Page 11 of Second Shot

Felix held the positive pregnancy test, brows raised. “Looks like once wasenough.”

It was just my luck. Like the universe was laughing at me. Or punishing me for that onenight.

“I had a baby, Sam.” It’s weird to say it out loud, even if it’s only to the wind. “He’s beautiful.”So damn beautiful. “He’s completely bald, but his eyelashes are light, almost translucent. I think he’s going to be blonde like…you.”

I’m rambling, talking like Sam can hear me, even though I know he can’t. But I need this. The connection. Even if it’s just in myhead.

“He started smiling last week, and when he does, he has dimples in both cheeks. He looks so much like…” I whisper the next two words. “…likeKane.”

A crow squawks above me as if in protest to myadmission.

“It shouldn’t have happened. I never meant…” I squeeze my eyes shut. “I hate him for what he did to you. For what he made you become. For taking you from me. But I hate myself even more for betrayingyou.”

Because that’s what that night was. A betrayal. After everything Kane did, what he didn’t do. I should never have talked to him again, let alone let him touch me. Kiss me. Consumeme.

And he did. I’d held my heart back for years. Or, at least, I thought I had. But with one taste of his lips, every frozen, broken piece of my soul had sparked. And I’d felt something. Something I had no right feeling. Something that I knew would destroy me if I’dstayed.

“I haven’t told him,” I whisper theconfession.

The crow squawks again, louder this time, perching on one of the nearby headstones, watching me with beady black eyes, head twisting from side toside.

“Felix has been helping me.” I inhale through my nose, then let out a slow, uneven breath. “He’s been a good friend. Helped me find an apartment, and set up a corner for a studio, so I can still paint when Noah is sleeping. Which isn’t often. But I’ve started to sell some of mypaintings…”

God, now I’m lying to aghost.

I pinch my eyes shut, tilting my head to the sky, letting the first few drops of rain mingle with mytears.

“I miss you so much, Sam.” My throat burns. “I wish you were here. I know you’d want to kick my ass if you were. But…” I crouch and place my palm on the stone over Sam’s name and close my eyes. “If you can hear me, give me a sign. Tell me what the hell I’m supposed todo.”

The crow squawks one last time before flying off. The flap of wings and the whistling of the wind is the onlyresponse.

“Brynne?” My name is a shocked slur behind me, followed by the squish of footsteps on wetgrass.

My chesttightens.

I don’t need to turn to know who the voice belongs to. Deep and scratchy, that one word burns like fire through my body, while at the same time sending a chill down myspine.

Kane.

Shit. Shit.Shit.

Not today. I can’t do this. Notnow.

Slowly, painfully, I stand and turn, inhaling sharply at the man who stands in front ofme.

Dark scruff shadows the angles of his jaw, and his hair sticks up in different directions like he’s run his fingers through it in frustration. But it’s his eyes, a piercing blue rimmed with red, that has my chestsqueezing.

Kane Madden is not a small man, but as he takes a step towards me, he looks –broken.

Emotions coil and curl insideme.

Anger.

Desire.

Bitterness.

Longing.

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