Page 18 of Falling For The Enemy (The Gilbert Curse)

Dash arched one eyebrow at him. “I run my family’s business. Seems weird that we haven’t met before. I know I’m not supposed to pry, but I don’t remember you and Rory being friends.”

“Fair enough. I think I’d have to say we were more acquaintances than friends,” Kit said. “But we always enjoyed each other’s company.”

“You did? Are you from GC?”

“I lived her for a while in elementary school and then we moved away when the factory closed,” Kit told him.

Dash sighed. “So many families did. I’m not sure what my grandfather was thinking... Well, he was concerned with the financial bottom line, but the impact on the town was definitely worse than he had anticipated.”

“It was.”

Kit didn’t want to talk about the closing of the factory with Dash. His time with Rory made him want to find a way to make peace with Dash but he wasn’t prepared to be chill about it with the other man.

“Milk or sugar?”

“Milk,” Kit said. It felt odd to feel this angry and have a mundane conversation about coffee at the same time.

“I hope your family wasn’t too greatly impacted, though I guess you did okay since you are running your own business now,” Dash said.

“We are. It wasn’t easy at first but I think the move forced us to find something of our own,” Kit said. He remembered finishing college remotely so he could save money and live with Aunt Mal while his father drank himself to death mourning his eldest son. Not good times at all. But they had shaped him into the man he was today.

Kit realized he needed this conversation with Dash to remind himself of why he’d come back to Gilbert Corners. It was one thing to say he was enchanted by Rory, but the truth was, he was a man who lived in the real world. And revenge through business was what had kept him going in the last ten years.

There was a big part of him that was afraid he was nothing without revenge. His entire adult life had been shaped by Declan’s death and the fallout from it. The boy-man he’d been was a distant memory. He’d stopped dreaming of his future and focused only on taking down Dash Gilbert. Until he met Rory. She was the first one to make him lift his head up and see that there might be something other than getting back at the Gilberts.

“Glad to hear that things are going well for you. So where’d Rory get the blackberries, do you know? I’m hoping it was the grocery store.”

“It wasn’t,” Kit replied. “I helped her down to the path by the river in town and we picked them.”

Dash cursed under his breath. “Honestly, she’s going to be the death of me. How’d she do?”

Kit looked over at the other man who leaned against the counter sipping his black coffee. “Good. It took a lot of effort to get back up the path and there were times I thought she might ask me to carry her but she didn’t. She just gritted her teeth and kept on going.”

“She’s stubborn.”

“Are you boys talking about me?” Rory asked as she came into the kitchen. Turning toward her, Kit noticed she was using her cane and she’d changed into a pair of leggings and long sweater. She’d braided her hair and it hung over one shoulder.

“We are,” Kit confirmed.

“And?” Rory asked, giving Dash a pointed look.

“And nothing. I’m glad I didn’t know you were climbing down to the river untilafteryou were safely back in your house. Want some coffee?”

“Yes, please,” she said.

She walked over to get down plates. Dash set her coffee on the table across from where Kit sat and then went back to get napkins and forks. It was interesting to watch them working together and Kit realized that he missed this—losing his brother had taken that one person whom he’d had so many shared memories with. The person who remembered the family they had been. And as Dash and Rory talked about pies of the past and their father’s obsession with them, he realized this was one more thing that Dash had taken from him.

But this was tempered by the fact that he and Declan had never really been close. They might not have had this kind of close connection even if his brother had lived. In fact, Kit knew they wouldn’t have, because Kit had planned to stay on the West Coast and live his life out there.

“What do you think?” Rory asked as he took a bite of the pie.

The taste of the warm, sweet blackberries with just a hint of tartness and the buttery crust was delicious. He opened his eyes, looking over at her, remembering the taste of her as he’d kissed her as well. “Delicious.”

She blushed.

“I’m glad you like it.”

“I think I might be addicted to it,” he confessed.

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