Page 73 of Perfect Chemistry

Hearing her acknowledgement and praise settled a doubt I didn’t know I still harbored. It felt like a weight had been lifted, and I could breathe again.

“Thank you,” I whispered back.

Chapter 24

Kai’s POV

I was fucking exhausted. If I thought working as a PTA was a lot, being the doctor on call was so much worse. The work was amazing. I loved the patients and colleagues I had come to consider like family. It was just a lot, every day, and there was no one to share it with. I hadn’t dated or even looked at another woman since my divorce. I buried myself in my work and focused on that to numb all the shit I didn’t want to deal with.

In a rare moment of clarity, I accepted my parents’ invitation to dinner. Reg and his family were coming up from down state, and they wanted the whole family together. It was a good visit, but it still hurt seeing how old my nephew was now. Heather would have been six this year. Just after eight, I made some lame excuse about an early shift and headed home. It didn’t take long before the fuel light lit up on the dash.

I had forgotten to fill up on the way and had to stop at the Cumberland Farms to get gas because there was no way I was going to make it home from my parents’. I had always avoided stopping in this part of town because this was where Katie used to live. I hadn’t heard from her since I fucked up and pushed her away, but it didn’t mean I didn’t think about her constantly.

After everything that happened over the last eleven years, I often wondered what my teenage self was thinking. Katie was perfect. She wanted the same things that I wanted: to get out of this town and do something more with our lives. Instead of following that dream, I pushed her away and hid like a damn coward.

I hoped to see her at our ten year class reunion last fall, but she never showed. I don’t know why my heart always came back to Katie, but here I was. Again. I just wanted her to know that I did show up that day. I showed up at her parents’ house to tell her I was fucking wrong, but she had already left.

Andie was there waiting instead and punched me in the face as soon as I got out of the car. Once she calmed down, she told me that Kat’s phone had been disconnected. She couldn’t take it with her, so her parents agreed to cancel the subscription. I still had her old number saved in my contacts under, ’What if.’ I never deleted it.

I looked up as an SUV pulled into the lane next to mine, the couple inside laughed as he stepped out of the passenger seat and she stepped out of the driver’s side to fill up the vehicle with gas. I gave the guy a cursory nod as he passed me.

I looked up when I heard the woman yell over to him, “Grab me a green tea if they have it!”

My heart stopped beating. Fuck. It was her. Bradley wasn’t pulling my leg last week when he said he had seen her in town. My girl, Kat Preston.

I didn’t know what the hell compelled me. I stepped toward the rear of my car to get a better look at her. Bradley heard from Alex who still talked to her sister that she was thinking of moving back, but I never gave it any thought. Was she really here? I couldn’t take my eyes off of her.

Katie was just as beautiful as she was in school. I hadn’t seen her in more than a decade, but I couldn’t mistake her for anyone. Her hair was shorter and darker, and she looked thinner without the baby fat on her face. But her eyes still sparkled when she smiled.

I was mesmerized. I finished pumping the gas and quickly closed up the cap. I had to talk with her.

At that moment, every doubt in my mind disappeared. For me, it had always been her. I didn’t know who that man was to her, but I had to know if there was even a chance. I walked over and stopped just behind their car. There was a glistening ring set on her left finger.

She’s married, and that guy’s her husband. I’ve fucking lost her for good.

I felt like a stone was stuck in my throat, and my eyes watered up. I faced back toward my car as her husband walked past me again, and climbed into my driver’s seat so I wouldn’t hear him ask her about me: the creepy dude staring at his wife.

I grabbed my phone, and tried to blink away the fucking ache in my chest. I found Bradley’s contact information and sent him a text.

[Dude, I need a DD tonight. I’ve lost her.]

* * *

Katie’s POV

I finished filling up the SUV as Jonas came back from the shop. He passed me a green tea and leaned against the back of the vehicle, blocking Kai’s view of me.

“You know that guy?” Jonas asked me, subtly nodding his head toward the silver BMW two pumps over.

I had recognized Kai as soon as we pulled up. I should have kept driving, but I still stopped because I wanted to see what he looked like. If I were honest, my heartbeat picked up a bit when I saw him. When he stepped closer to my vehicle, butterflies erupted in my stomach. It took everything in me to pretend that I didn’t recognize him. I wanted to turn and smile and talk to him. There was an unrequited joy seeing him again.

However, I quickly squashed that down when I remembered why we weren’t together. He had his chance and abandoned me. Any hopes that I held once upon a time had long since been shattered. I had been happy and lost everything… Twice. And I had no say in the matter either time.

“Who? That guy?” I asked, feigning like I was happy beyond elation, tipping my head to the side smiling.

Jonas nodded at me, “Yeah, the guy you just reduced to near vomiting at the sight of you. If I hadn’t walked out when I did, he was going to chat you up, wasn’t he?”

“Yeah,” I nodded with a brilliant smile. “That’s the guy that broke my heart in high school. That man is Kai Rayburn,” I whispered to Jonas.

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