Page 62 of All We Could Still Have

Annoyance replaced the momentary joy I had felt at seeing him. How could he think showing up at my place of employment was a good idea? “You shouldn’t be here.”

“I was hoping we could grab something to eat and talk.”

I pictured us walking into a restaurant and all the other customers whispering to one another, pointing at us, and eavesdropping as we discussed how we would deal with Kyle’s illegitimate child. “That’s not a good idea.”

“We need to talk, Nikki.” The unfamiliar pleading in his voice made me soften toward him.

“Another time. I’ve had a long day.” I stepped toward my car, but Kyle shuffled to the right, blocking me from reaching the driver’s door.

“It’s been a few months. You can’t ignore me forever.”

Elizabeth’s Range Rover turned in to the parking lot. My brain did gymnastics, trying to make sense of this. Elizabeth had been sitting in her office, talking on the phone, when I left. Who was driving her car?Oh no.My hands started to shake. I had to get out of there.

Elizabeth’s vehicle pulled into a spot a few spaces in front of where Kyle and I stood. There were footsteps on the stairs behind us and thenElizabeth’s voice. “The story on the bike shop needs to be rewritten and on my desk by the end of the day tomorrow,” she said.

The door to the Range Rover clicked open. Casey stepped out, humming along to a Zac Brown song on the radio. She smiled at me, but her smile faded as her eyes landed on Kyle. Her entire body went still.

Kyle rotated his head side to side as if he were trying to work out a crick in his neck.

Elizabeth reached the spot on the pavement where Kyle and I stood. She extended her hand toward him. “Elizabeth Sanders.”

He blinked twice and swallowed hard. “Kyle Sebastian.”

“I’m sorry I kept Nikki working so late,” she said.

“It’s fine,” Kyle said, his voice so soft that Elizabeth leaned toward him.

As they spoke, Casey tiptoed her way around the back of the Range Rover toward the passenger side. She’d just about made it there when Elizabeth called out to her. “Casey, I have an email I need to answer, so you can drive back to the house.”

Casey froze and looked toward us. Her yellow short-sleeved tunic hung loosely over her belly. Seeing her wearing that baggy shirt to conceal her baby bump made her pregnancy real to me in a way it hadn’t been before. My insides twisted into a knot.

Still talking to Casey, Elizabeth nodded in my direction. “You remember Nikki, and this is her husband, Kyle.”

Casey’s cheeks burned a crimson red. “Your husband?” Her chin trembled.

I saw her then for who she really was, not a villain but a young, vulnerable girl who hadn’t thought about the consequences of her actions.

Our eyes locked. She crossed her arms over her stomach and looked away. “I didn’t know,” she said. Her knees went weak, and she crumpled to the pavement.

Elizabeth, Kyle, and I raced toward her. “I didn’t know,” Casey repeated, burying her head in her hands. “I didn’t know.”

Kyle reached down to help her up, but she batted his arm away. “Leave me alone.”

He stepped away from her without saying anything.

“Are you okay?” I asked Casey.

She lifted herself from the ground. Her wet eyes met mine. “I’m sorry. Truly sorry.”

My chest burned, and my head swam. It was so much easier thinking of Casey as a shameless home-wrecker and not as a victim whose life had been thrown wildly off course by a single reckless decision. I looked away from her toward the mountains. They seemed to be creeping closer, pinning me in this tiny parking lot with Casey, Kyle, and Elizabeth.

“What’s going on here?” Elizabeth asked.

I wished the pavement would open and swallow me whole.

“Casey? Nikki? Is there a problem?”

She was going to find out. The entire office would know. The entire town would know. We’d be the talk of the town, more than we already were.

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