Page 45 of Forgotten Promise

John chuckled, as Kailani narrowed her eyes, his smart-ass comment tweaking her the same way it always did.

“Listen, Kailani—” Benjamin started.

John held up his hand, cutting him off. “No. It’s not your turn, Benjamin. I was allowed to speak without interruptions. Kailani deserves the same.”

Benjamin muttered something under his breath, probably cursing. He was a forthright, opinionated man. And because he had wealth and power, he wasn’t accustomed to being told to wait his turn.

“Thank you,” Kailani said to John, grateful to have the opportunity to finally let out all the resentment she’d been harboring for too many years. “You can be ruthless and amoral.”

“I am not my family’s businesses. I am not Ironclad Airlines or Endaragon Energy.”

“Aren’t you? Your fathers may still technically be in charge, but you’re the driving force behind most major decisions. I know you’re the one who chose to continue hub-based flights rather than point-to-point routes, which would potentially reduce emissions.”

“And raise flight prices,” he countered. “Making air travel unattainable for many. Point to point would also mean that our staff would spend more time away from home,” he countered. “Hubs allow flight attendants to go home at the end of their shift.”

“You’re persisting with coal heating despite knowing it’s both bad for the environment and unsustainable. Your family’s lobbyists made sure the dozens of environmental protection bills my uncle sponsored or co-wrote were neutered before they ever made it to the floor.”

“Do you have any idea how massive an infrastructure overhaul would be needed to change even one town to electric heating? Never mind having to remodel the home of every damn person.”

“Ah, yes, and God forbid you tackle something difficult, or that the company redirect some of the record profits into that infrastructure change.”

“Don’t be naive.”

“Don’t you dare call me naive! Wanting better, expecting people to do better, isn’t naive.”

There were other examples, she could have kept going, but Kailani fell silent, her words drying up as a mix of anger and old hurt swirled through her.

John, too astute, leaned forward. “But that all sounds like business stuff, a smoke screen. None of that is the root of the real problem between the two of you, is it?”

Kailani sucked in an unsteady breath, trying to decide how to respond. Then she recalled everything John had shared. She shook her head. “No. It’s not,” she whispered. “You keep getting me to confess more than I want to, Detective.”

John shrugged and said, “I’m good at my job.”

“That’s an understatement,” Benjamin mumbled.

Kailani looked across the aisle at her first love, her first heartbreak, her nemesis, and then…she gave them the truth.

* * *

Benjamin saw the moment Kailani made her decision to open up to them. In truth, he’d been waiting for her to do so since John posed the question. He knew the rift between them ran much deeper than all those excuses she’d listed.

“We were together one summer.” Her words were softer than her previous list of complaints, and he could tell this part was hard for her.

He closed his eyes briefly, swallowing deeply. He’d purposely put that summer out of his mind for nearly a decade. It made life a lot easier…and less painful. However, being on this jet with her again had brought the memories back, and it had taken everything inside of him not to pull her into his arms, kiss and cuddle her as he had back when she’d been his. And he had been hers.

They’d been together one summer—just six weeks—yet even now, after all the hard feelings, the anger, the hurt, he still considered that the best time in his life.

“You said that,” John replied, when Kailani fell silent.

“I was nineteen, Benjamin was twenty-one. At the time, I’d had other boyfriends, so I didn’t really think of him as my first love. In hindsight…” Kailani looked at him with such sadness that it took all his strength not to go to her, to pull her onto his lap and hold her.

“You were my first love,” she admitted. “Those other guys before you…I thought…” She shrugged, letting him fill in the blanks.

Benjamin swallowed hard, trying to dislodge the lump in his throat. “You were my first love too, Kailani.”

He saw the instant skepticism in her eyes, borne from too many years of distrust. Whether she believed it or not didn’t change the truth. She was his first love, first true—not based solely on a young man’s hormones and lust—love.

But he didn’t try to convince her of it.

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