Page 43 of Broken

"Tell her yourself. I'm not a phone operator." Tess passed the phone to her sister, and I apologized to Mia and explained the much-needed time away Aine, and I took. Mia was glad we had the time to ourselves but that wasn't why she was so angry.

She asked what the hell happened between me and Kai. She explained how he hasn't been himself since I left. He asked another doctor from the hospital to handle his patients, and he took off. He probably took off with the redhead I saw him with.

I don't know why I thought I didn't need Mia or Tess in my life. They made me feel better, loved, and supported. The sisters were the only connection to my old life I wanted.

twenty-three

Sinclair

Iwentbacktowork early, and a mountain of paperwork waited for me. Work was the perfect distraction from all the stress of the past week. I relished the twenty or so voicemails left by potential vendors or other people wanting to work with the resort. I couldn't help my surprise when I got to the voicemail left by one restaurant owner with an incredible office.

"Hey, Sinclair. Eric here, I hope you remember me. The night we met, we talked about a collab between my restaurant and your resort.

Give me a call. We should have dinner and talk more about that."

Oh boy, I sure did remember him. a business dinner with Eric might be what I needed. It would definitely be beneficial for the resort. I sent a text to Danielle telling her about the voicemail. She didn't take long to show up at my door, considering her office was right next to mine.

I needed to make sure she hadn't ghosted Joel before I planned to work with his brother and the restaurant. Apparently, they still texted, and she knew about the voicemail before I did.

Of course, she did. She probably planned the whole thing. I asked her, my eyebrows raised, and my arms folded. Setting me up on a second date would totally be her idea of a rebound from what happened in Lakewood.

She denied it. She said she wished she thought of it herself. I had a tough time believing that my dear Danielle didn't have her hand in this even just a little.

I called Eric and asked him to meet me over lunch to throw out ideas. He sounded thrilled to hear from me and offered to bring samples of food to try. It was perfect, this way everything stayed one hundred percent business related. No expensive bottles of tequila, no private rooms, not to mention it was the middle of the day. Purely business.

I invited Danielle and my boss to join the meeting. My boss claimed that he had other clients, but anticipated my notes, and a possible proposal from us. Danielle had other thoughts on her mind. She declined the offer but promised to guard the door if a Nooner was on the menu.

Oh my god. Nobody but Danielle used the term "Nooner" anymore. I was laughing way too hard when Eric showed up, with a fully catered, professional lunch. Seeing all the food changed Danielle's mind real fast.

We ate lunch and engaged in small talk over tacos, chips, and salsa, and their house margaritas, sans alcohol, we were having a work meeting after all. We discussed the idea of having their food truck cater our next golf event. Yes, we had a small bistro in the resort, but food trucks were a trending commodity among the younger demographics, and their food was incredible.

The three of us worked for a couple of hours. We made a dedicated team, Eric had some fantastic ideas for other possible events, and I loved watching Danielle's brilliant mind as she went through all the financial stuff.

We were just about to wrap up when one of the office assistants came in to let me know my next appointment waited in my office. I didn't remember scheduling an appointment for today, the thing with Eric just happened. I must have scheduled the meeting before I left on vacation.

Danielle gave me a look like she thought the same thing, and I just shrugged. We helped Eric pack up the leftovers and said our goodbyes. Danielle and I walked toward our offices to see who my mystery appointment was. They were most likely a vendor, or event coordinator interested in hosting something here. That's where we generated a substantial chunk of our business, through other events.

By the time we got to my office, and I got a good look at the person waiting for me, all I could see was the darkness of my past closing in. The air was suffocating and threatened to swallow me whole. Because standing in front of my desk, holding the picture of me and Aine from her last birthday, was Kai Carter.

The same Kai who told me he loved me a week ago, the same one who said he would follow me anywhere if I ran away again. He was the same Kai who destroyed every little piece of my broken soul when I saw him with another woman the day after he made all those other promises.

"Umm, yum. Who's that?" Danielle's voice interrupted my thoughts, grounding me, and bringing me back to the present. Something about her joke didn't sit well with me because I wanted to punch her in the face more than I wanted to laugh at her joke.

In the time that we had been friends, I'd never felt anything close to true anger at her, but the idea of her and Kai messed with my head. I counted my fingers in my head. I stood on the edge of an eroding cliff that overlooked Kai chose that moment to notice us. He looked up from the picture, his blue eyes looked tired, angry, and sad, they had a million questions, and there was not a single one that I wanted to answer for him.

"Kai. Why are you here?" I asked, shaky and unsure of myself. A part of me wanted to kick him in his balls, and another part of me wanted to kiss him and fuck him right on my desk, and not care if Danielle watched. I was confused.

"Sin. I told you I would follow anywhere." His voice was soft, sad. Had I broken something in him when I left? I hope so. He left me broken; it

served him right to be broken too. "I brought your mom's ashes."

"Flush them." On my desk, a black, rectangular plastic box contained my mother's ashes. I didn't buy an urn, I didn't plan to keep them, they wanted to spread them at sea. But I left town in such a hurry, I forgot they even existed.

"Is this your daughter?"

I froze. Fuck. What was I going to do? He stared down at the framed picture of me and Aine. He didn't take his eyes off her. I tried to speak, but my voice had decided to leave me, fucking chicken shit bastard.

I forgot Danielle witnessed this nightmare of a moment too until she answered Kai. "Yep, that's Aine." Said like a proud adopted aunt.

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