She wasn’t going to run away from Mapleglen because of that. If they fired her over some rumors that nobody could prove, she’d sue them for wrongful dismissal. If people didn’t want to talk to her or didn’t want her to visit them at the seniors’ home, that was their problem. She’d lived through people looking at them and talking about them and feeling sorry for them once before when her dad had been hurt, and she could do it again.

If she left Mapleglen it wasn’t going to be because of that. It wasn’t going to be because she was running away in fear. It was going to be because she was brave enough to start over.

She felt a compelling need to see Tyler again. And Nick. To reassure them of that. So they knew that even though she’d done what she had, to her it didn’t really seem like any kind of sacrifice. She wanted Tyler’s parents to know the truth and so she’d told it.

There was no reason she couldn’t go to Chicago for a few days.

Other than Taz. She gazed at her little dog and bit her lip. What would she do with him? She couldn’t put him in a kennel. She just couldn’t. Maybe one of the neighbors…

“Hi, Kaelin.”

She looked up to see Dillon standing at her gate. “Hey, Dillon. How are you?”

Taz ran to the boy, tail wagging, yipping excitedly. Dillon grinned and held out a hand to Taz to sniff, then bent and picked him up. “I came to see if you wanted your lawn mowed, but I guess I’m too late.”

She smiled back at him. “Yeah. I’m just about finished for today. But how would you feel about dog sitting? And maybe a regular job cutting the grass for the next while. I’m thinking of going on a little trip.”

Friday night Tyler walked into the apartment. He’d done the happy hour networking thing after work for a couple of hours while Nick—the numbers guy, not the people guy like Tyler was—went to the gym to work out. Nick still wasn’t home, the apartment was empty. Tyler yanked at the tie around his neck, but stopped at the fridge for another beer before changing.

What a fucking brutal week. He and Nick were still at odds over the Healthy Solutions contract and they had to make a decision by Monday one way or the other. They’d dicked around long enough. Other problems had come up and Tyler knew he wasn’t able to deal with them with his usual quick decisiveness. He was distracted and restless and grouchy. His neck and shoulders were killing him. He was going to have to make an appointment to see his massage therapist. Nick hadn’t been offering to do the massage he often did. And that was another thing that was fucking with Tyler’s head. He hated that things between him and Nick were strained.

He guzzled down some of the beer, flipped through the mail. Bills. Crap. He tossed them onto the desk. He rubbed the back of his neck. He’d thought once he’d had it out with his parents things were supposed to be better. Ha.

A knock at the door startled him. What…? Did Nick forget his keys or something?

He strode to the door and flung it open.

Kaelin stood there.

He stared at her. She gazed back at him.

“What are you doing here?” he asked.

“Nice greeting.” She stood there in a pretty pink flowered sundress and flip-flops, her purse slung over her shoulder. “I was in the neighborhood and thought I’d stop by.”

He regarded her dumbly. “You were?”

She bit her lip, starting to look a little uncertain. Then he noticed that her fingers on the strap of her purse were shaking. Just a little. “No,” she whispered.

“Come in.” He stood aside to let her into the apartment.

She walked in and looked around. “Nice place,” she said, standing in the middle of the living room. The older building had been recently renovated, the oak hardwood floors refinished, the original creamy brick walls cleaned and new windows installed in the arched frames looking out onto the tree-lined street.

“Thanks. It’s a lot better than the dump we lived in during college. How’d you know where we live?”

“Avery gave me your address.”

“Ah.”

She turned to face him, looking so pretty and fragile, her slender calves bare beneath the hem of the dress, curvy arms revealed by the narrow straps. Her breasts rose and fell as she breathed in shallow breaths. Her eyes flickered. Again, they both just stared at each other in thick, sticky silence.

“Uh, want a beer?”

“Sure.”

Her answer surprised him. She didn’t seem like a beer-drinking kind of girl. When he said so, walking to the small galley kitchen, she replied, “Beer reminds me of that summer we were hanging out.”

Hanging out. Yeah. They’d been hanging out. Having fun. Falling in love.

Christ. He closed his eyes, one hand on the handle of the fridge door, then yanked it open and pulled out another beer.

“Nick’s not home?” she asked.

He found a glass and handed her the beer and the glass. “No. He’s at the gym.”

“Oh. Yeah, I could tell he’s been working out a lot.”

“He should be home soon. Ah, have a seat.” He gestured to the big leather sectional.

She perched on the edge of the couch, her purse on the floor, her beer clasped in both hands. Awareness sparked between them. He wanted to grab her and pull her onto his lap and kiss the breath out of her.

“So. You gonna tell me why you’re really here?”

“Okay. I just wanted you to know that…” Her voice went low and throaty. “I just wanted you to know that you didn’t have to be mad at me for telling your parents the truth. Even if you were just mad because…” She stopped and swallowed. “Because you were worried about me, you don’t have to be. Because I’m fine. And I wanted you to know that. To know that I’d already been thinking about leaving Mapleglen, and if I do, someday, it won’t be because of that. It’ll be because I want to.”

He watched her, listened to her, his gut tight, her bravery and courage making his heart turn over in his chest and ache. Christ, she was special.

He rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m sorry, Kaelin.”

She regarded him warily. “Sorry for what?”

He sighed, bent his head, the words stuck in his throat. “I’m sorry for what I did. I’m sorry for what I said. I’m sorry I keep acting like an asshole, especially to you.”

Waves of silence had him lifting his head to peer at her. Her face shone with trails of silvery tears, her bottom lip full and quivery.

“Fuck!” He slammed his beer onto the coffee table and shifted across the couch toward her. “Don’t cry! Jesus, I did it again!” She came into his arms willingly, her body slender and trembling against his. He pressed her wet face to his shoulder. “I’m sorry, sweet baby, I’m so sorry.”

“Why did you do it?” she asked, her voice muffled in his dress shirt. “Why did you want to hurt me that way? That night…”

“You mean with Tracy?”

“Yes.”

“I didn’t want to hurt you. I just wanted you to know the truth about me.”

“What truth? That you like to tie girls up?”

“Yeah. That. But mostly just that I was no good for you.”

“Oh, Tyler.” She sighed. “If you weren’t interested, you should have just told me that.”

He snorted. “No shit. Would’ve saved myself and Nick a whole helluva lot of grief if we hadn’t done that, that night. How was I supposed to know Tracy was going to freak out like that? Telling you would have been the smart thing to do, but I never claimed to be that smart. And besides, I was interested in you.”

She lifted her head and gazed at him with big, wet, questioning eyes. He eased a strand of hair off her face. “But I was still no good for you,” he said. “I was in trouble more often than not. I did like to tie up girls. I did like to screw around with Nick. I was so messed up.”

She closed her eyes and looked as if someone was breaking her fingers. “You’re such an idiot, Tyler.”