harris said, striding to the kitchen and then returned to hand Smith a small, sealed envelope.
Smith stared at it blankly, before taking it from his friend.
He felt the rings through the paper and covered his mouth with his free hand as he stared down at the plain white envelope.
“She dropped it off at MJ’s Friday night. Came to say goodbye and asked us to give that to you.”
“Goodbye?” Smith repeated, lifting his burning, blurry gaze to his friend. “She left?”
“Yeah. Headed straight out from MJ’s. One of Sam’s guys drove her to George airport and she chartered a helicopter to Cape Town.”
Smith buried his face in his hands as the devastating news hit him like a two-ton truck.
She was gone.
And it was his fault.
Chapter
Twenty-Five
Organizing her father’s birthday party in only two days really helped keep Kenny’s mind off her broken heart.
Beth and Fern had both called, offering to help, as had Gideon and Cade, but Kenny firmly and politely refused all offers.
As a result, she’d maybe gone a little overboard for what was—essentially—just a family gathering.
“The balloon arch is a bit much, right?” she murmured to Beth as she anxiously smoothed a palm down the silk skirt of her dress.
Beth and Gideon had been the first to arrive, and while Gideon disappeared into the kitchen to fetch them all some champagne, Beth ran an admiring eye around the candlelit living room.